With each passing week, more and more data rolls in. There are big changes from week-to-week sure, but we’re really to the point where we have a good idea who will be at the top of the leaderboards come the following week. Injuries obviously play a role and so do some outlier weeks that could really vault your immediate stock, but we firmly have a grasp on what’s what in terms of targets.
| Player Name | Team | Pass Att | Rec | Targets | Yds | TD | RZ Tgts | RZ Tgt % | Drops | Tgt % |
| Antonio Brown | PIT | 195 | 40 | 64 | 545 | 1 | 6 | 50% | 0 | 32.82% |
| DeAndre Hopkins | HOU | 158 | 35 | 61 | 363 | 5 | 7 | 71.43% | 1 | 38.60% |
| Larry Fitzgerald | ARI | 227 | 32 | 51 | 327 | 2 | 10 | 60% | 1 | 22.46% |
| A.J. Green | CIN | 159 | 32 | 51 | 504 | 3 | 4 | 75% | 1 | 32.07% |
| Keenan Allen | LAC | 194 | 28 | 51 | 401 | 1 | 7 | 14.29% | 6 | 26.28% |
| Dez Bryant | DAL | 179 | 21 | 48 | 264 | 3 | 9 | 33.33% | 3 | 26.81% |
| Zach Ertz | PHI | 177 | 32 | 48 | 387 | 2 | 6 | 66.67% | 0 | 27.11% |
| Pierre Garcon | SF | 194 | 28 | 44 | 379 | 0 | 4 | 50% | 0 | 22.68% |
| Jarvis Landry | MIA | 134 | 30 | 43 | 210 | 1 | 4 | 75% | 3 | 32.08% |
| Odell Beckham Jr | NYG | 202 | 25 | 41 | 302 | 3 | 4 | 100% | 6 | 20.29% |
| Golden Tate | DET | 173 | 29 | 40 | 267 | 1 | 4 | 100% | 2 | 23.12% |
| Andre Ellington | ARI | 227 | 28 | 40 | 257 | 0 | 4 | 50% | 0 | 17.62% |
| Adam Thielen | MIN | 165 | 29 | 40 | 392 | 0 | 3 | 0% | 0 | 24.24% |
| Doug Baldwin | SEA | 179 | 27 | 39 | 284 | 1 | 4 | 50% | 0 | 21.78% |
| Mike Evans | TB | 155 | 24 | 39 | 276 | 2 | 6 | 33.33% | 1 | 25.16% |
| Davante Adams | GB | 190 | 23 | 39 | 285 | 4 | 9 | 66.67% | 0 | 20.52% |
| Jason Witten | DAL | 179 | 27 | 38 | 229 | 1 | 6 | 66.67% | 0 | 21.22% |
| Alshon Jeffery | PHI | 177 | 20 | 38 | 246 | 2 | 4 | 75% | 1 | 21.46% |
| Rishard Matthews | TEN | 152 | 20 | 38 | 284 | 1 | 4 | 25% | 0 | 25% |
| Chris Hogan | NE | 195 | 23 | 37 | 288 | 5 | 9 | 55.56% | 1 | 18.97% |
| Travis Kelce | KC | 158 | 29 | 37 | 353 | 2 | 6 | 50% | 0 | 23.41% |
| Michael Thomas | NO | 152 | 25 | 37 | 310 | 2 | 5 | 60% | 2 | 24.34% |
| T.Y. Hilton | IND | 145 | 24 | 36 | 466 | 1 | 5 | 40% | 1 | 24.82% |
| Stefon Diggs | MIN | 165 | 23 | 36 | 395 | 4 | 4 | 100% | 2 | 21.81% |
| Christian McCaffrey | CAR | 152 | 27 | 36 | 237 | 1 | 5 | 80% | 0 | 23.68% |
| Jimmy Graham | SEA | 179 | 21 | 35 | 179 | 1 | 5 | 40% | 0 | 19.55% |
| Jaron Brown | ARI | 227 | 17 | 35 | 244 | 1 | 6 | 33.33% | 0 | 15.41% |
| James White | NE | 195 | 29 | 35 | 230 | 0 | 5 | 80% | 0 | 17.94% |
| Devin Funchess | CAR | 152 | 24 | 35 | 269 | 3 | 5 | 60% | 0 | 23.02% |
| Evan Engram | NYG | 202 | 19 | 34 | 200 | 1 | 2 | 100% | 0 | 16.83% |
| Tyreek Hill | KC | 158 | 25 | 34 | 356 | 2 | 1 | 100% | 2 | 21.51% |
| Brandon Marshall | NYG | 202 | 18 | 33 | 154 | 0 | 2 | 100% | 2 | 16.33% |
| Emmanuel Sanders | DEN | 126 | 20 | 33 | 190 | 2 | 6 | 83.33% | 2 | 26.19% |
| Le'Veon Bell | PIT | 195 | 27 | 33 | 144 | 0 | 4 | 75% | 0 | 16.92% |
| Amari Cooper | OAK | 152 | 13 | 33 | 118 | 1 | 6 | 16.67% | 7 | 21.71% |
| LeSean McCoy | BUF | 136 | 27 | 32 | 189 | 0 | 3 | 66.67% | 0 | 23.52% |
| Brandin Cooks | NE | 195 | 18 | 32 | 379 | 2 | 0 | 0% | 4 | 16.41% |
| Delanie Walker | TEN | 152 | 21 | 31 | 244 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 20.39% |
| Martellus Bennett | GB | 190 | 20 | 31 | 194 | 0 | 3 | 66.67% | 0 | 16.31% |
| Jared Cook | OAK | 152 | 19 | 31 | 195 | 1 | 3 | 33.33% | 0 | 20.39% |
| Rob Gronkowski | NE | 195 | 20 | 31 | 318 | 2 | 6 | 16.67% | 0 | 15.89% |
| Martavis Bryant | PIT | 195 | 15 | 31 | 204 | 1 | 3 | 0% | 2 | 15.89% |
| Duke Johnson Jr. | CLE | 197 | 23 | 31 | 270 | 1 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 15.73% |
| DeSean Jackson | TB | 155 | 14 | 30 | 249 | 1 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 19.35% |
| Demaryius Thomas | DEN | 126 | 18 | 30 | 247 | 0 | 2 | 0% | 2 | 23.80% |
| Julio Jones | ATL | 135 | 19 | 30 | 295 | 0 | 0 | 0% | 0 | 22.22% |
| Randall Cobb | GB | 190 | 23 | 30 | 218 | 1 | 3 | 66.67% | 0 | 15.78% |
| Marquise Goodwin | SF | 194 | 14 | 30 | 243 | 0 | 6 | 16.67% | 2 | 15.46% |
| Robert Woods | LAR | 166 | 17 | 30 | 252 | 0 | 3 | 33.33% | 1 | 18.07% |
| Marqise Lee | JAX | 137 | 15 | 30 | 208 | 0 | 2 | 0% | 4 | 21.89% |
| Tarik Cohen | CHI | 166 | 25 | 30 | 144 | 1 | 5 | 80% | 0 | 18.07% |
| Jermaine Kearse | NYJ | 148 | 22 | 29 | 220 | 3 | 3 | 33.33 | 0 | 19.59% |
| Robby Anderson | NYJ | 148 | 14 | 29 | 220 | 1 | 1 | 0% | 3 | 19.59% |
| Sterling Shepard | NYG | 202 | 22 | 29 | 263 | 1 | 6 | 33.33% | 0 | 14.35% |
| Cooper Kupp | LAR | 166 | 17 | 29 | 230 | 2 | 6 | 83.33% | 3 | 17.46% |
| Todd Gurley | LAR | 166 | 22 | 29 | 241 | 3 | 4 | 100% | 0 | 17.46% |
Target leaders
We have a new sheriff in town, one we’ve seen atop the leaderboards over the last few seasons and that’s Antonio Brown. After his Week 4 temper tantrum on the sidelines, Brown led the entire league in targets with a league-high 19-target contest, which ultimately helped him leapfrog DeAndre Hopkins.
Both Brown and Hopkins have seen north of 60 targets. There isn’t anyone else in the league within 10 targets of them and there are only six players in all of football averaging north of 10 per game or over 50 this season (Antonio Brown, DeAndre Hopkins, Larry Fitzgerald, A.J. Green, Keenan Allen, Jarvis Landry).
We’ve added one more running back from Week 4 to Week 5, giving us eight listed. Not only did we gain a running back, but we gained three tight ends giving us nine in the top-57. Andre Ellington continues to be the clubhouse leader amongst the RBs in targets. He’s had eight-plus targets in three-straight weeks as Arizona continues throwing the ball at a higher percentage than any other team in football. They did, however, just land Adrian Peterson in a trade, so Ellington’s stock could take a slight hit once Peterson learns the playbook and becomes the lead back for the Cards..jpg)
The two biggest omissions on our list are Jordy Nelson and DeVante Parker. Nelson missed one full game and missed the cut by just one target, so it’s safe to say he’d be there if it weren’t for his injury. Parker has already had his bye week and left in the first quarter in Week 5, so like Nelson, he’d easily be on this list if it weren’t for injury.
We have four Giants on our list, but three are currently injured. Evan Engram, the lone healthy wolf, should see a healthy dose of targets for the remainder of the season. He currently sits 30th in the league, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he were to crack the top-20 within the next few weeks, maybe even top-15.
Target Percentage
We continue to have just four players soaking up 30-plus percent of their team’s targets in Antonio Brown, DeAndre Hopkins, A.J. Green and Jarvis Landry. Tyler Eifert was just ruled out for the remainder of the season, so Green will see a massive uptick in targets, especially in the red zone where Eifert has thrived over his career.
We've seen some wide outs go down of late, most of them being Giants so we could see guys from New York -- that are still healthy -- like Evan Engram and Sterling Shepard when he's able to return take on a much heavier load offensively and see their target percentages go way up.
For some players, some we consider elite, it's hard to own a high target percentage because of how frequently their quarterbacks throw the ball. For example, Larry Fitzgerald has the third-most targets in all of football but has a dinky 22.46 target percentage. Carson Palmer has thrown the ball 25 more times than anyone else in the league, so it's hard for Fitz to garner a big number. Meanwhile, Demaryius Thomas who has 21 fewer targets than Fitzgerald has a target percentage of 23.80, which is obviously higher than Fitz's. Trevor Siemian has only chucked the pigskin 130 times, so make sure you're looking deeper into this column before you think someone like Fitzgerald isn't seeing enough volume for your liking.
Red Zone Targets
Larry Fitzgerald continues to pace the rest of the league despite not seeing any targets inside of the 20 in Week 5. Now that they’ve added Adrian Peterson, we’ll have to see how things play out for this Arizona offense. It could potentially hinder Fizgerald’s productivity inside the red zone, but Peterson is old for a running back and we saw nothing from him in New Orleans that would indicate he has much left in the tank. If the latter is the case, we should expect Fitz to continue seeing plenty of RZ looks with the chance at putting six on the board.
One of the more interesting stats of the week is Davante Adams leads the Packers in red zone targets, not Jordy Nelson. Adams is second in the league with nine looks inside the 20 and he’s been really reliable catching six of those passes. Adams not only has had more chances in the RZ, but is outpacing Nelson big time in targets. Nelson didn’t even make our list while Adams is tied for 14th with 39 targets.
Drops
So, good news, Amari Cooper didn’t drop any passes this week. Unfortunately for him, he still leads the league in that category with seven. Keenan Allen is a new addition to the top of the leaderboard after a three-drop week in Week 5 as he’s now tied with Odell Beckham Jr. for second place.
Beckham Jr.’s drops will end at six for the year since he suffered a season-ending broken ankle. Even if he played a full season, six drops is a hefty chunk of change. He really lets his emotions get the best of him sometimes, which ultimately hurts his productivity on the field.
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