With 10 weeks in the books, we’ve seen a ton of ups and downs for a lot of different players we’d expect to be near the top of our leaderboards and some we never thought would make an appearance. But it seems as if we’ve gotten the same few names at the top of the league leaderboards each and every week, simply battling for who’s the top dog. I help you figure out who that top dog is below, so let’s go!
| Player Name | Team | Pass Att | Rec | Targets | Yds | TD | RZ Target | RZ Target % | Drops | Tgt % |
| DeAndre Hopkins | HOU | 297 | 58 | 108 | 803 | 8 | 13 | 53.85% | 3 | 36.36% |
| Antonio Brown | PIT | 307 | 60 | 101 | 882 | 3 | 11 | 54.55% | 1 | 32.89% |
| Jarvis Landry | MIA | 327 | 61 | 96 | 472 | 5 | 9 | 77.78% | 5 | 29.35% |
| Larry Fitzgerald | ARI | 358 | 60 | 88 | 677 | 3 | 13 | 53.85% | 2 | 24.58% |
| Adam Thielen | MIN | 306 | 56 | 87 | 793 | 2 | 11 | 27.27% | 2 | 28.43% |
| Dez Bryant | DAL | 291 | 42 | 84 | 478 | 4 | 14 | 42.86% | 6 | 28.86% |
| Michael Thomas | NO | 300 | 59 | 83 | 662 | 2 | 6 | 50% | 2 | 27.66% |
| Doug Baldwin | SEA | 336 | 54 | 80 | 633 | 3 | 5 | 60% | 0 | 23.80% |
| Demaryius Thomas | DEN | 322 | 48 | 79 | 569 | 2 | 8 | 62.50% | 5 | 24.53% |
| Keenan Allen | LAC | 323 | 44 | 79 | 596 | 1 | 10 | 20% | 8 | 24.45% |
| Christian McCaffrey | CAR | 329 | 57 | 79 | 433 | 3 | 11 | 81.82% | 1 | 24.01% |
| Amari Cooper | OAK | 313 | 38 | 77 | 462 | 3 | 7 | 14.29% | 10 | 24.60% |
| Julio Jones | ATL | 299 | 49 | 76 | 715 | 1 | 10 | 30% | 3 | 25.41% |
| A.J. Green | CIN | 271 | 44 | 74 | 693 | 5 | 7 | 57.14% | 1 | 27.30% |
| Alshon Jeffery | PHI | 292 | 34 | 73 | 500 | 5 | 6 | 66.67% | 3 | 25% |
| Mike Evans | TB | 341 | 40 | 73 | 532 | 4 | 9 | 33.33% | 3 | 21.40% |
| Golden Tate | DET | 329 | 56 | 72 | 659 | 3 | 6 | 83.33% | 2 | 21.88% |
| Evan Engram | NYG | 335 | 40 | 72 | 443 | 5 | 6 | 100% | 6 | 21.49% |
| Davante Adams | GB | 315 | 42 | 71 | 494 | 6 | 17 | 64.71% | 4 | 22.53% |
| Devin Funchess | CAR | 329 | 43 | 71 | 535 | 5 | 7 | 57.14% | 1 | 21.58% |
| Travis Kelce | KC | 294 | 51 | 69 | 629 | 5 | 11 | 63.64% | 2 | 23.46% |
| Marqise Lee | JAX | 288 | 38 | 69 | 493 | 2 | 7 | 57.41% | 7 | 23.95% |
| T.Y. Hilton | IND | 312 | 36 | 68 | 725 | 3 | 8 | 25% | 3 | 21.79% |
| 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% |
| DeSean Jackson | TB | 341 | 33 | 66 | 504 | 2 | 1 | 100% | 1 | 19.35% |
| Rob Gronkowski | NE | 346 | 38 | 65 | 583 | 5 | 13 | 38.46% | 4 | 18.78% |
| Marvin Jones Jr. | DET | 329 | 34 | 65 | 537 | 5 | 10 | 30% | 3 | 19.75% |
| Brandin Cooks | NE | 346 | 39 | 65 | 637 | 3 | 4 | 50% | 5 | 18.78% |
| Jimmy Graham | SEA | 336 | 39 | 64 | 355 | 6 | 17 | 58.82% | 4 | 19.04% |
| Zach Ertz | PHI | 292 | 43 | 64 | 528 | 6 | 10 | 80% | 2 | 21.91% |
| Robby Anderson | NYJ | 314 | 35 | 64 | 568 | 5 | 4 | 25% | 4 | 20.38% |
| Delanie Walker | TEN | 290 | 43 | 63 | 458 | 0 | 5 | 20% | 0 | 21.72% |
| Rishard Matthews | TEN | 290 | 36 | 62 | 513 | 2 | 6 | 50% | 3 | 21.37% |
| Robert Woods | LAR | 284 | 39 | 59 | 622 | 4 | 6 | 66.67% | 2 | 20.77% |
| Carlos Hyde | SF | 391 | 42 | 59 | 274 | 0 | 5 | 80% | 6 | 15.08% |
| Tyreek Hill | KC | 294 | 40 | 59 | 617 | 4 | 2 | 50% | 2 | 20.06% |
| Emmanuel Sanders | DEN | 322 | 32 | 57 | 433 | 2 | 8 | 62.50% | 3 | 17.70% |
| Jermaine Kearse | NYJ | 314 | 35 | 56 | 415 | 4 | 3 | 33% | 3 | 17.83% |
| Marquise Goodwin | SF | 391 | 23 | 56 | 500 | 1 | 10 | 30% | 4 | 14.32% |
| Kenny Stills | MIA | 327 | 33 | 56 | 408 | 4 | 6 | 66.67% | 3 | 17.12% |
| James White | NE | 346 | 46 | 56 | 376 | 2 | 9 | 66.67% | 1 | 16.18% |
| Jason Witten | DAL | 291 | 42 | 55 | 378 | 3 | 9 | 55.56% | 1 | 18.90% |
| Jared Cook | OAK | 313 | 39 | 55 | 499 | 1 | 6 | 16.67% | 3 | 17.57% |
| Michael Crabtree | OAK | 313 | 36 | 55 | 451 | 6 | 6 | 50% | 3 | 17.57% |
| Cooper Kupp | LAR | 284 | 32 | 55 | 417 | 3 | 15 | 46.67% | 4 | 19.36% |
| Kyle Rudolph | MIN | 306 | 37 | 54 | 308 | 3 | 9 | 88.89% | 0 | 17.64% |
| Chris Hogan | NE | 346 | 33 | 54 | 438 | 5 | 11 | 54.55% | 3 | 15.06% |
| Jamison Crowder | WAS | 313 | 32 | 54 | 348 | 0 | 8 | 37.50% | 3 | 17.25% |
| Duke Johnson Jr. | CLE | 347 | 42 | 54 | 358 | 1 | 1 | 100% | 1 | 15.56% |
| Jordy Nelson | GB | 315 | 33 | 53 | 358 | 6 | 10 | 80% | 1 | 16.82% |
| Chris Thompson | WAS | 313 | 38 | 53 | 494 | 3 | 5 | 40% | 0 | 16.93% |
| Melvin Gordon | LAC | 323 | 35 | 53 | 250 | 4 | 8 | 75% | 3 | 16.40% |
| Alvin Kamara | NO | 300 | 42 | 53 | 373 | 2 | 10 | 80% | 3 | 17.66% |
Target Leaders
We have a new leader on the top of the leaderboard and his name is DeAndre Hopkins. He doubled up Brown this past week as Hopkins tied with Larry FItzgerald for the lead league with 14 passes thrown his way. He hasn’t been impacted one bit by Deshaun Watson’s injury. Tom Savage has thrown the ball his way 30 times in the last two weeks. If your fantasy league trade deadline has not passed, make a move for Hopkins and hold onto him if you already have him. The volume he’s receiving is insane.
Someone who has made a huge charge up the leaderboards over the past few weeks is Doug Baldwin. He has 40 targets over the last four weeks and is now eighth in the league in targets. Russell Wilson has played a large role in that as he’s played his best football over this latest stretch. Wilson is a notorious second half player as his passer rating for the months of November and December are significantly higher than in September and October. That is only beneficial to Baldwin for the remainder of the year as he looks to continue accruing massive amounts of targets.
One trend I’ve really begun to pick up on is the running backs involvement in the passing game seems to be dwindling outside of a few guys. We have seven running backs on the list, paced by Christian McCaffrey. The last three names on our list are all running backs, so they could easily be off our list by next week’s article if they’re not involved in the Week 11 passing game, which would only further my point of RB’s seeing less and less targets. Tight ends on the other hand have been climbing the charts. We have 10 TE’s on our list and seven of them are in the top 34 in the entire league. Rookie Evan Engram leads all players at his position and that shouldn’t change whatsoever, especially seeing how the Giants’ receiving core has been decimated by injury.
Target Percentage
We’re down to two pass catchers remaining seeing over 30-percent of their team’s targets. Jarvis Landry has suffered at the hands of DeVante Parker’s return and he’s slipped under 30-percent meaning just DeAndre Hopkins and Antonio Brown remain above that incredible number.
It’s interesting to see how teams are distributing their targets, however. The Patriots have the most players on our list. Their percentages range from 15-to-19, so none of them have seen an elite number of targets, but the consistent volume seems to be there. We all consider each of the four Pats viable fantasy targets as well.
We only have one player on our spreadsheet seeing less than 15-percent of his team’s target shares and that’s Marquise Goodwin. Goodwin, however, is making the most of his opportunities. He leads the entire NFL in yards per reception at 21.7. He and CJ Beathard seem to have a nice rapport and he’s definitely worth adding as a WR3 for the remainder of the season. Based on the matchup he could find himself with WR2 upside.
Red Zone Targets
As I mentioned earlier, Russell Wilson really seems to turn things on in the second half of seasons and over the last four games alone, he’s thrown six touchdown passes to Jimmy Graham, all coming from within the red zone. I can tell you that as we were heading into Week 7, Graham had just five red zone targets and now, after Week 10, he is tied for the league lead with 17. Graham looks like the tight end we saw in New Orleans and Russell Wilson is utilizing his big frame in the red zone, something he should have been doing the moment Graham arrived in Seattle. Graham could be the number one tight end -- in all formats -- for the remainder of the season.
Only two players on our spreadsheet have caught 100-percent of the passes they’ve seen in the red zone and one of them has only had one pass thrown their way; we’re looking at you DeSean Jackson. But the other player who’s 6-for-6 in the red zone is Evan Engram. We briefly mentioned how Engram leads all tight ends in targets so it’s wonderful to see him produce in the red zone as well. He’s not just a volume guy, but he’s extremely efficient as well and makes clearly knows how important securing the ball in red zone truly is. Engram is a top-five tight end for the remainder of the season in every format and is essentially matchup proof because Eli Manning will keep throwing the ball his way and no linebacker or safety has stood up to the task of slowing him down yet.
Drops
There was no significant move for anyone in the drops department which is a great sign. I’m happy to not be name dropping Amari Cooper for having another poor week in that department and simply giving him praise. There are, however, just four players on our list that have yet to drop a pass and Pierre Garcon has been placed on IR. Doug Baldwin has not only done it in the targets department, but he hasn’t dropped a single pass thrown his way all year long.
I’m going to add a little prediction segment at the end of each one of these articles for the remainder of the season. It’s going to a short and sweet prediction on who will lead the NFL in targets for the upcoming week. For Week 11, I think the leader will be Dez Bryant. The Eagles have allowed the second most targets to receivers in the NFL and the fifth most receptions as well. The Cowboys are without Ezekiel Elliott and Bryant is now the focal point of the Cowboys offense.
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