Fantasy Football NFL Week 1 Target Report: Emeka Egbuka Shines in Debut

One week of football is not a big sample size. But, as of now, it’s all we’ve got. And we did get some useful information in terms of snap share, route participation, aDot, and, of course, target share that affects how we view these players moving forward.

As with any week of football, we’re going to have our disappointments. Some of that will just be bad games, but some of it will be related to poor usage - that’s a bit more sinister. We’ll also have some great games. Likewise, some of that may be fluky, but some of that may be an indication of bigger things to come, like we believe it is with guys like Emeka Egbuka, Keon Coleman, and Tyler Warren. Our “Target Totem Pole” below will attempt to capture those sentiments. 

2025 Fantasy Football NFL Week 1 Target Report Preview

Why do we do the target report? Well, we have a pretty good indication historically of how many fantasy-relevant pass-catchers can come from each team. The short and sweet is that the vast majority of teams will have one, maybe two fantasy-relevant pass-catchers. And there will almost certainly be more teams with zero than there are with three. Most meaningful fantasy players get at least 100 targets - here is a look at how players on each team over the last decade have hit that milestone.
 

In the chart below, what we will do is attempt to take each team and project A. the target pecking order, and B. what target range the players will likely fall into. At the bottom, we’ll include some notes as far as what went into the rankings and color-coded chart. So let’s dive in!

Fantasy Football Target Chart 2025 NFL Week 1

Fantasy Football Week 1 Target Report Advice & Takeaways

If a team has a ** next to them, it means they moved to a new section. If a team has a note, it means there is something we should monitor or some sort of change. If there are no notes, we can assume it is business as usual. After the first week of football, there are a lot of notes!

Clear Top Two

Arizona Cardinals

• Trey McBride
• Marvin Harrison Jr

Cincinnati Bengals

• Ja'Marr Chase
• Tee Higgins
  • Noah Fant played more snaps, ran more routes, and got more targets than Mike Gesicki

Dallas Cowboys

• CeeDee Lamb
• George Pickens
  • We still expect these two to be the top guys, but we’ll monitor the target battle between George Pickens and Jake Ferguson. Ferguson is fairly slow, so he does need to get peppered with targets to have upside. 

Denver Broncos

• Courtland Sutton
• Evan Engram
  • Evan Engram suffered a calf injury, so we’ll need to monitor that. Troy Franklin played over Marvin Mims, which was a bit unexpected, though, like last year, no WR after Courtland Sutton played a big snap share. 

Indianapolis Colts**

• Michael Pittman
• Tyler Warren
  • The big reason we are willing to move this team up here so quickly is the usage for Josh Downs. He was a part-time player once again, playing just under 50% of the snaps and running just over 50% of the routes at 52%. That led Michael Pittman and Tyler Warren to be the clear favorites of Daniel Jones, with Alec Pierce operating as a field stretcher.

Jacksonville Jaguars**

• Brian Thomas Jr
• Travis Hunter
  • Travis Hunter got the snaps, routes, and targets to be elevated to a guy that we are leaning on moving forward. Brenton Strange was tied for third in targets with Dyami Brown, putting him in that “handcuff plus” TE range where you can start him in a pinch but likely need an injury to BTJ or Hunter for upside. 

Las Vegas Raiders**

• Brock Bowers
• Jakobi Meyers
  • Brock Bowers was dealing with a bit of a knee issue, but still got his targets - he’s too good. Jakobi Meyers came out and played a massive snap share with 10 targets, making him a reliable option. Tre Tucker played over Dont’e Thornton, putting him on the back burner for now. 

Los Angeles Rams

• Puka Nacua
• Davante Adams
  • Besides Puka Nacua cutting his eye and needing stitches, this played out about as expected. These two guys are going to dominate targets this year. Tutu Atwell ran more routes than Jordan Whittington, but Whittington actually played more snaps for his run blocking.

Minnesota Vikings **

• Justin Jefferson
• T.J. Hockenson
  • This is a different spot from our pre-draft version of the article, as we were focusing on season-long. For now, in the weekly report, Jordan Addison is suspended for at least two more games. So Jefferson and Hockenson are the clear top two options. 

New York Giants**

• Malik Nabers
• Wan’Dale Robinson
  • Despite the new QB, they picked off right where they left off last year, with both Malik Nabers and Wan’Dale Robinson getting peppered with targets. Robinson was still actually a part-time guy with Darius Slayton playing opposite Nabers, but it didn’t matter; he was a go-to guy on third downs. 

Seattle Seahawks

• Jaxon Smith-Njigba
• Cooper Kupp
  • JSN and Cooper Kupp dominated the snaps, with Tory Horton playing a part-time role due to fullback and TE rotations. AJ Barner ran 19 routes to 10 for Elijah Arroyo, but neither really made an impact. We’d like to see Arroyo over Barner, but Barner is the better blocker. 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• Mike Evans
• Emeka Egbuka
  • Until Chris Godwin returns, these two should both be stapled into your fantasy lineups. We will have to see who moves into the WR3 role that Sterling Shepard operates when Chris Godwin returns, but Egbuka could be too good to take off the field. 

Washington Commanders**

• Terry McLaurin
• Deebo Samuel
  • I had my doubts about Deebo. But he looked the best he has looked since his legendary season in 2021. He got 10 targets and one of his signature carries. This is not good news for Zach Ertz, but it is good news for Jayden Daniels. 

High Consolidation

Los Angeles Chargers

• Ladd McConkey
• Quentin Johnston
• Keenan Allen
  • The Chargers, shockingly, came out slinging the football. And all three wide receivers played a bunch and got a bunch of looks. It will be interesting to see who gets the looks in lower-volume affairs. But this week, all three of them gave us viable fantasy results. Johnston played more snaps and ran higher aDot routes, so he gets the nod on the chart. 

Miami Dolphins

• Tyreek Hill
• Jaylen Waddle
• De’von Achane
• Darren Waller*
  • Darren Waller was not ready to go - the tight ends split with Tanner Conner skewing towards pass-catching. This team looked bad. 

New Orleans Saints**

• Chris Olave
• Rashid Shaheed
• Juwan Johnson
• Alvin Kamara
  • The big surprise here was Juwan Johnson playing 74 of 75 snaps and leading the team in receptions. We’ll have to see if they go with a rotation when guys like Foster Moreau and Taysom Hill come off the IR, but, for the time being, these four guys are clearly leading the charge. 

Philadelphia Eagles

• AJ Brown
• DeVonta Smith
• Dallas Goedert
• Saquon Barkley
  • We were left wondering if maybe AJ Brown is dealing with some sort of ailment hereafter his lackluster performance. Dallas Goedert got a surprising amount of work underneath for a guy who is usually the third target. 

San Francisco 49ers

• George Kittle
• Ricky Pearsall
• Jauan Jennings
• Christian McCaffrey
  • Things went about as we expected here with the exception of George Kittle getting nicked up. If he misses time, it seems like Jake Tonges would be the pass-catching tight end.

One Stud, Then Uncertainty

Atlanta Falcons

• Drake London
  • We love to see the 82% route participation for Kyle Pitts. But we can’t bump him up to locked-in territory until Darnell Mooney returns. Case Washington will continue to fill in for him until then. Keep an eye on Drake London, who left with a shoulder issue. 

Baltimore Ravens

• Zay Flowers
  • The Ravens threw the ball fairly sparingly here and, outside of Flowers, who got 9 targets, no one got more than 3. If the game script looks like this against the Bills, they might not need to throw much against a lot of these teams.  

Carolina Panthers**

• Tetairoa McMillan 
  • We like what we saw from Tet McMillan, leading the team in snaps, routes, and targets. Xavier Leggette and Hunter Renfrew weren’t far behind in routes, and each got 5-6 targets, but we need to see what happens when Jalen Coker comes back. Ja’Tavion Sanders rotated with Tommy Tremble, relegating him to a DFS only option for now. 

Detroit Lions

• Amon-Ra St. Brown
  • Many of us expected Jameson Williams to take a step forward here, but this week, it was Sam LaPorta and Jahmyr Gibbs leading the charge in targets. Williams did play more snaps than he did last year, which is a plus. This team could be a guessing game week to week, but we are hoping it’s highly consolidated enough among these four guys that we can move them to that section. Despite the great one-handed catch, Kalif Raymond played over Isaac TeSlaa. 

Houston Texans

• Nico Collins 
  • Instead of letting the rookies Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel run wild, the Texans let veterans Xavier Hutchinson and Justin Watson play over them. And they did very little. This situation has us stashing Christian Kirk in an IR spot where we can and Jayden Higgins on the bench in deep leagues. The TEs also rotated, so no one other than Collins had a 70% route participation.

New York Jets

• Garrett Wilson
  • Josh Reynolds ran every route, just like Garrett Wilson, but did not really command targets. Same with Mason Taylor, who ran 22 of 25. The volume might not be there.

Pittsburgh Steelers

• DK Metcalf
  • Calvin Austin played a ton of snaps and ran 29 routes, which was second only to DK Metcalf (33). Jonnu Smith and Pat Freiermuth each ran 18 routes, which is a classic Arthur Smith nightmare. Kenneth Gainwell was also the pass-down back with Jaylen Warren on pass downs, but we knew that already based on pre-season. 

Tennessee Titans

• Calvin Ridley
  • Calvin Ridley is the guy - this is arguably the toughest matchup he will see. Elic Ayomamor was on our radar, but now he’s even more appealing after running the second-most routes and getting the second most targets. Chig Okonkwo played the second most snaps behind Ridley and ran 28 routes, so solid usage for him, too. Lockett was the third man and not heavily involved. 

Wide Open

Buffalo Bills

• Keon Coleman
• Khalil Shakir
• Joshua Palmer
• Dalton Kincaid
  • Elijah Moore hardly played, so we were able to eliminate him from the list. And Dalton Kincaid did not play as big a role as we hoped, though he did find paydirt. All three of Coleman, Shakir, and Palmer got 8+ targets, but Coleman definitely looked like he’s taken a step forward. He also led in snaps and routes. Hopefully, he can keep the momentum going. 

Chicago Bears

• DJ Moore
• Rome Odunze
• Olamide Zaccheaus
• Luther Burden
• Colston Loveland
• Cole Kmet
• D’Andre Swift
  • We are not quite ready to declare anyone the definitive winners here. But if you were rooting for DJ Moore and Rome Odunze, things went well this week. They were the clear winners in snap share, routes run, and were obvious focal points. If you were rooting for the rookies, you might need to wait. Olamide Zaccheaus played well ahead of Luther Burden, and Cole Kmet played more snaps and ran more routes than Colston Loveland so they will need to carve out a role over time.

Cleveland Browns

• Jerry Jeudy
• Cedric Tillman
• Noah Fant
• Harold Fannin
  • This one just got a bit complicated. The Browns featured heavy two-tight end sets. Njoku ran 41 routes to 32 for Fannin, but Fannin got more targets. When you throw 48 times, that is fine for everyone but not every week will be like that.

Green Bay Packers

• Romeo Doubs
• Tucker Kraft
• Matthew Golden
• Jayden Reed
• Dontayvion Wicks
  • Week One was a nightmare situation for this WR rotation. Romeo Doubs led, but with only 71% of the snaps. The next was Matthew Golden at 48% meaning every other wide receiver was under 50%. The guy who actually led this team in routes run was Tucker Kraft with 19 - his TE eligibility makes him the most appealing asset right now.

Kansas City Chiefs

• Hollywood Brown
• Travis Kelce
• Xavier Worthy
• Rashee Rice
  • This will be a strange team this year. Whoever is in the role that Rashee Rice typically occupies will get a lot of targets. Right now, that is Hollywood Brown. Rice will be out until Week 7. Xavier Worthy is dealing with a dislocated shoulder and will be out for an unknown amount of time. So Brown and Kelce are guys we can start for the foreseeable future. JuJu Smith-Schuster helps underneath, and Tyquan Thornton runs the deep routes.

New England Patriots

• Kayshon Boutte
• Hunter Henry
• Stefon Diggs
• Demario Douglas
• TreVeyon Henderson
  • We didn’t get much clarification here, though we did see Kayshon Boutte lead in snaps, routes run, and targets, which boosts him up. On the flip side, Kyle Williams hardly played. Stefon Diggs was used sparingly but still got seven targets, so we’ll need to see where he lands or if he will be a full-time guy - he is coming off an ACL injury. Hunter Henry was second on the team in routes run and tied for the target lead, so he has to be pleased with that, though he did block on more pass plays than we generally like to see.