Fantasy Football Target Trends for Week 8
Welcome to the Target Trends article for Week 8! Let’s start, as usual, by looking at the season-long target leaders to this point.
After a historic 23-target outing on Thursday night, Ja’Marr Chase is now the NFL’s overall target leader with 80. Chris Olave comes in next with 71 targets, with Jaxon Smith-Njigba right behind him with 70.
At RB, Christian McCaffrey is running away with the target lead. His 68 targets are 25 more than the next closest at the position, De’Von Achane, with 43. No other RB has topped 40 targets, though Bijan Robinson is almost there at 39.
Trey McBride continues to lead TEs and is up to 66 targets. Jake Ferguson is next with 58, followed by rookie Tyler Warren with 45.
I’ll continue to lead off this article with season-long target leaders each week, but for now, let’s check out this week’s target trends heading into Week 8.
Ja’Marr Chase: 23 targets, 16 rec
Joe Flacco hyper-targeted Chase on Thursday night. He is only the sixth player ever to see at least 23 targets in a game and the first since Garrett Wilson in Week 5 of last season. Chase had a 51% target share in the game, bringing his target share on the season up to 33.5%. That is the third highest in the league behind only the aforementioned Wilson (34.1%) and Jaxon Smith-Njigba (38.3%).
Ladd McConkey: 15 targets, 9 rec
Keenan Allen: 14 targets, 11 rec
Oronde Gadsden: 9 targets, 7 rec
Justin Herbert threw the ball 55(!) times on Sunday, offering up plenty of opportunities for his pass catchers. The 15 targets were a career high for McConkey, just one more than the 14 he saw in the playoff loss last season. Keenan Allen is no stranger to double-digit target games; he’s now seen 10+ targets 78 times in his career. As for Gadsden, the rookie TE has seen at least seven targets in three of his five games played this season.
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Travis Hunter: 14 targets, 8 rec
We finally saw an offensive explosion from the number two overall draft pick. His 14 targets are the most he has seen since Week 1, and his 30% target share in the game brought his season total up to 18%. He also played 87% of the offensive snaps for Jacksonville, another season high.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba: 14 targets, 8 rec
Not much needs to be said about JSN, though it would feel wrong to leave the overall WR1 out of this article. He’s seen 27 targets over the last two weeks, equating to a 51% target share over that span. His 70 targets more than double Seattle’s second-most targeted player, Cooper Kupp, who has 33.
Jordan Addison: 12 targets, 9 rec
Addison tied his career high with 12 targets, matching his total from Week 14 last season. He is averaging 8.7 targets/game and commanding a 22.4% target share. For reference, Justin Jefferson has averaged 10.7 targets/game and a 28% target share over the same three games.
Emeka Egbuka: 12 targets, 4 rec
Embuka was considered questionable heading into Monday night, but the rookie’s hamstring held up. His 12 targets were a new season high, though only four of them converted into catches. He should continue to see plenty of work through the air as Tampa Bay’s WR corps continues to deal with injuries.
Xavier Legette: 11 targets, 9 rec
Legette produced the best fantasy output of his career on the back of a new career-high target count. He averaged 7.5 targets/game over the first two weeks of the season before suffering a hamstring injury that cost him Weeks 3-4. There may be some more competition for targets as Jalen Coker works his way back to full strength, but Legette’s usage is encouraging.
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Troy Franklin: 10 targets, 3 rec
Frankin’s ten targets marked a new career-high for the second-year WR. He only caught three of them for just 19 yards, though he did find the end zone. His 46 targets on the season are just four behind Courtland Sutton for the team lead in Denver, which equates to a 19% target share in the offense.
Alec Pierce: 10 targets, 5 rec
Pierce also posted double-digit targets for the first time in his career. His previous season high was just five targets, which he recorded in back-to-back weeks before missing Weeks 4-5 with a concussion. His increased targets could be, at least in part, due to the absence of teammate Josh Downs, who missed with a concussion of his own.
Dalton Schultz: 10 targets, 9 rec
The Doctor was in for the Texans on Monday night, as Schultz turned a season-high ten targets into 98 receiving yards. That was enough to finish as the TE8 for the week. The veteran has 37 targets this season, which is the second most on the Texans behind Nico Collins (46), and translates to a 19.4% target share.
Jameson Williams: 2 targets, 0 rec
Williams put up a disappointing goose egg in prime time on Monday night. The Lions did not need him, as they handily beat the Buccaneers. This was the fourth game this season where he finished with four or fewer targets. He’s explosive enough to win a fantasy matchup with just a handful of targets, but he’s also capable of disappearing any given week.