Week 16 NFL Advanced Analytics Superstars

Quarterback: Drew Brees

Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans Saints
25 for 36, 412 Yards, 3 Touchdowns
3 Rushes,-3 Yards
NEP: +29.62

Despite playing with a torn plantar fascia, Drew Brees was able to turn in this week's best performance among quarterbacks after there was much doubt surrounding his availability for this week's game.

Brees threw for 412 passing yards, completing 25 of 36 drop backs and finding the end zone for 3 touchdowns. He and Blake Bortles were dueling all afternoon, as the pair of passers combined for 780 passing yards and 7 touchdowns. Brees and the Saints were able to come up big at home, as New Orleans won the shootout 38-27.

Brees did a terrific job spreading the ball around, connecting with nine different receivers this week. He also did a tremendous job of stretching the Jaguars defense vertically. Brees led all quarterbacks this week with pass plays of 20-plus yards, as he had five different receivers accomplish this feat.

His +29.62 was the third-best performance of the year by a quarterback, raising Brees' season-long cumulative Passing NEP to 146.74, fourth-highest. He also finished with the third-highest fantasy output among quarterbacks this week and has now thrown 11 touchdowns with only 1 interception over his past four games.

Taking a look around the league at the rest of the top quarterback performances, the aforementioned Bortles ranked right behind Brees by numberFire's metrics. He threw for 4 touchdowns and finished the game with a +17.23 NEP. Kirk Cousins led all quarterbacks in fantasy points this week after throwing for 365 passing yards and 4 touchdowns. Brandon Weeden and Ryan Mallett both had surprisingly productive performances in a relatively poor showing this week among top quarterbacks. Both journeymen had over 200 total yards and finished with a +12.53 NEP and +12.33 NEP, respectively. Matthew Stafford rounds out this week's best of the rest, eclipsing 300 passing yards and a pair of scores.

Best of the Rest: