“Better than average” is an annual measurement of how players did the previous season. Not just their total yardage or fantasy points. What this considers is which player posted the most fantasy points against a particular defense. Who had a Top-4 or a Top-8 performance? With 16 games for each defense, anyone that scored in the best eight against them for that position was “better than average.”
This considered a standard fantasy performance scoring with a reception point for running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends. The “BTA” score adds up the instances of whether a score was the highest, in the best four or eight allowed to the position by a defense. In that way, a No. 1 showing gets counted three times (as the No.1, in the Top-4 and the Top-8).
This is actually more accurate than considering total fantasy points. This indicates how well a player did versus all others that faced the same defense. Each defense only gives up one instance of a No. 1.
Aaron Jones showed up well in this metric with ten games where he was in the Top-8 fantasy points allowed by that defense. Kenyan Drake also deserves notice with two of the Top-1 and five of the Top-8. He only played for the Cardinals for eight games when he accomplished that production. Even a bad year for Saquon Barkley still had him with high marks across the board, including four games as the No. 1 fantasy scorer allowed by that defense.
Here are just the No. 1 performances allowed by a defense (a total of 32).
