Fantasy Football Target Trends for Week 15
Welcome to the target trends article headed into Week 15, also known as the start of the fantasy playoffs! In this weekly article, I take a look at the season-long target trends before recapping the most fantasy-relevant target performances of the previous week, all to give you an edge in your leagues.
Good news everyone, bye weeks are done! Not only does that mean all of your (healthy) players will be available for the fantasy playoffs, but it also means every team has played the same number of games. This makes it easier when comparing season-long stats like total targets.
Cooper Kupp was the season-long target leader even before playing in the Monday night game this week. Now that the dust from Week 14 has settled, he’s up to 151 targets on the season. That’s a whopping 20 more than the next-closest player, Tyreek Hill. Mark Andrews has been a target machine lately, as you’ll see below, and he pulled even with Travis Kelce for the target lead among tight ends with 109. Leonard Fournette surprisingly leads all running backs with 77 targets, two ahead of Austin Ekeler.
But enough about the season-long leaders, let’s take a look at the most telling target performances from Week 14.
Chris Godwin – 15 targets, 10 rec
Godwin has been the weekly target leader for consecutive weeks, sharing the title with Cooper Kupp this week. He’s seen 32 combined targets over the past two weeks, the most that anybody has seen over a two-game span since Julio Jones posted 35 in Weeks 15-16 of 2019. If Godwin gets at least 15 targets again in Week 15, he’ll become just the third player ever to see 15+ targets in three straight weeks, joining Calvin Johnson, Josh Gordon, and Anquan Boldin.
Justin Jefferson – 15 targets, 7 rec
K.J. Osborn – 9 targets, 3 rec
Jefferson isn’t far behind Godwin lately, seeing 29 total targets over the past two weeks. He’s just one Week 12 target shy of hitting double-digit targets in five consecutive weeks. Jefferson’s fantasy week could have been historic if he had hauled in a few more of those targets Thursday night, especially any of the three that went his direction in the endzone. Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that K.J. Osborn saw nine targets in the absence of Adam Thielen, who is averaging 8.2 targets/game when healthy this season.
Cooper Kupp – 15 targets, 13 rec
Target king Kupp notched the second-most targets of his career Monday night, turning them into a career-high 13 catches. He’s the only player in the league averaging more than 11 targets/game and is on pace for 197.5 targets this year, giving him an outside chance to become just the sixth player ever to reach 200 targets in a single season.
George Kittle – 15 targets, 13 rec
Brandon Aiyuk – 11 targets, 6 rec
Kittle has dominated over the last two games, and he set a new season-high in targets in each of them. The 15 he saw this time are the most he’s seen since Week 4 of last season. As for Aiyuk, this was the first time he saw double-digit targets in 2021. After the brutal start to the season with 2.7 targets/game through the first seven weeks, he’s now averaged 7.0 targets/game since Week 8.
Hunter Renfrow – 14 targets, 13 rec
Believe it or not, Renfrow had never seen double-digit targets in a game before Week 13. Now he’s averaging 11 targets/game over the past three weeks, and they’ve been anything but hollow targets. Over that span, he’s averaged 10 receptions and 118 receiving yards/game.
Davante Adams – 13 targets, 10 rec
It’s no surprise to see Adams in this article again. He’s averaging 10.7 targets/game this season, nearly the exact same as the 10.6 targets/game he averaged in both 2020 and 2019, and just slightly behind the 11.3 targets/game he averaged in 2018. Simply put, Adams is the model of consistency when it comes to targets.
Robby Anderson – 12 targets, 7 rec
It took two quarterbacks to get there, but Anderson saw his most targets of the season in Week 14. Only four of those targets came from Cam Newton, who attempted 23 passes on the day. On the other hand, P.J. Walker directed eight of his 12 pass attempts towards Anderson. Unfortunately, the quarterback situation in Carolina will probably still get messier down the stretch with Sam Darnold‘s potential return.
Amon-Ra St. Brown – 12 targets, 8 rec
Brown saw 12 targets for the second consecutive game, putting him in this article for the second consecutive week. Before Week 13, he had never seen more than eight targets in a game this season. The rookie wideout has seen a 32% target share over the past two weeks, nearly double his 17% share on the season.
Mark Andrews – 11 targets, 11 rec
Is it possible that we’re seeing a changing of the guard at the TE1 in fantasy football? As mentioned in the intro, Andrews tied Travis Kelce for the most-targeted tight end in the league through 14 weeks. He was averaging a respectable 7.3 targets/game before Baltimore’s Week 8 bye, but since then, that number has increased to 9.7 targets/game over the last six weeks.
Nico Collins – 10 targets, 5 rec
Brevin Jordan – 7 targets, 4 rec
The Texans may have the worst roster in the NFL, but their rookie pass-catchers were a bright spot in Week 14. After totaling just 11 targets over his previous three games combined, Collins racked up double-digit targets for the first time in his young career. As for Jordan, he didn’t take the field until Week 8 this year, but he’s been a top-12 fantasy tight in three of his six games played. He had yet to top four targets in a game before seeing seven come his way in Week 14.
James Conner – 9 targets, 9 rec
It seemed like Chase Edmonds, known as the pass-catching running back in Arizona, would return for Week 14. Instead, Edmonds stayed on injured reserve, and Conner tied his career-high with nine targets, a mark he hit twice back in 2018. Edmonds may finally return in Week 15, and Conner appeared to limp off after the Monday night game, so, unfortunately, we may not have much clarity heading into Week 15.
Tyreek Hill – 4 targets, 4 rec
Travis Kelce – 4 targets, 3 rec
Even players as dominant as Hill and Kelce have an occasional down week, it’s just rare for both of the Kansas City superstars to post duds in the same game. Hill saw his fewest targets since Week 2, and Kelce saw his fewest since Week 7 of last season. The pair of highly targeted pass-catchers are likely to bounce back sooner than later.
Check here for all the season-long target leaders.