Week 16 Target Report (Fantasy Football)
With Week 16 in the books, another fantasy football season has (hopefully) come to an end. As usual, there were some impressive, maybe even league-winning, target performances on the week. Please enjoy a stat-filled final target report of the 2019 season, and keep an eye out for a full-season target report coming soon.
Michael Thomas: 17 targets, 12 rec
As you probably know, Thomas broke Marvin Harrison’s single-season reception record by two catches this week. Perhaps the most impressive part of his feat is that he did it with one fewer game and 29 fewer targets than Harrison did in 2002. Even though he easily leads the NFL with 177 targets, he’s highly unlikely to match Harrison’s 205, or the NFL record of 208 set by Rob Moore in 1997.
Tyler Boyd: 15 targets, 9 rec
John Ross: 13 targets, 6 rec
Boyd tied his career-high in targets, though it was helped by a fourth-quarter comeback, an overtime period, and a career-high 56 pass attempts by Andy Dalton. John Ross also saw a career-high 13 targets in the contest. It will be fascinating to see how the Bengals move forward in 2020, presumably with a new quarterback entering into Zac Taylor’s pass-happy offense.
DeVante Parker: 15 targets, 5 rec
Mike Gesicki: 12 targets, 6 rec
On the other side of the ball, Ryan Fitzpatrick chucked it up 53 times for a career-high 419 yards, so there were plenty of targets to go around. Parker led the way with a career-high 15, even though he only caught five of them. Mike Gesicki also logged a career-high with 12 targets on the way to the first multi-touchdown game of his young career.
Christian McCaffrey: 15 targets, 15 rec
It doesn’t seem to matter who’s under center, who the opponent is, or what the score of the game is, McCaffrey is going to get his targets. On Sunday he tied Austin Ekeler for the most receptions in a game this season, though it took Ekeler one more target to get there.
Breshad Perriman: 12 targets, 7 rec
For those counting on him to lead them to a #FootClanTitle, Perriman may have felt like a let down in Week 16, though that’s really not fair. He topped double-digit targets for the first time in his career and notched a second-consecutive 100 yard game after never previously hitting triple-digit yardage in his four-year career. It’s worth monitoring where the former first-round draft pick lands as he enters free agency in 2020.
Dallas Goedert: 12 targets, 9 rec
Goedert stepped up while Zach Ertz was struggling through what turned out to be a fractured rib. He came through with the first double-digit target performance of his career to go along with a career-high 91 yards and a touchdown. He has legitimate TE1 upside if he ever gets out of Ertz’s shadow
Amari Cooper: 12 targets, 4 rec
Micheal Gallup: 11 targets, 5 rec
Neither Cooper or Gallup had huge fantasy days in Week 16, but it wasn’t due to a lack of targets. Both receivers saw double-digit targets but they combined to haul in less than 40% of them, even against a questionable Philadelphia secondary.
Allen Robinson: 12 targets, 6 rec
Anthony Miller: 2 targets, 1 rec
Robinson continues his hot streak and has now seen an average of 11.2 targets per game over the last five weeks. He’s quietly been one of the most consistent wideouts in all of football. His teammate Anthony Miller, on the other hand, has “ping-ponged” back and forth the last four weeks, seeing target counts of 13, 4, 15, and 2 over the past four weeks.
Tyler Higbee: 11 targets, 9 rec
Robert Woods: 11 targets, 8 rec
The most targeted tight end over the past four weeks isn’t named Kelce, Kittle, Ertz, or Waller. Higbee has averaged 11 targets per game since Week 13 and has surely helped bring home a few #FootClanTitles. Meanwhile, Robert Woods continues to get peppered with targets despite failing to find the end zone.
Dionte Johnson: 9 targets, 8 rec
JuJu Smith-Schuster: 4 targets, 2 rec
It’s a narrative that would’ve seemed unbelievable in August. Pittsburgh’s third-round rookie sees a career-high nine targets, split between two different quarterbacks. Meanwhile, JuJu Smith-Schuster sees just four targets after averaging 10.4 per game in 2018. The Steelers will look to hit the reset button with Ben Roethlisberger and their young talent-filled receiving corps in 2020.
Other notable target counts in Week 16:
Davante Adams – 16
Julio Jones – 15
Cole Beasley – 12
Kenny Golladay – 12
Golden Tate – 11
Devonta Freeman – 11
Keenan Allen – 10
Courtland Sutton – 10
Justin Watson – 10
Steven Sims – 10
Terry McLaurin – 9
DeAndre Hopkins – 9
Kenny Stills – 9
Hunter Renfrow – 9
Allen Lazard – 9
Javon Wims – 9
Mark Andrews – 9
Travis Kelce – 9
Tyler Lockett – 8
George Kittle – 8
Kaden Smith – 8
D.J. Chark – 7
Alvin Kamara – 7
Melvin Gordon – 7
Julian Edelman – 6
Leonard Fournette – 6
John Brown – 4
Cooper Kupp – 4
Darren Waller – 4
A.J. Brown – 2