The season's leading single-game scorer among running backs -- not the week's, the season's -- was a player owned in less than 1 percent of ESPN leagues, and one now certain to be one of the most popular pickups entering Week 6.
His name is Branden Oliver and, with Ryan Mathews (knee) likely out at least another 1-2 weeks (that per the San Diego Union-Tribune), Danny Woodhead (fibula) out for the season and Donald Brown (concussion) a question mark for Week 6, he's an intriguing pickup heading into a favorable Week 7 matchup at the Oakland Raiders. In an effective "relief" appearance, Oliver scored 29 fantasy points in Week 5.
That got us to thinking: How rare was Oliver's relief effort?
To find the answer, we sought only performances in non-starts -- remember that "starts" are often subjective among NFL running backs, so using them can result in an imperfect sample -- from players who totaled 50 percent or less of their teams' total rushing attempts in the given game, during the past 14 seasons (2001-14). As it turns out, Oliver's effort indeed stands out from a historical angle:
Most points by RBs with 50% of team's carries or less
Single game, since 2001
Consider some of the names from that group: Blaylock's came in a game during which his Kansas City Chiefs set a team single-game rushing touchdown record (eight), as a "reliever" for an injured Priest Holmes, who departed early with a mild ankle sprain. Blaylock made just eight starts during his NFL career, largely stuck behind Holmes in Kansas City and never emerged in two subsequent years with the New York Jets.
Jones-Drew, who also had a third such game of 27 fantasy points that barely missed the top 10, was a classic "backup" -- again, this referencing the folly of NFL "starts" -- who really wasn't, at least not from a fantasy perspective. During his first three seasons in the league, he routinely took a back seat to Fred Taylor from the angle of "starts" -- Taylor started 43 games to Jones-Drew's four -- yet he outscored Taylor in terms of fantasy points in each year, as well as 581-364 during the three-year span combined.
Westbrook was making his only non-start during a four-year span (2005-08) in which he played and started 55 of 56 contests, primarily the result of his having missed practice during the week because of swelling in his knee (he was listed as questionable).
Meanwhile, McGahee, White, Duckett and Barber were classic "finishers" during those seasons in question; from a fantasy angle we'd have called them "goal-line vultures." The three combined for 26 touchdowns on carries within the opponents' 3-yard line in those years, with White pacing the league in the category in 2008.
That leaves Foster and Bradshaw, two examples Oliver's soon-to-be fantasy owners hope he'll emulate. Both put forth their performances early in their runs as productive starting fantasy running backs; Foster's came in his fourth game of his breakthrough 2010 (he had 41, 12 and 10 points in starts the first three weeks), and only his 10th career NFL contest; Bradshaw's occurred in his 32nd career NFL game, all of which were relief appearances, in a season in which he scored 127 fantasy points (followed up by 179-, 146- and 143-point campaigns). Could Oliver follow suit? Well, like Foster, he went undrafted, and like Bradshaw, he has probably carved out a larger role in the San Diego Chargers' backfield, as Bradshaw did back then for the New York Giants.
And, even if Oliver's performance ultimately winds up Blaylock-esque, here's a tidbit to at least support his one-week-pickup candidacy: His performance came against a New York Jets defense that had allowed the fewest fantasy points per game to opposing running backs (6.0), including limiting Eddie Lacy to five (Week 2), Matt Forte to seven (Week 3) and Reggie Bush and Joique Bell to eight combined (Week 4). If Oliver earns a Week 6 start, he'll be going up against a Raiders team that has afforded 21.3 fantasy points per game to opposing running backs, including 16 to Chris Ivory and 14 to Chris Johnson (Week 1), 20 to Foster (Week 2) and 16 to Lamar Miller (Week 4).
Go get him.
Miscellany
• Peyton Manning joined an exclusive club Sunday, completing his 500th career touchdown pass -- followed shortly thereafter by his 501st, 502nd and 503rd -- putting him five scores shy of Brett Favre's record. While Manning might trail Favre in that department, one category in which he doesn't is total fantasy points in his career: He has 4,240, having passed Favre's 4,178 in Week 2 of this season.
Incidentally, when Favre was the age Manning is today -- 38 years, 195 days -- he had just 3,634 career fantasy points. Among those who have played since 1960, Dan Marino was next-closest at that age, with 3,554 fantasy points.
But perhaps most impressive about Manning's 31-point fantasy day in Week 5, the third-highest-scoring game by any player so far in 2014, was the fact that it gave him six consecutive regular-season team games with 20 or more fantasy points. He's the first player to do that since Drew Brees (2011 Week 13 through 2012 Week 1), again proving himself the most consistently productive quarterback in fantasy football.
• Demaryius Thomas scored a season-high -- among all players -- 34 fantasy points, though that's still a far cry from the since-1960 record among wide receivers; it's 18 shy of Jerry Rice's 24-year-old standard. But in a PPR (point-per-reception) league that otherwise utilizes ESPN standard scoring, Thomas' score was 42, five more than any other player has amassed in a game this season, and the most by any wide receiver since Eric Decker (49), Josh Gordon (48) and Alshon Jeffery (48) in Week 13 last season. Thomas also set new personal bests, topping his 28 standard fantasy points from Weeks 1 and 10 of 2013, and his 35 PPR points of Week 10 of 2013.
• Phil Dawson managed 20 fantasy points, the second highest single-game total by a kicker so far this season; Stephen Gostkowski managed 21 fantasy points to top the effort only hours later. Dawson is hardly the first to scale that plateau -- there have been more than 70 instances since 1960, including 17 since the beginning of 2010 -- but he is one of the oldest. Specifically, he's the third-oldest to do it: