Week 6 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 6.
But that's not really a concise headline.
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 value 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 6's results:
| Player | Position | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Todd Gurley | RB | 100 |
| Kareem Hunt | RB | 100 |
| Melvin Gordon | RB | 100 |
| Saquon Barkley | RB | 99 |
| Matt Ryan | QB | 98 |
| Tyreek Hill | WR | 97 |
| Jameis Winston | QB | 95 |
| Carson Wentz | QB | 95 |
| Robert Woods | WR | 94 |
| Albert Wilson | WR | 92 |
| Adam Thielen | WR | 91 |
| Julio Jones | WR | 91 |
| JuJu Smith-Schuster | WR | 91 |
| Ben Roethlisberger | QB | 91 |
| Ezekiel Elliott | RB | 90 |
| Sony Michel | RB | 90 |
| Frank Gore | RB | 87 |
| Marlon Mack | RB | 87 |
| Cole Beasley | WR | 86 |
| Tyrell Williams | WR | 86 |
- Todd Gurley was one of three running backs to net a perfect score in Week 6. He ran 28 times for 208 yards and 2 touchdowns against the Denver Broncos, totaling 12.66 Rushing NEP. That is the second-highest single-game score this season, trailing Isaiah Crowell's 13.57 from Week 5. Gurley also added 17 yards on 2 catches in the Los Angeles Rams' win.
- Kareem Hunt's Kansas City Chiefs couldn't net a win against the New England Patriots, but he did run 10 times for 80 yards (3.84 Rushing NEP) and tally 105 yards on 5 catches and a touchdown (8.66 Reception NEP).
- Melvin Gordon and the Los Angeles Chargers made a statement against the Cleveland Browns on the road. Gordon spearheaded the attack, running 18 times for 132 yards and 3 touchdowns (10.70 Rushing NEP). Gordon now has one of three games on the year with double-digit expected points based on rushing alone (Gurley and Crowell have the others).
- Saquon Barkley doesn't get bonus points for flash, but he still notched a 99, thanks to 130 yards rushing and 99 yards receiving, plus a touchdown on the ground in the New York Giants' Thursday night loss. Barkley netted 7.25 Rushing NEP and 3.90 Reception NEP.
- Matt Ryan is the only non-running back in the top five. Ryan, despite losing Calvin Ridley after 7 snaps and Mohamed Sanu in the third quarter, was efficient in Week 6 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 31 of 41 for 354 yards and 3 touchdowns. That totaled 22.80 Passing NEP, and Ryan minimized lost points on sacks, losing just 0.95 on a single sack.