Fantasy Football: 25 QB Statistics from the 2024 Season

For the NINTH(!) year in a row, our 25 Statistics series recaps each position with some of the most meaningful and eye-popping statistics of the year.

For context, I started writing this series way back in 2016 when Andy, Mike, & Jason still were working out of a spare bedroom, and JayGriz didn’t have a job yet.

My goal is to start by giving the broad scope of QB scoring from a league-wide view, and work through the elite tier of QBs before finding the odd and quirky stats of 2024 that might help reframe and give context to several questionable signal-callers.

We will release the Top-10 QB Truth data on Thursday’s Fantasy Football podcast if you want a deep dive into their consistency.

Note: All scoring is 4-point standard QB scoring per the Ballers Consistency Charts found at JointheFoot.com.

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1. Every year I track the stat of how top-12 performances we saw at the QB position. It’s stayed fairly steady over the last couple of years since collecting this data.

Just to jog your memory a bit, here are some of those 45 QBs who might’ve slipped your mind including Marcus Mariota (twice!) despite not starting a single game, Malik Willis, Tyler Huntley, Drew Lock and even Jimmy Garoppolo in Week 18!

2. QB health is always a topic of conversation in a sport that truly rests its image and marketability on the success of the most important position in professional sports. 59 different QBs started an NFL Game, which is actually the fewest since 2020. Here is some context for the last couple of years:

• 2018– 55
• 2019– 57
• 2020– 58
• 2021– 63
• 2022– 69
• 2023– 67
• 2024– 59

3. 2024 was certainly a rebound in a number of categories for the QB position when you look at the last 15 years.

• Tied for the highest completion percentage (65.3%) of all-time
• The TD rate (4.53%) was the highest since 2020
• Fewest INTs and lowest INT rate
• Most QB rush attempts and rushing yards

4. Did it feel like rushing QBs gave you an advantage in 2024? Let’s be honest, we’re always chasing any edge we can find in fantasy football and we know how valuable (and often annoying) QB rushing stats and vulture TDs can be. Comparing since 2011, this was the 2nd highest fantasy points per rush attempt season in our sample.

 

5. Let’s start the conversation with Lamar Jackson. If you include Week 18, he produced the most fantasy points ever by a QB.

Lamar ranks as the top dawg in soooo many passing categories that it is easy to get lost what he accomplished purely as a passer in 2024:

• #1 in Fantasy Points per Dropback
• #1 in Passer Rating
• #1 in Yards per Attempt (8.8)
• #1 in Passer Rating vs Zone
• #1 in Fantasy Points per Dropbacks versus Zone AND 2-High Safety Looks

6. If you remove all scrambles, he still remains #1 in fantasy points per drop back by a wide margin. If you erase ALL of Lamar’s rushing stats (and keep everyone else’s in NFL), he is still the QB10. Lamar’s 0.81 fantasy points per drop back towers above his figure from last year’s MVP campaign (0.61) and 2019’s (0.70). Simply put, this was his best season purely as a passer.

7. The consistency was also off-the-charts when you consider how up-and-down the ride normally is for Lamar managers. Finishing as the QB1 overall doesn’t really do justice to how unbelievably consistent he was. He set the record for most top-12 performances in a season with 16. The previous record (15) by Patrick Mahomes in 2022. We’ve also seen seasons of 14 QB1 performances by Peyton Manning (2013), Patrick Mahomes (2018), and Lamar Jackson (2019). In other words, this was arguably the most consistent fantasy season ever for a QB.

8. When teams got in close, we saw an uptick in overall pass attempts inside the red zone. On average, we saw 10.2 pass attempts per game inside the 20-yard line in 2024, the highest rate since 2020. You can also see how certain teams reversed course inside the red zone with the Bengals (67%), Dolphins (60%), and Panthers (61%) all jumping by more than 10 percentage points from the previous year.

Looking at the most successful QBs inside the red zone, the list seems like a whos who of fantasy football in 2024. With red zone passing TDs accounting for 71.2% of all passing TDs, you can see why it’s valuable to find teams that not only consistently throw inside the red zone but are efficient.

9. Joe Burrow and the Bengals might’ve missed the playoffs but his insane run over the final two months of the season was historic. From Week 9 on, he was the QB1 in fantasy including a string of eight games where he threw for 250+ passing yards and 3+ passing TDs in each game. Burrow’s 17-game pace in that stretch would’ve been 729 attempts, 5627 passing yards, and 57 passing TDs. He tied Kurt Warner (2008) for the most completions (248) in an 8-game span in the history of the NFL.

10. Burrow (get ready to read them all in one breath) ranked #1 in EACH of the following categories: pass attempts, red zone attempts, passing yards, air yards, passing TDs, adjusted completion percentage, catchable target rate, expected fantasy points per game, QBR, dropped passes, and probably a ton more if you want to be even more technical.  Was it all roses? His 48 sacks taken were the most ever in a 40+ passing TD season.

11. Whether you believe it was Josh Allen‘s MVP to win or not… let’s celebrate what he did for fantasy despite the lack of high-end passing weapons. He saw the highest percentage of man coverage (34.8%) in the NFL with defenses preferring to continually keep a defender in to spy on him. He responded with the 4th highest passer rating versus man and tied Jared Goff and Joe Burrow for most passing TDs (19) versus man. Despite Allen finishing as the QB2 (through Week 17), the Bills failed to produce a WR inside the top-30 at the position. In fact, it’s the first time over the last five years a top-5 QB failed to have either a top-30 WR or top-10 TE. Buffalo was outside the top-30 at BOTH positions!

Their WRs were 21st in total fantasy points, 22nd in receiving yards, and 19th in overall target percentage.

12. Josh Allen‘s 32 red zone carries were tied for the 3rd most in the NFL and tied for the 2nd most of his career.

13. What a magical year for Baker Mayfield. Despite their playoff exit, he was a machine all year long for fantasy with EIGHT finishes inside the top-5 at the position, the MOST among all QBs. He became the 5th QB since 2000 to post a TD rate above 7 percent on 570+ pass attempts joining historic seasons from Tom Brady (2007), Drew Brees (2011), Peyton Manning (2013), and Patrick Mahomes (2018). He is the third player in NFL history to have at least 4,500 passing yards and 40 passing touchdowns with a completion percentage higher than 70%.

14. Part of what made Baker successful was getting the ball out fast. Per NextGenStats, he averaged a time to throw of 2.70 seconds this season, the quickest in his career and the 8th-quickest in the NFL. He thew for 967 yards on passes behind the line of scrimmage this season, the most in the NFL and 2nd-most in any season in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016).

15. If you were fortunate enough to have the patience and foresight to draft Jayden Daniels late in your drafts, congratulations. The rookie not only is the story of the NFL but he absolutely crushed for fantasy all year long. His 75 total scrambles are the most all-time (since the 2016 PFF era) making his rushing a true cheat code at the position. As I wrote about in Jayden Daniels Range of Outcomes & Recent Dynasty History: “A scramble is the most valuable QB rush attempt between the 20s worth more than two times as many fantasy points as a designed run in 2023. QBs with 20+ scramble attempts averaged over 7 yards per carry last year.“ His 148 rush attempts is the 7th most all-time for a QB and he sported the 10th best rush success rate ever for a QB. He finished with 891 rushing yards, the 3rd-most in NFL history by a player with a passer rating of 100 or better.

16. However, it wasn’t just the rushing that made him special. Daniels had the 3rd highest completion percentage (75.2%) versus zone coverage, 4th highest passer rating versus zone, and 5th highest completion percentage in a clean pocket. The Commanders lined up in shotgun on 77% of their snaps, the highest in the NFL. Daniels threw a league-high 8 touchdowns while averaging 8.5 yards per attempt (8th-most) from empty formations. He attempted just 14 total passes while lined up under center.

17. Jared Goff led the NFL in pass success rate (54.7%) posting the 5th highest percentage over the last decade. According to pro-football reference, a successful pass gains at least 40% of yards required on 1st down, 60% of yards required on 2nd down, and 100% on 3rd/4th downs. He also ranked #1 in fantasy points per drop back (0.98) versus man coverage by a wide margin with Philadelphia QBs (0.73) coming in second. Whenever teams threw man coverage at Goff, he responded with the highest completion rate (70.8%) of any QB over the last three years.

18. Bo Nix led Denver to the playoffs for the 1st time since 2015. There were a number of impressive

• 29 passing TDs on the season — 2nd MOST ever for a rookie QB
• From Week 5 on, he was the QB6 averaging 21.9 fantasy points per game.
• Highest Completion % inside the 10 yard line (71%) in the NFL
• Most passing yards outside the pocket

19. Sam Darnold’s career-high 33 passing touchdowns in 2024 are the 4th-most in NFL history by a player in their first season with a new team. Darnold averaged 2.99 seconds in the pocket, the longest in the league and the longest by a quarterback in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016). He targeted Justin Jefferson 41 times when under pressure this season, the most by any QB-WR duo in the NFL.

20. Remember all the worry about Jason Kelce moving on and if the Eagles would have success with the Tush Push? Jalen Hurts‘ 18 carries inside the 5-yard line was tied for the 2nd most in the NFL and the only runner with more TDs (11) inside the 5 was Kyren Williams (12). Hurts had 51% of the team’s carries inside the 5, which is wild considering Philly’s RB ended up being the RB1 on the season.

This wild stat from Nate Tice was worth bringing up:

This was Jalen Hurts’ first career under center dropback pass that did not feature play action. pic.twitter.com/7J2Codrfij

— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) January 13, 2025

21. We’re going to hyper focus on Justin Herbert‘s 4-INT playoff game all off-season but if you zoom in on Week 8 on, his EIGHT top-12 performances rank second only to Lamar Jackson in that span. The offense also looked supremely different if you take out the first month of the season and instead see how OC Greg Roman adjusted after their Week 5 bye:

22. It feels like we almost finished a 25 QB Stats article without mentioning Patrick Mahomes. It’s weird that he’s flown under the radar for fantasy this year despite the Chiefs finishing 14-2 and currently chilling at home on the bye in the playoffs. His QB11 finish doesn’t really tell much of a story as he did not have a top-12 weekly finish until Week 9! Over his last 17 games played, Mahomes has an “F” in our Consistency Ratings. He exceeded 20+ fantasy points in just 23.5% of those contests. He posted career-lows in passing yards, YPA, and TD rate. He was one of 5 QBs (with 250+ drop backs) to have more than 20% of their attempts occur behind the line of scrimmage. He did lead the NFL in out of pocket pass attempts.

23. Caleb Williams might’ve been the #1 overall pick but it was a funky season in so many ways:

• 68 Sacks Taken — MOST in the NFL and Tied for the 3rd Most All-Time
• 30.6% Pressure to Sack Rate — Only Will Levis was worse
• 41 Throw-Aways — MOST in NFL by a wide margin (11 more than next QB)
• 1.1% INT Rate — Only C.J. Stroud (1%) had a lower INT rate among 1st Round Rookie QBs since 2010

24. Fellow rookie Drake Maye took some lumps but he also joined Robert Griffin III, Josh Allen, Jayden Daniels, and Cam Newton as the only rookie QBs with 10+ starts to average 37+ rushing yards per game (in his 11 starts).

Among 31 qualifying rookie quarterbacks over the last 10 seasons, Jayden Daniels’ 2024 performance ranked 2nd in dropback success rate.

Drake Maye’s 2024 performance ranked 4th.

Statistically, two of the more impressive rookie QB showings we’ve seen in the last decade.

— Sheil Kapadia (@SheilKapadia) January 6, 2025

 

25. Let’s finish with a few weird quirks at the QB position:

Marcus Mariota completed as many passes (8) and TDs (4) inside the red zone… as Anthony Richardson. Mariota did not start an NFL game this year.

Marcus Mariota had as many top-10 fantasy finishes (2) as Jordan Love. To reiterate, Mariota did not start an NFL game this year.

Russell Wilson is one of the weirder QBs to analyze because he traditionally likes throwing the ball two places: chuck it deep or check it down. The intermediate area of the field is CRIMINALLY undervalued with just 13.8% of his attempts occurring there, the lowest in the NFL. Yet, Russ’ 135.8 Passer Rating is behind only Lamar Jackson among all QBs. What gives Arthur Smith!?

Anthony Richardson threw to his 1st read on 74% of his attempts, the 2nd highest rate in the NFL. Among 39 QBs with 120+ 1st read throws, he ranked:

• #1 in aDOT (14.7)
• #1 in Deep Throw Rate (24.4%)
• 39th in Passer Rating
• 39th in Completion Percentage
• 39th in Completion Percentage Over Expectation
• 39th in Catchable Target Rate
• 39th in Adjusted Net Yards per Attempt

In other words, the most scripted and most frequent throws from Richardson were often deep and highly inaccurate.