Fantasy Football Target Trends for Week 13
Welcome to the target trends article for Week 13! As we approach the fantasy playoffs, it’s more important than ever to understand recent target trends. Let’s start, as usual, by checking in on the overall target landscape in the league.
Davante Adams maintained his overall target lead with 123 on the season. Tyreek Hill, who led the way for most of the season, dropped down to fourth overall behind Stefon Diggs and Justin Jefferson. Travis Kelce continues to lead tight ends with 102 targets, which makes him the sixth-most targeted player in the NFL. He’s on pace for 158 targets on the season, which would narrowly top Zach Ertz’s tight end record of 156 in 2018. Austin Ekeler, right behind Kelce as the seventh-most targeted player on the season, still easily leads running backs with 98 targets. He’s also on a record-setting pace for 151 targets, which would top Christian McCaffrey’s running back record of 148 in 2019.
I’ll continue to lead off this article with season-long target leaders all year long, but for now, let’s check out this week’s target trends heading into Week 13.
Austin Ekeler: 15 targets, 11 rec
DeAndre Carter: 10 targets, 7 rec
One way or another, Ekeler is the focal point of the Charger offense. He’s seen 20+ opportunities in 8-of-11 games this season, with plenty of them coming through the air. His 21.8% team target share is the highest among running backs and is higher than many notable wide receivers, including Brandon Aiyuk and Allen Lazard. Meanwhile, Carter saw double-digit targets for the first time in his career and looks to remain a viable fantasy option while Mike Williams is out.
Stefon Diggs: 15 targets, 8 rec
Isaiah McKenzie: 10 targets, 6 rec
After a season-low five targets last week, Diggs bounced back on Thanksgiving. He’s currently the WR1 on the season and is on pace for 182 targets, which would easily surpass his career-high of 166. As for McKenzie, his ten targets were the most that went his way since Week 15 of 2021, and he turned them into his best fantasy performance of the season.
DK Metcalf: 15 targets, 11 rec
Geno Smith is feeding DK. He targeted him 15 times in Week 12 to tie his career high. He has a 27% target share, the same as last season, but the added volume has him on pace for a career-high 142 targets. His counterpart Tyler Lockett is seeing a 23% target share, slightly lower than the previous three two seasons.
Zay Jones: 14 targets, 11 rec
It was a career-best game for Jones in Week 12, who’s in the midst of a career-best season. He notched his fourth double-digit target game this season in the win over Baltimore on Sunday. His 79 targets so far are already the second-most of his six-year career, and he’s well on his way to topping the 102 he saw with Buffalo back in 2018.
Chris Godwin: 13 targets, 12 rec
Despite playing just eight full games, Godwin is now the target leader in Tampa with 86 on the season, one more than Mike Evans. He’s seen double-digit targets in six of those eight complete games. He’s also found the end zone for consecutive weeks after his touchdown dry spell to start the season.
Amari Cooper: 12 targets, 7 rec
Cooper has made this article multiple times this season and is back again after seeing 12 targets for the fourth time this year. He has the ninth-most targets in the NFL and is on pace for a career-high 144. As mentioned last week, those targets could become more valuable down the homestretch after Deshaun Watson debuts for the Browns in Week 13.
Justin Jefferson: 11 targets, 9 rec
Adam Thielen: 10 targets, 9 rec
Not much needs to be said about Jefferson, who has seen double-digit targets seven times this season and is the third-most targeted player in the league, The more surprising stat line is Thielen’s, who saw his most targets of this season on Thanksgiving night. He’s now averaging 7.0 targets/game on the season.
Davante Adams: 11 targets, 7 rec
Like Jefferson, not much needs to be said about Adams either. I just want to point out that he’s posted double-digit targets in four consecutive weeks, averaging 13.8 targets/game and a 37% target share over that span. He is once again the definition of a target hog.
CeeDee Lamb: 11 targets, 6 rec
Michael Gallup: 8 targets, 5 rec
Lamb’s 31.2% target share on the season is second in the league, trailing only Davante Adams. That’s translated to the fifth-most targets in the league up to this point and puts him on pace for 161 this season. Perhaps more notably, his teammate Michael Gallup saw a season-high eight targets and is starting to look up to speed as he’s been recovering from the knee injury that caused him to start the season slowly.
Rhamondre Stevenson: 10 targets, 9 rec
Stevenson is another player that set a career-high target count in Week 12. He’s been a staple of New England’s passing game all season and is the fourth-most targeted back in the league. The volume through the air, and the ground, should continue with the health status of Damien Harris up in the air.
Kendall Hinton: 9 targets, 5 rec
Remember that undrafted free-agent wide receiver that made an emergency start at quarterback for Denver in 2020? It turns out he’s much more suited to catch footballs than to throw them. His nine targets in Week 12 nearly doubled his previous career-high of five. He has a low ceiling in the brutally bad Denver offense, but he’s worth consideration in PPR leagues if Jerry Jeudy remains out.
Rachaad White: 9 targets, 9 rec
White got to run as the lead back for Tampa in Week 12 and he racked up fantasy points on the ground and through the air. He caught all nine targets that went his way and ended up with a 21% team target share in the game. He’s an obvious fantasy starter as long as Leonard Fournette is sidelined, but he should maintain value with his work in the passing game even when he returns.
Marquise Brown: 8 targets, 6 rec
Brown led the Cardinals in his first game since Week 6. It was also his first game playing alongside DeAndre Hopkins, who had been a target hog since returning from his suspension to start the season. Brown saw a 30% target share in the game, compared to the 22% share to Hopkins. The two stud wideouts will likely both see plenty of targets down the home stretch of the season for Arizona after their Week 13 bye.
D’Andre Swift: 8 targets, 4 rec
Swift has played fewer than 35% of Detroit’s offensive snaps over the last four weeks, far from what you were hoping for if you spent a high draft pick on him. The silver lining is that he saw a season-high eight targets on Turkey Day. It isn’t ideal, and you may have better options, but Swift is doing enough through the air to prevent him from totally goosing in fantasy lineups.
Josh Jacobs: 7 targets, 6 rec
Jacobs broke the slate in Week 12 and is the RB1 on the season. Of course, this is a target article, so I need to mention that he’s now on pace for a career-high 74 targets this season. So far, they’ve turned into 325 receiving yards, just 23 short of his career-high.
JuJu Smith-Schuster: 3 targets, 3 rec
JuJu missed Week 11 with a concussion but was listed as a full participant all week in practices leading up to Week 12, so it was odd that he was only on the field for a season-low 38% of Kansas City’s offensive snaps. The three targets he saw against the Rams tied his season-low from back in Week 2. The targets should return when he becomes a full-time player again, but it’s tough to confidently predict when that will happen.