Fantasy Football Target Trends for Week 9 (Fantasy Football)
Welcome to the Target Trends article for Week 9! Bye weeks are still in full swing, and injuries continue to pile up. Knowing the latest target trends can be a vital data point when finding viable fill-ins for your lineup or trying to make season-altering trades. Let’s start, as usual, with the season-long target leaders so far.
- CeeDee Lamb leads the league with 92 targets. Jaxon Smith-Njigba isn’t far behind with 89. They are followed by Trey McBride (86), Matthew Golden (82), and Michael Wilson (81) to round out the top five.
- Puka Nacua leads on a per-game basis, averaging 12.3 targets per game.
- McBride is easily the target leader at TE, with more than 20 total targets ahead of both Isaiah Likely (63) and Brock Bowers (62).
- Ashton Jeanty continues to get work through the air, even if he isn’t getting much on the ground. He leads all RBs with 48 targets. The rest of the top five at RB include Jahmyr Gibbs (44), Chase Brown (42), Christian McCaffrey (42), and Kyren Williams (42).
Now let’s check out this week’s target trends heading into Week 9.
Ja’Marr Chase – 16 targets, 11 rec
Tee Higgins – 11 targets, 10 rec
Chase Brown – 9 targets, 8 rec
The Bengals offense exploded in Week 8, and it was the usual suspects putting up points as Higgins and Chase finished as the WR1 and WR2 on the week, respectively. For Chase, it was the 12th time in his career that he saw at least 15 targets in a game. He and Higgins each have exactly 61 targets this season, with Higgins turning his into 11.4 more fantasy points so far. As for Chase Brown, he hasn’t scored a TD since Week 1, but he is on pace for 102 targets, which would be a new career high.
Michael Wilson – 15 targets, 8 rec
Wilson has seen at least seven targets in every game this season, but the 15 against the Cowboys were his highest total since Week 3. He and Trey McBride have combined for 167 targets, accounting for a combined 53.6% target share for Arizona. It is worth noting that Wilson is now dealing with a rib injury, and that the Cardinals have made the switch to Gardner Minshew at QB.
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Matthew Golden – 13 targets, 7 rec
Golden has become a staple of this article by totaling at least 12 targets in five of eight games this season. He has racked up 38 targets in the last three games alone. Pretty good for a WR who only saw 44 targets total as a rookie last season.
Garrett Wilson – 12 targets, 6 rec
Adonai Mitchell – 9 targets, 7 rec
Omar Cooper Jr. – 0 targets, 0 rec
The Jets are turning into one of the least predictable offenses when it comes to targets. Wilson bounced back after totaling just nine targets combined over the previous two games. Mitchell only saw three targets, none of which he caught, in his return to the lineup in Week 7, then turned nine targets into 142 yards in Week 8. Rookie Omar Cooper had started to break out in previous weeks before going untargeted in Week 8. For what it’s worth, Cooper still saw a healthy 78% snap share and 28 routes run.
Harold Fannin Jr. – 12 targets, 10 rec
Denzel Boston – 11 targets, 6 rec
The Browns have concentrated their targets around their young pass catchers. Fannin put up his first double-digit target game of the season, while Boston had the first of his young career. So far this season, Boston leads Cleveland with 53 targets, while Fannin is right behind with 51, and K.C. Concepcion, who had just four targets this week, checks in with 49.
IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Tetairoa McMillan – 11 targets, 6 rec
Chuba Hubbard – 8 targets, 7 rec
McMillan had his highest target total since Week 4, when he turned 16 targets into the WR1 performance that week. McMillan is expected to be a target hog, but we have never seen Hubbard used this much through the air. His eight targets were a career high. He is being used as a true workhorse RB for the Panthers, seeing 30 opportunities in two of the last three games.
Tyler Warren – 10 targets, 8 rec
Warren returned from a two-week injury absence and immediately led the team with a season-high ten targets. There are a lot of questions surrounding the Colts between trade rumors and a QB controversy, but Warren should have a safe target share for the rest of the season as long as he remains healthy.
Makai Lemon – 9 targets, 6 rec
Lemon got off to a slow start this season, with just eight targets over the first three weeks. He has seen at least six targets every game since, including setting new season highs in back-to-back weeks. DeVonta Smith will command targets when he eventually returns from his pesky hamstring injury, but considering this may already be a lost season for the Eagles, they will likely want to involve their first-round rookie WR as much as they can.
George Pickens – 4 targets, 2 rec
Ryan Flournoy 4 targets, 3 rec
CeeDee Lamb leads Dallas, and the entire NFL, with 92 targets. Pickens is next for the Cowboys, with 30 targets behind Lamb with 62. Flournoy isn’t far behind with 44. Flournoy has been more productive with his targets lately, finishing as a top-24 WR in four consecutive weeks.
Parker Washington – 2 targets, 1 rec
Washington continued his inconsistent season in Week 8. He has seen nine or more targets in three games this season, but also five or fewer targets three times. Trevor Lawrence is spreading the ball around, as evidenced by the 11 different players targeted in Week 8, though none of them saw more than three targets in the blowout victory over the Colts.
Amber Searls-Imagn Images
Tre Tucker – 1 target, 0 rec
Just when it appeared Tucker might be trustworthy for fantasy lineups, he went scoreless on one target in Week 8. He is still on pace for a career-high 102 targets this season, but this was a reminder that he is not the kind of target hog that deserves an autostart in fantasy lineups. He’s likely to have more big games this season, but they will likely be difficult to forecast.
Kyren Williams – 1 target, 1 rec
Williams has averaged just 3.1 targets per game for his career. From Weeks 3-6, that number jumped to 8.5 targets per game, but it may have just been a blip on the radar. Outside of that four-game stretch, he has yet to top three targets in another game this season.
Chris Godwin – 1 target, 0 rec
Ted Hurst III – 1 target, 0 rec
The single-target numbers look bad for the Tampa Bay WRs, but if you saw the torrential downpour during this game, you understand. Baker Mayfield did not complete a pass in the game and only attempted three. That gives both Godwin and Hurst a 33.3% target share in the game. You can treat this game as an anomaly for the passing game and ignore their low target totals, though there will be more target competition when Emeka Egbuka returns to the lineup.