Fun NextGen Stats from Week 15

By Rhys Knott

Week 15 of the 2023 NFL season gave us the rebirth of the Raiders, the firing of a head coach and most importantly some really fun NextGen Stats.

Week 15’s NextGen Fastest Carries

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Before he suffered his season ending knee ligament injury in Jacksonville Keaton Mitchell was continuing to wow everyone watching. And even though his game ended early he still had 73 rushing yards and 15 receiving yards on Sunday night. 

One of Mitchell’s carries went for 24 yards and saw him clock 20.80 mph,. That was the fastest of the week, but not as fast as 20.99 he clocked back in Week 9. 

Chavarius Ward makes his first appearance in a top 5 this season. And it seems like an ominous sign for the rest of the league, if the 49ers defenders are moving as fast as their offense it’s going to be a problem. Ward’s fastest carry came as he returned an interception for a 66 yard touchdown. He recorded 20.64 mph. 

Josh Palmer, the Chargers set a new low in what has been an incredibly poor 2023. But Palmer hit the third the fastest speed of the week as he scored a 79 yard touchdown. Palmer made the most of a blown coverage by Raiders cornerback Amik Robertson to take it to the house. Palmer clocked 20.60 mph. 

Bengals rookie Charlie Jones is an intriuging prospect. He’s one of the best punt returners in the league. He’s averaging 11.9 yards per return, that’s the fifth best in the league. But he’s become increasingly involved in the Bengals offense too. He caught 2 passes against the Vikings. His fastest speed was clocked on a 10 yard punt return though. Jones got up to 20.60 mph too.  

Cardinals running back Emari Demercado (I know, it was an odd week, I don’t what to tell you). The 49ers scored 35 points in 3 quarters. And then they all had a nice day out in the desert sun. Demercado made the most of the garbage time. He scored a 49 yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter. A couple of 49ers defense failed to get him down he cut loose and clocked 20.58 mph. 

Week 15’s NextGen Remarkable Rushes

Unsurprisingly that man Emari Demercado is back. His 49 yard run was 43 yards over the distance the NextGen algorithm expected. Well, he did run past most of the 49ers defenders. And they just couldn’t stop him. 

Another Cardinal running back, James Conner is second. Boy did the 49ers run defense take a pasting this week. And that might not be a good sign with the Ravens arriving in Santa Clara this week. But Conner’s long run came earlier in the garbage time. It was about halfway through the third quarter when Conner broke off a 44 yard run that should have only gone for 6 yards! 

Brandon Bolden is the rarest of beasts, a former Patriot who is actually performing well in Vegas. It’s like him and Jakobi Meyers. Bolden was allowed to play on offense too with Josh Jacobs’ recovering from his injury. And his second carry went for 26 yard touchdown. It should have only gone for 2 yards! The NextGen algorithm obviously wasn’t watching that Chargers defense! 

Keeping up this week’s theme of running backs who don’t usually get much opportunity to carry the ball is Tyler Goodson. Goodson is a rookie running back for the Colts who you’ve probably never heard of (and who can blame you, only the Colts have). But he racked up 69 yards on 11 carries. He helped Indy to give the Steelers an old fashioned whoopin’. His 31 yard carry also went for 24 yards over expected. 

And there’s another rookie at number 5. There’s no rookie wall for Detriot’s Jahmyr Gibbs, he is really turning it on late in the season. He rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown against the Broncos as the Lions proved that if you don’t give the Broncos the ball back they still struggle. Gibbs’ 34 yards run went for 23 yards over expected. 

And Ty Chandler went for 23 yards over expected too on a 30 yard run against the Bengals. But then the wheels completely came off for Minnesota. 

And Kyren Williams joined the 23 yard club too. He racked up a whopping 152 yards on the ground against the Commanders. One of his carries went for 27 yards when it was expected to go for just 4. 

You’re not going to believe this, Keaton Mitchell did it too. He went for 23 yards over expected on a 24 yard run that should have just gone for 1. 

Week 15’s Fastest Sacks

T.J Watt is a one man beacon of hope for the Steelers. If only he could do something about the offense. Watt recorded his fastest sack of the season and the fastest of the week when he took Gardner Minshew down in just 2.49 seconds. 

Jerry Tillery is second this week, the Raiders’ veteran has only played 46% of the Raiders’ defensive snaps this season. And he hadn’t recorded a sack since Week 1, but his second of the season only took 2.57 seconds. 

Falcons defensive end Ta’Quon Graham took 2.60 seconds to put Bryce Young on the floor. The Falcons sacked the Panthers quarterback three times on Sunday, but they somehow still lost. 

But the Lions got back to winning ways and Ifeatu Melifonwu helped. Because the Detroit cornerback sacked Russell Wilson in 2.87 seconds as the Lions won 42-17. 

And the Texans’ Jonathan Greenard is back. He was tied fifth last week, he’s tied for fourth this week. He’ll be third next week (maybe). His fastest last week took 2.94 seconds, this week it only took him 2.87 seconds. 

RHYS KNOTT

NFL/FANTASY FOOTBALL ANALYST

Rhys has been watching the NFL for 30 something years and still hasn’t managed to pick a team to support. When he’s not fixatED on pass rushers you can find him blithering on about most sports on Twitter @wrhys_writes

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