This article is part of our On Target series.
Thanksgiving week is upon us, and with that comes two of the best days of football of the season. Our seasonal league playoff pictures are all but decided, with perhaps a key waiver wire move or two left, but the script for the NFL season has been set at this point. We have the information we need to start making decisions for the playoffs and for the 2016 NFL fantasy football season. After we look at the latest data, we'll look at three receivers we have to be thankful for this season.
Overall Targets
(Click to sort.)
| PLAYER | TARGETS | REC | YARDS | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeAndre Hopkins | 135 | 76 | 1046 | 9 |
| Julio Jones | 134 | 89 | 1189 | 6 |
| Antonio Brown | 114 | 79 | 1141 | 5 |
| Demaryius Thomas | 111 | 71 | 875 | 2 |
| Brandon Marshall | 106 | 62 | 800 | 7 |
| Odell Beckham | 104 | 63 | 863 | 8 |
| Larry Fitzgerald | 98 | 73 | 926 | 7 |
| Allen Robinson | 98 | 50 | 871 | 7 |
| Calvin Johnson | 96 | 59 | 828 | 3 |
| Michael Crabtree | 96 | 57 | 696 | 5 |
| Jarvis Landry | 96 | 64 | 653 | 3 |
| Mike Evans | 93 | 44 | 730 | 2 |
| A.J. Green | 91 | 58 | 812 | 4 |
| T.Y. Hilton | 91 | 45 | 724 | 3 |
| Keenan Allen | 89 | 67 | 725 | 4 |
| Julian Edelman | 88 | 61 | 692 | 7 |
| Randall Cobb | 87 | 47 | 553 | 6 |
| Amari Cooper | 85 | 51 | 736 | 4 |
| Emmanuel Sanders | 85 | 46 | 639 | 4 |
| Jordan Matthews | 84 | 55 | 565 | 2 |
| Greg Olsen | 83 | 48 | 718 | 6 |
| Golden Tate | 83 | 52 | 502 | 1 |
| Rob Gronkowski | 82 | 51 | 843 | 8 |
| Travis Benjamin | 82 | 48 | 736 | 4 |
| Brandin Cooks | 80 | 50 |
Thanksgiving week is upon us, and with that comes two of the best days of football of the season. Our seasonal league playoff pictures are all but decided, with perhaps a key waiver wire move or two left, but the script for the NFL season has been set at this point. We have the information we need to start making decisions for the playoffs and for the 2016 NFL fantasy football season. After we look at the latest data, we'll look at three receivers we have to be thankful for this season.
Overall Targets
(Click to sort.)
Red-Zone Conversion Percentages
(Click to sort.)
| PLAYER | TARGETS | REC | TD | RD TD% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeAndre Hopkins | 20 | 10 | 5 | 25 |
| Julian Edelman | 17 | 11 | 5 | 29 |
| Rob Gronkowski | 17 | 9 | 5 | 29 |
| Tyler Eifert | 16 | 12 | 11 | 69 |
| Brandon Marshall | 16 | 8 | 5 | 31 |
| Jarvis Landry | 16 | 9 | 2 | 13 |
| Anquan Boldin | 16 | 7 | 2 | 13 |
| Julio Jones | 16 | 9 | 4 | 25 |
| Randall Cobb | 16 | 7 | 5 | 31 |
| Jordan Reed | 15 | 8 | 6 | 40 |
| Eric Decker | 15 | 8 | 6 | 40 |
| Greg Olsen | 14 | 9 | 4 | 29 |
| Odell Beckham | 14 | 9 | 4 | 29 |
| Gary Barnidge | 13 | 7 | 6 | 46 |
| Antonio Brown | 13 | 9 | 4 | 31 |
| A.J. Green | 13 | 5 | 3 | 23 |
| Mike Evans | 13 | 2 | 1 | 8 |
| Allen Robinson | 12 | 7 | 6 | 50 |
| Heath Miller | 12 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| Vincent Jackson | 12 | 5 | 3 | 25 |
| Jordan Cameron | 12 | 4 | 2 | 17 |
| T.Y. Hilton | 12 | 6 | 1 | 8 |
| Jordan Matthews | 11 | 6 | 1 | 9 |
| Larry Fitzgerald | 11 | 8 | 6 | 55 |
| Alshon Jeffery | 11 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
| Devonta Freeman | 10 | 7 | 2 | 20 |
| Calvin Johnson | 10 | 6 | 3 | 30 |
| Donte Moncrief | 10 | 6 | 4 | 40 |
| Bryan Walters | 10 | 4 | 1 | 10 |
| Terrance Williams | 10 | 3 | 1 | 10 |
| Travis Kelce | 10 | 4 | 2 | 20 |
| Brian Hartline | 10 | 5 | 2 | 20 |
| Kyle Rudolph | 10 | 3 | 3 | 30 |
Larry Fitzgerald is having one of the most underappreciated, epicly good seasons for a 32-year-old wide receiver ever. The Cardinals are a top-5 NFL offense, and Fitzgerald has easily been their best offensive player. He is seeing 28 percent of his teams targets, 21.3 percent of the Cardinals' red-zone targets and is 10th in the NFL in catches, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns. I certainly did not predict this return to prominence from the dreadlocked legend, but I think this is sustainable production until Carson Palmer's arm gives out. Coach Bruce Arians and the Arizona staff have filled this offense with athletes at every position (John Brown, Mike Floyd, David Johnson, even fill-in's like Jaron Brown and Britt Golden) and the fast-paced, dynamic attack has meant that Fitz's consistency in the slot keeps the whole thing afloat.
This is a bit wistful, but we should have appreciated Julian Edelman a bit more before he left us for the season. I am a noted Edelman "hater" in the sense that I think a good number of NFL wide receivers could fill Edelman's role and that similar players (Wes Welker and Danny Amendola) have produced adjusted yards per target numbers within one-tenth of a yard of Edelman's, but there is no denying his fantasy prowess. Edelman racked up 692 yards on 88 targets this season, scoring seven touchdowns and actually leading the Patriots in market share of red-zone targets. Looking forward to next season, assuming health for Edelman, we need to regard him as a top-10 fantasy WR, with upside for more. In this quick-passing Patriots offense, the skillset of Rob Gronkowski is being utilized less than ever. Gronk has been a blocker on more than 15 percent of his snaps this season, which has allowed Edelman to feast and will continue to be the trend. Whoever the slot WR is for the Patriots is a very valuable fantasy commodity.
Finally, how could we not be thankful for DeAndre Hopkins? The NFL's most-targeted player has appeared in this column multiple times, and I hope for your sake you made moves early in the season to benefit from his insane statistics as much as possible, whether in seasonal or daily formats. Hopkins has totaled 135 targets, gaining more than 1,000 yards and nine TDs through 10 games while really being the only player on the Houston offense that anyone has to worry about. His 39.6 percent target share of the Texans' passing offense is an indicator of just how much he does for that offense. Overall, he gets 31 percent of his team's targets. No matter who is the quarterback for Houston in 2016, Hopkins will be one of my top-5 overall fantasy players just on a week to week consistency basis. In a fast-paced offense that realizes just how good he is when targeted relentlessly, it's hard to imagine a better recipe for fantasy goodness.
