Week 8 target report highlights
Week 8 was a good reminder about injuries and superstars. Reggie Wayne didn’t practice on Wednesday or Thursday due to a groin injury. He was questionable and although we fully expected him to play, he was considered a game-time decision.
Of course, anytime a guy like Wayne is active, he needs to be in all lineups. It’s not like when Jerricho Cotchery is a game-time decision and we can safely bench him even if he is “up.”
So groin injury or not, Wayne popped off for a ridiculous 20 targets against the Niners. Sometimes more is made of these missed practices and “game-time decisions” than is warranted.
Anyway, on to this week’s highlights. Here are four pass-catching situations that caught our eye in Week 8:
TEXANS
Andre Johnson: 10
Kevin Walter: 6
Ryan Moats: 3
James Casey: 3
David Anderson: 3
Vonta Leach: 2
Chris Brown: 2
Steve Slaton: 2
Owen Daniels: 2
Jacoby Jones: 1
Daniels went down for the season in the first quarter, so we can get a little glimpse at how the targets will shake out without him. Walter stands to be the main beneficiary and should be owned in all leagues. Casey has a knee injury of his own, but is an interesting name to keep in mind.
CARDINALS
Larry Fitzgerald: 10
Tim Hightower: 10
Steve Breaston: 8
Anquan Boldin: 6
Ben Patrick: 3
Jerheme Urban: 3
LaRod Stephens-Howling: 2
Anthony Becht: 1
Chris Wells: 1
If Boldin would stop trying to be such a tough guy, it would benefit the team. His ankle and hamstring are nowhere close to 100 percent. He should sit down, let Breaston and Urban run with Fitz for a week or two and get right. Quick stat on Fitzgerald: He’s never averaged less than 13.4 yards per catch in his career. This season, he’s getting just 10.8 yards a grab.
CHARGERS
Vincent Jackson: 12
Antonio Gates: 6
Malcom Floyd: 4
Legedu Naanee: 1
Darren Sproles: 1
Chris Chambers: 1
The story here is that Chambers was benched for this game and then cut on Tuesday. Floyd is going to be one of the hottest pickups of the week, but he’s going to be a high risk/high reward type of play. He’ll have some chances for big deep catches, but a high volume of targets is unlikely.
PACKERS
Greg Jennings: 12
Donald Driver: 10
Donald Lee: 6
James Jones: 5
Ryan Grant: 3
John Kuhn: 2
Spencer Havner: 2
Ahman Green: 1
Quinn Johnson: 1
Havner caught two touchdowns and his two targets, but that’s obviously a fluke. The play with Jermichael Finley out is still Lee if you’re very, very desperate. The time to buy low on Jennings may be over, but a really big game has to be coming soon.
TARGET REPORT QUICK HITTERS:
Ted Ginn barely played receiver and ended up with one target. Drop him if you haven’t already unless your league counts return yardage. … Michael Crabtree has 15 targets in his first two NFL games. Never would have guessed that a month ago. … Among all tight ends with 40 or more targets, Dustin Keller has the worst catch percentage (47 percent). Greg Olsen is second-worst at 50 percent. … Tim Hightower has more targets on the season than Jason Witten, Santana Moss and Mike Sims-Walker.
Comments
Bravo. Last week the Target Report was used to dump on the blog. I'd like to lift it up a little bit. A lot of good insight so far, included the most detailed rundown of the Slaton/Moats episode.
I also haven't seen that Jamal Lewis insight anywhere, and (for better or worse) I was able to easily pick up Harrison in a keeper league without wasting waiver priority.
Keep up the better work
Posted by: Steve | November 4, 2009 03:29 PM