Fantasy Football Stat of the Day: The perks of play action

(Leading up to the 2021 NFL season, FTN’s Tyler Loechner will dive into the fantasy football numbers to bring you his Fantasy Stat of the Day, five days a week.)

Play action passing is discussed as a Holy Grail of sorts in the NFL world. All of the data supports the notion that play action passes are typically more successful than regular drop backs.

But which QBs saw the biggest jump in efficiency when utilizing play action last season? Today’s Stat of the Day article will answer that question.

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Jalen Hurts, Tom Brady benefit the most from play action

The chart below shows last season’s QB leaders sorted by the difference in yards per attempt on play action passes versus all passes (minimum 150 dropbacks).

Player	Total Atts.	Total Yds.	Total Y/A	PA Atts.	PA Yds.	PA Y/A	Y/A Difference
Jalen Hurts	122	774	6.34	26	287	11.04	4.69
Mike Glennon	148	772	5.22	31	300	9.68	4.46
Tom Brady	489	3,381	6.91	121	1,235	10.21	3.29
Kyler Murray	413	2,602	6.30	145	1,369	9.44	3.14
Nick Mullens	237	1,567	6.61	89	867	9.74	3.13
Baker Mayfield	342	2,198	6.43	144	1,362	9.46	3.03
Ryan Tannehill	311	2,171	6.98	170	1,646	9.68	2.70
Dak Prescott	174	1,356	7.79	48	499	10.40	2.60
Nick Foles	250	1,357	5.43	62	496	8.00	2.57
Deshaun Watson	467	3,952	8.46	78	849	10.88	2.42
Sam Darnold	294	1,651	5.62	70	557	7.96	2.34
Justin Herbert	448	3,019	6.74	147	1,317	8.96	2.22

Jalen Hurts topped the list on this study, averaging a whopping 11.04 yards per attempt on play action passes versus 6.34 Y/A on all passes. Granted, Hurts has the smallest sample size of all players on this list (just 26 play action passes last season), but it’s encouraging figure. It’s another stat that supports the popular notion that Hurts could be this year’s league-winning late-round QB.

Of QBs that played all season, The Ancient One, Tom Brady, saw the biggest bump in efficiency when using play action. Brady reached 10.21 Y/A on play action passes. Up from an already-good 6.91 Y/A on all passes. There’s really no reason to think Brady won’t be a fantasy QB1 again 2021.

One interesting name on this list is Sam Darnold. The New York Jets were essentially RB-less last season, but Darnold was still able to see a notable bump in Y/A when turning to play action. With deep threats D.J. Moore and Robby Anderson, and ultimate RB weapon Christian McCaffrey behind him, Darnold could put up impressive numbers if the Panthers utilize play action next season. Darnold is one of the more interesting streaming QB options heading into 2021.