Week 7 Target Watch: AFC
Welcome to the AFC version of Target Watch. You will find all of the AFC teams below, with all of their passing targets, plus some snap count data and words I wrote while typing them onto my laptop. If you click here you'll find the NFC version of this article.
If you are new to the column let me take you through a quick look at how I set things up. You'll see something like this “Jamaal Charles: 6-10-8-11-9-9 (53)” which just means that Charles had 6 targets in Week 1, 10 targets in Week 2, 8 in Week 3, 11 in week 4, 9 in Week 5 and 9 in Week 6 with 53 total. It’s as easy as following me on Twitter.
I’ve also added red zone target totals for each AFC team this week and plan on doing that in this column from here on out.
Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-week $300,000 Fantasy Football league for Week 7. It's $25 to join and first prize is $25,000. Starts Sunday at 1pm ET. Here's the link.
Baltimore Ravens
Torrey Smith: 8-13-9-12-9-4 (55), Dallas Clark: 12-1-7-9-0-6 (35), Marlon Brown: 6-6-3-8-dnp-7 (30), Ray Rice: 11-3-dnp-1-7-4 (26), Tandon Doss: dnp-0-0-9-5-6 (20), Brandon Stokley: 10-5-1-dnp-dnp-dnp (16), Vonta Leach: 4-2-2-2-1-2 (13), Deonte Thompson: dnp-dnp-dnp-5-7-0 (12), Ed Dickson: 5-1-0-3-2-0 (11), Bernard Pierce: 1-1-2-1-0-2 (7), Jacoby Jones: 4-dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp-2 (6), Billy Bajema: 0-1-0-0-0-1 (2), Kyle Juszczyk: 0-0-0-0-1-0 (1)
The Packers took Torrey Smith out of this one, which was sad for my fantasy teams, but that’s neither here nor there! But as they moved extra help Smith’s way Dallas Clark, Tandon Doss, Jacoby Jones and Marlon Brown were all able to step up with some nice plays. Clark’s six targets for four receptions, 81 yards and a touchdown was a surprise, especially after his zero targets the week before, but this is situational football, which is the killer of fantasy predictions.
This was Smith’s worst game of the season and one they should learn from going forward. They’ll need to get more creative with him now that teams see him, rightfully so, as an elite receiver.
Ray Rice is either still feeling residuals from his hip injury, or he’s lost a step. It’s a real possibility that it was his injury holding him back, so I’m not ready to say you should lower expectations, but 17 touches for 49 yards and no touchdowns isn’t going to help his fantasy owners out much.
Jacoby Jones only played 20 snaps while Brown and Doss played 48 and 43, but he did catch both of his targets for 43 yards and a touchdown. We will most likely see Jones get more snaps going forward.
Red Zone Targets: Dallas Clark: (5), Torrey Smith: (5), Ray Rice: (5), Marlon Brown: (5), Vonta Leach: (3), Tandon Doss: (2), Brandon Stokley: (1), Jacoby Jones: (1), Bernard Pierce: (1), Deonte Thompson: (1)
On the season you can see how well Joe Flacco is spreading the ball out in the red zone, which is good in real life, but tougher for fantasy players who want a go-to player to pick up.
Buffalo Bills
Robert Woods: 2-6-10-8-13-6 (45), Steve Johnson: 6-10-13-6-3-dnp (38), Scott Chandler: 6-6-6-3-6-4 (31), Fred Jackson: 5-6-5-0-6-5 (27), T.J. Graham: 1-3-5-3-5-6 (23), C.J. Spiller: 6-5-1-0-0-2 (14), Chris Hogan: 0-0-0-0-5-3 (8), Tashard Choice: 0-1-1-0-0-3 (5), Marquise Goodwin: 1-dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp-3 (4), Lee Smith: 0-0-0-2-1-0 (3), Frank Summers: 0-2-0-0-0-0 (2), Marcus Easley: 0-0-0-0-1-0 (1)
With Thad Lewis at the helm and Stevie Johnson out, there was no one player that really dominated targets. T.J. Graham and Robert Woods led the way with six each, but Woods only caught two for nine yards while Graham caught four for 74 yards. The scoring came from tight end Scott Chandler and wide receiver Marquise Goodwin who just returned from injury. With Johnson most likely back this week the target distribution will point back toward him.
C.J. Spiller’s ankle seems to still be bothering him as he saw just 18 snaps to Fred Jackson’s 39, but he still was able to outproduce Jackson with 66 yards on 12 touches to Jackson’s 48 yards on 14 touches.
Red Zone Targets: Steve Johnson: (5), Robert Woods: (4), Scott Chandler: (2), T.J. Graham: (1), Tashard Choice: (1), Lee Smith: (1)
As you can see, the Bills aren’t getting into the red zone all that often, but the target distribution holds pretty close to the target distribution on the rest of the field.
Cincinnati Bengals
A.J. Green: 13-14-8-15-8-11 (69), Jermaine Gresham: 5-9-5-5-4-4 (32), Mohamed Sanu: 5-8-5-6-2-6 (32), Tyler Eifert: 5-5-2-5-7-3 (27), Giovani Bernard: 2-2-4-7-3-7 (25), Marvin Jones: 2-4-4-3-2-5 (20), BenJarvus Green-Ellis: 1-1-0-0-1-1 (4), Dane Sanzenbacher: dnp-dnp-0-1-0-1 (2), Brandon Tate: 0-0-0-0-0-1 (1), Alex Smith: 0-1-0-0-0-0 (1)
A.J. Green was able to get his first 100-yard touchdown game since Week one. Even though he caught just six of 11 targets, it’s great to see that the Bengals and Andy Dalton will go to any length to keep him on track. The other receiver that finally broke out was Marvin Jones who had a great game on just 26 of 88 total snaps, which was his least amount of time on the field in the last four games. He caught three of five targets for 71 yards and a touchdown. He was featured when he was in the game and he played extremely well. Hopefully this will lead to more work going forward.
Giovani Bernard once again overtook BenJarvus Green-Ellis in snaps after losing out to him in Week 5. Bernard had 50 of 88 snaps to Green-Ellis’ 37 of 88. Bernard had a woeful game on the ground with 15 carries for 28 yards while Green-Ellis ran 18 times for 86 yards, but Bernard made up for it in the passing game catching six of seven targets for 72 yards and a touchdown and his 20 yard touchdown reception and run was a thing of beauty.
Red Zone Targets: A.J. Green: (9), Tyler Eifert: (3), Mohamed Sanu: (3), Marvin Jones: (2), Jermaine Gresham: (1), Giovani Bernard: (1),
Green is the red zone king and has been for most of his career. It’s good to see Tyler Eifert and Marvin Jones on this list, but without a full complement of snaps you can’t expect either to have value yet.
Cleveland Browns
Jordan Cameron: 13-7-11-12-5-6 (54), Josh Gordon: dnp-dnp-19-9-6-9 (43), Davone Bess: 10-8-10-6-5-3 (42), Greg Little: 10-12-8-2-5-5 (42), Chris Ogbonnaya: 3-3-5-5-2-12 (30), Travis Benjamin: 8-1-0-1-1-2 (13), Gary Barnidge: 1-0-0-1-1-3 (6), Bobby Rainey: 0-0-1-2-1-0 (4), Tori Gurley: 2-1-dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp (3), Willis McGahee: dnp-dnp-0-0-2-1 (3)
Josh Gordon is averaging 10.8 targets per game to Jordan Cameron’s 9 and they are of course the only two rosterable pass catchers, but the 12 targets for Chris Ogbonnaya were pretty interesting. He caught seven of them for 61 yards and a touchdown and rushed five times for 24 yards while Willis McGahee rushed 10 times for 37 yards. Ogbonnaya had 41 snaps to McGahee’s 29. In the right matchups, like Green Bay this week, we could see Ogbonnaya see quite a few receptions.
Red Zone Targets: Jordan Cameron: (13), Greg Little: (6), Davone Bess: (5), Josh Gordon: (2), Chris Ogbonnaya: (2), Gary Barnidge: (2), Tori Gurley: (1)
Cameron is the red zone leader by a wide margin and that should remain even with Brandon Weeden at quarterback.
Denver Broncos
Eric Decker: 7-13-8-7-8-7 (50), Wes Welker: 11-8-8-9-6-8 (50), Demaryius Thomas: 11-6-11-10-6-5 (49), Julius Thomas: 7-9-4-4-12-7 (43), Knowshon Moreno: 3-3-2-1-5-10 (24), Ronnie Hillman: 2-0-1-3-4-2 (12), Montee Ball: 0-2-0-0-0-2 (4), Virgil Green: 0-1-2-1-0-0 (4), Andre Caldwell: 1-1-0-2-0-0 (4), Jacob Tamme: 0-0-1-0-0-0 (1), Joel Dreessen: dnp-dnp-dnp-0-0-1 (1)
You know you are on a tear when 295 yards, two touchdowns and one interception are a bad fantasy game and Peyton Manning did have a bad fantasy game by his standards. Of course if he had wanted he most likely could have thrown for five touchdowns, but instead he handed the ball of to Knowshon Moreno for one yard, eight yard and three yard touchdown runs in a game that seemed close because it was supposed to be such a major blow-out.
The big three receivers are still almost identical in targets, but touchdowns are what separates them in fantasy right now. Wes Welker’s ability to get open in confined spaces makes him the perfect end zone target for Manning who can get rid of the ball post haste.
Red Zone Targets: Wes Welker: (13), Julius Thomas: (10), Eric Decker: (7), Demaryius Thomas: (6), Ronnie Hillman: (2), Virgil Green: (1), Knowshon Moreno: (1)
As you can see Welker leads the team in red zone targets, which converts into his league leading eight touchdowns, of which all eight have come from inside the red zone. Demaryius Thomas is having a little trouble in this regard, but last season Decker was way ahead of him in red zone targets, they weren’t playing at this tempo and Thomas actually had fewer red zone targets than he has this season.
Houston Texans
Andre Johnson: 16-13-6-12-10-8 (65), Owen Daniels: 7-5-9-11-9-dnp (41), DeAndre Hopkins: 6-13-7-3-4-5 (38), Arian Foster: 8-4-2-8-5-7 (34), Garrett Graham: 5-5-0-6-5-4 (25), Ben Tate: 2-4-4-1-2-4 (17), Keshawn Martin: 0-2-3-6-1-2 (14), DeVier Posey: 0-0-4-dnp-2-1 (7), Greg Jones: 0-0-0-1-1-2 (4), Ryan Griffin: 0-0-0-1-0-3 (4), Lestar Jean: 0-1-dnp-dnp-dnp-2 (3)
The Texans had another disastrous game on Sunday with two turnovers returned for touchdowns and a defense that didn’t step up when needed. The only positive on offense was Arian Foster looking a lot like his old self as he ran for 141 yards on 20 carries and caught four passes for 57 yards which is not easy to do on a team that loses 38-13.
Andre Johnson was able to put up okay numbers in this one catching seven passes for 88 yards and he now leads the league in receptions with 44, but has yet to score a touchdown. Of course Johnson has never been known as a touchdown scorer in this offense, but zero on 44 receptions is pretty bad.
Red Zone Targets: Garrett Graham: (7), Owen Daniels: (5), DeAndre Hopkins: (5), Andre Johnson: (3), Arian Foster: (3), Keshawn Martin: (2), Ben Tate: (2), Greg Jones: (1), DeVier Posey: (1)
And here is where you can see one of the reasons Johnson isn’t getting into the end zone. The two tight ends have 12 red zone targets to his three. With Owen Daniels out Johnson should see a few more, but the team has jumped into a dumpster fire and it may take them a little while to get out.
Indianapolis Colts
Reggie Wayne: 8-8-7-11-9-8 (51), T.Y. Hilton: 5-12-4-9-6-8 (44), Darrius Heyward-Bey: 4-5-5-6-6-2 (28), Coby Fleener: 1-8-2-7-3-6 (27), Trent Richardson: 6-5-3-1-1-2 (18), Ahmad Bradshaw: 1-3-4-dnp-dnp-dnp (8), Donald Brown: 0-0-1-2-2-2 (7), Stanley Havili: 0-2-1-2-dnp-1 (6), Dominique Jones: 0-2-0-1-0-0 (3)
Andrew Luck is averaging 31 pass attempts per game. That’s less than Geno Smith and Christian Ponder. So as you can see why Reggie Wayne and T.Y. Hilton only have one game each with double-digit targets. Coby Fleener has topped out at eight and since he can’t seem to catch the ball that’s not nearly enough to make him fantasy-relevant.
Trent Richardson’s value is hurt whenever the Colts go into pass mode. Against the Chargers he only had 25 snaps to Donald Brown’s 24. He very much needs the Colts to get out to a lead to get his touches.
Red Zone Targets: Coby Fleener: (6), Reggie Wayne: (6), Darrius Heyward-Bey: (3), Donald Brown: (2), T.Y. Hilton: (1)
Fleener and Wayne are Luck’s favorite red zone targets, but there haven’t been many chances with their methodical, plodding offense not getting down into the red zone. On average they only run seven plays from inside the opponent’s 20-yard line, which ranks 24th in the league.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Cecil Shorts: 11-14-15-12-10-1 (63), Ace Sanders: 9-7-3-8-1-3 (31), Justin Blackmon: dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp-9-20 (29), Clay Harbor: 1-4-1-3-5-3 (17), Maurice Jones-Drew: 2-1-5-1-3-2 (14), Stephen Burton: 0-3-9-dnp-dnp-dnp (12), Justin Forsett: 5-1-0-2-0-3 (11), Allen Reisner: 5-2-1-1-0-dnp (9), Mike Brown: 3-dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp-5 (8), Will Taufoou: 1-2-1-0-1-3 (8), Jordan Todman: 4-2-0-0-0-0 (6), Jeremy Ebert: dnp-dnp-dnp-3-2-dnp (5), Stephen Williams: 1-0-0-1-dnp-2 (4), D.J. Williams: 0-0-1-dnp-1-0 (2), Denard Robinson: 0-0-0-1-0-0 (1)
After Cecil Shorts was injured on his first target, it became Justin Blackmon’s game in Denver. His 20 targets are the most for any player this season. He now leads the league in yards gained per route with 4.13, which is a yard over the next best. Yes, he has only played two games so that will change, but it’s still pretty amazing.
Red Zone Targets: Cecil Shorts: (6), Justin Blackmon: (6), Ace Sanders: (4), Clay Harbor: (4), Maurice Jones-Drew: (4), Jeremy Ebert: (2), Allen Reisner: (2), Mike Brown: (2), Stephen Burton: (2), D.J. Williams: (1), Jordan Todman: (1)
Here’s another amazing stat. Blackmon has six red zone targets in two games and is tied with Shorts for the team lead.
Kansas City Chiefs
Jamaal Charles: 6-10-8-11-9-9 (53), Donnie Avery: 5-4-7-10-4-4 (34), Dwayne Bowe: 6-8-3-7-6-4 (34), Dexter McCluster: 5-4-4-5-3-5 (26), Sean McGrath: 0-4-4-5-6-3 (22), Anthony Sherman: 4-0-2-1-2-0 (9), Anthony Fasano: 5-2-dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp (7), Kevin Brock: dnp-dnp-1-2-2-1 (6), Chad Hall: dnp-dnp-1-0-4-0 (5), Junior Hemingway: 1-1-1-0-1-1 (5), A.J. Jenkins: 0-0-2-0-1-1 (4), Knile Davis: 1-0-0-0-1-1 (3), Cyrus Gray: 1-1-0-0-0-0 (2)
Jamaal Charles is averaging over 8 targets a game and is on pace for 141 for the season. That’s more than LaDainian Tomlinson who had 136 targets in 2003 and caught 100 passes. But Charles is only on pace for a measly 88 for 800 yards. Tomlinson finished with 725 yards.
As you can see Charles is Kansas City’s offense. He has totaled 775 yards and seven touchdowns. The rest of the team has 1183 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Donnie Avery and Dwayne Bowe each have 34, which ranks them 50th for wide receivers. That’s not where you want your fantasy receivers to rank.
Red Zone Targets: Jamaal Charles: (9), Dwayne Bowe: (5), Donnie Avery: (4), Anthony Sherman: (3), Dexter McCluster: (2), A.J. Jenkins: (2), Sean McGrath: (2), Junior Hemingway: (1), Chad Hall: (1)
Of course our man Charles leads in red zone targets as well. There really isn’t any other offensive player on Kansas City’s team worth owning not named Jamaal Charles.
Miami Dolphins
Mike Wallace: 5-11-5-7-16-BYE (44), Brian Hartline: 15-8-6-4-7-BYE (40), Brandon Gibson: 10-2-8-8-5-BYE (33), Charles Clay: 6-7-6-6-6-BYE (31), Lamar Miller: 1-2-3-3-0-BYE (9), Rishard Matthews: 0-0-4-2-0-BYE (6), Daniel Thomas: 1-1-1-1-2-BYE (6), Marcus Thigpen: 0-0-0-2-1-BYE (3), Dion Sims: 0-0-1-1-0-BYE (2), Michael Egnew: 0-0-1-0-1-BYE (2), Tyler Clutts: 0-1-0-0-dnp-BYE (1)
Mike Wallace continues the squeaky wheel theory, but he’s showing over and over again that he’s not the #1 receiver the Dolphins paid for. On the season he has 28 catchable passes and has dropped six of them. That is the second worst drop rate for wide receivers with 30+ targets.
Lamar Miller finally saw the majority of the snaps as he played on 45 of 59 snaps compared to Daniel Thomas’ 11 of 59. That is a great sign for the future even though he wasn’t able to do much in this game.
Red Zone Targets: Mike Wallace: (5), Charles Clay: (4), Brandon Gibson: (3), Brian Hartline: (2), Lamar Miller: (1), Dion Sims: (1)
Wallace has a ton of targets, but isn’t so good at catching them, so five red zone targets in five games isn’t going to translate into much.
New England Patriots
Julian Edelman: 9-18-7-9-7-11 (61), Kenbrell Thompkins: 14-7-7-11-4-6 (49), Aaron Dobson: dnp-10-10-3-4-10 (37), Danny Amendola: 14-dnp-dnp-dnp-9-4 (27), Brandon Bolden: dnp-dnp-6-1-8-3 (18), Michael Hoomanawanui: 2-1-2-0-2-4 (11), Shane Vereen: 10-dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp (10), Josh Boyce: 2-dnp-1-3-0-dnp (6), Stevan Ridley: 0-0-1-2-dnp-1 (4), LeGarrette Blount: 0-1-0-0-0-1 (2), Austin Collie: dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp-2 (2)
The one constant through all of the Patriots personnel disarray has been Julian Edelman. His 61 targets rank fourth in the league and his 41 receptions rank second. In this game he still led the team in targets even though he had 43 snaps to Danny Amendola’s 49, Kenbrell Thompkins 59 and Aaron Dobson’s 80. The fact that Dobson led the team in snaps is a bit perplexing, but that is Bill Belichick’s calling card. Thompkins could very well lead the way next week.
Stevan Ridley had 38 snaps to LeGarrette Blount’s 16 and many of Blount’s snaps came in the first quarter. It was Ridley’s job from there on out and he played well scoring two touchdowns. Brandon Bolden had 34 snaps in hurry up/passing downs, so the sheer number of plays allowed Ridley to get 20 rushing attempts. In most offenses if Bolden and Blount played more than 50% of the snaps, Ridley would have been out of luck.
Red Zone Targets: Kenbrell Thompkins: (10), Julian Edelman: (9), Aaron Dobson: (6), Danny Amendola: (2), Josh Boyce: (1), Matthew Mulligan: (1), Michael Hoomanawanui: (1), Stevan Ridley: (1)
Thompkins has been the preferred red zone target this season and his game-winning touchdown reception last week isn’t going to deter Tom Brady from looking his way, even if he’s losing snaps to Dobson.
New York Jets
Stephen Hill: 9-8-6-1-2-8 (34), Jeremy Kerley: 4-dnp-5-5-6-7 (27), Santonio Holmes: 3-6-10-5-dnp-dnp (24), Kellen Winslow Jr: 8-6-0-9-1-dnp (24), Clyde Gates: 4-8-1-3-1-7 (24), Bilal Powell: 5-5-3-5-2-3 (23), Jeff Cumberland: 0-0-3-1-4-5 (13), Tommy Bohanon: 2-1-1-3-0-0 (7), Mike Goodson: dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp-2-1 (3), Zach Sudfeld: 1-dnp-2-0-dnp-0 (3), Konrad Reuland: 1-0-0-0-0-2 (3), David Nelson: dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp-2-1 (3), Chris Ivory: 2-0-0-dnp-0-0 (2)
The Jets passing game is not very ripe for the fantasy picking. Geno Smith has shown flashes of very good play, but on average they want to run the ball and play stout defense. Trying to guess when Smith is going to have a good game and with which receiver is difficult. Last week against the Steelers there were no players, including running backs, able to put up fantasy numbers. Stephen Hill remains the best bet because even on his few targets he does get deep passes and can have a good fantasy day on just one target. When he’s getting eight in a game his chances are pretty good. But they are a matchup dependent team when looking at their passing game and the Steelers weren’t the right matchup.
The running game lost Mike Goodson, which does help clear things up a bit, because it was going to devolve into a three-headed monster very quickly. It seems the Jets would like a 60/40 split between Bilal Powell and Chris Ivory if Ivory can stay healthy. With Goodson gone Powell should once again be the preferred passing down back.
Red Zone Targets: Kellen Winslow Jr: (4), Stephen Hill: (3), David Nelson: (2), Jeremy Kerley: (2), Jeff Cumberland: (2), Bilal Powell: (2), Clyde Gates: (1)
Their leading red zone target has been suspended, so there’s that. They’ve only thrown the ball 16 times inside the red zone in six games. The only teams that have less are Seattle, Arizona, Buffalo and Tampa Bay.
Oakland Raiders
Denarius Moore: 7-2-11-6-8-10 (44), Rod Streater: 8-4-4-3-3-7 (29), Mychal Rivera: 3-3-3-6-3-3 (21), Marcel Reece: 2-1-5-2-3-3 (16), Darren McFadden: 5-4-1-0-dnp-3 (13), Rashad Jennings: 0-1-2-8-0-2 (13), Brice Butler: 1-3-4-3-1-1 (13), Jacoby Ford: 2-2-1-0-2-2 (9), Jeron Mastrud: 1-1-0-2-0-2 (6), Jamize Olawale: 0-0-0-1-2-0 (3), Jeremy Stewart: 0-0-0-1-1-0 (2)
It’s pretty refreshing to have an Oakland receiver who you can count on (to a degree!). Over the last four weeks Denarius Moore ranks as the fifth best fantasy receiver in the league. After him it gets way too dicey to even consider another receiver from Oakland. But if Moore can have a good game in Kansas City, well, he can have one anywhere.
Red Zone Targets: Denarius Moore: (7), Marcel Reece: (5), Mychal Rivera: (4), Rod Streater: (2), Darren McFadden: (1), Rashad Jennings: (1)
Moore also leads in red zone targets, which is a great bonus if you are worried about him being a bit too inconsistent.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Antonio Brown: 7-9-13-13-BYE-11 (53), Emmanuel Sanders: 12-10-8-8-BYE-6 (44), Jerricho Cotchery: 7-9-4-6-BYE-0 (26), Heath Miller: dnp-dnp-4-8-BYE-7 (19), LeVeon Bell: dnp-dnp-dnp-5-BYE-3 (8), Markus Wheaton: 0-0-1-5-BYE-dnp (6), David Johnson: 1-1-3-1-BYE-0 (6), David Paulson: 0-4-2-0-BYE-0 (6), Isaac Redman: 3-2-0-0-BYE-dnp (5), Will Johnson: 0-0-1-0-BYE-3 (4), Felix Jones: 0-0-2-1-BYE-1 (4), Jonathan Dwyer: dnp-0-3-0-BYE-0 (3)
Ben Roethlisberger is averaging 38 pass attempts and 299 yards per game, so there are plenty of targets and yards to go around and Antonio Brown is getting a big bunch of them. Brown’s 10.8 targets per game ranks fifth overall and Emmanuel Sanders’ 8.8 targets per game ranks 17th. Both are enough to be fantasy relevant and Heath Miller’s 6.3 per game ranks 11th for tight ends. There really is a decent amount of fantasy upside in Pittsburgh despite their record.
Red Zone Targets: Antonio Brown: (7), Jerricho Cotchery: (4), Emmanuel Sanders: (4), Isaac Redman: (3), LeVeon Bell: (2), Heath Miller: (2), Markus Wheaton: (1), Will Johnson: (1)
Pittsburgh’s record does show that they aren’t in the red zone all that often, but when they are they’ve been throwing the ball 67% of the time, fourth most in the league. That bodes well for Miller who is finally 100% and getting targets.
San Diego Chargers
Antonio Gates: 4-10-7-10-10-8 (49), Danny Woodhead: 3-9-8-7-9-5 (41), Vincent Brown: 4-7-3-9-9-4 (36), Keenan Allen: dnp-3-1-6-9-12 (31), Eddie Royal: 6-8-2-3-8-0 (27), Malcom Floyd: 5-6-dnp-dnp-dnp-dnp (11), Ryan Mathews: 2-1-0-4-0-1 (8), Ronnie Brown: 2-1-0-0-3-0 (6), Ladarius Green: 0-0-2-0-1-1 (4), John Phillips: 1-0-0-1-0-0 (2), LeRon McClain: 0-0-1-0-0-1 (2)
Danny Woodhead leads all running backs in receptions and is tied with Antonio Gates with 36 receptions, but we have a new target leader over the last two games named Keenan Allen. And over the last three games Allen has caught 20 of 27 targets for 302 yards and two touchdowns, which puts him as the third best fantasy wide receiver during that span.
Red Zone Targets: Danny Woodhead: (11), Eddie Royal: (8), Vincent Brown: (7), Keenan Allen: (6), Antonio Gates: (5), Ronnie Brown: (2), Ryan Mathews: (2), LeRon McClain: (1), Malcom Floyd: (1), Ladarius Green: (1)
These numbers are for the season, but if we look at the last three games Woodhead has 9, Allen 6, Vincent Brown 3, Gates 2, Ladarius Green 1 and Eddie Royal 1. Royal’s red zone mania has now subsided and Woodhead and Allen lead the way. Sounds like a song-writing duo from the twenties.
Tennessee Titans
Kendall Wright: 4-11-6-9-8-8 (46), Nate Washington: 7-5-10-8-8-4 (42), Delanie Walker: 4-2-8-4-6-5 (29), Kenny Britt: 2-9-5-dnp-6-1 (23), Damian Williams: 2-dnp-2-7-2-5 (18), Chris Johnson: 0-1-2-2-5-4 (14), Justin Hunter: dnp-0-2-1-3-1 (7), Jackie Battle: 0-0-0-0-2-0 (2), Craig Stevens: 1-1-0-0-0-0 (2), Collin Mooney: 0-1-0-1-0-0 (2), Michael Preston: dnp-0-1-0-dnp-0 (1)
Kendall Wright has taken the target leader lead and hasn’t dipped below five receptions in any game since his two in Week 1. He needs to find the end zone more often to be a real fantasy asset, but he’s getting his opportunities on a regular basis.
Chris Johnson once again saw a decent amount of targets, at least compared to early in the year, but playing in Seattle was not the time for him to break out of his slump. And what a slump it is. He is averaging 17.7 carries for 54.5 yards and no touchdowns at 3.1 yards per carry and 1.83 receptions for 16 yards per game and one total touchdown. That puts him at 19th overall in fantasy points for running backs but 26th overall in fantasy points per game.
Red Zone Targets: Delanie Walker: (6), Kendall Wright: (5), Kenny Britt: (3), Justin Hunter: (2), Nate Washington: (2), Ryan Fitzpatrick: (1), Craig Stevens: (1)
When your red zone target leader isn’t even on the fantasy radar you know you have a problem.
