Hello Rotoworlders! I have some target info below here that I’ve been saving for a rainy day. We’ll start with this season’s red zone targets. I’m a big fan of players who get said targets and get said touchdowns that convert into said fantasy points and then into soon to be said championships. So let’s get into the red zone! (that’s what she said)
Wide Receivers (Red Zone Targets):
A.J. Green leads all receivers in targets from inside the 20 yard line, but your true red zone king is one James Jones. He’s caught a whopping 56% of his red zone targets for a touchdown. Marques Colston, Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker and Vincent Jackson round out the top five proficient red zone scorers this season.
Hakeem Nicks has been the least efficient with 17 red zone targets and just one touchdown for a pitiful 6% touchdown rate. Larry Fitzgerald isn’t far behind with an 11% rate, but he also has Larry, Moe and Curly throwing to him. But probably the most interesting is Calvin Johnson who has just 14 red zone targets all season and has only caught two for touchdowns. I think it’s time Mr. Stafford learned some fundamentals.
Tight Ends (Red Zone Targets):
Tony Gonzalez is still a monster in the red zone, and well, pretty much everywhere else. It’s amazing that he’s going to retire while still at the top of his game. His 50% touchdown rate is only topped by Kyle Rudolph who also has 446 less yards and 39 less receptions. Of course it does beg the question, what could Rudolph do if Ponder had his head on straight? He was able to catch 13 of the 15 targets, the best in this group.
Martellus Bennett, like fellow Giant Hakeem Nicks, is having trouble securing his targets for touchdowns. We might want to start pointing our pointy finger at Eli Manning. Heath Miller leads all tight ends with 20 targets and has been a pleasant surprise all season.
Jason Witten is going to break Tony Gonzalez’s record for most receptions in a year, but only has two lousy touchdowns on 134 targets, only 12 of those in the red zone. That’s probably not enough, but he’s still only converting 17% of those into touchdowns.
Running Backs (Red Zone Targets):
Any talk of running back targets usually has Darren Sproles in the lead and so it is. His ability is clear in the fact that he scored five touchdowns on his 16 targets. And you can tell that Old Man Ronnie Brown is lacking in that same ability, when he is the only other running back with double digit red zone receptions and has zero touchdowns. Wait, didn’t Sproles used to play for the Chargers?
Last season Ray Rice finished with 5 targets in the red zone and had one touchdown from those targets. I was sure I was going to find completely different information when I looked that one up! So Rice’s 9 targets are actually quite a bit better than last season.
LeSean McCoy continues to be one of the more dynamic players in the league and if his team wasn’t in such flux and he didn’t get hurt, he would have been a top back once again. There’s no reason to sleep on him next season.
Hello Rotoworlders! I have some target info below here that I’ve been saving for a rainy day. We’ll start with this season’s red zone targets. I’m a big fan of players who get said targets and get said touchdowns that convert into said fantasy points and then into soon to be said championships. So let’s get into the red zone! (that’s what she said)
Wide Receivers (Red Zone Targets):
A.J. Green leads all receivers in targets from inside the 20 yard line, but your true red zone king is one James Jones. He’s caught a whopping 56% of his red zone targets for a touchdown. Marques Colston, Brandon Marshall, Eric Decker and Vincent Jackson round out the top five proficient red zone scorers this season.
Hakeem Nicks has been the least efficient with 17 red zone targets and just one touchdown for a pitiful 6% touchdown rate. Larry Fitzgerald isn’t far behind with an 11% rate, but he also has Larry, Moe and Curly throwing to him. But probably the most interesting is Calvin Johnson who has just 14 red zone targets all season and has only caught two for touchdowns. I think it’s time Mr. Stafford learned some fundamentals.
Tight Ends (Red Zone Targets):
Tony Gonzalez is still a monster in the red zone, and well, pretty much everywhere else. It’s amazing that he’s going to retire while still at the top of his game. His 50% touchdown rate is only topped by Kyle Rudolph who also has 446 less yards and 39 less receptions. Of course it does beg the question, what could Rudolph do if Ponder had his head on straight? He was able to catch 13 of the 15 targets, the best in this group.
Martellus Bennett, like fellow Giant Hakeem Nicks, is having trouble securing his targets for touchdowns. We might want to start pointing our pointy finger at Eli Manning. Heath Miller leads all tight ends with 20 targets and has been a pleasant surprise all season.
Jason Witten is going to break Tony Gonzalez’s record for most receptions in a year, but only has two lousy touchdowns on 134 targets, only 12 of those in the red zone. That’s probably not enough, but he’s still only converting 17% of those into touchdowns.
Running Backs (Red Zone Targets):
Any talk of running back targets usually has Darren Sproles in the lead and so it is. His ability is clear in the fact that he scored five touchdowns on his 16 targets. And you can tell that Old Man Ronnie Brown is lacking in that same ability, when he is the only other running back with double digit red zone receptions and has zero touchdowns. Wait, didn’t Sproles used to play for the Chargers?
Last season Ray Rice finished with 5 targets in the red zone and had one touchdown from those targets. I was sure I was going to find completely different information when I looked that one up! So Rice’s 9 targets are actually quite a bit better than last season.
LeSean McCoy continues to be one of the more dynamic players in the league and if his team wasn’t in such flux and he didn’t get hurt, he would have been a top back once again. There’s no reason to sleep on him next season.
Now let’s take a look at the overall targets for each position over the last four weeks.
Wide Receiver (All Targets - past four weeks):
Calvin Johnson has more targets (67) in the last four weeks than Vernon Davis has on the season (58). Johnson already sits at eighth all-time in receiving yards, just behind some guy named Calvin Johnson and he still has two games left. His increase in targets has a lot to do with Nate Burleson, Titus Young and Ryan Broyles’ absences and they aren’t coming back anytime soon. While he goes for the record, expect the targets to keep flying.
Andre Johnson averaged 7.4 targets, 4.8 receptions and 63.4 yards in the first seven games and 11.9 targets, 8.4 receptions and 130.9 yards in the last seven. This increase is likely due to Johnson getting healthier. The lack of touchdowns keeps his fantasy ceiling from blowing up, but those second half numbers are right on par with Calvin Johnson’s.
Dez Bryant is quite a ways down on this target list even though he has the most fantasy points during that span. He’s actually number one over the last five weeks, bolstered by his league high seven receiving touchdowns. There are five receivers in second with four touchdowns. His finger injury did slow him down some last week, but he still had a nice game. As long as Romo is targeting him in the end zone (5 times in the last four games), he should be able to do well in a nice matchup with the Saints.
Brandon Lloyd is somehow back into the spotlight with back to back big games that correlate with 25 targets in those two. I’m not entirely sure why he wasn’t being used more throughout the year, but I think we have to take him seriously as a threat going forward.
Mike Wallace has now topped 10 targets over the last two weeks. He just missed a long touchdown against Dallas after scoring two the week before. He’s back in the fold.
Josh Gordon is the Browns #1 receiver without a doubt, but with Brandon Weeden at the helm, he will remain erratic. But his upside will continue to get higher and higher, especially if Weeden progresses as well.
Since returning from injury three weeks ago, Antonio Brown has 17 receptions and two touchdowns. A touchdown in back to back games for Brown is almost unheard of. He had multiple bone-headed plays last week, but he is too valuable to the Steelers for them to not give him targets.
Cecil Shorts is a one man wrecking crew. Did you ever think that the second-year player would be able to put up these kinds of numbers with Blaine Gabbert and Chad Henne at the helm? I sure didn’t. But the amazing thing is that he is consistent. Even after missing a game with a concussion he gets right back on the horse and gallops for 100 yards. They know what they have in Shorts and aren’t going to hide him away in a bushel basket.
Miles Austin had four touchdowns in the first seven games of the season, but only one since. He’s still getting targets and receptions, but is only averaging 43 yards a game over the last six games.
Michael Floyd has been getting much more work in the second half of the season. It’s not turning into much on the field, with the Cardinals quarterbacks playing like fullbacks, but it’s good to see him getting work. If they can somehow get a competent quarterback, he could blossom.
Tight End (All Targets - past four weeks):
Aaron Hernandez sure did step up just in time to help a bunch of teams win their fantasy playoff games. 19 targets for a tight end is crazy time. We may or may not see Gronkowski back next week and that would affect his targets, but he’s still an amazing player after the catch. And in a year where quality tight ends have been hard to find, Hernandez has been a difference maker.
Dennis Pitta has come on strong of late. Out of the last six games he has 25 receptions and five touchdowns. Those numbers come with two absolute dud games with just one catch each, but both of those were against a tough Steelers defense. He has 23 receptions, 280 yards and five TDs in his last four non-Steelers games. His targets should remain good against the Giants this week.
Brandon Myers has hit the skids hard at just the wrong time. His six targets over the last two games led to just three receptions for 23 yards and not touchdowns. And this came after a 14 receptions, 130 yard game. This is what it’s been like for anyone trying to start a tight end this season with any kind of confidence.
What can you say about these jokers? There isn’t one player you can count on in this bunch. Martellus Bennett was going to be our savior, but instead he had one target and ripped all our hearts out and stuck them on his unicorn horn and pranced around the stadium.
Running Back (All Targets - past four weeks):
Last week Steven Jackson had 10 targets and caught eight of those for 74 yards. He's had 44 targets all season, with 30 receptions. And before last week that was 34 targets with 20 receptions. I think the Rams made a mistake in giving the ball to Darryl Richardson as much as they did this season and not throwing the ball more to Jackson. Richardson has speed and can break an occasional big play, but Jackson is a consistent beast.
Matt Forte has seen a nice bunch of targets over the last two games, which has helped him catch 11 passes and shoot his total yardage over 100 in both. If they give him those kind of targets in Arizona, against their poor rush defense, he has a good shot at a big game.
Target data comes from our friends at The Football Guys.