NFL Red Zone Report: Week 9

A lot of the talk coming out of this past week in the NFL was about the quarterbacks and who was benched, who’s not playing well enough, and who put on a show in big games. There’s more to football than just the quarterback performances though, and we saw that with how some teams attacked inside the 20 to put points on the board. Let’s look at some of those performances, shall we?

Red Zone Passing Attempts Kirk Cousins , QB MIN – After weeks of ridiculing his game and being called out by his own wide receivers, he’s really started to put things together and in Week 9 he had nearly as many Red Zone attempts as in the three games combined. It was also the first time he’s topped seven attempts inside the 20. Granted it was against the Chiefs and their porous defense but he was efficient with three touchdowns in that area and he split those between Bisi Johnson , Kyle Rudolph , and Ameer Abdullah , not exactly the group you’d expect. With the best running back in the game this year and a bunch of receiving options, it’s certainly taken Cousins long enough to have this type of performance, but don’t be shocked if there are more like it.

Baker Mayfield , QB CLE – Mayfield, like Cousins, is facing the full brunt of criticism for a multitude of reasons, as well he should be. However, the loss to Denver proved to be his second most attempts thrown in the Red Zone this season with nine. Only a third of the nine attempts came inside the 10 and only one was a score. With the amount of weapons that the Browns have at their disposal it’s surprising that this is only his second week topping seven attempts inside the 20 but the good news is that the schedule gets a bit easier outside of facing the Bills.

Brian Hoyer , QB IND – Hoyer came in in a pinch after Jacoby Brissett went down with a knee injury against the Steelers. He played well in Brissett’s stead and led the Colts to a few scores including his seven Red Zone pass attempts which accounted for three touchdowns. Hoyer was a camp signing as a backup once it was clear that Andrew Luck wasn’t going to play and it appears that he picked up the playbook well as he was able to go right down the field against a recently tough Steelers’ defense. Hoyer may have to play again on Sunday in Week 10 against the Dolphins, but that’s a fairly easy match-up so we could see another solid week from Hoyer under center.

Ryan Fitzpatrick , QB MIA – Fitzmagic was in full effect against the Jets on Sunday as he led the team to the first win of the year, though that may have forfeited the first overall pick come April’s draft. Ultimately, what this outing showed is that Josh Rosen isn’t an NFL-caliber QB as he wasn’t able to nearly as much with an arguably better cast around him than what Fitzpatrick is supported by right now. Fitzpatrick had six passing attempts inside the 20 and half of those went for scores and he also had a rush in there too. Fitzmagic moves on to face Indy in Week 10 but he’s always been a guy of capable of getting hot for a few weeks and that could happen again on Sunday.

Red Zone Rushing Attempts Devin Singletary , RB BUF – We’ve been waiting for the Singletary breakout to happen all season, but Frank Gore had simply been playing too well for that to happen…until Week 9 that is. Singletary had the best game of his young career and that includes getting five Red Zone carries including a score. Gore still had four in his own right, however, Singletary doubled-up Gore in the snap count on Sunday so it was clear that Gore was only a situational back. It might be match-up dependent or the “hot hand” going forward for this backfield, but fantasy owners got a glimpse of what Singletary can look like as a lead back in that system.

Saquon Barkley , RB NYG – The Giants were in this game pretty squarely before the, now infamous, black cat made it’s appearance on the field on Monday night and everything went south for the Giants. Barkley finished the game with just 20 total touches with 14 on the ground and seven of those were in the Red Zone with four inside the 10. He also caught a pass inside the 20 for one of his six catches on the day. None of the touches resulted in a score, however, it is interesting to see such a high percentage of his carries to come in the Red Zone. The Giants get the Jets in Week 10 and that should be a nice match-up for Barkley to get back on track and break those longer runs that we are used to seeing from the running back.

Melvin Gordon , RB LAC – It had been a while since the Chargers running game was good and helpful to the team, as they’d gone four weeks without topping 40 total rushing yards in a game…until Week 9 that is. Gordon broke out in a big way and a big chunk of that happened inside the 20 against the Bears. It was the second time in four weeks that he’s posted five Red Zone carries but this week he used two of those to score touchdowns and had a reception inside the 20 as well. Gordon has now out-snapped Austin Ekeler two weeks in a row and it’s becoming clearer that he is the lead back again in L.A. If he keeps producing weeks like he did in Week 9, he’ll be an RB2 the rest of the way.

James White , RB NE – How many Red Zone carries would you guess that White has on the year so far? We are nine games into it for the Pats. He’s got seven. SEVEN…and five of those came against the Ravens in Week 9. Now in all fairness, he is the pass-catching back and it has been a mix-and-match backfield this year with a few different options showing up at different points of the year. White made the most of those carries with two coming inside the five and scoring a touchdown. Who knows from week-to-week how the Patriots will use their backfield, it’s kind of their hallmark at this point, but White getting into the fray is a new twist that may be emerging as we get later in the season.

Red Zone Receiving Targets Jarvis Landry , WR CLE – Would you believe that this is just the second time all season that a Browns’ receiver had more than three Red Zone targets in a game? Landry used the four targets on Sunday to catch two passes, one of which for a touchdown which was the second touchdown of the year caught by a wide receiver. Landry has been mostly overlooked this year in Cleveland, so this is a week that he could shine in a nice effort but with the sloppy nature of the Browns’ passing attack, these weeks will likely be few and far between.

Jack Doyle , TE IND – Doyle has managed three or four catches each week since Week 3 but those targets haven’t been coming in the Red Zone until this week where he saw three targets inside the 20, catching one for a touchdown. Ebron has been the main Red Zone target from the TE position in Indy, which isn’t a shock after last year, but maybe the switch to Hoyer at QB helped Doyle this week or it could’ve been the fact that Doyle played 30 more snaps than Ebron. It’s hard to see Doyle repeating this week’s performance unless Ebron doesn’t play or Hoyer is back at QB again in Week 10 with Brissett’s knee still iffy.

Preston Williams , WR MIA – It’s a miracle! There are two Dolphins in the same Red Zone report and it’s the first two of the year, but hey that’s what happens when you play the Jets this year. Williams saw three targets in Week 9 inside the 20 and turned those into two catches both of which for scores. Williams started the year with two Red Zone targets and then in Week 3 he had three, in Week 7 he had two and then in Week 9 he completed the pattern with the three. Williams has been a match-up dependent option in fantasy this year, and that won’t change going forward.

Tyler Lockett , WR SEA – Lockett has been producing all year so how has he not made this article yet? Simple, he’s not had the Red Zone looks to this point as he maxed out at three. In Week 9, benefitted by a high-scoring overtime game, he saw five looks and, like everyone on Seattle, was efficient with those looks. He caught four of them, two for scores, as part of a huge day overall. Lockett should remain the top target for Seattle even with getting Josh Gordon on the waiver wire and that means WR1 upside each week.

Red Zone Defenses Chicago Bears – For a team that was supposed to be anchored by their defense coming into the season, the defense hasn’t been great overall in the last few weeks, nor has it been effective at keeping teams out of the Red Zone. They’ve allowed 30 trips to their 20 from opponents and more than half of those trips resulted in touchdowns, especially in the last few weeks. The rush defense has been punched wide-open by the last few opponents and that’s been a big part of the weakened Red Zone stopping power including in Week 9 against the Chargers and Melvin Gordon .

San Francisco 49ers – Earlier this year the 49ers weren’t thought to be a great unit, but more of a unit that was off to a good start that wasn’t supposed to stick. However, it’s clear that they are a great defense at this point since they are one of only two defenses to not allow at least 20 trips to the Red Zone all year with the Patriots being the other one. In eight games, they’ve allowed just 16 trips and only five of those have resulted in scores which ties them with New England for fewest touchdowns allowed, however, their overall percentage is lower at just 31.3-percent of trips ending in touchdowns. We will see that defense put to the test against Seattle in Week 10 and a couple of other match-ups down the stretch, but they are certainly for real.

NFL Red Zone Report: Week 9

Red Zone Passing Attempts

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