We often forget with all the PPR leagues and wacky bonus formats that scoring touchdowns is still what the game is all about. You can’t predict them, but you can certainly put yourself in position where the opportunities will be present. With that being said, here are this year’s 2016 RED ZONE AWARDS!

Mr. Target 2016

Jordy Nelson will undoubtedly win comeback player of the year and that’s largely due to his incredible presence in the red zone. Nelson led all of the NFL with a whopping 35 RZ targets in 2016. He caught 22 of those 35 targets for a 63% completion percentage. For perspective, in 2015 DeAndre Hopkins led the league with 30. Nelson had 32 in 2014, so it’s safe to say he’s once again worked himself into the first round of fantasy drafts. Kyle Rudolph was second with 30 targets (but just a 53% completion percentage).

Touchdown Machine 2016

Guess who? It’s Jordy Nelson again leading the pack with 11 TD’s in the red zone. His teammate Davante Adams was second with 9 in the pass heavy Green Bay attack. There were three tied with 8 TD’s including tight ends Cameron Brate and Hunter Henry and WR Rishard Matthews. Henry and Brate will be excellent TE assets in 2017 drafts considering their scoring upside and Matthews took a huge leap forward and looks like Marcus Mariota’s #1 target heading into next season. 

Perfect Season

There are plenty that caught all of their red zone targets with varying success, but the best of the most productive of the 100% club was Danny Amendola of the Patriots. He’s always been a hit or miss guy in fantasy, but he was a perfect 8 for 8 in the red zone with 4 TD’s in 2016. Dolphins’ running back Damien Williams was also 8 for 8 with 3 TD’s, while Jerick McKinnon was 6 for 6 with 2 scores.

All Show and No Go

Targets are great, but you have to capitalize on them and unfortunately Stefon Diggs only fulfilled half of that mantra. Diggs caught 11 of his 12 red zone targets, but only converted 1 for a TD. You would have to hope that number is a bit fluky and will right itself in 2017 slightly. Equally disappointing were the Denver duo of Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders. Thomas was 16 of 23 for 4 TD’s, while Sanders was 9 of 20 for 3 scores. If the Broncos improve their QB situation in 2017, both are huge bounce back candidates.

Red Zone Bust of 2016

How about the aforementioned DeAndre Hopkins? He went from leading the NFL in targets (30) with 8 TD’s in 2015 to a 2016 season that saw him drop to just 3 of 14 targets in the RZ for a single, solitary TD. Honorable mentions here are Jordan Reed (10 of 15 for 5 TD’s in ’16 after 16/23 and 11 TD’s in ‘15) and Brandon Marshall (7 of 20 for 4 TD’s in ’16 compared to 14/25 for 10 TD’s last year). Marshall’s failure was not his own, but rather the dreadful QB play around him, while Reed’s injuries stunted his 2015 breakout carryover.

Best Bang for Your Buck

All Tyler Eifert does is score touchdowns folks. And again in 2016, that was the gospel truth. Eifert was 12 for 16 with 11 TD’s in just 8 games. In other words, 88% of his catches in the red zone were touchdown receptions! His stock will be low after more injury issues, but considering his red zone aptitude, Eifert is a strong TE to own in fantasy as long as he’s healthy come training camp after his recent back surgery.

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Joe Pisapia (@JoePisapia17) is the eight-time best-selling author of the Fantasy Black Book Series for baseball and football. He hosts On Target Fantasy weekdays at 12 non est, The Fantasy Black Book Tues and Thurs 8-10pm est and Sunday Game Day 8-11am on FNTSY Network Radio.