Who led the NFL in the major statistical categories? Not enough players from my fantasy team. The full list might surprise you. Stats per Pro Football Reference unless otherwise noted.
For the past 15 years, I’ve religiously followed the statistics of almost every offensive player in football. There are good stats, bad stats and fun stats. Typically, the fun stats involve players like DK Metcalf (6-foot-4, 235 pounds), who recorded the NFL’s fastest ball-carrier speed during this 73-yard touchdown run, per Next Gen Stats, when the wide receiver hit 22.23 miles per hour (in pads). To put that in perspective, Usain Bolt’s average speed was 23.35 miles per hour while setting the 100-meter world record at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Without pads.
With the 2023 regular season — the 104th of the NFL — behind us, we can sit back and reflect on the leaders of every major statistical category. This review surfaces plenty of questions. Three examples:
- How are quarterbacks like Sam Howell and Bryce Young still standing? Each of these young signal callers was sacked more than 60 times this season, marking the first time more than one quarterback “accomplished” this feat in a season in the past 20 years (per Pro Football Reference). Howell led the NFL in sacks taken (65) with Young close behind (62).
- How can Christian McCaffrey not win Offensive Player of the Year? The current favorite among sportsbooks, McCaffrey did more than win fantasy leagues. The San Francisco 49ers running back led the NFL in rushing yards (1,459), tied for the lead in rushing/receiving touchdowns (21) and was the only player in the NFL with more than 2,000 yards from scrimmage (2,023).
- With Lamar Jackson expected to win the MVP award, did he lead the league in any major categories? Yes — he led all quarterbacks in total rushing yards (821) and rushing yards per attempt (5.6). That’s about it. But stats tell only part of the story for Jackson, a player Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young proclaimed could be the “greatest player in the history of the game.” Most agree that Jackson deserves the award after leading the Ravens to an NFL-best 13-4 record and a first-round bye.
Below is a list of league leaders in every key statistical category.
Passing
Passing yards: Tua Tagovailoa (4,624) edged Jared Goff (4,575) and Dak Prescott (4,516) for the league lead.
Passing touchdowns: Prescott (36 touchdowns) bested Jordan Love (32) and Brock Purdy (31).
Passing yards per game: C.J. Stroud led all qualifying players (quarterbacks who played at least nine games) with 273.9 passing yards per game, becoming the first rookie in at least 20 years to lead the league in this stat. Sorry, Panthers fans.
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Passer rating: Brock Purdy (113.0) bested Prescott (105.9) and Kirk Cousins (103.8) in passer rating, a stat created in 1971 when NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle asked a league committee to develop a better method of ranking the league’s best quarterbacks. This committee created passer rating, which included five variables: pass attempts, completions, passing yards, touchdown passes and interceptions.
Aaron Rodgers has the highest career passer rating (103.6), followed closely by Patrick Mahomes (103.5), among qualifying quarterbacks, per Pro Football Reference.
Completions: Dak Prescott (410)
Attempts: Sam Howell (612)
Completion percentage: Jake Browning (70.4)
Interceptions: Sam Howell (21)
Yards gained per pass attempt: Brock Purdy (9.6)
Quarterback rating: Brock Purdy (72.8)
Rushing
Rushing touchdowns: Anyone with a fantasy football team knows that Raheem Mostert (18) led the NFL in rushing touchdowns. But did you know No. 2 is a tie between Josh Allen and Jalen Hurts, both at 15? Of course you did, you saw the tush pushes.
Rushing attempts: Derrick Henry, who recently turned 30, led the league in rushing attempts (280) for a second straight season. Henry’s 280 attempts would have ranked seventh last season, when he led the league with 349 attempts, per TeamRankings. He also led the league in rushing attempts in 2020 and 2019. The Athletic’s Joe Rexrode explored what could be next for the free agent.
Rushing yards: Christian McCaffrey’s 1,459 rushing yards outpaced the second-closest player by almost 300 yards (Derrick Henry had 1,167). Kyren Williams (1,144), James Cook (1,122) and D’Andre Swift (1,049) rounded out the top five.
Rushing yards per game: Kyren Williams (95.3)
Running back fumbles: Austin Ekeler (5)
Running back receptions: Breece Hall (76)
Receiving
Receiving touchdowns: Mike Evans and Tyreek Hill tied for the NFL lead with 13 apiece, with CeeDee Lamb on their heels with 12. Rookie tight end Sam LaPorta led his position with 10.
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Receiving yards: Hill led the league with 1,799 — and was briefly on pace for 2,000 — with Lamb (1,749) close behind. Rookie fifth-round pick Puka Nacua ranks fourth among all players with 1,486 receiving yards, which broke a 60-plus-year-old record for receiving yards by a rookie.
Receptions: CeeDee Lamb’s 135 receptions paced the league, with Hill and Amon-Ra St. Brown tied for second with 119 each. The biggest surprise? Jaguars tight end Evan Engram ranked fourth among all players with 114.
Yards per reception: George Pickens (18.1)
Receiving yards per game: Tyreek Hill (112.4)
Receptions per game: Keenan Allen (8.3)
Targets: CeeDee Lamb (181)
Drops: Puka Nacua (13, per Fox Sports)
Defense
Defensive touchdowns: Cowboys second-year cornerback DaRon Bland (5) stepped up after star cornerback Trevon Diggs was lost for the season to an ACL tear in September.
Sacks: Steelers defensive end T.J. Watt, who will miss “a couple of weeks” after suffering a Grade 2 MCL sprain, led the NFL with 19 sacks. He and his brother J.J. are the only players in history with multiple seasons of at least 19 sacks. Good genes in that family.
Interceptions: Bland led the NFL with nine interceptions, followed by the Ravens’ Geno Stone (7) and the Falcons’ Jessie Bates III (6).
Fumbles forced: Bradley Chubb of the Dolphins (cousin of Browns running back Nick Chubb) and Antoine Winfield Jr. of the Buccaneers tied with six apiece.
Total tackles: Bobby Wagner, the 33-year-old Seahawks linebacker, led the NFL in combined tackles with 183, followed by the Colts’ Zaire Franklin (179) and the Broncos’ Alex Singleton (177).
(Photo: Todd Rosenberg / Getty Images)
Jacob Robinson is a staff writer for The Athletic’s NFL football newsletter. Prior to The Athletic, he worked full time as a corporate lawyer at a multi-national law firm. While in law school, Jacob started a fantasy football-focused newsletter, Morning Huddle, and has since sent millions of emails to football fans.
