Week 12 Target Report (Fantasy Football)
With Week 12 in the books, we’ve reached the home stretch of the fantasy football season. The fantasy playoffs are right around the corner and every NFL team has had their bye. This gives us a better perspective when looking at targets, or any other cumulative stat, since, barring injuries every player has had the opportunity to play in eleven games this season. So far ten players have logged 100 or more targets on the season, with Micheal Thomas easily leading the way 124.
Here are the most noteworthy target performances of Week 12.
Zach Ertz – 14 targets, 12 rec
It makes perfect sense that Ertz led the way in targets this week with Philadelphia’s top wide receivers Alshon Jeffrey and Nelson Agholor both inactive. He continues to lead all tight ends with 100 targets, which is good enough for tenth-most by any player so far this season.
Calvin Ridley – 14 targets, 6 rec
Over the past three weeks, Ridley has out-targeted teammate Julio Jones 27-26. During that span, Ridley is the WR9 in 0.5 PPR scoring, while Jones is well behind at WR34. Julio “Touchdown” Jones is surely due for one of his signature explosions, but Ridley has been the Falcon receiver to own in fantasy lately.
Jarvis Landry – 13 targets, 10 rec
The Browns may have the best wide receiver duo in the NFL with Landy and Odell Beckham, and Landry has easily been the better fantasy option recently. They each have 97 targets on the season, but since the Browns Week 7 bye, Landry has been targeted ten more times than OBJ. He currently sits at WR14 on the season but has been the WR1 over the last three weeks.
Davante Adams – 12 targets, 7 rec
Despite only playing in seven games this season Adams still has 24 more targets than any other wide receiver in Green Bay. He finally got into the endzone for the first time this season on a short “tap” pass, which of course means that it goes down as a target and receiving touchdown.
Terry McLaurin – 12 targets, 5 rec
Washington is a mess of a football team right now, but they have one of the best young wideouts in the game in McLaurin. In Week 12, he saw a career-high 12 targets but was only able to reel in five of them. Despite the dubious quarterback play, it appears McLaurin will continue to put up fantasy points based purely on his talent and target volume.
Leonard Fournette – 12 targets, 9 rec
Health and pass-catching: two qualities Leonard Fournette was definitely not known for heading into the 2019 season. Yet here we are; Fournette hasn’t missed a game, has been on the field for nearly 88% of the Jaguars offensive snaps, and has been targeted 70 times. To put that in perspective, he’s seen more targets so far this season than Alvin Kamara, James White, Le’Veon Bell, and Saquon Barkley.
Marvin Jones – 11 targets, 5 rec
Since Week 10, when Jeff Driskel entered the starting lineup for the injured Matthew Stafford, Jones is outpacing teammate Kenny Golladay 22-18 in targets. He’s also been more productive with them, ranking as the WR26 with Driskel under center, compared to WR50 for Golladay.
Will Fuller – 11 targets, 7 rec
It was Fuller’s first time on the game field since Week 7 and he didn’t appear to miss a beat. It was only the fourth time in his career that he’s seen double-digit targets and just the second time this season. You may remember the other, his 16 target explosion in Week 5 that led to the top fantasy performance for any wide receiver so far this season.
DeVante Parker – 11 targets, 6 rec
In another bizarre twist in fantasy football this season, DeVante Parker has been one of the most reliable wideouts in the game. He’s seen double-digit targets in three consecutive games and currently sits at WR21 on the season. As mentioned a few times on The Fantasy Footballers podcast, Parker and the Dolphins have a juicy schedule in the upcoming fantasy playoffs. That means we could potentially see Parker (and Ryan Fitzpatrick) on plenty of #FootClan title rosters.
Amari Cooper – 2 targets, 0 rec
Just when you thought you could trust Amari Cooper he goes full ghost mode and puts up a goose egg. To be fair, he was blanketed all game by Stephon Gilmore, who has arguably been the best shutdown corner in the NFL this season. Disappearing acts like this make it tough to trust Cooper as the fantasy playoffs approach.
Other notable target counts in Week 12:
Julian Edelman – 12
Michael Thomas – 11
Allen Robinson – 10
Russell Gage – 10
Cooper Kupp – 10
Robert Woods – 9
D.J. Moore – 9
Christian McCaffrey – 9
Christian Blake – 9
Alvin Kamara – 9
Tyler Boyd – 9
Sterling Shepard – 9
Anthony Miller – 9
Tarik Cohen – 9
Cole Beasley – 9
Jakobi Meyers – 9
Dede Westbrook – 9
Chris Conley – 9
Odell Beckham – 8
Chris Godwin – 8
Mike Evans – 8
Vita Vea – 1