Fantasy Football Target Trends for Week 16
Welcome to the Target Trends article for Week 16! Hopefully you’re moving on to the semifinals in pursuit of a #FootClan title! If not, you can still get something out of this article as you look ahead to better days next season. Either way, we will start as usual, by looking at the overall target leaders so far this season.
Ja’Marr Chase continues to lead the way with 155 targets, and as long as he plays out the season, it’s difficult to envision anybody surpassing him. Trey McBride checks in next with 140 targets, with Amon-Ra St. Brown following at 135, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba rounding out the top four with 130.
As you can imagine, McBride’s 140 targets easily lead all TEs. He has increased his season-long pace to 170, which would handily break Zach Ertz’s record of 156 from 2018. Ertz did that in 16 games, so we will see if T-McB can match him before Week 18. Rookie Harold Fannin Jr. is next among TEs with 99 targets, followed by Kyle Pitts with 97, and four other TEs logjammed between 90 and 94 targets.
At RB, Christian McCaffrey continues to lead the way. Despite seeing just one target in Week 15, his 108 on the season are 27 more than the current runner-up, Bijan Robinson, at 81. De’von Achane comes in next with 79, with Chase Brown (75) and Jahmyr Gibbs (73) rounding out the top five.
I’ll continue to lead off this article with season-long target leaders throughout the fantasy playoffs, but for now, let’s check out this week’s target trends heading into Week 16.
Amon-Ra St. Brown – 18 targets, 13 rec
St. Brown set a season-high with his 18 targets in the shootout against the Rams in Week 15, falling just one short of his career-high. Those targets led to his highest fantasy output of the season and his second WR1 overall finish on a week. He joins Jaxon Smith-Njigba as the only two players who have at least a 30% target share without missing a game this season.
Ja’Marr Chase – 16 targets, 10 rec
Chase continues to outpace the field in terms of targets in 2025. He’s now seen at least 16 targets in a game eight times in his career, with four of them coming so far this season. His 11.9 targets/game put him on pace for 190 in 16 games played, which would be the most any player has seen since Cooper Kupp was targeted 191 times in 2021, though it took him 17 games.
Harold Fannin Jr. – 14 targets, 7 rec
Fannin became the second TE this season to see 14 targets in a game, joining Jake Ferguson, who accomplished the feat in Week 3. He also became just the sixth rookie TE ever with 14+ targets in a game. Brock Bowers, who did it three times last year, is the only rookie to ever do it more than once in a season. Fannin, who has combined for 25 targets over the previous two games, is on pace for 120 targets this season. That would tie Sam LaPorta for the fourth-most ever by a rookie TE.
Trey McBride – 13 targets, 12 rec
Michael Wilson – 11 targets, 5 rec
I already mentioned that McBride is on pace to smash the all-time TE target record. He’s seen at least seven targets in every game this season, and his 26.7% target share not only leads the position, but it is sixth among all players with 14 games played. As for Wilson, he’s now seen double-digit targets and no lower than a 29% target share in the four games without Marvin Harrison Jr. Who knows what 2026 will hold for Jacoby Brissett and the Cardinals QB situation, but there are many fantasy managers out there hoping that they can continue carrying them to a #FootClan title this season.
Mike Evans – 12 targets, 6 rec
It seemed like a lost season for Evans after missing the majority of the last 10 weeks, playing just a few snaps in Week 7 over that stretch. However, he came back in Week 15 for anybody who held on (or scooped him off waivers) to see a season high 12 targets and 132 yards and finish as the WR8 on the week. He has reentered the conversation as a must-start WR in the fantasy playoffs.
Kyle Pitts – 12 targets, 11 rec
Bijan Robinson – 11 targets, 8 rec
David Sills – 10 targets, 6 rec
Pitts and his historic Thursday night were the biggest fantasy story of Week 15. His 12 targets were a career high, and they led to the most points from a TE in the modern fantasy football era. However, don’t overlook his teammates, whom Kirk Cousins also peppered with targets. That led to both Bijan Robinson and David Sills logging career highs in targets. This kind of target distribution, however, will be disrupted if Drake London, who has a 32.9% target share in his nine games played, returns from injury.
Courtland Sutton – 10 targets, 7 rec
After his second straight ten-target outing, Sutton has snuck into the WR1 conversation as the overall WR12 on the season. His 100 targets so far are only six more than teammate Troy Franklin, though he has six additional receptions and 260 more yards. The 30-year-old Sutton has now seen 100+ targets in three of the last four seasons and 90+ in every healthy season since 2019.
Adonai Mitchell – 9 targets, 6 rec
Isaiah Williams – 7 targets, 6 rec
Mitchell has now seen 40 targets in his five games as a New York Jet. That translates to a 17-game pace of 136. For reference, he only saw 127 over his 38 games with the Colts. Meanwhile, Isaiah Williams, who has scored two punt return TDs this season, got involved in the offense with a career-high seven targets. It may be a lost season for the Jets, but at least they have some promising young WRs who could complement Garrett Wilson in 2026.
Justin Jefferson – 8 targets, 2 rec
The good news: Jefferson’s eight targets were his highest total since Week 11. The bad news: they turned into just two receptions for the third consecutive week. Jefferson also caught one in the end zone that was nullified by a penalty, and dropped another in the end zone. There probably aren’t many Jefferson managers left in the fantasy playoffs, so the bigger question will become where fantasy managers settle on him in 2026 drafts.
Kenneth Gainwell – 7 targets, 7 rec
DK Metcalf – 3 targets, 3 rec
Somehow, I’ve failed to bring up Gainwell in this article series recently. He’s averaged 6.2 targets/game and a 22% target share over the last five games. He has finished as a top-20 RB in four of those five games and a top-12 RB three times. He’s now up to a 16.2% target share on the season, which is the fourth highest at the position. As for Metcalf, after a season-high 12 targets in Week 14, he came back down to Earth…kind of…in Week 15. Despite seeing just three targets, he turned them into 55(!) yards and a TD.
Colby Parkinson – 7 targets, 5 rec
Parkinson has been a top-ten fantasy TE in five of the past six weeks, largely due to his six TDs over that stretch. However, it was slightly different in Week 15, as he saw a season-high seven targets. With Davante Adams likely sidelined for Thursday night, he could continue to see higher than usual usage and remains more likely than most TEs to find the end zone.
Rashid Shaheed – 7 targets, 5 rec
Shaheed makes this article for a second consecutive week after seeing a new high of seven targets with the Seahawks, who acquired him at the NFL trade deadline. He turned them into five catches for 76 yards, which is a perfectly usable fantasy stat line. However, Shaheed is the kind of WR that can score anytime he touches the ball, so he is worth a look if you need some upside in your fantasy football semifinal matchup.
Nico Collins – 4 targets, 3 rec
Targets are a great indicator of fantasy potential (that’s what this article series is all about), but that doesn’t mean it always takes high volume for success. Collins managed to turn his four targets, or 15% target share, into three catches for 85 yards and two TDs in Week 15. The good news is, Collins usually also has the volume, as he’s averaged 8.2 targets/game and a 25.1% target share this season. He remains one of the best WR options in fantasy football.
Tetairoa McMillan – 4 targets, 2 rec
Of course, more often than not, four targets aren’t going to be enough to get it done for your fantasy team. McMillan is the perfect example, as he managed to catch a TD and finish as a top-24 fantasy WR on just two targets last time out, then finished as WR74, catching two of his four scoreless targets in Week 15. Carolina’s first-round rookie had a 27% target share through the first 12 games of the season, but has seen that plummet to just 15% over the last two games.
Ladd McConkey – 3 targets, 2 rec
McConkey has had a rough second half of the season, averaging just 4.8 targets/game since Week 10. That’s down from 8.3 targets/game over the first nine weeks of the season. That’s the same average he saw from Week 11 on of his rookie season last year. There are likely better days ahead for the second-year WR, but he has been a letdown for fantasy managers, finishing outside of WR40 in four of the last six weeks.
A.J. Brown – 2 targets, 2 rec
Brown had averaged 11.5 targets/game over the previous four weeks, so a two-target outing in Week 15 feels like a letdown. However, it’s not as bad as it sounds, considering Jalen Hurts attempted just 15 passes as the Eagles shut out a hapless Raiders team. Even better, AJB managed to score on one of those targets to bring his TD total to seven on the season, four of which have come in the past four games.
Christian McCaffrey – 1 target, 1 rec
McCaffrey easily leads all RBs with 108 targets this season, but he’s now seen season lows in consecutive weeks. The last time he saw just one target in a game was Week 14 of the 2023 season. Somewhat surprisingly, he has never gone targetless in a game. His recent reduction in targets hasn’t been too damaging, as he still sits at the overall RB2 for the season.
Isaiah Likely – 0 targets, 0 rec
Things were looking up for Likely as he had seen a season-high six targets in consecutive weeks, finishing as a top-12 fantasy TE both times. He was also heading into the juiciest matchup possible against a Cincinnati team that has been giving up record-setting numbers to opposing TEs. Alas, Likely went untargeted for the first time since Week 4. It wasn’t much better for his TE teammate Mark Andrews, who saw just three targets against the Bengals, once again demonstrating that it is the most fickle position in fantasy football.