AFL's Inside the Numbers: Week 11

Toliver Poised to Break Harrell's Mark as League Turns 300,000 Points Old
June 9,2016

By Adam Markowitz
LAS VEGAS -- Another week. Another T.T. Toliver milestone. This week though, Toliver is almost certain to break the record of all records for wide receivers. He's set to blow past Damian Harrell for the most receiving yards in Arena Football League history, a tremendous feat for a man who didn't even start playing offense in the AFL until his second year and wasn't a full-time offensive player until his fifth season.
Toliver Set to Top the Receiving Charts
Week after week, we continue to talk about Toliver as he rewrites all of the records in League history for wide receivers. Last week, the Tampa Bay wide out became the second man all-time to reach 15,000 receiving yards when he put up 140 yards on the Portland defense in a losing effort to carry him to 15,108. Up next is the great Harrell, who retired with a League-record 15,134 yards. That mark stood for a touch over six years. Toliver figures to get his 27 yards to set the all-time record relatively early this week at home against Jacksonville, especially knowing that he's got four straight games with 100+ receiving yards under his belt.
Toliver could also make some more history if he has 12 receptions versus the Sharks. That's what he needs to run down Harrell for the most catches in League history. The Florida State product retired with 1,164 receptions for his illustrious career.
What makes Toliver's run at greatness so impressive is the fact that his first position in the AFL was actually Defensive Specialist. He was a fantastic two-way player under the tutelage of the late Tim Marcum, and he's not only one of the two men to ever post 15,000 receiving yards in League history, but he's also one of three to amass 20,000 all-purpose yards in a career.
Outside of the great Barry Wagner, there isn't another man with over 12,000 receiving yards who routinely played the other side of the ball like Toliver used to. Of course, with the specialization of the game, Toliver hasn't had to play much defense of late, but just knowing that he led the Storm in interceptions in two different seasons in his career and still has more kick return yards than any other active player in the AFL makes him one of the best all-purpose weapons the League has ever known.
AFL to Turn 300,000 Points
Week 11 will represent the 3038th, 3039th, 3040th and 3041st games in the history of the Arena Football League. In that span, the League has seen 299,702 points scored. Barring a collapse of epic proportions of the eight offenses across the League, someone - likely in the Portland/Arizona game - will score the 300,000th point in the history of this quirky little 50-yard indoor game we all love.
The man who contributed the greatest percentage of those 300,000 points was Barry Wagner, who had 2,490 points in his career. Only four men have logged at least 2,000 points for their careers. The active leader in scoring is none other than Toliver, who has found the end zone a whopping 314 times in his great career.
Week 11 Milestone Watch
Toliver isn't the only wide receiver who is set to make some history in Week 11. Heck, he's not even the only receiver who will be playing at Amalie Arena approaching career milestones.
Last week, Jacksonville's Tiger Jones became the fifth man in AFL history to log 1,000 receptions. This week, he needs four receptions to surpass Chris Jackson (1,004) for the fourth most catches in a career.
Jones might not be done there, though. He's sitting on 13,918 receiving yards for his career and needs 82 more to become the third man in League history to hit 14,000 yards.
Saturday should be a notable day for Donovan Morgan, too. The KISS wide out has 11,975 receiving yards for his career, and he needs just 25 to become the seventh man in AFL history to log 12,000 yards in a career.
Philadelphia's Shaun Kauleinamoku needs three TDs to reach 100 for his career. Cleveland's Collin Taylor is also within reach of the 100-TD mark, though he needs five scores to get the job done.
Tampa Bay's Jason Boltus and Portland's Shane Austin can both get to 500 rushing yards for their careers this week. Boltus needs four yards, while Austin needs seven. Only three active players, Derrick Ross, Bernard Morris and Mykel Benson have more rushing yards for their careers.
Week 10 Quick Hitters
Collin Taylor extended his streak of consecutive games with a receiving touchdown to 25, a Gladiators franchise record.
Jacksonville's Joe Hills ran his streak of consecutive regular-season games with a TD up to 61 in a row.
Tommy Grady became ninth man in AFL history and the second this year to reach the 30,000 passing yards mark in a career. Nick Davila reached that coveted mark last month. Ironically, Grady's pass which put him over 30,000 yards was also Jones' 1,000th reception in his career.
LA's Donovan Morgan moved into the Top 10 all-time in receptions with his 850th career grab, moving him past both Cory Fleming (846) and Siaha Burley (843).
The Steel grabbed their first win of the season in emphatic fashion in Week 10, knocking off the Storm 68-35. It was the biggest win in the history of the franchise, and when the team led by 40 points with 10:47 left in the game, it was the first time a Portland AFL team (including the Thunder and the Forest Dragons) ever led in a game by that many points.
The Predators went on the road and beat the KISS 43-41 to wrap up Week 10, and the game couldn't have ended in funkier fashion. In a tie game with just seconds remaining, Omarr Smith elected to send his field goal unit on to attempt what would be a game-winning kick. The snap though, went over Danny Southwick's head and through to the back wall of the end zone, giving Orlando two-points. Though this certainly qualifies as one of the craziest endings in AFL history, it's not the only time a game has ended on a safety. It last happened in 2002 when the New Jersey Gladiators beat the Toronto Phantoms in overtime on a safety.
Even crazier about that game? The Predators became just the third team since the start of the 2015 season to win a game scoring four offensive touchdowns or fewer. Sure, Orlando put 43 points on the board, but Brandon Thompkins returned two kickoffs for touchdowns, making him the first man since Gerald Young last year to return multiple kicks for scores in a game.
Thompkins already has six kick returns for scores this year, and he's got six more games to run down Duane Brooks, who set the record for the most kick returns touchdowns in a season last year with eight. Also of note, Thompkins leads the AFL with 2,313 all-purpose yards. If he keeps up his average of 231.3 all-purpose yards per game (which is almost 100 more than anyone else, mind you), he'll come awfully close to breaking the all-time record for all-purpose yards in a season currently held by P.J. Berry, who had 3,708 yards in 2011 for New Orleans.