RADIO
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. There’s a reason the biggest and most consistent target-earners are among the top fantasy point scorers: they can be relied on by not just their team’s offense to earn targets and produce on those targets.
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.
Everything we’ll discuss in this season’s WR Targets, Air Yards, and Snaps trends analysis article will be some of the best statistics and metrics correlating with fantasy football production. Think of targets as a page in a coloring book, representing the outline yet to be colored. Coloring on that page adds context and flavor to that page. That’s what we’ll do with targets — adding more context than just some target totals and box score stats.
Note: As the season progresses, noteworthy changes in usage and production will be blended into the equation. Statistics from our player pages at RotoBaller were included during the compilation of data, while Pro Football Reference, PFF, Fantasy Points Data, NFELO, NFL NextGenStats, RotoViz, ESPN Stats and Info, SumerSports, and Nathan Jahnke's Immediate Fantasy Football Takeaways article for that particular week were also used as resources in the creation of this article.
| Name | Pos | Team | W1 Target Share | W2 Target Share | % Change |
| Malik Nabers | WR | NYG | 19.4% | 65.4% | +45.9% |
| Chris Olave | WR | NO | 8.7% | 43.8% | +35.1% |
| Hunter Henry | TE | NE | 13.0% | 47.6% | +34.6% |
| Jaxon Smith-Njigba | WR | SEA | 8.0% | 38.1% | +30.1% |
| Marvin Harrison Jr. | WR | ARI | 10.0% | 38.1% | +28.1% |
| Greg Dulcich | TE | DEN | 4.9% | 26.7% | +21.8% |
| Dontayvion Wicks | WR | GB | 9.7% | 30.8% | +21.1% |
| Dalton Kincaid | TE | BUF | 4.5% | 23.5% | +19.0% |
| Chris Godwin | WR | TB | 27.6% | 44.4% | +16.9% |
| Aaron Jones | RB | MIN | 8.3% | 25.0% | +16.7% |
| Khalil Shakir | WR | BUF | 13.6% | 29.4% | +15.8% |
| Jonnu Smith | TE | MIA | 5.9% | 21.6% | +15.7% |
| DK Metcalf | WR | SEA | 16.0% | 31.0% | +15.0% |
| Jalen Tolbert | WR | DAL | 6.3% | 20.5% | +14.3% |
| Davante Adams | WR | LV | 19.4% | 33.3% | +14.0% |
A lot of huge weeks here from bonafide target earners, but with some very low passing volume. That is definitely the case for Chris Olave with 18 dropbacks for the Saints, Dontayvion Wicks as the Packers had just 17 dropbacks, as well as Khalil Shakir and Dalton Kincaid with 20 dropbacks for Josh Allen and the Bills. A lot of games with low passing volume can skew these numbers and produce outliers.
Jonnu Smith is another; where he was in garbage time down big against the Bills and earned a bunch of late targets.
| Name | Pos | Team | W1 Target Share | W2 Target Share | % Change |
| Tyler Lockett | WR | SEA | 28.0% | 4.8% | -23.2% |
| Cooper Kupp | WR | LAR | 43.8% | 22.2% | -21.5% |
| Tyreek Hill | WR | MIA | 35.3% | 16.2% | -19.1% |
| Greg Dortch | WR | ARI | 26.7% | 9.5% | -17.1% |
| Michael Pittman Jr. | WR | IND | 38.9% | 21.9% | -17.0% |
| Keon Coleman | WR | BUF | 22.7% | 5.9% | -16.8% |
| Allen Lazard | WR | NYJ | 31.0% | 14.3% | -16.7% |
| Brandin Cooks | WR | DAL | 21.9% | 5.1% | -16.7% |
| George Pickens | WR | PIT | 33.3% | 16.7% | -16.7% |
| K.J. Osborn | WR | NE | 26.1% | 9.5% | -16.6% |
| Garrett Wilson | WR | NYJ | 37.9% | 21.4% | -16.5% |
| Adonai Mitchell | WR | IND | 27.8% | 12.5% | -15.3% |
| Wan'Dale Robinson | WR | NYG | 30.6% | 15.4% | -15.2% |
| Sam LaPorta | TE | DET | 18.5% | 3.7% | -14.8% |
| Courtland Sutton | WR | DEN | 26.8% | 13.3% | -13.5% |
Injuries were the culprit for Cooper Kupp’s massive decrease in target share, which doesn’t seem particularly fair, but hey, it’s the game we play. Of course, a negative game script that gets so out of hand plays a factor as well, in the case of the Miami Dolphins and Tyreek Hill, who were taken off the field for the night because that game got so out of hand against the Buffalo Bills.
Arizona Cardinals
Cardinals Notes From Week 2:
The late window in Week 2 was capped off by Marvin Harrison, who proved he was not slow by catching two touchdowns in the first quarter, putting up 130 yards on four receptions.
MARVIN HARRISON JR.'S FIRST NFL TOUCHDOWN HAS ARRIVED pic.twitter.com/EFquDWaM8V
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) September 15, 2024
And that was it. Literally, Harrison’s entire production was contained within the first quarter. 70% of the air yards, 40% of the first-read targets, 92% of routes, and 33% targets per route run (TPRR), Harrison and Trey McBride combined for 67% of the targets in Week 2.
McBride was a bit more efficient than Week 1, catching all six targets for 67 yards and doing his best to beat the allegations that elite fantasy tight ends are dead and buried. No other Cardinal caught more than two balls or earned more than 31 receiving yards in a pretty condensed attack in Week 2.
James Conner had his usual dominance over the Cardinals’ backfield with 22 carries, 122 yards and a touchdown. No worries here chugging away with Conner going forward. Trey Benson did get some more run in garbage time to the tune 11 carries for 10 yards on 33% snaps. Not super great.
Atlanta Falcons
Falcons Notes From Week 2:
The biggest note for me for the Falcons on Monday Night Football is that Kirk Cousins looked markedly better than he did in Week 1. It was easy to see against the Steelers in some of the all-22 film that Cousins was not putting any weight on his back leg and there was little-to-no transfer of power and driving through the ball. It looked like Cousins was whiplashing the ball toward his receivers and because of that, he would come up short on throws.
Not so much this week as Cousins looked much more comfortable making throws and he saved his best for the final drive where he hit Drake London on a beautiful out-breaking route in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.
KIRK FINDS DRAKE LONDON IN THE END ZONE WITH LESS THAN A MINUTE LEFT 😱
FALCONS TAKE A ONE-POINT LEAD 🔥 pic.twitter.com/47hDFw2RO1
— ESPN (@espn) September 17, 2024
London ended his night with six receptions 54 yards on a team-leading seven targets. Both he and Darnell Mooney (3-88) had touchdowns and ran routes on 100% of Cousins’ dropbacks.
Kyle Pitts had a quiet night, catching all three of his targets for 20 yards and also ceded some of his routes to Charlie Woerner after having 100% route participation in Week 1. Not super ideal, but Ray-Ray McCloud also ran 100% of routes out of the slot, so maybe there’s some kind of correlation there? Pitts did see a sharp decrease in snaps lined up in the slot from 64% to just 24% in Week 2. We’ll see if this holds in Week 3; we sure hope not.
Bijan Robinson saw a robust 75% snap rate and 74% routes per dropback, so he’s got the workhorse role as always, where Tyler Allgeier is just a non-factor, but remains a contingent play in the event something happens to Robinson.
Baltimore Ravens
Ravens Notes From Week 2:
The Ravens were up 23-13 with 12:00 left in the game and were forced to punt twice and allowed two field goals plus a touchdown to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. There are still some solid takeaways to be made from a fantasy perspective, but this Ravens team is much more volatile than they have been because A) they don’t have Mike Macdonald spearheading their defense, and B) their offense just hasn’t been consistently on point and productive in two games.
18 targets for Zay Flowers after two games is pretty, pretty good I’d say, as Flowers tacked on another ten targets for a 7-91 line plus a touchdown in the beginning of the third quarter. With Mark Andrews not getting out to the greatest of starts, it’s nice to have at least somebody consistently earning targets and producing on them to start the season.
Andrews has just seven targets in his first two games and in Week 2, he didn’t earn his first target until there was roughly a minute left in the first half, ending in a 4-51 line on five targets. It’s concerning for sure, but there are better days ahead for Andrews.
For Week 1 hero Isaiah Likely, perhaps not so much? Likely went from 12 targets on 69% routes to just three targets on 49% of routes. I think the real truth for Likely is that his floor ultimately ends up somewhere in the middle of the two performances.
For both of them, it looks like Andrews might be straddling that elite tight end line if 70-75% routes is going to be his norm vs. the 85-90% he was ticketed for earlier in his career. Likely eats into his bottom line and while both are for sure rosterable, they’re going to take a little off of each other’s plates this season considering that 12-personnel has been Baltimore’s base offensive formation.
Same story as last week with the Ravens’ run game, with Derrick Henry being one of the more obvious tells for a run play since Jordan Howard. Henry had 18 carries on just 30 snaps (46%) and was a non-factor in the receiving game as Justice Hill continues his brand of chipping in here and there in the receiving game and being in during other passing scenarios.
Buffalo Bills
Bills Notes From Week 2:
It’s very difficult to get a gauge on a passing game when the quarterback throws 19 passes and then game is essentially over in the third quarter. The Bills didn’t have to do a lot of heavy lifting on Thursday night as they let James Cook… well, cook. He only needed 12 touches total (11 carries, one reception) to put up 95 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns.
Shockingly, Cook received carries inside the five-yard line… on purpose! While those touches seem destined for Ray Davis later in the season when bodies are more beat up, it’s an intriguing development for Cook. He’s been the same bet as Jahmyr Gibbs and who knows, you could find a couple people who if they knew Cook would get green zone work, would rank or draft him ahead of Gibbs.
Davis saw 6-of-9 carries in the final two drives while the game was well in hand, but he did mix in with a carry or two early on. It’s a role that is growing slowly but considering how much the Bills are putting importance on the run game, Davis needs to be rostered in fantasy as a priority contingency play in the even something happens to Cook.
With the run game being the main engine driving the Bills’ comfortable win, the passing game took a backseat. Dalton Kincaid earned four targets but left the game early with a suspected concussion but came back into the game a couple of drives later, which stunted his 4-33 night that potentially could have been bigger.
The only other Bills player to catch more than one pass was Khalil Shakir, with a solid 5-54 line. Shakir seems like the only stable pass-catcher at the moment; I guess you can throw Kincaid in there too, but he hasn’t produced a meaningful stat line as of yet. Keon Coleman couldn’t catch his lone target on 90% routes, Curtis Samuel went from 30% routes per dropback in Week 1 to 40% in Week 2, but while he’s been dealing with a turf tor issue, you can go ahead and cut him loose.
Carolina Panthers
Panthers Notes From Week 2:
Mind blowing stat from @NFLPlus - the Panthers have led for 10 total seconds in their last 9 games
— Michael F. Florio (@MichaelFFlorio) September 16, 2024
I mean, I could just leave that tweet as is for this week’s Panthers notes. Does it get the point across? The Panthers are generationally bad. I don’t know if another adjective could do it proper justice.
Abhorrent? Detestable? Nauseating? Make sure you definitely send me more of your favorite adjectives describing the Carolina Panthers to me @ktompkinsii on X/Twitter.
You never root for a player to be benched in just his second season after just 18 starts, but that is exactly what happened to Bryce Young earlier this week. Young just did not look the part and made little to no improvement from last season to the first two games of this season. Head coach Dave Canales – known in some circles as “the quarterback whisperer” perhaps was too quiet in his whispering to get through to Young.
The Panthers will turn to red-headed veteran Andy Dalton to right the ship from Week 3 on, and he should be a meaningful improvement to pass-catchers like Diontae Johnson and Adam Thielen. Johnson has just five receptions for 34 yards in his two games as a Panthers; seems bad. That should improve.
As for the rest of the Panthers, Xavier Legette didn’t earn a target on a downward-trending 52% routes; down seven targets on 59% routes per dropback last week.
In the running game, Chuba Hubbard was solid as the main guy in the backfield (52% routes and 59% snaps) and earned four targets. Miles Sanders isn’t quite dust yet as he earned three targets himself plus seven carries. The backfield should see a solid offensive environment bump as the Panthers should be have a few more scoring opportunities, up from the one rushing touchdown by Young and two field goals for 13 points on the season for Carolina.
Yikes.
Chicago Bears
Bears Notes From Week 2:
Shane Waldron's handling of Caleb Williams through two weeks is essentially telling Williams to build an IKEA hutch and giving him a manual written in Mandarin.
Blaming Williams for all of the issues w/ the Bears' offense is pretty irresponsible and dismisses the actual issue.
— Kevin Tompkins (@ktompkinsii) September 18, 2024
To say that offensive coordinator Shane Waldron’s handling of Caleb Williams has been frustrating is putting it very mildly. There’s probably a reason why Seattle’s offense looks great now in 2024 and why Chicago’s offense looks stuck in the mud this season.
::Brian Windhorst meme.jpg::
No Keenan Allen on Sunday night, so a hobbled Rome Odunze and D.J. Moore had to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Moore led the Bears’ pass-catchers in everything from targets (10), receptions (6), yards (54), etc. Odunze has been playing through injury and doesn’t seem right yet but toughed it out on 96% routes per dropback.
One wrong was righted as Cole Kmet (60% routes, 77% snaps) played solidly over Gerald Everett (48%, 46%), but it’s not like it really meant anything production-wise, because it just didn’t.
D’Andre Swift earned the lion’s share of snaps (68%) and routes (57%) but it didn’t amount to too much as Swift only managed 42 total yards on four receptions and 14 carries. For some reason unbeknownst to me, Travis Homer was the RB2 behind Swift and almost tripled Khalil Herbert’s snaps and routes, but Herbert got a two-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
Cincinnati Bengals
Bengals Notes From Week 2:
The Bengals’ game with the Chiefs was a weird game, where Joe Burrow had a handful of his most useful targets taken away, so he had to make do with other secondary pieces and it almost worked as the Bengals were incredibly spry and played the Chiefs tough.
Ja’Marr Chase was held in check by the Chiefs, as he earned five targers but only pulled in four for 35 yards on a 5.4-yard aDOT.
Tight end Mike Gesicki had a massive game, with team-leading marks in targets (9), receptions (7), and yards (91) to pace the pass-catchers. Massive of course, relative to every other Bengal.
Mike Gesicki had a great day yesterday. The Bengals used him on hi-lo concepts both to the middle of the field and outside and let him cook DBs one on one.
Tied for the 4th best yardage game of his career and definitely the best game he's had in general since 2021. pic.twitter.com/fQ5LdtV0zQ
— mike (@bengals_sans) September 16, 2024
I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention Erick All Jr., who played substantially more for the Bengals in Week 2 than the previous week and could find himself being a solid contributor in the way the team has rotated through guys like Tanner Hudson, Mitchell Wilcox, C.J. Uzomah, etc.
For now, this backfield belongs to Zack Moss, as Chase Brown is just such a non-factor and could even be droppable in shallower leagues. Moss didn’t put up a great game by any means, but 80% of snaps and 63% of routes saw him on the field a good majority of the time.
Cleveland Browns
Browns Notes From Week 2:
Over the last two games, it seems like Deshaun Watson just cannot get on the same page as Amari Cooper. After last week’s opener where Cooper was targeted nine times for just two receptions and 16 yards, more of the same this week with eight targets, and a 3-11 line.
For those of you scoring at home, that’s 17 targets, five receptions and 27 yards. It could be just an anomaly or teams forcing guys like Jerry Jeudy and Elijah Moore to beat them. Whatever it is, it’s scary if you ask me.
Watson had a much easier time getting balls out to Jeudy and Moore, who with Cooper, combined for 69% of the teams’ targets. That target hierarchy is changed just a little bit without David Njoku in the lineup. Moore took on a little bit more target earning at a shorter 4.5-yard aDOT and Jeudy the more “downfield” compliment -- downfield meaning 11.2-yards, the highest on the team in Week 2.
While we’re talking about a hierarchy here, the running backs have a much smaller pie, but it’s being shared by all three healthy backs in Jerome Ford, Pierre Strong Jr., and D’Onta Foreman. After Ford looked like the dominant workhorse role guy in Week 1, Foreman doubled up Ford on carries, with Strong mixing in as well. It’s quite the departure from just a week ago, so we’ll see how this shakes out for Week 3, but if you have Ford rostered, you don’t feel super great about him going forward.
Dallas Cowboys
Cowboys Notes From Week 2:
Dallas was blown out at home by the Saints, so some of the routes numbers by players like CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks (2-19) are lower than what they typically would be due to the blowout. Lamb did pull in 4-of-7 targets for 90 yards and a 65-yard score that saw him duck two defenders along the sideline and outrun the rest for the score.
Without Jake Ferguson, second-year tight end Luke Schoonmaker earned six targets at a paltry 2.2-yard aDOT and on just 37% of routes as he split work with Brevyn Spann-Ford; who I’m sure is definitely a real person that exists.
The running back situation is dire, with both Ezekiel Elliott and Rico Dowdle earning 35% of routes and Deuce Vaughn now entering the equation with 11% of routes and 14% of snaps. It’s getting harder and harder to start any of them each week unless you’re desperate for a RB2 or flex options with all of these injuries around the league, which honestly, is understandable.
Denver Broncos
Broncos Notes From Week 2:
The Broncos may legitimately be the most unathletic offense in modern football history. Josh Reynolds might matter in a “he’s somewhat good in real-life NFL football” way, but probably not in a consistent fantasy football way. Reynolds put up the most usable stat line with 4-93 on five targets.
Greg Dulcich led the team with eight targets, though he didn’t do anything with them, catching three for just 16 yards. Courtland Sutton ran the most routes on the team, but he’s borderline useless.
Again, it goes back to coaches putting players in the best spots to succeed. I trust Mike McDaniel and Kevin O’Connell a ton when it comes to scheming players open and putting them in good spots. Sean Payton cannot do that. Maybe there was a time where he could, but that time may have passed him by at this point, because this is unwatchable and brutal.
Javonte Williams didn’t look great at all, with 11 carries for just 17 tards. He caught all five of his targets for 48 yards though, so that’s sometime. He’s still got the leg up on everybody else in the backfield, including Jaleel McLaughlin, who ran 36% of routes but couldn’t earn a target somehow.
Detroit Lions
Lions Notes From Week 2:
So, Sam LaPorta might be in trouble, folks. With the emergence of Jameson Williams, the LaPorta bet is now the George Kittle bet from last season, where you have so many good-to-great targets in the offense that one (or more) may fall by the wayside in a given week assuming all are healthy.
It’s definitely not to say that LaPorta is bad or anything, but drafting him as the overall TE1 in fantasy drafts likely will not result in even a path to overall TE1 this season with this offense running the way it is. The bet is INCREDIBLY thinner for LaPorta to return TE1 value this season.
LaPorta disappointed yet again with just two targets on a day where the Lions had 56 pass attempts. Amon-Ra St. Brown (18) and Jameson Williams (11) both earned double-digit targets, ran routes on 91% of Jared Goff’s dropbacks, and paced the offense in a major way.
With this specific type of game-script where the Lions got down and had to pass their way out of it, it gives much more value to a player like Jahmyr Gibbs vs. David Montgomery, and we saw that play out in Week 2. Gibbs earned a whopping nine targets, out-snapped Montgomery 62% to 35%, and took way more routes (57% to 24%) than Montgomery in the negative game script. Montgomery still got a touchdown and caught all four targets as well, so he was plenty relevant in the gameplan though Gibbs was on the field much more.
Green Bay Packers
Packers Notes From Week 2:
Head coach Matt LaFleur put together a masterful approach to having to start failed quarterback experiment Malik Willis in Week 2. We all can’t have a Brock Purdy or Sam Darnold, I suppose. LaFleur made the gameplan look like a service academy offense more fit for Saturdays than Sundays.
Matt LeFleur’s gameplan with Malik Willis was just awesome stuff of playing to a QB’s strengths and creatively designing easy yards. A masterclass - the kind of gameplan that undermines coaches who make excuses. Plus, great stuff for college and high school coaches to study.
— Chris B. Brown (@smartfootball) September 17, 2024
I talked with RotoBaller's own Kyle Lindemann on his podcast about the Packers and how they could never develop a single-game approach like this with Aaron Rodgers under center. It’s the classic “accentuate the positives and hide the negatives” style of game plan, where LaFleur could design fantastic jet motion and misdirection concepts (including guards pulling the opposite way – fun!) to stymie an already weak Colts’ run game.
Josh Jacobs literally ran away with it, putting up 151 rushing yards on 32 (!) carries. The Packers also put up an unfathomable -31.1 PROE, the lowest that I’ve seen in the four seasons that I’ve been covering the team-by-team stuff regularly. MarShawn Lloyd hit the IR this week, so at least for the next four weeks, we’ll see Emanuel Wilson get some run as the backup. If the Packers keep the same run-first mentality with Willis as quarterback, then Wilson will have a little standalone value for the deeper leagues.
As expected with a -31.1 PROE, the passing game was virtually non-existent. Romeo Doubs led the team in receiving yards (62) while everybody’s (my) favorite offseason Packers wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks scored the lone touchdown on a team-leading four targets. While Jayden Reed did see 82% of routes, he caught both targets for nine yards while adding two carries for 37 yards. I’m not sure why he wasn’t utilized more, but that could have been just running the hot hand with Jacobs.
That said, while Willis is the quarterback of the Packers, you can’t be putting any of the receiving options into your fantasy lineups. There’s huge zero fantasy point risk with everybody. It’s Jacobs or bust; with Wilson being rostered as a contingency in case something happens to Jacobs.
Houston Texans
Texans Notes From Week 2:
Sunday Night Football was more of a slog than it had any right to be, as a matchup of C.J. Stroud vs. Caleb Williams just ended up a bit gross. Still, there were some fun things to take away, like Nico Collins just leaving Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell in the dust. Collins led the Texans in everything with his 8-135 line on 10 targets, including a touchdown on the first play of the second quarter. 30% target share, 28% TPRR, 3.75 YPRR; Collins is pretty much turning into Julio Jones at this point.
I’m glad the offseason is over where people were debating if Nico Collins was a WR1 and if he was a top TWENTY WR.
You can make the argument that there aren’t 5 better than Nico. pic.twitter.com/BKLvrWnrQD
— Jacob (@Stroud4MVP) September 19, 2024
It’s not like Diggs and Dell weren’t involved, but certainly not to the degree of Collins. Compared to Dell, Diggs put up a useful 4-37 stat line on six targets. Dell had fewer receiving yards than I did on Sunday Night (-3), but added 16 yards on the ground; not that it really helped anything.
Dell is one of the biggest buy-low players in fantasy currently, as Dell is still running 85% routes, the Texans are running 11 personnel at a high frequency, and Stroud still looks fantasy. It’s just a matter of time before Diggs and Dell get theirs.
Joe Mixon ended up playing much less than he typically does, as he suffered an ankle injury thanks to a hip-drop tackle that wasn’t penalized in the game but could be looked at after the fact. Mixon only had nine carries for 25 yards as he played only 47% of snaps. Dare Ogunbowale and Cam Akers stand to benefit the most if Mixon cannot play in Week 3, but Demon Pierce could also mix into this budding committee if he can get over his own hamstring injury in time.
Indianapolis Colts
Colts Notes From Week 2:
On the other side of the Packers’ service academy offense that worked swimmingly, the Colts saw Anthony Richardson put together a shaky performance that was moderately salvaged by an Alec Pierce touchdown with under two minutes in the fourth quarter. Richardson was intercepted three times and besides that Pierce throw, nothing else really came out of the passing game that was usable for fantasy purposes.
Pierce led the way with seven targets, and a 5-56 receiving line that includes the late touchdown. He’s a hard player to read because he’s been anything but a target-earner in his short career, but is having the best start to a season as well. He’s been a trendy waiver wire add and I’ve very fine being out on him in the event he turns back into a pumpkin.
Michael Pittman, he of third round fantasy draft capital, has earned seven targets in each game, but only has seven receptions for 52 yards to show for it. Running routes is great, but Pittman has turned into the cardio wide receiver that Pierce was the last two seasons while Pierce has scored twice and otherwise been very dynamic. It feels like a hot take, but Pierce and rookie Adonai Mitchell feel like better stylistic fits with this Colts offense than Pittman does. And yet the Colts paid Pittman big money ($46m guaranteed) this offseason.
Of course, you’ve got to hold Pittman, but it’s a very shaky start for Pittman in the early part of 2024 and not helping matters his just how run-heavy the Colts have been as a team with the eighth-lowest PROE (-7.8%) in the league through two weeks.
Of course, Jonathan Taylor has benefited from the Colts’ run-heavy approach, as he went over the 100-yard mark. In turn, his routes per dropback were slashed from Week 1 (83%) to Week 2’s 30%. Any receiving upside to go with a good rushing profile is welcomed for Taylor, but if he’s not going to even get the chance to provide that, then the bet that Taylor crushes fantasy is severely diminished.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Jaguars Notes From Week 2:
The Jaguars are just weird little guys, man.
If you are reading this, then you (YES, YOU!) had more receiving yards than Christian Kirk did (-1) in Week 2. Congratulations! Kirk has two catches for 29 yards… no not this week but combined in both games to start the season. Both Brian Thomas Jr. and Gabe Davis have out-targeted him thus far in the young season. It seems like a situation where we’re going to get Doug Pederson to say, “We need to get Kirk involved”, and then they get Kirk five targets on the first drive. A tale as old as time.
Right now, no wide receiver has separated themselves, but Thomas is certainly the most attractive fantasy asset right now in Jacksonville as it’s bullish he’s seeing 80% and 83% of routes in his first two games. Not only that, but he’s converting on some deep targets plus he scored in Week 1. I’m prioritizing him of the three receivers at the moment.
Evan Engram suffered a hamstring injury in pre-game warmups, so Brenton Strange came in to run 72% of routes for seven targets, which tied for the team lead in Week 2. If Engram misses Monday Night Football against the Bills, Strange has some slight streaming upside.
Travis Etienne still has the stranglehold on the backfield as uaual, but Tank Bigsby hurt himself on special teams, so he did not play one offensive snap in Week 2. D’Ernest Johnson (28% snaps) played behind Etienne in his stead.
Kansas City Chiefs
Chiefs Notes From Week 2:
The big news here for the Chiefs is Isiah Pacheco, who broke his leg and was placed on injured reserve. It’s likely going to be some combination of Samaje Perine, Carson Steele, Keaontay Ingram, and potentially the newly signed former Chief Kareem Hunt. Perine’s role as a third-down back plus long down and distance work seems insulated there, but where Steele can provide a punch is in the early-down stuff and in goal-line work. That’s why he was the top waiver wire add of the week.
Rashee Rice is awesome and just continues to produce every week in the passing game. Rice led the team with six targets, a 5-75 line, and a touchdown to go along with a 27% target share, and a 2.78 YPRR. He’s a fantasy WR1 in my book and needs to be a must-start option each week. The fact that Rice’s touchdown was of the deeper variety can be something that rounds out his game instead of just being the slant guy, or the shorter aDOT guy. That touchdown does way more for his overall upside as a top wide receiver in fantasy than people realize.
No one wants to talk about it but Rashee is playing at a top 5-10 WR level through the first 2 weeks of the season. He’s been AMAZING pic.twitter.com/94qMd7svrX
— Jyair (@CantCookJyair) September 17, 2024
Nobody else really stepped up in the passing game besides Rice, as Travis Kelce flopped with one reception for five yards and Xavier Worthy earned 69% of routes but only managed 22 total yards on three touches.
Las Vegas Raiders
Raiders Notes From Week 2:
As the kids say, Brock Bowers is HIM. The fact that Bowers did what he did on Sunday – nine catches, 98 yards – with just 65% routes per dropback is actually crazy. Bowers has already surpassed Jakobi Meyers (five targets, 4-29) in terms of target pecking order and is the 2024 poster child (along with Malik Nabers) on why we make the bet on rookies. ESPECIALLY in the case of Bowers, where we’ve gotten a massive discount in fantasy drafts relative to the top seven or eight tight ends.
The black box element of drafting rookies at depressed fantasy draft values will ALWAYS be optimal because of what you get when you’re right. Knowing that Bowers as an 18-year-old freshman at Georgia was outproducing NFL talent should have left zero doubt to his profile and what he can do in the NFL, but somehow, he was still pushed down in drafts.
#Raiders using lots of RPOs/Screens as an extension of the run-game. Brock Bowers + Davante Adams are featured on these looks
I think it's still likely to regress somewhat, but would not at all be shocked if Raiders remain a +PROE team. It just makes sense with their personnel https://t.co/YepIIIOjgw
— Sam Sherman (@Sherman_FFB) September 18, 2024
If the Raiders are going to be a positive PROE team all season, it’s going to be wheels up for Bowers and Davante Adams, and even Meyers in some weeks. Minshew can support two elite options each week with increased passing volume.
38 passes to 17 runs meant that the run game took a backseat. Zamir White’s 12 touches (nine carries, three targets) to Alexander Mattison’s four carries for one yard means White is still the clubhouse leader here in the Vegas backfield with 64% snaps and 54% routes per dropback.
Los Angeles Chargers
Chargers Notes From Week 2:
The Chargers made it easy on themselves as they didn’t have to do much to dispatch the punchless Panthers despite traveling from the west coast to the east coast for a 1:00 PM local start time.
J.K. Dobbins looks like one of the best backs in the league, with 131 yards on the ground and catching his lone target for one yard as well. Dobbins capped off a long touchdown run with a flip into the end zone, which definitely made the old guard of professional football shake their fists in rage, I’m sure. The fact that Dobbins is DOUBLE the next-highest running back in rush yards over expectation is absolutely wild considering where he stood all offseason, preseason, and heading into Week 1.
JK DOBBINS RUNNING THROUGH EVERYBODY.
📺: #LACvsCAR on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/IrANF2mYTR— NFL (@NFL) September 15, 2024
As we all predicted, Quentin Johnston led all pass-catchers in targets, receptions, receiving yards, and caught both touchdowns from Justin Herbert. I know we all thought that Johnston would have more fantasy points than names like Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jaylen Waddle, and DJ Moore.
We all thought that, right?
Johnston is pacing the wide receivers with a 2.07 yards per route run through two games and while it’s a small sample, it’s meaningfully better than him being as putrid as he was last season. I’m not saying he’s an immediate buy in fantasy leagues, but he’s worth kicking the tires on if you can get him on the cheap or for free on the waiver wire.
It’s very meaningful that Johnston not only has seemingly improved from his rookie season but is now adding production to his profile and is being trusted to run 83% and 86% of routes per dropback in the first two weeks. We tend to jump the gun on what seem like bad players and write their post-mortem a bit too early without giving a player a chance to improve, which isn’t that what a rookie is supposed to do?
Perhaps we’ve been spoiled by the immediate impact of wide receivers like Justin Jefferson, Ja’Marr Chase, Malik Nabers, and more, that we see what used to be a typical rookie wide receiver career arc (see Davante Adams) and then call him dead after a season.
Ladd McConkey saw a handful of targets, as did Joshua Palmer, but neither made a meaningful dent in the passing game for fantasy purposes. The Chargers had just 22 dropbacks in a game they didn’t need to exert much energy to beat Carolina. This is likely going to be the modus operandi for the Chargers all season; win with the run and pass when needed. The Chargers have the third-lowest raw pass rate at 43% and the third-lowest PROE as well, so Harbaugh football is alive and well.
Los Angeles Rams
Rams Notes From Week 2:
This game was marred by Cooper Kupp leaving in the middle of the game with an ankle injury, but reports are out saying that the team is not putting him on injured reserve to perhaps give him a chance to work it out.
Now with this passing game sans Puka Nacua and Kupp for the time being, we’re down to Demarcus Robinson, Tyler Johnson, Jordan Whittington and Tutu Atwell. None of these players have the sort of analytical profile that shows you they’re going to be stars with Kupp and Nacua out.
Robinson and Johnson have been journeymen throughout their careers and have large route samples that have both at a career YPRR mark right around 1.00. Whittington is a mystery box option that’s unknown, and Atwell has been a solid real-life NFL player good for schemed touches, but also as somebody to run off safeties once Van Jefferson was traded last season.
People want to say “X player is going to have all this opportunity and benefit from it in a huge way!” when it’s far more likely they all just provide a varying degree of floor outcomes and the offense just won’t produce as it did. These guys can succeed with elite players around them because of factors like the attention the elite players command, free releases, overall play-by-play success, EPA, etc.
Robinson and Johnson were already high-routes players and it’s doubtful their outcomes are majorly impacted without Kupp and Nacua. We’ve seen Atwell before. Whittington is the one to target, ESPECIALLY if you’ve got the bench room to be able to take a stab on the unknown vs. a floor play in Robinson or Johnson.
From last week, the passing game was incredibly spread out with Kupp still leafing the team in targets and receptions despite playing just 59% routes. No other wide receiver or tight end had over 50 receiving yards or over three receptions.
Kyren Williams still performed solidly despite the overwhelmingly negative game script, as he ran in a garbage-time touchdown. Blake Corum did see eight carries but they all came in the final drive of the game.
Miami Dolphins
Dolphins Notes From Week 2:
Much of the story of the Dolphins revolves around the health and well-being of Tua Tagovailoa, who left with a concussion and did not return. He won’t return for at least four weeks, as he was placed on injured reserve on Tuesday. Skylar Thompson will assume quarterback duties after the team rebuked rumors of a veteran quarterback signing with the team, like former Dolphin and current free agent Ryan Tannehill.
It's hard to parse just how the Dolphins will fare with Thompson as quarterback, but head coach Mike McDaniel is somebody I trust implicitly to get the football into the hands of the Dolphins’ playmakers in one way or another. Just like Matt LaFluer, McDaniel just gets the modern game of spacing, speed, and constant movement.
De’Von Achane should be fine from Tua to Thompson in terms of fantasy value, as he led the team on Thursday night with 96 rushing yards and then went ahead and led the team in all receiving categories as he caught all seven targets for a nice 69 yards and a receiving score. He’s been just incredible to watch anyway as a runner of the football, but adding the receiving aspect to his game unlocks the “legendary running back season” range of Achane’s outcomes that we’ve seen from the McCaffreys, Kamaras, and Gurleys of the world.
In a game where the Dolphins got down big in the third quarter and then lost their starting quarterback, Tyreek Hill (3-24) and Jaylen Waddle (4-41) predictably had subpar games. Both receivers will be the most likely players taking hits to their fantasy values with Thompson in at quarterback, but because they’re both such efficiency stars, you can’t sit either.
With no Matt Milano patrolling the middle for the Bills, Jonnu Smith was the non-Achane winner of the passing game, with a 6-53 line on seven targets. Smith’s routes took a big jump from Week 1’s 36% to Week 2’s 69%, but he’s still splitting time on the field with both Julian Hill and Durham Smythe and likely saw so much time on the field because of the blowout nature of the game. I’m still hesitant to expect big-time involvement from Smith, especially with a backup quarterback for the next month or more.
Minnesota Vikings
Vikings Notes From Week 2:
Along with Mike McDaniel, who I without a doubt trust to get the ball to playmakers in creative ways, I also trust head coach Kevin O’Connell to develop a scheme to do all of those same things. We saw the Vikings not skip a beat offensively last season with names like Jaren Hall and Nick Mullens manning the controls at quarterback. We’re now seeing it with Sam Darnold, who has been a revelation in the last two games as starter.
Justin Jefferson was Justin Jefferson; no big shock there. He managed four catches for 133 yards and a 97-yard touchdown heave from Darnold that elicited a “HOLY SMOKES!” from the greatest announcer of this or any generation, Kevin Harlan.
We're really about to put an active player in Canton.@JJettas2
📺: @NFLonCBs pic.twitter.com/cephalTst9
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) September 15, 2024
Jefferson picked up a quad injury following their victory, but he said he’s feeling good and all signs point to him being in the Vikings’lineup for Week 3.
With Jordan Addison’s status still up in the air, Jalen Nailor could play a bigger role in the Vikings’ passing game. Nailor did score from 10-yards in the third quarter with a solid three-catch, 54-yard effort on four targets on 97% routes. For the receivers, it’s going to be all hands on deck if Jefferson is limited and Addison remains out.
You can throw Aaron Jones into that mix too, as he was the next highest target earner after Jefferson, bringing in all six targets for 36 yards. His workload is very secure, with Ty Chandler taking a lot of low-value touches and racking up 82 yards on one more carry than Jones received. It’s still Jones’ backfield and there’s no worry here with Chandler, though he will continue to be involved.
New England Patriots
Patriots Notes From Week 2:
The entire wide receiver corps is going to be a work in progress for a little bit, but I guess until then, we can get used to Hunter Henry turning back the clock and being just a target monster. Henry earned almost HALF of the entire team’s targets (47.6% target share) in Week 2, with 10 targets and an eight-catch, 109-yard line. In fact, Henry had over 76% of the team’s receiving yards.
You know, when I type that, that seems incredibly dire for the passing game as a whole. The Patriots need SOMEBODY to step up like DeMario Douglas did last season, and they probably cannot wait until Kendrick Bourne comes back off of injured reserve. Whether it’s Ja’Lynn Polk, K.J. Osborn, Javon Baker, SOMEBODY. ANYBODY. Please step up!
Rhamondre Stevenson had a solid day at the office with 90 total yards and a touchdown with heavy routes and snaps, but Antonio Gibson outgained him with 103 total yards but no touchdown. The split remains the same as it ever was with Stevenson the clear lead back and Gibson the clear spell.
New Orleans Saints
Saints Notes From Week 2:
The Saints are the new hot topic in the NFL and Klint Kubiak has become THE hot new head coaching candidate based on his first two weeks as offensive coordinator. Last week, we talked about the Saints going from bottom in 2023 to the top two games into this season in terms of pre-snap motion and up to the third-highest rate of play-action passes and that train just keeps on chugging.
🎓Klint Kubiak has the answer sheet🎓
47 points Week 1
44 points Week 2 pic.twitter.com/XzZMABTHTd— Jacob Gibbs (@jagibbs_23) September 16, 2024
What hasn’t been talked about though with the Saints is what happens when opposing teams gameplan for this kind of stuff in their pre-game preparations? Then it becomes a sort of tug-of-war, push and pull kind of thing where since the league has adjusted to the Saints joining us in this century with their use of motion and play-action, the Saints will have to adjust to what the league is doing to combat that.
Thus far, it's been difficult to stop what teams are doing and there’s a reason why most of the best offensive teams like the Dolphins, Rams, 49ers, Chiefs, Packers, Lions, and Ravens (to name a few) all use it.
The Saints only three 16 passes in Week 2 as they throttled the Cowboys in Dallas. Efficiency will do that, as they Saints could just run it down Dallas’ throat, and Alvin Kamara did just that with four (!) touchdowns on the day. Kamara is pushing my face into the dirt with personal best ball and redraft bags being very light on shares, and for good reason.
We were about one foot away from getting Chris Olave to join the Saints party with a touchdown, but we cannot have nice things. Olave remains an excellent buy-low player in fantasy, as if the Saints are going to be THIS efficient on offense, it’s a complete outlier for Olave to be this quiet from a production standpoint.
Olave 4-81 wasn’t BAD at all, but we’ve gotten touchdowns from Rashid Shaheed, including this week. Shaheed pulled in all four targets for 96 yards and a touchdown from 70 yards, and then added 13 yards on the ground too.
Once the Saints start getting into more competitive games, the passing volume is going to be very low; it’s just the nature of the beast. That said, we’re certainly due for an Olave spike week, so stay the course.
New York Giants
Giants Notes From Week 2:
Honestly, just build the entire Giants plane out of Malik Nabers. Only four Giants even were targeted against the Commanders on Sunday and Nabers reeled off a 10-127 line with a touchdown. Of those 26 targets the Giants had, Nabers earned 17 of them, good for a 65% target share. I mean, that’s just insane.
Seeing first-read targets is great, but seeing first-reads downfield is even better.
Air yard share vs. first-read target share (credit to @RyanJ_Heath and @FantasyPtsData) pic.twitter.com/UtyqMT0tzc
— Jake Tribbey (@JakeTribbey) September 17, 2024
The thought process behind Nabers was the fact that you had to ask yourself “Who else do the Giants have to throw to!?” While the targets from Daniel Jones may be pretty inefficient at times, the raw targets and the immense talent should prove to be well worth the investment in Nabers.
Wan’Dale Robinson also scored a seven-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that salvaged his pedestrian 2-18 day outside of the score. So I guess he is a guy they can throw to. But why throw to him, when it feels so good to just lob up balls to your alpha in Nabers?
For the run game, Devin Singletary has a firm grip on most situations in the backfield with a 79% snap share and Tyrone Tracy Jr. is still getting his feet wet with just one touch in Week 2.
New York Jets
Jets Notes From Week 2:
It was all about the running backs for the Jets in Week 2. The obvious one being Breece Hall, who is just an absolute superstar and should flirt with being the 1.01 next season. With 62 rushing yards, plus catching 7-of-8 targets for 52 yards and a touchdown, Hall actually let the Jets in targets (8) and receptions with seven.
The other back in the fold was 20-year-old Braelon Allen, who scored a rushing and receiving touchdown along with 56 total yards. Allen was also much more involved with 36% routes and 35% snaps, so he could carve out a modest enough standalone role in this backfield while maintaining a super elite contingent value ceiling as well. He’s earned it.
While Garrett Wilson led the way among the wide receivers, he’s been kind of lost in the weeds, especially this week. The 100% route participating has never been in question, but the not being dominant thing with a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers after living with the nightmare that was Zach Wilson for the past two seasons that frustrates fantasy managers who selected him at the end of the first round or the beginning of the second round.
Philadelphia Eagles
Eagles Notes From Week 2:
No A.J. Brown in this one, so DeVonta Smith had to do some heavy lifting with a 7-76 line on 10 targets, plus a touchdown in the first quarter. All of those marks led the team while everybody else pretty much pitched up without stepping up in a major way. Massive 35% target share, 29% TPRR, full route and snap participation. You love to see it.
A lot of the key moments of this game revolved around Saquon Barkley, who seemingly has a new lease on life in Philadelphia, as he’s running behind the best offensive line he’s ever had, getting a ton of yards before contact, and looking spry and solidly efficient. Barkley has a stranglehold on the workload in Philadelphia with 90% snaps and 83% routes per dropback in Week 2.
Yeah, Barkley had that massive drop on third down when the Eagles could have ran the ball and take off another :40 seconds on the clock, but I actually liked the play-call.
Saquon Barkley has 16 drops since the 2021 season.
No other NFL running back has more.
A costly one tonight in Philly. pic.twitter.com/oacjBr3wFa
— Ryan Field (@RyanFieldABC) September 17, 2024
That is to contract the NFL talking heads, who seemingly did NOT like the play-call, but in a true “hand in the dirt” NFL take, you signed a guy like Barkley to big money and you have to trust your guys to make plays for you. The only reason people are talking about it is because the play wasn’t successful. How often does Barkley drop that pass though? Not very often at all if you ran that exact play 100 times. Things happen and as a head coach, the players are for sure happy that a head coach puts the game in their hands vs. playing things conservatively.
To quote the great Shania Twain, “Dance with the one that brought you.”
Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers Notes From Week 2:
I told myself this season that I would try and lay off Arthur Smith, frankly because he brings it on himself and he’s an easy target. So, imagine my surprise when the Steelers scored their first touchdown of the season and who caught it? Literal glacier Darnell Washington. The team has kicked EIGHT field goals, scored one touchdown and are 2-0.
**sigh**
Najee Harris did Najee Harris things, but Jaylen Warren got back in the race, with equal snaps to Harris (47%) and running more routes (42% to 31%). Granted, it didn’t turn into anything production-wide, but at least the offense knowing that Warren exists is enough of a win to take at this point.
Pat Freiermuth led everything (minus the touchdown) for the Steelers’ passing game with four receptions for 49 yards on four targets. George Pickens got “Drake London’d” with a 2-29 line on three targets.
Somebody get me a wastebasket.
San Francisco 49ers
49ers Notes From Week 2:
With Deebo Samuel now joining Christian McCaffrey on the sidelines at least for the next couple of weeks with a calf injury that he picked up during this game, he still looked awesome leading the team in targets (10), receptions (8), yards (110), and dawg levels (off the charts).
I can’t track that last stat with a spreadsheet, but it’s one of those “you know it when you see it” kind of things.
Brandon Aiyuk may as well still be in preseason football mode, as he’s been a slow starter with another pedestrian 4-43 effort on five targets will still playing a full complement of routes per dropback at 93%. With Aiyuk’s slow start and McCaffrey off the field, it gives more work to George Kittle, who had a phenomenal game with a 7-76 line and a touchdown in the second quarter.
Something to note with Jordan Mason is just how little he’s been involved in the passing game, but his early-down profile should be more than enough for fantasy managers who either stashed him with a final pick in drafts or spent some FAB or their waiver claim on him. Not having much in the way of receiving certainly hurts the bottom line of what we can reasonably expect from Mason as long as he’s starting for the 49ers. Still, he’s a locked-in high-end RB2 with dominant utilization at 81% snaps two weeks for two consecutive weeks.
Seattle Seahawks
Seahawks Notes From Week 2:
JAXON SMITH-NJIGBA. You love to see it and we can all exhale a bit after we’ve waited for this kind of dominant breakout game that we knew he had in his range of outcomes but never was able to see it.
Some very promising signs on #Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba:
1. Has run 69 routes on 76 Geno dropbacks this season. That's more than Tyler Lockett (62).
2. Still getting a lot of short-area targets, but now mixing in deeper routes. Average depth of target yesterday was 10.6… pic.twitter.com/45PT8IlzFM
— Adam Levitan (@adamlevitan) September 16, 2024
It’s possible offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb may have lulled us to sleep last week so he could hit us with this kind of passing attack when we didn’t expect it. Between Smith-Njigba (16) and DK Metcalf (13), those two combined for 69% of the targets in Week 2.
Obviously, both had dominant performances where Smith-Njigba FINALLY brought the air yards element of the spike week into effect with a 10.6-yard aDOT. The knock on Smith-Njigba was getting him downfield and 2023 offensive coordinator/public enemy Shane Waldron refusing to do so, keeping him around the line of scrimmage. Smith-Njigba saw more of the volume with 12 receptions for 117 yards and Metcalf also saw excellent volume obviously, but also scored a 56-yard touchdown to kick off the scoring for the Seahawks.
Tyler Lockett ran 88% of Geno Smith’s dropbacks but was seldom used, catching both targets for 15 yards. Same goes for Noah Fant, with just one catch for 14 yards on 71% routes.
No Kenneth Walker meant plenty of Zach Charbonnet, who was pretty much the only show in town as he played every snap but three. He had a pretty good day chipping in everywhere, including scoring a touchdown of his own in the second quarter. The only other running back to earn a snap was Kenny McIntosh, but he was seldom used.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Buccaneers Notes From Week 2:
With the Buccaneers only having 19 pass attempts and then having two dominant target earners like Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, it’s going to naturally be very concentrated to those two players. That was certainly the case as Evans and Godwin accounted for 13-of-19 total targets, which equates to 72% of the team’s targets. Godwin has been the breadwinner so far through two games, as he added another monster game with 7-117 on eight targets with a 41-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
Only two other Bucs even caught a pass as Jalen McMillan came back down to earth a bit thanks to the low passing volume with one reception for 22 yards. He’s still at a nice 86% routes per dropback clip, so he’s on the field. He’s going to be a boom-or-bust option and probably best suited for benches unless he starts skimming some of the production from Evans and/or Godwin.
The run game is as problematic as ever with Rachaad White’s 10 carries for just 18 yards, but he left the game with a groin injury but came back in. Because of how inefficient White is on the ground, Bucky Irving is always going to be on standby. Irving took seven carries as well and wasn’t exactly the most efficient with his opportunities either. White still earned 71% of snaps and 61% of routes per dropback even while missing some snaps with that groin injury, so White still had a full lockdown on the running back workload.
Rush attempts:
Baker Mayfield (8)
Rachaad White (25)Rushing yards:
Baker Mayfield (55)
Rachaad White (49)— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) September 17, 2024
The problem with the Buccaneers last season was that White was ineffective on the ground, but there wasn’t anybody that was even close to challenging White for any sort of consistent workload, so the team was forced to just keep using White in that role. That’s how he got all that volume in the first place.
Chase Edmonds and Ke’Shawn Vaughn were NOT it last season and right now, Irving and Sean Tucker aren’t either. The hope is that Irving grows into more of the role, and he has a bit longer of a leash and a more gradual learning curve than the veteran backs last season. Basically, hold Irving on your bench.
Tennessee Titans
Titans Notes From Week 2:
Back to Ridley, he led the Titans in almost every receiving category but receptions (Tony Pollard) and carried an absurd 26.2-yard aDOT in Week 2. It’s clear Will Levis just wants to chuck the thing downfield to his receivers, which hey, when it hits, it’s great! At least one of those deep shots connected with Ridley for a 40-yard touchdown.
CALVIN RIDLEY. Elite 40-yard TD grab to tie the game!
📺: #NYJvsTEN on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/oqgFd24Dqi— NFL (@NFL) September 15, 2024
The aforementioned Pollard did lead everything with the running backs again this week with 54% routes and 67% snaps. Pollard could take on more of a three-down role if Tyjae Spears can’t suit up due to a ankle injury that’s deemed “day-to-day.”
Washington Commanders
Commanders Notes From Week 2:
The “horizontal raid” was in full force for the Commanders, as was Austin Siebert, who kicked SEVEN field goals. SEVEN. That was the scoring for the Commanders. Only Terry McLaurin ran routes at over 61% for the wide receivers, and his 4.0-yard aDOT shortened everything up as he only gained 22 yards on six receptions.
Jayden Daniels’ 5.2 aDOT passing was the second-lowest mark in Week 2, which should tell you everything you need to know about offensive coordinator Kliff Klingsbury’s horizontal raid. Nothing like pigeon-holing your rookie quarterback whose strength of downfield passing is neutered because you want to make sure you hit those passes behind the line of scrimmage to Jamison Crowder and Luke McCaffrey.
The running game is pretty well defined as it was essentially the same as last week with Brian Robinson Jr. and Austin Ekeler splitting snaps. Robinson sees more carries but Ekeler sees more routes.
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