The 20 Best Offensive Players From Week 7
Week 7 games aren't over yet, so maybe the title of this article is a little misleading. It should read something like The 20 Best Offensive Players From the Thursday and Sunday Games in Week 7.
That just doesn't flow all that well.
As you know, we like math here at numberFire. Our algorithms help tell a better story about sports -- they're able to dig through the nonsense, helping us look at things that matter on the court, field or rink.
With football, we love our Net Expected Points (NEP) metric, which measures the number of points a player adds (or loses) to his team versus what he's expected to add. Rather than counting statistics like yards, touchdowns and receptions, NEP looks at down-and-distance situations and field position and relates these instances to history. When a player outperforms what's happened in the past, he sees a positive expected points value on the play. When he doesn't, his expected points gained on the play is negative. All of these little instances add up, then, to be a player's Net Expected Points total.
You can read more about NEP in our glossary.
Using a formula that compares individual single-game performance to history, the numberFire Live platform takes this Net Expected Points formula and assigns a rating to a player's performance. Each week, that's what we'll show here -- the 20 best ratings from the Thursday and Sunday games.
Here are Week 7's results:
| Player | Position | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Amari Cooper | WR | 100 |
| Derek Carr | QB | 100 |
| Ezekiel Elliott | RB | 100 |
| TJ Yeldon | RB | 99 |
| Dak Prescott | QB | 97 |
| Jared Cook | TE | 96 |
| Alex Smith | QB | 95 |
| Blake Bortles | QB | 94 |
| Mike Evans | WR | 93 |
| Tyrod Taylor | QB | 93 |
| Russell Wilson | QB | 93 |
| Jameis Winston | QB | 91 |
| Tom Brady | QB | 90 |
| Doug Baldwin | WR | 89 |
| Drew Brees | QB | 89 |
| Ted Ginn | WR | 89 |
| Michael Crabtree | WR | 88 |
| Tyreek Hill | WR | 87 |
| OJ Howard | TE | 87 |
| Alvin Kamara | RB | 84 |
- Amari Cooper busted out for 210 yards and 2 touchdowns on 19 targets. He recorded 17.98 Reception NEP, most for any receiver in a single game so far this season.
- Derek Carr posted 31.76 Passing NEP, also a single-game high on the year so far. Carr threw 52 times for 417 yards and 3 touchdowns.
- Even Jared Cook had a standout performance on Thursday Night Football. Cook caught 6 of 7 passes for 107 yards and 13.12 Reception NEP despite not scoring a touchdown. Only Ed Dickson in Week 5 had a higher single-game Reception NEP (14.45) by a tight end this season.
- On the Kansas City Chiefs' side of things, Alex Smith and Tyreek Hill cracked the top 20. Smith was 25 of 36 for 342 yards and 3 touchdowns (21.80 Passing NEP). Hill turned his 8 targets into 6 catches for 125 yards and a touchdown (11.19 Reception NEP).
- Ezekiel Elliott totaled 3 touchdowns on 26 touches as the Dallas Cowboys trounced the San Francisco 49ers 40-10. Dak Prescott had a top-five showing of his own, with 4 total touchdowns and 17.92 Passing NEP on just 25 attempts.
- T.J. Yeldon performed well in the absence of Leonard Fournette. Yeldon ran for 122 yards and a touchdown on just 9 carries. His 7.98 Rushing NEP was a top-five score on the entire season.
