I’m working on the first draft of the Raiders story (for the magazine) and a couple of strange stats bubbled to the surface. One for Derek Carr, and one for Roy Helu Jr. (the running back from Washington they signed).
With Helu, he caught 42 of the 47 passes thrown to him last year, with a league-high (for running back) 10 plays of 20-plus yards. Actually ties for first, with LeVeon Bell, but only a couple other guys had even more than four.
Anyway, Helu picked up 477 yards on his 47 pass plays (both receptions and incompletions) for an average of 10.1 yards. That was the best by any running back last year. It was also the best by any running back in the last 10 years. Weird. Could be a nice third-down back for them.
Then there’s Carr.
Inside the 10-yard line, he went 19 of 26, with 16 TDs. Those were the best numbers by any quarterback inside the 10 last year. And like Helu, they were also the best of any quarterback of the last 10 years, which is freaking mind-blowing.
Sure, there may be some luck and garbage-time stats involved, but Carr successfully put the ball in the end zone on 62 percent of his plays inside the 10 last year. In the last 10 years, only six other quarterbacks with at least 20 attempts have produced touchdowns on at least half of their plays, and four of them are really, really good – Aaron Rodgers (twice), Drew Brees and Peyton Manning.
| TOUCHDOWNS ON HALF OF GOAL-LINE PLAYS | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Comp | Att | Int | Sack | TD | Pct |
| 2014 | Derek Carr, Oak. | 19 | 26 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 61.5% |
| 2012 | Aaron Rodgers, G.B. | 22 | 34 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 54.3% |
| 2011 | Drew Brees, N.O. | 31 | 46 | 0 | 2 | 26 | 54.2% |
| 2008 | Peyton Manning, Ind. | 22 | 32 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 53.1% |
| 2012 | Ryan Fitzpatrick, Buff. | 12 | 21 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 52.4% |
| 2010 | David Garrard, Jac. | 15 | 21 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 52.2% |
| 2008 | Aaron Rodgers, G.B. | 22 | 35 | 0 | 3 | 19 | 50.0% |
If you want to widen the scope to include guys with at least 10 attempts, then you start getting some lesser guys happening to hit on a few touchdowns. You’ll see the likes of Sage Rosenfels, Quinn Gray, Rex Grossman and Chris Redman. I had to double-check that Gray’s name was spelled with the double-Ns.
But Carr did it with 26 attempts, and his touchdown percentage is a lot higher than all of the other players with at least 20 throws. He also did it while playing for a 3-13 team.
| (10-17 PASS ATTEMPTS) | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Comp | Att | Int | Sack | TD | Pct |
| 2007 | Sage Rosenfels, Hou. | 12 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 66.7% |
| 2006 | Jeff Garcia, Phil. | 8 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 63.6% |
| 2014 | Ryan Fitzpatrick, Hou. | 9 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 60.0% |
| 2014 | Mike Glennon, T.B. | 6 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 60.0% |
| 2006 | Philip Rivers, S.D. | 13 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 52.9% |
| 2010 | Rex Grossman, Wash. | 8 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 50.0% |
| 2007 | Quinn Gray, Jac. | 6 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 50.0% |
| 2007 | Chris Redman, Atl. | 5 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 50.0% |
—Ian Allan