You know it’s a bizarre week in the NFL when you look for double-digit targets and find Randall Cobb, Marvin Jones Jr. and Evan Engram. Let’s jump right into this head-scratcher of a week…Â
This Cobb salad tastes like a loss.Â
Randall Cobb – now 32 years old, in his 12th season in the NFL at a taxing position – led all comers in Week 5 targets with 13. He was joined at the top by Justin Jefferson, Diontae Johnson and Mike Williams, but there’s nothing too surprising about the heavy workload for that particular trio. Cobb, on the other hand? He opened the season with this amount of targets: Three, three, two and four. So, yeah… 13 targets resulting in seven catches for 99 yards came out of nowhere. While Cobb turned back the clock and played well, his stumbling Packers fell to the feisty Giants, despite being 10-point favorites in Vegas. Allen Lazard (eight), Romeo Doubs (five) and Robert Tonyan (four) followed Cobb on Green Bay’s bizarre target chart.Â
Weird guys get alotta targets in Jacksonville
I’ve already written about how busy Zay Jones has been for the Jaguars this season, but now it’s both Marvin Jones and Evan Engram in the very same week? Jones turned 11 Trevor Lawrence targets into seven strong receptions for 104 yards, while Engram converted 10 targets into six receptions for 69 yards. By both guys’ standards, this was actually quite a productive day. Meanwhile, 2022 fantasy darling Christian Kirk disappeared into dust – despite drawing a whopping $6,600 salary on DraftKings this week – on his way to one catch for 11 yards vs. the lowly Houston Texans. Yup. One catch, 11 yards, three measly targets. Needless to say, the Jaguars’ coaching staff has some things to figure out in the coming weeks.Â
“Fournette” favors the bold
It was Rachaad White week this week, wasn’t it? After a bouncy performance on national TV against the high-powered Chiefs, White immediately became a popular topic of discussion in fantasy circles. Are the Bucs dialing Fournette back? Is it time for the youngsters to come on strong? Well, yeah, not really. In this week’s victory over the pesky Atlanta Falcons, Fournette was targeted 11 times by soon-to-be-single Tom Brady, while White faded into the background with just four looks in the passing game. The veteran Fournette converted his 11 looks into 10 receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown – insane efficiency. No young “bucks” are gonna be encroaching on his playing time.Â
Boy, it’s good to be young.Â
Here, I’ll lay this one out nice and easy for ya:Â
Alec Pierce: Nine targets, Chase Claypool nine, Jerry Jeudy eight, Michael Pittman Jr. eight, Jakobi Meyers eight and George Pickens eight.Â
It’s nice to see so many youthful receivers heavily involved in their respective offenses, but I think the key takeaways here are Claypool and Meyers. With the emergence of electric Pickens in recent weeks, people have been writing off Claypool as an afterthought in most fantasy formats. However, rookie Kenny Pickett made Chase his No. 2 guy this week, as Claypool trailed only Diontae Johnson on Pittsburgh’s target totem.Â
For New England, returning from injury, Meyers was fantastic pairing up with young Bailey Zappe – the former turned those eight targets into seven receptions for 111 yards and a score. Meyers has quietly developed into a legitimate WR1 for Bill Belichick’s sneaky little squad.Â
John Frascella is a published sports author who has been covering the NFL for 18 years. Follow him on Twitter @LegendSports7 for all things football.Â
