Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! We give thanks to family, food and TARGETS! Mostly targets. KIDDING....not really. 11 weeks are now in the books and boy this season has been a wild ride. It feels like it literally just started yesterday. As always, we're going to dive into some target stats and bring you the best information on all things targets we can! Enjoy!
| Player Name | Team | Pass Att | Rec | Targets | Yds | TD | RZ Targets | RZ Target % | Drops | Tgt % |
| DeAndre Hopkins | HOU | 329 | 62 | 117 | 879 | 9 | 14 | 50% | 3 | 35.55% |
| Antonio Brown | PIT | 352 | 70 | 114 | 1,026 | 6 | 15 | 60% | 1 | 32.38% |
| Jarvis Landry | MIA | 367 | 67 | 107 | 567 | 6 | 12 | 75% | 6 | 29.15% |
| Larry Fitzgerald | ARI | 392 | 69 | 98 | 768 | 4 | 14 | 57.14% | 2 | 25% |
| Dez Bryant | DAL | 323 | 50 | 98 | 541 | 4 | 17 | 47.06% | 7 | 30.34% |
| Adam Thielen | MIN | 344 | 62 | 96 | 916 | 3 | 13 | 30.77% | 3 | 27.90% |
| Michael Thomas | NO | 341 | 65 | 94 | 753 | 4 | 6 | 50% | 1 | 27.56% |
| Keenan Allen | LAC | 360 | 56 | 92 | 755 | 3 | 11 | 27.27% | 8 | 25.55% |
| Demaryius Thomas | DEN | 364 | 53 | 88 | 633 | 3 | 9 | 66.67% | 6 | 24.17% |
| Julio Jones | ATL | 326 | 54 | 86 | 786 | 1 | 11 | 27.27% | 4 | 26.38% |
| Doug Baldwin | SEA | 379 | 56 | 86 | 673 | 4 | 6 | 50% | 1 | 22.69% |
| Amari Cooper | OAK | 362 | 41 | 84 | 490 | 4 | 8 | 25% | 10 | 23.02% |
| A.J. Green | CIN | 296 | 48 | 83 | 743 | 6 | 8 | 62.50% | 1 | 28.04% |
| Travis Kelce | KC | 335 | 59 | 83 | 738 | 5 | 13 | 53.85% | 3 | 24.77% |
| Mike Evans | TB | 378 | 45 | 83 | 624 | 4 | 10 | 30% | 3 | 21.95% |
| Davante Adams | GB | 351 | 50 | 81 | 620 | 6 | 17 | 64.71% | 4 | 23.07% |
| Alshon Jeffery | PHI | 319 | 38 | 80 | 567 | 6 | 8 | 62.50% | 3 | 25.07% |
| Christian McCaffrey | CAR | 329 | 57 | 79 | 433 | 3 | 11 | 81.82% | 1 | 24.01% |
| Marqise Lee | JAX | 318 | 43 | 78 | 538 | 2 | 7 | 57.14% | 7 | 24.52% |
| Evan Engram | NYG | 371 | 41 | 78 | 452 | 5 | 7 | 85.71% | 7 | 21.02% |
| Golden Tate | DET | 360 | 59 | 76 | 691 | 3 | 6 | 83.33% | 2 | 21.11% |
| Jimmy Graham | SEA | 379 | 46 | 75 | 413 | 7 | 22 | 59.09% | 5 | 19.78% |
| Brandin Cooks | NE | 383 | 45 | 74 | 786 | 4 | 6 | 50% | 5 | 19.32% |
| Delanie Walker | TEN | 324 | 49 | 72 | 550 | 0 | 7 | 28.57% | 1 | 22.22% |
| Marvin Jones Jr | DET | 360 | 38 | 72 | 622 | 6 | 10 | 30% | 3 | 20% |
| Devin Funchess | CAR | 329 | 43 | 71 | 535 | 5 | 7 | 57.14% | 1 | 21.58% |
| Robert Woods | LAR | 321 | 47 | 70 | 703 | 4 | 6 | 66.67% | 2 | 21.80% |
| DeSean Jackson | TB | 378 | 35 | 69 | 532 | 3 | 2 | 100% | 1 | 18.25% |
| Zach Ertz | PHI | 319 | 45 | 69 | 536 | 6 | 12 | 75% | 2 | 21.63% |
| T.Y. Hilton | IND | 312 | 36 | 68 | 725 | 3 | 8 | 25% | 3 | 21.79% |
| Rishard Matthews | TEN | 324 | 41 | 68 | 626 | 3 | 6 | 50% | 3 | 20.98% |
| Jack Doyle | IND | 312 | 52 | 68 | 450 | 2 | 4 | 75% | 4 | 21.79% |
| Pierre Garcon | SF | 391 | 40 | 67 | 500 | 0 | 5 | 60% | 0 | 17.13% |
| Rob Gronkowski | NE | 383 | 41 | 67 | 619 | 5 | 14 | 42.86% | 4 | 17.49% |
| Michael Crabtree | OAK | 362 | 42 | 66 | 502 | 6 | 8 | 50% | 5 | 18.23% |
| Tyreek Hill | KC | 335 | 47 | 66 | 685 | 4 | 2 | 50% | 2 | 19.70% |
| Emmanuel Sanders | DEN | 364 | 34 | 65 | 448 | 2 | 8 | 62.50% | 3 | 17.85% |
| Kenny Stills | MIA | 367 | 40 | 64 | 588 | 5 | 6 | 66.67% | 3 | 17.43% |
| Robby Anderson | NYJ | 314 | 35 | 64 | 568 | 5 | 4 | 25% | 3 | 20.38% |
| Le'Veon Bell | PIT | 352 | 49 | 62 | 308 | 0 | 10 | 60% | 2 | 17.61% |
| Jamison Crowder | WAS | 345 | 39 | 62 | 420 | 0 | 8 | 37.50% | 3 | 17.97% |
| Cooper Kupp | LAR | 321 | 38 | 62 | 481 | 3 | 16 | 50% | 5 | 19.31% |
| Alvin Kamara | NO | 341 | 48 | 62 | 447 | 3 | 12 | 75% | 3 | 18.18% |
| Kyle Rudolph | MIN | 344 | 42 | 61 | 366 | 3 | 11 | 90.91% | 0 | 17.73% |
| Jared Cook | OAK | 362 | 41 | 60 | 535 | 1 | 6 | 16.67% | 3 | 16.57% |
| Duke Johnson Jr. | CLE | 379 | 46 | 60 | 414 | 2 | 1 | 100% | 3 | 15.83% |
| Jordy Nelson | GB | 351 | 35 | 59 | 382 | 6 | 10 | 80% | 1 | 16.80% |
| Carlos Hyde | SF | 391 | 42 | 59 | 274 | 0 | 5 | 80% | 6 | 15.08% |
| James White | NE | 383 | 46 | 57 | 376 | 2 | 9 | 66.67% | 1 | 14.88% |
| Jason Witten | DAL | 323 | 43 | 56 | 385 | 3 | 9 | 55.56% | 1 | 17.33% |
| Jermaine Kearse | NYJ | 314 | 35 | 56 | 415 | 4 | 3 | 33.33% | 3 | 17.83% |
| Marquise Goodwin | SF | 391 | 23 | 56 | 500 | 1 | 10 | 30% | 4 | 14.32% |
Target Leaders
With just six weeks left in the season we have essentially a deadlock at the top of the targets list between Antonio Brown and DeAndre Hopkins. It’s been this way for almost the entire season, but nobody has really come very close to catching them. Jarvis Landry is just seven targets behind, but with the emergence of Kenny Stills and DeVante Parker coming back from injury, Landry’s targets could take a hit. The difference between Brown, Hopkins and Landry is that Brown and Hopkins don’t share the field with Pro Bowl caliber receivers like Landry does.
Someone who’s charged up the targets leaderboard and we’ve for the most part failed to talk about him is Adam Thielen. In games that both he and Stefon Diggs have both played in, Thielen has out targeted him in six of the eight games and one of them was a tie. He’s been one of the best receivers in football and it’s time we begin to drop the underrated narrative and simply call him one of the game’s elite. Thielen sits just two targets behind Dez Bryant and Larry Fitzgerald so with a strong finish, he may garner a top-five pass catchers workload in the entire league.
It wasn’t any real surprise to see both Travis Kelce and the aforementioned Dez Bryant pace the league in targets for Week 11. Both saw 14 targets, but Kelce had the best matchup a tight end could have against the Giants and Bryant’s volume without Ezekiel Elliott was essentially a lock to rise as well. That said, Kelce has 33 targets over the last three weeks alone while Bryant and the Cowboys will continue to be without Elliott. Both players will continue to be spoon fed the ball for the foreseeable future.
Target Percentage
We’ve been mentioning at nauseam how hard it is for a player to climb into the 30-percent target percentage range with the volume that quarterbacks throw these days and how many different pass catchers they use. Three of the team’s in the top-five of attempted passes -- Cleveland, San Francisco and New England -- have nobody in the top-20 in targets in the entire league. Taking that a step further, none of these team’s have a player receiving 20-percent of the team’s pass attempts on the year! Craziness, man, craziness.
We once again have three people with at least a 30-percent target rate. With his 14-target Week 11, Dez Bryant has joined elite company. We mentioned over the last few weeks how he was getting close and we should monitor this week-by-week and sure enough it took literally one game before he joined DeAndre Hopkins and Antonio Brown and Mt. Rushmore of targets.
Red Zone Targets
Jimmy Graham has been insane over his last five games. Not only is he scoring touchdowns everytime we blink, but he’s become the highest used player in the red zone in terms of pass catching and it’s not even close. He had five targets in the red zone alone this past week and had five the week before as well. The five he had this past week now gives him a five target cushion over Davante Adams and Dez Bryant who both have 17 on the year. The red zone targets he’s seeing are turning into points, too. He has seven touchdowns over his previous six games and in two of those six contests he’s notched a multi-touchdown game.
Someone we’ve noticed has stormed up our charts is Alvin Kamara. Kamara is now tied for 11th in red zone targets with 12, which is obviously more than one per game at this point. Kamara has become one of the best all around offensive weapons in the game and is arguably a top-five fantasy running back for the remainder of the year. The screen game has been his bread and butter since Week 1 and it’s clearly been on display since Adrian Peterson’s departure, allowing Kamara more snaps to blossom into the star he is.
Some big time names have notable efficiency issues in the red zone this season. Keenan Allen and Julio Jones have both only caught 3-of-11 red zone looks this year, and they have just three RZ touchdowns combined this year. If you move a little further down, both Amari Cooper and T.Y. Hilton have caught 2-of-8 red zone pass attempts and have two combined touchdown’s between them.
Drops
Out of 52 names on our list, just Pierre Garcon and Kyle Rudolph have yet to drop a pass this year. We mentioned this last week too, but Garcon hasn’t played in three weeks and has been placed on IR! On a positive note, Amari Cooper didn’t drop any passes again this week and his massive lead in drops has shrunk to just two. He’s been more consistent and if you watch him play he clearly is looking balls in for far longer and trying less to make a play before securing the rock. The sad fact about Amari Cooper’s 10 drops in 11 weeks is that Michael Crabtree was the league leader last year and he only dropped nine passes.
My bold prediction last week was spot on! I predicted Dez Bryant would lead the league in targets in Week 11 and as mentioned up above, he tied with Travis Kelce in that category. This week, I’m going with Julio Jones. Jones hasn’t had back-to-back double digit target games in 2017 but that ends this week. He gets an awful Tampa Bay secondary at home, a place he and QB Matt Ryan have flourished at in the past.