Usually at this time of year, you readers are inundated with these self-serving articles where the author sits here and tells you what he/she is thankful for at this time of year. Sure, I’m thankful for my (reasonable) health, a wife who loves and supports me and a job where people pay me to write about and play fantasy sports. I’m also thankful that, in leagues that offer prizes at the end, my rosters are littered with names like Matt Forte, Le’Veon Bell, Mike Evans and Odell Beckham Jr. But that sounds a little bragadocious, doesn’t it?

What about you? After all, I’m not writing this for me. I’m writing this for you. Now for some of you, life is working out just great. You too are experiencing a similar joy to mine and, hopefully, you’re standing behind the line at the proverbial soup kitchen, helping to dole out the love and the good vibes to those who are less fortunate. But what about those of you don’t share in our happiness?

What about those of you who hate their jobs or don’t even have one? What about those of you who find yourselves single and would rather sit at the kids’ table during Thanksgiving rather than spend your entire dinner fending off questions about you lack of a social life? You don’t give a crap about what I’m thankful for, do you?

And what about those of you whose fantasy teams totally suck and are nowhere near reaching the playoffs? What about all of you who are still reeling from LeSean McCoy’s dismal season? Raise your hand if you drafted Adrian Peterson? How about those of you who hit that panic button too early and sold low on Demaryius Thomas and Eddie Lacy? Do you want to read an article where the author is patting himself on the back for making the right decisions? Probably not.

So with that, I’ll just shut my mouth and do my job. I’ll wish you a happy Thanksgiving, tell you to stuff your face as much as you can and go sit and watch a bunch of football. If your fantasy team is out of it, email me and we’ll prep your keepers for next year. Or better yet, we’ll start talking some fantasy baseball. If you’re in it, good look to you and below you will find all the target information you need to continue down your road to a championship. Enjoy.

Week 12 Target Leaders

 

A.J. Green, WR CIN – Those of you who invested in Green this year and have been reeling over his toe injury and Andy Dalton’s struggles can finally breathe a little easier. It’s difficult to just blindly believe that he is back and will be a beast over the duration of the season, but the 16 targets are huge. If he can dominate the looks from Dalton moving forward then he’s going to be a humongous help in the fantasy playoffs. Keep him as a must-start again.

Josh Gordon, WR CLE – Save for the lack of end zone dancing, Gordon’s return was everything fantasy owners were hoping to see. Brian Hoyer continuously fed Gordon the ball and even when he was stuck in double-coverage, he was still seeing targets. If you own him and are looking at the playoffs, then your gamble paid off and you can pat yourself on the back. You’ve got yourself a legitimate WR1 to add to your roster for your title run. It’d be nice if he had someone better feeding him the ball, but if he’s going to continue seeing so many targets, Hoyer’s accuracy issues won’t appear as dramatic.

Brandon LaFell, WR NE – Just astounding to see the difference between playing with Cam Newton in Carolina and playing with Tom Brady in New England. Granted, the offensive game plan was different and LaFell sat behind Steve Smith on the depth chart for all that time, but his role as the new No. 1 receiver for the Patriots has turned him into fantasy gold here. The most impressive thing is that he sported just a 56.6-percent catch rate over his last four years in Carolina. With the Patriots, he’s looking at a 60.7-percent catch rate and that number has been steadily on the rise lately. It just goes to show you what opportunity and having a guy like Brady throwing you the ball, can do to a player.

Emmanuel Sanders, WR DEN – Nothing more here than an acknowledgement of Sanders’ return to the field. My ears are ringing and my head hurts just thinking about that hit he took. We are all very happy to see him back on the field, especially those of you who own him.

Robert Woods, WR BUF – Please tell me you’ve looked at him game log before you threw a bid on him during waivers.  Woods has three touchdowns on the year and two of them have now come against the Jets. His only 100-yard game of the season came against the Jets. Unfortunately for you (and him, really), he doesn’t play against the Jets every week. He remains a low-end WR4 with some WR3 potential at best.

Charles Johnson, WR MIN – He’s now got nine catches on 18 targets for 139 yards and a touchdown over his last two games. He’s not someone in whom I’m putting all my trust, but with match-ups against the Panthers and the Jets over the next two weeks, he just might be worth a look in deeper leagues. At least for the short-run.

Overall Targets Leaderboard

 

Target Percentage Leaders

Golden Tate/Calvin Johnson, WR DET – While the target rate differential between these two continues to narrow, it’s important to keep in mind that Tate’s value isn’t exactly dropping off as significantly or as quickly as many expected. Over the last three games, Johnson has seen 11 more targets, but that difference really comes down to the Arizona game where the coverage on Tate was tight and the offense was a disaster. Matthew Stafford was horrible and simply reverted to what he knows best which is getting Megatron the football. With upcoming match-ups against Chicago, Tampa Bay and Minnesota, you’re likely to see very similar target rates from the two, including inside the red zone.

John Brown, WR ARI – If at the beginning of the season I told you that, come Week 13, Brown would be leading the Cardinals on both targets and target rate, you would have thought I was crazy. Hell, I probably would have checked myself into some facility if I did. But lo and behold, here we are in late November and neither Larry Fitzgerald nor Michael Floyd is even touching the leaderboard. Obviously Fitzgerald is banged up right now and won’t have much of an opportunity to improve for you. But Floyd is going down as one of the biggest, most over-hyped busts in the fantasy game right now. Brown has been reliable when called upon all season and should continue to see plenty of targets from Drew Stanton moving forward.

Red Zone Target Leaders

Rueben Randle, WR NYG – After two-third of the season and a continuous force-feeding of Randle in the red zone, you can probably expect his 28.6-percent target rate in the red zone to take a major hit. Let’s face it, that catch that Odell Beckham Jr. made in the end zone Sunday night did more than just inspire a bunch of Facebook memes. It changed the direction in which Eli Manning’s eyes point when inside the 20. Randle’s catch rate is subpar while Beckham’s hands are seemingly lined with glue. Keep an eye on the target rates down the stretch. You should see a complete reversal once the season is finished.

A.J. Green/Mohamed Sanu, WR CIN – We discussed Green earlier and acknowledged the deliciousness of a 16-target game. But despite seeing five red zone targets this past week, it is still Sanu who sees more red zone looks. Over the last four games, Sanu has eight to seven for Green. But while that differential doesn’t seem even remotely significant, let’s understand again that five in one game for Green is not the norm. Take out this last game and it was five red zone looks for Sanu to two for Green in the other three games. Sanu gets the more consistent work down there which helps maintain his fantasy value. Don’t expect the red zone target distribution to look too much like this past week. Both will see looks, but for some reason, Dalton seems to trust Sanu down there just a little bit more.

Potential Risers

Jarvis Landry
A.J. Green
Justin Hunter
Marques Colston
Larry Donnell

Potential Fallers

Andrew Hawkins
Robert Woods
Rueben Randle
Michael Crabtree
Jared Cook

Week 13 Match-up to Watch

New Orleans Saints at Pittsburgh Steelers – Let’s throw a caveat out there and say that if it’s snowing, then all bets are off. But if the skies are clear and it’s just the usual cold that is the Steel City, then we have two extremely potent passing offenses matching up against some seriously struggling pass defenses. The Steelers are coming off a bye and have had two weeks to prepare Ben Roethlisberger and company for this match-up. Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell should fill their usual roles while Martavis Bryant, Heath Miller and Markus Wheaton are ready to see a continued target increase. For the Saints, Drew Brees isn’t nearly as bad on the road this year that he’s been in years past. He’s still suffering from the loss of Brandon Cooks, but with Marques Colston, Kenny Stills, Jimmy Graham and a returning Pierre Thomas, this passing attack should be in full force.