NFL
We Know Even Less About Martavis Bryant Than We Think We Know
Martavis Bryant took the fantasy football world by storm last season. Will it continue this year, too?

So, Martavis Bryant was awesome last year. I think we can all agree with that.

But it doesn't seem like everyone really agrees with how to approach him in 2015.

His average draft position (ADP) is in the late fourth-round, according to late-July numbers on FantasyFootballCalculator.com. It's not an absurd draft cost. It's not the second round or anything. But that's pretty high for a player who caught just 26 passes last season.

Then again, 10 players in NFL history to see fewer than 50 targets yet record at least 500 receiving yards in a season. He also has more touchdowns than the rest of the nine. That's incredible efficiency.

Is it too good to be true?

Possibly.

Incredible Efficiency

Bryant does it all, really. I mean, based on those 26 catches. There was this 94-yard touchdown against the Bengals and this 80-yard touchdown against the Jets, evidencing his big-play potential.

Let's not forget this six-yard touchdown, showing that he can be a red-zone threat, too, which is a bit more obvious considering his 6'4", 211-pound frame. I could include his other five, but you get the idea.

These touchdowns -- including two multi-touchdown games in back-to-back weeks -- made him one of the league's most efficient targets, according to our big-play sustainability, based on Reception NEP per target scores. What I found was that players who finished in the top 15 in the league in Reception NEP per target among guys with at least 30 receptions were nearly as likely to finish worse than 60th in the metric as they were likely to finish in the top 30 again the next year.

To make that more concrete, there were 150 top-15 performers from the decade prior to 2014, naturally. 57 players followed up the big-play season with a top-30 score. 54 ranked 60th or failed to catch 30 passes the following season. 39 guys were between 31st and 60th.

So that's close to a 50/50 split between guys who do it and guys who don't, but remember -- we aren't talking repeating top-15 numbers. Those were just top 30. That's FantasyData.com. That ranked 110th among receivers. His 34.9 points per 100 snaps, though, was tops in the league. (Dez Bryant was a distant second at 25.2 points per 100.)

Neither of those marks will stick around. His snaps will almost assuredly increase, and I'd bet the farm (I don't have a farm) that he doesn't maintain his points per snap pace.

I get that the sky appears to be the limit for Bryant in 2014, but we're putting a lot of stock into very few plays. We knew that already, yes, but based on his Success Rate, Bryant was even more touchdown-or-bust than we probably realize.

The truth is that we know even less about Bryant than we think, and it's a bit haughty to think that we know what to expect from him in 2015 -- good or bad.

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