Leaders of the Pack: Who dominated the regular season stats?

AFI | American Football | 11/06/2019

Graphic: Igor Lazarevic

The Canadian Football League is heading into the playoffs this weekend with the divisional semifinals set to kick off.

The Montreal Alouettes will be playing host to the Edmonton Eskimos while the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will be traveling west to face the Calgary Stampeders in Calgary.

If the stats leaders are any indication, no one team has a huge edge. Saskatchewan’s Cody Fajardo led all quarterbacks in passing yardage while Brandon Banks of the Tiger-Cats was the leading receiver without a quarterback in the top 5. Andrew Harris topped all rushers for the third year in a row.

While stats may not win games, they can indicate tendencies. Let’s take a look at the top individual performers in the CFL in 2019.

Passing

Cody Fajardo of the Saskatchewan Roughriders picked up the pace towards the end of the year and finished as the CFL’s top passer with 4,302 yards and 18 TDs. Edmonton Eskimos QB Trevor Harris had an impressive season but late season injuries hampered his performance. Still he wound up 2nd with 4,027 yards. Argonauts QB McLeod Bethel-Thompson finished 3rd overall right behind Harris with 4,024 yards and a league-best 26 TDs. Vernon Adams Jr. of the Montreal Alouettes was the key to his team’s resurgence in 2019, finishing with 3,942 yards while BC Lions QB Mike Reilly, despite missing the last two games of the season, threw for 3,897 yards, good for fifth.

Rushing

Andrew Harris of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers led the CFL in rushing from wire to wire finishing with 1,380 yards. Saskatchewan Roughriders RB Willaim Powell surged in the last third of the season and wound up 2nd with `,093 yards and a league-best 12 TDs. William Stanback of the Alouettes held onto 3rd with his 1,048 yards while BC Lions RB John White finished in 4th with 1,004 yards. Edmonton’s CJ Gable dropped from 2nd late in the year to 5th. He had 1,001 yards.

Receiving

Hamilton Tiger-Cats Brandon Banks had a superb final third of the season racking up a total of 1,550 yards and 13 TD receptions to lead all receivers. Behind him in 2nd was Bryan Brunham of the BC Lions who wound up with 1,492 yards and 11 TD catches. Calgary Stampeders top receiver, Reginald Begelton finished as the 3rd best receiver in the league with 1,444 yards while Shaq Evans of the Saskatchewan Roughriders was excellent late in the season and ended up as the 4th leading receiver with 1,334 yards. Another Tiger-Cats receiver, Bralon Addison climbed up onto the chart late in the year and wound up 5th with 1,236 yards.