Fantasy Football Snap & Target Report Week 14: Zay Jones, Jayden Reed, Ezekiel Elliott

Cam takes a look at some of the most important usage numbers for fantasy football coming out of Week 14.

As much as it’s important for your players to get targeted often, it’s even more important that they convert those targets into receptions, yards, and touchdowns. There’s an adage in basketball that a shooter shoots. And that’s true to a certain extent, but going 11 for 36 doesn’t help a team, it hurts them. Not only is that player missing those attempts within that possession, they are hindering someone else, who may have made some of those missed shots. 

It’s the same in the NFL, a receiver catching less than 50% of his targets hurts the team tremendously. There’s another term that’s often used in sports … play the hot hand. Too often, teams forget this adage. It’s safer for a coach to call the star’s number than to just use the eye test and give the ball to the productive player in a particular game.

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Fantasy Football Snap & Target Report Week 14

Fantasy Football Wide Receiver Target Leaders

For instance, this week, there were 23 players who had 10 or more targets. Nine of them caught less than 50% of their targets. I realize the comparison between an NBA shooter and a receiver in the NFL is a bit different. If an NBA shooter misses, only he is responsible for making or missing his shot, whereas a receiver does need to rely on his QB to get him the ball. But still, an NFL receiver must catch more than 50% of his targets.

Here is the list of receivers who only caught 50% or less of their targets:

1. Amari Cooper, Cleveland Browns: 14 targets, 7 receptions, 77 yards
2. Zay Jones, Jacksonville Jaguars; 14 targets, 5 receptions, 29 yards
3. Calvin Ridley, Jacksonville Jaguars: 13 targets, 4 receptions, 53 yards
4. Keenan Allen, Los Angeles Chargers: 12 targets, 6 receptions, 68 yards
5. Chris Godwin, Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 11 targets, 5 reception, 53 yards
6. Stefon Diggs, Buffalo Bills: 11 targets, 4 receptions, 24 yards
7. Odell Beckham Jr., Baltimore Ravens: 10 targets, 4 receptions, 97 yards, TD
8. DeVonta Smith, Philadelphia Eagles: 10 targets, 5 receptions, 73 yards
9. Demarcus Robinson, Los Angeles Rams: 10 targets, 3 receptions, 46 yards, TD

The majority of these receivers had rather pedestrian numbers, and only two caught a TD pass. Digging deeper, it’s clear to see why the Jaguars lost on Sunday. Between Jones and Ridley, they were targeted 27 times and only accounted for nine catches, a 33% catch percentage. They didn’t even combine for 100 yards, only gaining 82 yards, and neither caught a TD pass.

And even though his Bills won, Stefon Diggs had a very disappointing game for his owners. For a player of his talent to only catch four passes on 11 targets, for an anemic 24 yards, is just not good enough.

On the flipside, four of the 23 receivers had a catch percentage of 80% or higher:

1. Evan Engram, Jacksonville Jaguars: 12 targets, 11 receptions, 95 yards, 2 TDs
2. Drake London, Atlanta Falcons: 11 targets, 10 receptions, 172 yards
3. Jayden Reed, Green Bay Packers: 10 targets, 8 receptions, 27 yards
4. Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles Rams: 10 targets, 8 receptions, 115 yards, TD

It’s obvious that the ankle injury that Jacksonville QB Trevor Lawrence sustained in Week 12 was affecting him this week. He was awful throwing the deeper routes to his WRs but completed 11 out of 12 targets to his TE Engram, who scored two TDs

Fantasy Football Running Back Touch Leaders

There were nine RBs who had 20 or more touches this week, and six of them have had back-to-back 20 touch weeks … with Kyren Williams getting over 20 touches for three straight weeks. Leading the way this week was a familiar face, Ezekiel Elliott.

With Rhamondre Stevenson on the shelf, Elliott has had to be a workhorse. In 52 snaps, Elliott had 29 touches, 55.7%. He had 22 rushes for 68 yards and added seven catches for an additional 72 yards and a TD. He has always been a fantastic two-way RB.

Williams played in 69 snaps and had 28 touches, mainly on the ground. He rushed the ball 25 times for 114 yards. Rachaad White had 27 touches with 135 total yards and a TD. Carolina’s Chuba Hubbard is continuing to develop into a reliable RB1. He had 25 touches for the second consecutive week. He rushed the ball 23 times for 87 yards. Joe Mixon continues to be the stabilizing force for the Bengals. He touched the ball an amazing 63.1% of the time he was on the field. He rushed the ball 21 times and added three catches. He gained 125 total yards and added a TD. The last of the nine RBs who had back-to-back weeks with at least 20 touches is Tony Pollard. With a whopping seven catches out of the backfield and 16 rushes, he gained 96 total yards.

The most interesting thing about this list, is one name not on it … Christian McCaffrey. Even though he only had 17 touches, they were impactful. He gained 145 total yards. There is one thing that is more and more evident each week: This NFL requires RBs to be serviceable to catch passes out of the backfield.

There were 12 RBs this week who had at least 100 total yards. And of the 12 RBs, five of them gained more yards from receptions than from rushes:

1. Ezekiel Elliot, New England Patriots: 68 rushing yards, 72 receiving yards
2. James Cook, Buffalo Bills: 58 rushing yards, 83 receiving yards
3. Breece Hall, New York Jets: 40 rushing yards, 86 receiving yards
4. Tyjae Spears, Tennessee Titans: 29 rushing yards, 89 receiving yards 
5. Chase Brown, Cincinnati Bengals: 25 rushing yards, 80 receiving yards

The teams who don’t target two-way running back are missing the boat, and the RBs in college who aren’t developing pass-catching skills are costing themselves millions of dollars. Especially with the trend of RBs not being as integral to a team’s offense and de-emphasizing the running game, it is more important than ever for RBs to develop other skills to maximize their value to a team. Coincidentally, this also maximizes their value for fantasy managers, especially in PPR formats.

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