2023 Fantasy Football Week 7 Target Report Preview: Sam LaPorta Continues Top-5 Tight End Run

Targets are paramount when it comes to evaluating pass-catchers for fantasy football. There are no air yards, receiving yards, receptions, or touchdowns without first earning a target. And to earn a target, you need to be deemed “open” by the quarterback. It’s one big trickle-down effect. There’s a reason the biggest and most consistent target-earners are near the top of fantasy football ADP: They can be relied on by not just their team’s offense to earn targets and produce on those targets, but that also trickles down to the fantasy managers drafting those pass-catchers and starting them in their lineups each week.

In this season’s Fantasy Football Target Report, we’ll take a weekly team-by-team look into these target earners and separate the wheat from the chaff. To properly lead into what we’ll be looking at this season, we’ll have to establish a baseline of the most important things we’re looking at with targets and other receiving metrics that paint the full picture for who we should be rostering, who we should be adding, and who we can drop. Combing the box score stats doesn’t paint a clear picture of the players we should target, roster, and start. Fantasy football rankings can only paint so much of the picture as well.

Everything we’ll be talking about here and this season in this season’s Fantasy Football Target Report will be some of the best statistics and metrics that correlate with fantasy football production. Think of targets as a page in a coloring book, just the outline yet to be colored. Coloring on that page adds context and flavor to that page. That’s what we’ll be doing with targets — adding more context than just some target totals and saying, “go add this player,” which doesn’t help anybody.

This season, we're adding a video component, so if you want to get some of the juiciest nuggets of the target report in video form, check out the Target Report Bulletpoints for the upcoming Week 7!

Bye Weeks:

• Week 5: CLE, LAC, SEA, TB
• Week 6: GB, PIT
• Week 7: CAR, CIN, DAL, HOU, NYJ, TEN
• Week 9: DEN, DET, JAX, SF
• Week 10: KC, LAR, MIA, PHI
• Week 11: ATL, IND, NE, NO
• Week 13: BAL, BUF, CHI, LV, MIN, NYG
• Week 14: ARI, WAS

NOTE:

• Always Start Your Studs: These are players you should be starting in all formats, regardless of matchup. Use your judgment in shallower leagues where startable players are plentiful.
• Start ‘Em: Players that should be starting most weeks on your fantasy rosters.
• Keep Them Rostered: Players that should be rostered in most formats but shouldn't be started unless you’re in a pinch or during bye weeks. Maybe they’re not startable due to various issues like a backup quarterback playing, a player coming back from injury, a contingent running back, or are just unproductive, consistent, or dependable at the moment. League size designations or other designations (bench stash, etc.) will be in parenthesis next to players for deeper leagues. Depending on your league, this is a general recommendation, so use your best judgment.
• Example: Parris Campbell (deeper 12 & 14-team), Jerome Ford (bench stash).
• Add ‘Em: Players that warrant an add due to circumstances, productivity, or metrics that show they’re being utilized heavily in their offenses. These will usually have a format that they should be added in. 
• Listing a player as “12-team leagues” assumes that player also be an addition in deeper 12-team and 14-team formats as well. 
• Dump ‘Em: Players that you should be dropping from your rosters. Use your judgment in deeper leagues where players with usefulness on waivers aren’t as plentiful.
• Any player not listed in any of these categories for a particular team is assumed to not be rosterable in most fantasy formats.
   

All statistics below are listed in the following format:

• WR/TE as:
  • (10-4-100-2) Targets - Receptions - Rec. Yds. - TD
• RB as:
  • (18-75-1; 10-4-100-2) Rush Att. - Rush Yds. - TD; Targets - Receptions - Rec. Yds. - TD

NFL Target Report

Arizona Cardinals

In a game where the Cardinals were wholly more uncompetitive than a 26-9 score looked on the surface, Marquise Brown (11-4-34) seemed to suffer with a lack of efficiency that comes with a quarterback like Joshua Dobbs playing over his skis for a bit and then coming back down to earth. Rondale Moore (7-4-30) and Michael Wilson (4-3-62) were involved but were just “shrug your shoulder” plays and don’t inspire much confidence; not that ancillary Cardinals receivers should.

Trey McBride (5-4-62) is clearly the more athletic, exciting tight end option in Arizona and it seems like he’s being given much more of a shot over noted glacier Zach Ertz (5-2-22), whose routes cratered from over 83% in the last two weeks to just 52% in Week 6. McBride saw a season-high 46% routes himself and while that’s not exactly super enticing from a fantasy perspective, he saw five targets on that and Ertz and McBride are two fantasy tight end ships passing in the night with McBride benefitting. Through all of the Michael Mayer hoopla, McBride is a great consolation prize in his own right as the top tight end coming out of Colorado St. in 2022.

For this run game, we saw noted former dustball Damien Williams (8-36; 1-1-8; 17% snaps) admittedly look like he had some gas left in the tank. Keaontay Ingram (10-40; 2-2-11; 37% snaps, 24% routes) had the most carries on the day while taking a backseat in snaps and routes to Emari Demercado (2-11; 1-1-6; 43% snaps; 59% routes), but Demercado didn’t see close to the same opportunity that Ingram and Williams saw. I’m still prioritizing Ingram here if you’re in a pinch and need some kind of running back production on the waiver wire.

Week 6 Arizona Cardinals Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: N/A

Start ‘Em: Marquise Brown

Keep Them Rostered:  James Conner (placed on IR), Keaontay Ingram, Joshua Dobbs (deeper 12 & 14 team), Michael Wilson (14 team), Rondale Moore (14 team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Atlanta Falcons

Desmond Ridder attempted 47 passes, so there’s hope for the Falcons yet! Unless it was some kind of Jedi mind-trick by Arthur Smith to try and appease us lowly fantasy football players with how the team used Drake London (12-9-125) and Kyle Pitts (6-4-43-1) in Week 6.

Pitts got a touchdown on the board very early and London dominated the Commanders at almost every turn. The talent is never in question with London, but it’s the environment and weird decisions to go away from their best players that have gotten in the way of success. It was for naught, as Ridder threw three interceptions including a backbreaker to seal the game for Washington and give Ridder his first home loss in college or the pros.

Giving Bijan Robinson (13-37; 8-5-43) an expanded role in the passing game is all well and good, but splitting up the rushing workload 50/50 with Tyler Allgeier (13-51; 1-0-0) should never be in the cards in Week 6. We can’t be all the way mad though; you have to figure the massive workloads and fantasy ceiling games are coming.

Week 6 Atlanta Falcons Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Bijan Robinson

Start ‘Em: Drake London, Kyle Pitts

Keep Them Rostered: Jonnu Smith (TE streamer; deeper 12 & 14-team), Tyler Allgeier (14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens were fully content on running the ball (57% run rate) against the Titans’ stout run defense, which made sense to nobody considering their pass defense has been something every other opponent has exploited. But that’s why I’m writing about it and not calling offensive plays.

Zay Flowers (8-6-50-1) and Mark Andrews (6-4-69) are the only players in this passing game worth your time, as those two accounted for almost 50% of the targets in Week 6. Rashod Bateman (3-2-15; 51% routes) is clearly not capable of producing at the level we expected him to right now, so he can’t be on any fantasy rosters.

Leading this backfield still is Gus Edwards (16-41; 1-1-12) but Justice Hill works in as a change of pace. The thought was that Keaton Mitchell would work his way into the running back rotation in Week 6, but he didn’t play an offensive snap despite being active.

Week 6 Baltimore Ravens Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Lamar Jackson, Mark Andrews, Zay Flowers

Start ‘Em: N/A

Keep Them Rostered: Gus Edwards (deeper 12 & 14-team), Justice Hill (deeper 12 & 14-team), Odell Beckham (deeper 12 & 14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Buffalo Bills

This is a one-man show in the passing game and that’s Stefon Diggs (16-10-100). I feel bad that I didn’t get enough exposure to him in both best ball and season-long leagues as I faded him a little bit due to some of the sideline concerns from last season’s playoffs and the fact that he is a bit older. That said, that’s a flaw in my own personal game and Diggs is very much a monster producer in an elite offense. Sometimes, football doesn’t have to be difficult.

With no Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox (6-3-17) saw 70%+ routes but, didn’t do much with it in a game where Buffalo clearly had their struggles on offense putting up only 14 points.

It’s clear at this point that the Bills just don’t fully trust James Cook (14-71) to take full control of the running back workload and Latavius Murray (12-45) is going to have a pretty good role while he’s still upright. Murray has admittedly looked pretty good as the oldest running back currently employed in the NFL. Murray saw his first game above 32% snaps with 49% in Week 6 and if he’s sitting there going forward in terms of the workload split, then Cook can’t be anything more than a low-end RB2 unless his efficiency spikes off the page. That hasn’t been the case at any point this season, and that may be the rub here.

Week 6 Buffalo Bills Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs

Start ‘Em: James Cook, Gabe Davis 

Keep Them Rostered: Latavius Murray (contingent play; deeper 12 & 14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Carolina Panthers

Yada, yada, Adam Thielen (13-11-115-1) something, something.

I more than understand the entire thesis on Thielen; the people who more or less irresponsibly drafted him more than a few times are touting Thielen as a huge win. I’m not saying Thielen can’t be a huge win for 2023; I’d say he already has been. However, the entire thesis for him CONTINUING his production is fragile. The team has already said they’re looking for a #1 receiver. Bryce Young’s aDOT has come up to 7.0 yards from 6.6 in just a week. Young has looked much improved from even a week or two ago before he missed Week 3, but there’s such a gulf between Thielen’s target share and the rest of his receivers that when Young starts to push the ball downfield, it’s not going to be to Thielen. It’s going to have to be to the other guys like D.J. Chark (6-3-26; 64% routes) and Jonathan Mingo (3-2-21; 95% routes). 

You can make the case that perpetually targeting Thielen is actually detrimental to Young’s progression as an NFL quarterback. He’s going to have to make NFL-level throws with accuracy at the intermediate ranges. To make a comparison to a different sport, NBA teams cannot win with just layups and short jumpers. Every Super Bowl-winning quarterback since the 2006 season has had an aDOT above 8 yards but one — last season Patrick Mahomes had a 7.5-yard aDOT. It’s also Patrick Mahomes. If you made it through my “this is why I think there’s warts with Adam Thielen for WR1” soliloquy, I appreciate you.

With no Miles Sanders, Chuba Hubbard (19-88-1; 1-1-2) took hold of the running game to pretty solid success. I’ve been banging the drum this season for the Panthers to give Hubbard much more run and he’s looked way better from the eye test than Sanders has, but Sanders was the one that was paid in free agency.

Week 6 Carolina Panthers Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Adam Thielen

Start ‘Em: N/A

Keep Them Rostered: Miles Sanders (missed Week 6 - shoulder), Chuba Hubbard, Jonathan Mingo (deeper 12 & 14-team), D.J. Chark (deeper 12 & 14-team), Bryce Young (deeper 12 & 14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Chicago Bears

The common theme for this week — which led to by far the lowest fantasy scoring week of this season — is terribly producing passing games. Case in point? Chicago, who by no fault of their own, put up a paltry 141 passing yards with Justin Fields (who left the game with a dislocated thumb) and somebody named Tyson Bagent, who I assume won a contest to be the backup quarterback for the Week 7. Amazingly enough, Bagent (I kid, he’s an actual quarterback from Shepherd University in West Virginia) may end up getting another start if Fields’ thumb isn’t in shape for him to start. 

You can imagine the pass-catchers weren’t exactly overflowing with opportunity and production, with DJ Moore (8-5-51) being the only player with more than two catches and four targets.

Not wanting to subject their understudy quarterback to more torture besides losing a fumble and throwing an interception, the Bears skewed very run heavy with the lowest pass rate over expected in Week 6 (-15.9%). With Khalil Herbert and Roschon Johnson both out, D’Onta Foreman (15-65; 1-1-2) led the way with Darrynton Evans (9-32; 1-1-2) mixing in. Foreman likely maintains a role for the interim as Johnson gets back into the swing of things and then when Herbert comes back, is phased out like he was in the beginning of the season. 

Week 6 Chicago Bears Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: N/A

Start ‘Em: DJ Moore, Justin Fields (left Week 6 - thumb)

Keep Them Rostered: Cole Kmet, Khalil Herbert (Missed Week 6 - ankle), Roschon Johnson (Missed Week 6 - concussion), D’Onta Foreman (deeper 12 & 14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Cincinnati Bengals

“Well surely the Cincinnati Bengals can put up some offense in Week 6!”

*214 total yards, 46 rushing yards, 185 passing yards*

At least the Bengals didn’t continue the Joe Mixon (12-38; 4-3-24) charade for a long time here, as the team only ran the ball 15 times all game.

Ja'Marr Chase (13-6-80) is still awesome. Tee Higgins (4-2-20) was pretty much a decoy and only ran 56% of routes as he’s still hampered by his rib injury. The other usual suspect in this Bengals’ offense, Tyler Boyd (7-7-38-1) caught a touchdown and helped carry this offense underneath with just a 3.0-yard aDOT.

It really wasn’t exciting here for the Bengals; it was more of a real-life NFL win than one where Joe Burrow throws the ball around the yard and we get fun stats and highlights. 

Week 6 Cincinnati Bengals Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Ja'Marr Chase, Tee Higgins

Start ‘Em: Joe Burrow, Joe Mixon

Keep Them Rostered: Tyler Boyd

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Cleveland Browns

Good defenses pitted against each other, a backup quarterback in P.J. Walker, and not-so-great weather. Clearly, offense was not on the menu in Week 6. Even if Deshaun Watson was active and/or healthy, I doubt it would have mattered. Other than Amari Cooper (8-4-108) having a quality day, no Cleveland Brown had more than 24 yards receiving.

The offense flowed through both Jerome Ford (17-84; 2-2-7) and Kareem Hunt (12-47-1; 3-3-24) as Ford saw 19-of-35 running back opportunities with Hunt seeing the other 15.

Week 6 Cleveland Browns Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: N/A

Start ‘Em: Deshaun Watson (missed Week 6 - shoulder), Amari Cooper, Jerome Ford

Keep Them Rostered: Elijah Moore, David Njoku, Kareem Hunt (deeper 12 & 14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Dallas Cowboys

Somehow, in 2023, Michael Gallup (10-3-24) led the Cowboys in targets while catching just three of them. Let’s not do that again, okay? Let’s keep it to CeeDee Lamb (7-7-117) and to a lesser degree, Brandin Cooks (4-4-36-1), who both caught all of their targets and Cooks brought in the lone receiving touchdown from Dak Prescott.

Tony Pollard (15-30; 7-6-80; 80% snaps) continues to slightly underperform from his huge run last season but is still a heavily featured past of the offense even if Brian Schottenheimer has him running into the interior of the offensive line as an homage to departed former Cowboy Ezekiel Elliott.

Week 6 Dallas Cowboys Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: CeeDee Lamb, Tony Pollard

Start ‘Em: N/A

Keep Them Rostered: Dak Prescott, Brandin Cooks, Jake Ferguson (deeper 12 & 14-team), Michael Gallup (14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Denver Broncos

Denver threw the ball 22 times and only gained 95 yards through the air. Only Courtland Sutton (6-4-46-1) caught more than three passes and earned more than 16 yards through the air. It was as miserable as it sounds. Jerry Jeudy (5-3-14) may not be long for the Broncos as he’s been the subject of trade rumors and his performance didn’t exactly do anything to sway the team the other way. Making his return to the Broncos was Greg Dulcich (1-1-3), but he didn’t play the whole game as he seemed to reaggravate his hamstring injury. He only saw 21% of snaps before exiting Week 6’s contest.

This backfield is a three-way mess with Jaleel McLaughlin (7-30; 2-2-12) and Javonte Williams (10-52) playing about 35-40% of snaps. Samaje Perine (no carries; 2-2-16) was more or less phased out with just nine snaps on offense. Even in a pretty good home matchup with the Packers, Williams isn’t anything more than a middling flex in an offense that’s clearly non-functional in most aspects.

Week 6 Denver Broncos Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: N/A

Start ‘Em: Courtland Sutton, Javonte Williams

Keep Them Rostered: Jerry Jeudy, Jaleel McLaughlin, Samaje Perine (deeper 12 & 14-team), Russell Wilson (deeper 12 & 14-team), Marvin Mims (14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Detroit Lions

The Lions didn’t have to expend much energy in this one to put their foot on the Bucs and handle them easily while only scoring 20 points. David Montgomery (6-14; 1-1-19) left early in Week 6 with a rib cartilage that is expected to have him miss Week 7. Craig Reynolds (10-15; 2-2-28) stepped in and didn’t really do much of anything himself, but the Lions skewed much more pass-heavy (13.6% pass rate over expected) than at any point in 2023 and certainly under Dan Campbell as a pivot to losing Montgomery.

Amon-Ra St. Brown (15-12-124-1) proved he is extremely #good. Sam LaPorta (11-4-36) saw a bunch of targets but it was expected he’d have a tougher day than normal with his calf injury and that was certainly the case. It was still highly encouraging to see Jared Goff try to get him involved to this degree despite his 50/50 availability leading up to inactives on Sunday morning. Jameson Williams caught his first touchdown of the season but his routes inexplicably went from 50% last week to 19% this week for “reasons”.

Week 6 Detroit Lions Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Sam LaPorta, David Montgomery (left Week 6 - rib; expected to miss Week 7)

Start ‘Em: Jahmyr Gibbs (missed Week 6 - hamstring), Jared Goff

Keep Them Rostered: Jameson Williams, Josh Reynolds (14 team)

Add ‘Em: Craig Reynolds (with Montgomery out and Gibbs likely back but limited, could be a sneaky play in Week 7)

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Green Bay Packers

BYE WEEK

Week 6 Green Bay Packers Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: N/A

Start ‘Em: Aaron Jones (missed Week 5 - hamstring), Christian Watson

Keep Them Rostered: Romeo Doubs, Luke Musgrave (borderline 12-team starter), AJ Dillon, Jordan Love (deeper 12 & 14-team), Jayden Reed (deeper 12 & 14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Houston Texans

Solid days for a good portion of the main players here with Tank Dell out. Nico Collins (6-4-80) was solid, as was Dalton Schultz (7-4-61-1), who has seen his snaps spike up from 49% in Week 4 to Week 6’s 64%. They’re not where we’d like them to be in order to start him without though, but he’s viable… just not this week with the Texans’ bye.

While Stroud has given every opportunity for the run game to play off of a better-than-expected passing game through the first six games of this season, that hasn’t come to fruition. Over six games, Dameon Pierce (13-34) has averaged just 2.9 yards per carry, and among running backs with at least 100 snaps, is the second-worst running back in yards before contact with just 0.6.

Enter Devin Singletary (12-58; 2-1-4), who carved a big gash into the workload of Pierce with 12 carries to Pierce’s 13 in Week 6. He was much more efficient with his carries and work in all situations, especially with a lead like the Texans had against the Saints. Singletary took both short yardage snaps, 24-of-45 early-down snaps, and while Pierce did have four high-value touches to Singletary’s one, those are on deck if Pierce doesn’t gain some more efficiency with his opportunities. Pierce played a season-low 33% of snaps and 22% of routes, Singletary took 40% of rushing attempts to Pierce’s 43% after having over 60% in each game this season.

The Houston Texans’ run game gets murkier by the week and if you roster Pierce, you’re clearly finding it harder and harder to put him into a lineup, but at least the Texans have their bye this week. As for Singletary, he’s a player that you can slot into your deeper-league flex spot in Week 8 now that he’s seeing 7-12 carries per game and showing much more efficiency than Pierce. 

Week 6 Houston Texans Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: N/A

Start ‘Em: Nico Collins, Tank Dell (missed Week 6 - concussion), C.J. Stroud

Keep Them Rostered: Dameon Pierce, Robert Woods (deeper 12 & 14-team), Dalton Schultz (deeper 12 & 14-team)

Add ‘Em: Devin Singletary (Pierce seeing his lowest usage yet to the benefit of Singletary, who has been much more efficient)

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Indianapolis Colts

Look, when you’re down, you’re down. So rather than going full Atlanta Falcons and running the ball through it, you pass and see what you can do to get yardage quickly and extend the game. That’s what the Colts did with an 80% raw pass rate — the highest of Week 6 — and Gardner Minshew’s 55 pass attempts. That also resulted in three Minshew interceptions and a fourth turnover by way of a lost fumble. Win some, lose some.

Besides Michael Pittman (14-9-109; 100% routes) and his quality outing, a lot of the production came on running back dumpoffs and shorter-aDOT passes to Josh Downs (8-5-21-1) who was the recipient of Minshew’s lone touchdown on the day.

Both Zack Moss (7-21-1; 7-6-38) and Jonathan Taylor (8-19; 6-5-46) both made their fantasy days through the passing game as they compiled dumpoffs aside from Moss’s touchdown. As for the workload split, Moss still saw the majority of work, but Taylor was much closer with 42% snaps to Moss’s 50%. Week 7 could be the week where Taylor takes the slight majority from Moss, but it’s going to be against Cleveland; a tough ask for any running game.

Week 6 Indianapolis Colts Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Michael Pittman

Start ‘Em: Zack Moss, Jonathan Taylor

Keep Them Rostered: Josh Downs, Gardner Minshew (deeper 12 & 14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: Anthony Richardson (out for the 2023 season)

Jacksonville Jaguars

With no Zay Jones, targets consolidate heavily to Calvin Ridley (8-4-30), Christian Kirk (6-3-49-1), Evan Engram (7-7-41) , and Travis Etienne (18-55-2; 3-3-28). Between that quartet, they accounted for almost 86% of the targets. It’s a narrow target tree in Jacksonville, but that’s great for fantasy instead of having to wade through TE4’s and WR6’s working their way into steal touchdowns. Hilariously enough, that still did happen with rookie tight Brenton Strange (3-2-27-1) taking one of two Trevor Lawrence touchdowns.

Week 6 Jacksonville Jaguars Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Travis Etienne, Trevor Lawrence, Calvin Ridley, Christian Kirk

Start ‘Em: Evan Engram

Keep Them Rostered: Zay Jones (missed Week 6 - knee)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: Tank Bigsby (hold in super-deep leagues for contingency, but Etienne has a Alcatraz-like lockdown on this backfield)

Kansas City Chiefs

Oh good, what we asked for: MORE ambiguity when it comes to the Chiefs’ pass-catchers. Justin Watson (1-0-0) hurt his elbow and will miss a handful of games and the team also completed a trade to bring back Mecole Hardman from the Jets.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling (1-0-0; 72% routes) was the only Chiefs wide pass-catcher not named Travis Kelce (9-9-124) to run more than 50% of routes. Skyy Moore (4-2-22) was right at half of the routes but he hasn’t mattered in weeks. Rashee Rice (4-4-72) continues to run less routes but produce a bit of a spark with them comparatively speaking. Rice is somebody that’s earned much more time on the field than he’s gotten but continues to languish in the 40-50% routes range. Rice has double-digit fantasy points in three of his last four games and four of six games overall. We’re talking a season-long 32% targets per route run and 2.78 yards per route run. What are we doing here?

Isiah Pacheco (16-62; 6-6-36) continues to see heavy volume and topped it off with six targets in Week 6, so with a struggling wide receiver room, Pacheco’s receiving game has upticked slightly from last season and already has more targets in six games (19) than he did all of last season (14). Any receiving upside that we can add to a solid rushing profile is going to make the floor even higher.

Week 6 Kansas City Chiefs Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes

Start ‘Em: Isiah Pacheco

Keep Them Rostered: Jerick McKinnon (deeper 12 & 14-team leagues), Rashee Rice (deeper 12 & 14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Las Vegas Raiders

On the first offensive play in the Raiders/Packers game on Monday Night Football in Week 5, the Raiders threw their first pass to Michael Mayer (6-5-75) and immediately gained 20 yards. While he would only catch one more pass for 19 yards in Week 5, it at least signaled a flicker of hope for the second-round tight end that he could at least begin to get ahead of Austin Hooper (2-2-19), who had been working ahead of Mayer, especially in 3-WR sets as the lone tight end. Mayer out-snapped Hooper in Week 5, but that trend was confirmed in Week 6.

In Week 6, Mayer ran 81% of snaps and 67% of routes, played as the primary tight end in 11 personnel, and caught five of six targets and led the Raiders in receiving yards. At a tight end position where we’re looking for anybody with a pulse, Mayer has that, and then some. 27% targets per route run and an 8.2-yard aDOT for Mayer in Week 6 means he’s pushing a bit down the field with his targets instead of just getting dump-offs.

Of course, the quarterback situation in Las Vegas needs to be monitored with Jimmy Garoppolo’s back because I can’t imagine Brian Hoyer or Aidan O’Connell supporting all of Davante Adams (5-2-29), Jakobi Meyers (7-5-61-1), and Mayer, but with a role that’s rapidly expanding for a tight end that was the consensus best tight end coming out of college by most experts before April’s NFL Draft, you want to get on board with that as a potential breakout candidate. He should be added in all leagues where with Vegas having a sneakily condensed target tree, Mayer could soon be a key component of that.

Revenge narrative was on full display with Meyers as Adams had his second quiet week in a row, but he’s been banged up with a shoulder and other various nicks. Josh Jacobs (25-77; 5-2-16) looks like West Coast Joe Mixon right now; all volume, no efficiency. The efficiency was there in his monster 2022 but not so much in 2023. Definitely concerning if you bought in at a hefty second-round price in drafts.

Week 6 Las Vegas Raiders Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Davante Adams, Josh Jacobs

Start ‘Em: Jakobi Meyers

Keep Them Rostered: N/A

Add ‘Em: Michael Mayer (flipped Austin Hooper in snaps/routes, especially in 11 personnel; he’s an immediate TE streamer with upside for top-10 ROS)

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Los Angeles Chargers

Keenan Allen (11-7-85-1) does Keenan Allen things. He’s awesome.

Not as awesome (in fact, the opposite of awesome) is Quentin Johnston (2-0-0), who we expected to see a sizeable usage bump coming out of their Week 5 bye and that never materialized. Actually less so, as his routes dropped pre-bye from 71% to just 49% in Week 6. The Chargers have no problem trotting out Joshua Palmer (7-4-60) for 100% route participation and obviously Allen will do his thing, but it’s really concerning to see routes drop post-bye on a first round pick that carries some of the same traits as the guy we thought he’d replace once he went down for the season, Mike Williams.

Austin Ekeler (14-27; 6-4-35) was back for the first time since Week 1 on a nice 69% of snaps, but the production was not super great. Better days are ahead here.

Week 6 Los Angeles Chargers Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Keenan Allen, Justin Herbert, Austin Ekeler

Start ‘Em: N/A

Keep Them Rostered: Joshua Palmer, Quentin Johnson (14-team), Gerald Everett (14-team)

Add ‘Em: N/A

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Los Angeles Rams

I did watch most of the this Rams/Cardinals game for admittedly DFS reasons and the Rams in the first half looked incredibly flat and unbalanced with just a handful of carries for Kyren Williams (20-158-1) in the first half. The first drive of the second half started out with EIGHT consecutive runs, a Matthew Stafford scramble, and then a short touchdown throw to Cooper Kupp (9-7-148-1) at the pilon for a touchdown. The Rams didn’t need to get much going through the air but what was there was heavily condensed to Kupp and Puka Nacua (7-4-26), even if the full production didn’t get there from Nacua. He still ran 100% of routes, had multiple end-zone looks, and saw 33% of targets. No need to panic at all, as the two elite receivers can more than co-exist together.

Williams is likely missing time with a high ankle sprain, as is Ronnie Rivers (3-9; 1-1-4) with a PCL sprain. The Rams brought in a bunch of running backs like former Dolphin Myles Gaskin and former Ram Darrell Henderson to add to the room they already have with rookie Zach Evans (4-10) and veteran Royce Freeman. I’d be adding Gaskin and Freeman over Evans because of the baseline production they can provide vs. Evans who is a rookie, pressed into some action very late, didn’t look overly good with it, and if they were enamored with him, they wouldn’t be going out to sign multiple players in an “all hands on deck” approach.

Tutu Atwell (1-1-30) and Tyler Higbee (3-2-18) seem like the spotty week-to-week plays that could pop off in tandem with the main receiving options, not standalone players that can be started each week. Both saw 82%+ routes but should have more volatile fantasy lines going forward with so much of the work consolidating to Kupp and Nacua.

Week 6 Los Angeles Rams Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua

Start ‘Em: N/A

Keep Them Rostered: Tutu Atwell, Matthew Stafford, Tyler Higbee (deeper 12 & 14-team), Kyren Williams (out for several weeks)

Add ‘Em: Zach Evans, Myles Gaskin, Royce Freeman (there’s no way of knowing how this will shake out but all should at least be speculative adds)

Dump ‘Em: N/A

Miami Dolphins

The most explosive offense in the NFL doubled up the winless Carolina Panthers 41-21 on the back of Raheem Mostert (17-115-2; 3-3-17-1), who hasn’t skipped a beat since losing backfield-mate De’Von Achane. Jeff Wilson looms as his return from IR was pushed back a week. But this offense is condensed enough, potent enough, and doesn’t take talent off the field, so still expect heavy Mostert moving forward with Wilson being worked in.

The passing game is the same story as it is most weeks: heavy target consolidation to Tyreek Hill (10-6-163-1) and Jaylen Waddle (9-7-51-1), with a couple of targets to an ancillary guy (Braxton Berrios, Durham Smythe, Salvon Ahmed, etc.)