Targets are paramount when it comes to evaluating pass-catchers for fantasy football. There are no receiving yards, touchdowns, or receptions without a target.

We want the players on our rosters in fantasy football who will earn these targets because targets are the most important thing to look at when trying to separate one pass-catcher from another on a base level. Sure, the player that earned 160 targets may be a better fantasy option than the player who earned 110, but that doesn’t take into account the offenses these players are in, the target share percentages on their particular team, how deep down the field these targets were earned, and so on.

Each week, we’ll take a weekly team-by-team look into these target earners and separate the wheat from the chaff. 

We're through six weeks of the NFL season, and some star-studded bye week teams are here with the Bills, Rams, Vikings, and Eagles, so we'll go through some team and player usage tendencies here in our Target Report. Before we get into the Target Report for Week 6, let's dive into a legend of terms we'll be referencing.

Start Your Studs: Players you should be starting in all formats, regardless of matchup. Use your judgment in shallower leagues where players who are typically startable are plentiful.

Dump ‘Em: Players that you should be dropping from your rosters. Use your judgment in deeper leagues where players with usefulness on waivers aren’t as plentiful.

NFL Week 6 Target Report

Arizona Cardinals

I’m thinking I could just throw this tweet into the Cardinals blurb for this week, and it would suffice. I would be doing a disservice to you, the loyal reader (thank you, by the way!), so we’ll dig deeper.

That seems rather #ungood. Some would say #bad.

To give you a sense of how awful Kyler Murray was, he rushed for 100 yards and STILL didn’t crack the top-12 fantasy quarterbacks this week. That’s a remarkable feat.

Rondale Moore finally crested the 90% routes run plateau with 98% route participation in Week 6, so we can feel good about starting him in our flex spots during these bye weeks. He caught six of 10 targets for 49 yards as a main short-area target.

Marquise Brown is set to miss some time following a small fracture in his foot that was revealed today. They acquired Robbie Anderson from the downtrodden Carolina Panthers for two late-round picks, presumably because of the Brown injury. At the very least, he’s a warm body, but a body that was sent off the field by Panthers interim head coach Steve Wilks. I don’t see a meaningful fantasy-friendly role for Anderson currently but he’s fine as a speculative add in case he takes on more of a role than we anticipate.

Week 6 Arizona Cardinals Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: DeAndre Hopkins (eligible to return this week), Marquise Brown (when healthy), James Conner (when healthy), Zach Ertz (for now) 

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump.

Atlanta Falcons

Setting the NFL back to the stone age with their run-first, run-second, and run-third approach, the Atlanta Falcons just don’t care about fantasy. At all.

They threw the ball all of 14 times, and in just 14 pass attempts, it’s obviously difficult to gain any type of volume as a pass-catcher. So of course, it’s the game where Kyle Pitts scores his first touchdown on American soil. He didn’t add much else but ran 83% of routes but only 57% of snaps, which means Pitts was in on passing downs versus run blocking. The same routes-to-snaps disparity held true for Drake London, who had a 3-40 line on a “team-leading” four targets. London had 100% route participation but just 67% of snaps. It’s going to be hard to recommend even London as a start with the lack of passing volume we’re getting out of this offense. If they keep games close or are in leading scripts, then it’s going to be run, run, run with a dash of run and the occasional pass.

Week 6 Atlanta Falcons Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Kyle Pitts

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to dump, but you’re not starting any pieces of this offense outside of London or Pitts anyway.

Baltimore Ravens

It’s Mark Andrews or nothing. Maybe until Rashod Bateman gets back, but possible even then…

This a bold statement for sure, but even the Devin Duvernay steam fizzled out in Week 6 as he only caught one of his five targets on 81% of routes. 

Andrews is just front and center in this Ravens offense as he just lights it up on a seemingly weekly basis. His 7-106-1 line paced the Ravens and another fun stat: Andrews has not blocked ONCE on a snap this season.

Week 6 Baltimore Ravens Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Mark Andrews, Lamar Jackson

Dump ‘Em: For me, Devin Duvernay is too hit or miss in a Ravens offense that still wants to run the ball, where the passing game flows through Andrews and trickles the crumbs to everybody else. Bateman has a longer leash based on draft capital both in fantasy and in the NFL, so I’m willing to give him the benefit of more time coming back from injury over Duvernay.

Buffalo Bills

With so much hype surrounding this game as soon as the schedule was made, it was going to be difficult to compare it to the epic playoff game last season, but it was still very fun.

Devin Singletary saw a ton of run here, with 86% of snaps, 67% of routes, and Zack Moss a healthy scratch. James Cook didn’t factor in at all, as is typical in games where Buffalo isn’t trailing or leading.

Gabe Davis was Gabe Davis yet again (3-74-1, six targets, 96% routes) and despite not seeing huge target volume, he has a key downfield role in this offense that will be hugely fruitful for fantasy managers. It also helps to have fantasy football’s overall WR1 Stefon Diggs (10-148-1, 13 targets) on the other side of him. Diggs has averaged 25.1 fantasy points per game and could be the skeleton key for 2022 despite three or four other wide receivers drafted ahead of him. Betting on the strength and consistency of the Bills’ offense has been a dominant strategy thus far for fantasy managers in 2022.

The production also trickled down to Dawson Knox, who caught all three of his targets for 37 yards, plus the game-winning touchdown on 80% of routes. Knox is still a low-end fantasy starter, but it was nice to see Josh Allen find him in the red zone and that’s the role we were looking for him to reprise from 2021. Knox has been hurt, but hopefully, we can get some consistency out of him coming out of Buffalo’s Week 7 bye.

Week 6 Buffalo Bills Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis, Devin Singletary

Dump ‘Em: It didn’t look good early for Isaiah McKenzie (2-9, five targets) with several failed opportunities to where Twitter was #nothappy with him; begging for Khalil Shakir to replace him. Shakir only ran 20% of routes, so I don’t know if I’m holding onto Shakir outside of deeper fantasy formats. McKenzie doesn’t even seem that strong of a hold at 58% of routes in his own right. Knox is the biggest thorn in the side of either of these slot/shorter-are targets.

Carolina Panthers

This team dumped former head coach Matt Rhule and had a week to prepare for the Rams. In 21 pass attempts, they put up 19 air yards.

That’s a 1 with a 9 after it. One less than 20. Not a typo.

Are we sure they’re even playing the same sport as everybody else?

Start Christian McCaffrey and hope DJ Moore gets traded. I hope we weren’t looking for any more nuance here.

Note: Moore’s air yards share looks broken, and that’s because it is. The rest of the team had a combined -16 air yards, so Moore’s 35 air yards put him at an impossible 184% of air yards for the week. This TEAM is broken.

Week 6 Carolina Panthers Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Christian McCaffrey

Dump ‘Em: Everybody but DJ Moore, but he’s next unless he gets traded.

Chicago Bears

We must find the person responsible for scheduling these Thursday night games because my brain MELTED having to watch Broncos/Colts the previous Thursday.

This week? More of the same.

The most run-heavy team in the NFL, the Chicago Bears, did their best to make this game as unwatchable as the previous week. At least they passed more, with a season-high 27 pass attempts for and 88 yards rushing from quarterback Justin Fields.

Darnell Mooney put up a usable stat line (7-68, 12 targets, 92% routes) and would be the only serious contender for the Chicago Bear to put in your fantasy lineup. Of course, you’re putting your fate into your hands if you’re trusting the Bears' offense to put up the requisite volume in the passing game to make Mooney worth it. Dante Pettis scored a 40-yard touchdown but remains untrustworthy for fantasy purposes. Cole Kmet is borderline dust (1-15 on three targets) despite running a ton of routes

Week 6 Chicago Bears Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: As the kids say, “lol”.

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to dump because they should have been dumped by now. That includes you, Cole Kmet.

Cincinnati Bengals

The fantasy community (and yours truly) was very worried about Tee Higgins with his ankle injury considering he only played 10 snaps in Week 5 before being pulled and not returning. He played in Week 6 and ran a starter's routes share of 90% while earning 10 targets. It’s fair to say that he STILL probably wasn’t fully healthy, but it was a good sign to see him out there and still earning targets.

Ja’Marr Chase was the obvious star, with a 7-132-2 line against the Saints. He’s fantastic. Of course, Tyler Boyd completes the triumvirate of the Bengals’ pass-catchers catching all six of his targets for 66 yards on 98% of routes. Only Hayden Hurst (3-21, 74% routes) had a routes run percentage above 58% among the other Bengals options.

We love the Bengals' passing game.

Week 6 Cincinnati Bengals Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Joe Burrow, Joe Mixon

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright drop, but Hayden Hurst is on the borderline.

Cleveland Browns

Taking a page out of the Colts’ (but still #onbrand for the Browns historically) playbook, Amari Cooper (4-44-1, 72% routes) saw the majority of targets — albeit inefficient ones — and saved his day with a touchdown.

Donovan Peoples-Jones (4-74, 84% routes — led team in Week 6) is just so hit or miss with production, so he’s not somebody I’m targeting even though he typically is at the of the waiver wire in most leagues. When/if Deshaun Watson returns from suspension, he becomes quite a bit more attractive as a deep threat with a more stable quarterback. But he’s not a worthy fantasy play currently.

Rookie David Bell saw a season-high 67% of routes, but it’s fair to assume that his routes spike was the result of that negative game script.  

Week 6 Cleveland Browns Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Amari Cooper, Nick Chubb, David Njoku

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump.

Dallas Cowboys

In what is likely to be Cooper Rush’s last start before Dak Prescott resumes his role as starting quarterback, he led two long drives in the second half to make their game with the Eagles more of a game than it needed to be. Despite the real-life optimism and comeback nature in Week 6, the fantasy side was not as fruitful. There was plenty of volume present (38 pass attempts) but not much in the way of efficiency.

CeeDee Lamb saw 10 targets and only caught half for a 5-68 line that represented the best fantasy line any of the wide receivers would see. Michael Gallup (2-18, seven targets) saw a season-high in snaps (76%), but his routes dipped slightly from Week 5 (89%) to Week 6’s 82%. Noah Brown is still running a usable routes share for fantasy (87%) but isn’t seeing the production to come with it. Perhaps it will be more efficient and fruitful for the Cowboys when Prescott is back under center. 

Surprise Week 6 inactive Dalton Schultz led the way for a tight end workload split between Jake Ferguson and Peyton Hendershot. Hendershot took more of the routes and snaps, but Ferguson scored the touchdown and saw six targets to Hendershot’s five. Either way, it’s not a tight end situation we’re targeting as presumably, Schultz should be available for the Cowboys in Week 7. 

Week 6 Dallas Cowboys Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: CeeDee Lamb, Dak Prescott (when healthy). Ezekiel Elliott (for now)

Dump ‘Em: Noah Brown is a deeper league hold but a shallow league drop, even with bye weeks here.

Denver Broncos

Another Broncos primetime game this week. What did we do to deserve this?

Luckily, the gods threw us a bone by the name of Greg Dulcich, who I’ve got to say, feels even better than I ever anticipated. While the Broncos have seemingly been looking for a vertical threat at tight end this entire season, they’ve been clearing the runway for a player like Dulcich by slowly whittling down Albert Okwuegbunam’s routes and snaps to single digits and then in Week 6, making him a healthy scratch on the team’s inactive list.

Dulcich in his first game as an NFL player, immediately ran 79% of routes and 71% of snaps, dropping tight ends Eric Saubert into further irrelevancy and Eric Tomlinson to blocking-only duty (28% snaps, 15% routes). He caught a touchdown and almost had two. 

While the target volume was light, Dulcich was highly regarded all summer long in Broncos’ camp for his receiving work and was primarily used as a vertical receiver at UCLA with a 17.3 yards per reception mark last season — higher than Treylon Burks at Arkansas. For him to jump into this kind of utilization off the jump in the NFL puts him squarely into the streaming category with fantasy startable status at a thin tight end position not too far behind.

Dulcich did catch the only touchdown on the night for Denver, and besides Jerry Jeudy’s seven targets and 3-54 on almost 50% of air yards, it was a lean night for the other pass-catchers. Even Courtland Sutton caught just two of three targets. Not a fun night other than "Dulcich-Mania".

Quick note on the running back situation: Melvin Gordon played just 9-of-58 snaps in Week 6, ceding the way for Latavius Murray (47% snaps) and Mike Boone (36%) to get an extended run. I’m not sure if he’s being phased out completely, but it is worth noting that Gordon was questionable leading up to the game despite Gordon looking upset on the sideline. Head coach Nathaniel Hackett did say Gordon would start in Week 7 against the Jets but expect Murray and Boone to be mixed in as well, making this a dreaded timeshare to likely avoid at all costs for fantasy.

Week 6 Denver Broncos Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Courtland Sutton

Dump ‘Em: Albert Okwuegbunam is an easy drop as he’s been phased out of the Denver offense. 

Green Bay Packers

The Packers are in serious trouble right now, and their offense is a shell of their previous iterations. The extreme downside of trading away one of the best receivers in football (Davante Adams) and replacing him with rookies and bargain-bin pass-catchers reared its ugly head in Week 6.

The offense has almost nobody to throw downfield to besides Allen Lazard, who (hilariously) was second in air yards in Week 6. Lazard also saw a career-high nine targets and ran his typical 90%+ routes share. It is worth noting that five of Lazard’s targets were in catch-up mode when the Packers were down two scores in the fourth quarter. Is Lazard the only pass-catcher you can trust in your lineups weekly? That might be fair to say at this point.

Yes, this includes Aaron Jones, who only received 13 opportunities in Week 6. Besides a Week 2 where Jones put up 170 total yards and two touchdowns, he’s scored more than 10.5 PPR fantasy points just once.

I’m just not sure we can trust Robert Tonyan either, despite a target-earning performance that saw him earn a career-high of 12 targets on 76% of routes, but he earned almost half of them in the final two drives of the game. I weigh these targets a bit less than in normal game scenarios or neutral game scripts as defenses are playing a bit looser with coverages and letting teams expend time from the clock.

We’re also at the point where we’re taking AJ Dillon out of lineups only for him to hit in a huge way down the road. We all know it’s going to happen. It’s been confusing to see the Packers go away from Dillon in 2022 after being a featured part of their game plan in 2021 where the Packers have dictated the pace and imposed their will on teams. Teams have forced the Packers to go away from game scripts where both backs have meaningful roles, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel here. You’re still rostering Dillon, but you can’t put him in fantasy lineups unless you must.

Week 6 Green Bay Packers Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: I don’t know if there’s anybody, honestly, but the closest would be *gulp* Allen Lazard. He cannot stop scoring touchdowns.

(Please tell Howard Bender I said nice things about Allen Lazard in the Fantasy Alarm Discord so my family can eat.)

Dump ‘Em: Randall Cobb suffered what looked like a high-ankle sprain and could miss 2-4 weeks with that injury. He’s a replaceable asset at this point with the Packers' offense and his fantasy production, so you can go ahead and drop him.

Indianapolis Colts

The Colts pretty much flipped their script in Week 7 to shock and awe.

For me, anyway.

THREE Colts earned more than 10+ targets in Week 6, which accounted for 66% of the total targets for the team. Michael Pittman (13-134), Parris Campbell (7-57-1), and Deon Jackson (10-79) all took advantage of the heightened volume in a back-and-forth game. Most time a quarterback can attempt 58 passes, you’re going to get a ton of volume from multiple players. I just didn’t expect it from the Colts. The hilarious thing about it is that Matt Ryan had the sixth-lowest quarterback aDOT of all starting quarterbacks who dropped back more than 10 times. The respective aDOTs for Pittman, Campbell, and Jackson were: 4.5, 6.7, and -1.1. Most of the passes were short and the dink-and-dunk variety. Are teams going to let the Colts keep this going? If they do, I can’t imagine they’ll have the success they had in Week 6

Alec Pierce (3-49-1, seven targets, 71% routes) saw a slight routes dip from Week 5 to Week 6 but is still plenty involved in this offense — to the point where he’s now a decent flex play in fantasy.

Week 6 Indianapolis Colts Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Michael Pittman, Jonathan Taylor (when healthy)

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Besides the quartet of Christian Kirk, Zay Jones (5-42-0), Evan Engram (5-40-0), and Travis Etienne, no Jaguar had more than one target in Week 6. With Trevor Lawrence very efficient but still spearheading a run-first attack against the Colts, the defense let up points on drive after drive late. Not great, Bob.

At least Kirk (4-24-1) caught a touchdown to salvage his day, but Lawrence only threw for 165 yards and rushed in two of the touchdowns himself, so there wasn’t too much fantasy goodness to go around.

Week 6 Jacksonville Jaguars Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Christian Kirk, Travis Etienne

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump.

Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs run pure most weeks with Travis Kelce leading the way, and that was no different in Week 6, as Kelce put up a monster 8-108 day on 10 targets. He left the game with a shoulder issue but came back in with seemingly no problems afterward.

The only other Chief to put up a usable fantasy stat line was JuJu Smith-Schuster (5-113-1, five targets, 94% routes), who finally got in the end zone on a 42-yard catch and run.

Besides that, and a random Mecole Hardman touchdown on just four targets and 45% routes, Marquez Valdes-Scantling lost a touchdown due to an illegal man downfield penalty to cap off a catchless three-target performance in Week 6.

For the Chiefs, it’s Kelce and the rest, but JuJu usually leads “the rest” with the Chiefs' roulette wheel of touchdowns landing on somebody else weekly that we’re unable to predict weekly.

Week 6 Kansas City Chiefs Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce

Dump ‘Em: It’s not a “dump” as in dropping them completely off your roster, but at the first sign of a touchdown from Clyde Edwards-Helaire, I’d be entertaining trade offers for him. He only ran 42% of snaps (compared to Jerick McKinnon’s 43% snap share) and has name value to at least get something useful back in a trade. CEH is never a fun click to start on your fantasy roster, so let somebody else do it.

Los Angeles Chargers

Justin Herbert threw the ball a whopping 57 times, so you know volume is going somewhere, and it went to a combination of Austin Ekeler (16 targets) and Joshua Palmer (12 targets). Both saw over half of the targets for the Chargers and while the combined yards from scrimmage on his 30 opportunities weren’t ideal (83 yards), you loved him in PPR formats just on the receiving work alone. Tack on the rushing touchdown he got in the second quarter and even better.

The downside week of Mike Williams (2-17, six targets) hit which was disappointing in a game with so many passing attempts. We know he’s a “peaks and valleys” player, but sheesh. Palmer led the team’s wide receiver/tight end group in all receiving categories, but with a 4.1 aDOT, they were fairly meaningless outside of just stat compiling.

Week 6 Los Angeles Chargers Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Austin Ekeler, Justin Herbert, Keenan Allen (when healthy), Mike Williams

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump, but Palmer is likely a drop in most formats once Allen finally returns to the lineup.

Los Angeles Rams

Cooper Kupp? Still #good.

The only other thing that worked in this passing game was <checks notes> Allen Robinson! Wow! Robinson ran his typical 85% routes and put up 5-63-1 on six targets, which was a good sign for him as he has a pulse again. For now.

Nobody else ran more than 68% of routes in Week 6, not even Tyler Higbee, who put up a disappointing 1-7, with two targets on just 59% of routes. We do know that Higbee was banged up and questionable entering the game, so it could have been the Rams managing his workload here in a game that wasn’t ever in doubt. That’s how toothless the Panthers have been in 2022.

Week 6 Los Angeles Rams Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Cooper Kupp, Tyler Higbee (when healthy), Darrell Henderson (62% routes, 71% snaps in Week 6. No Cam Akers to split with, so Henderson is front and center in this Rams' rushing attack.

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump.

Miami Dolphins

Just like their Week 6 counterparts in the Minnesota Vikings, the Dolphins played very condensed with their offense. Unlike the Vikings, the main players in their condensed offense all showed out.

Tyreek Hill (12-177), Jaylen Waddle (6-129), and Mike Gesicki (6-69-2) combined for 71% of the targets, 86% of the air yards and all ran routes on at least 76% of dropbacks.

Gesicki has been a revelation the last few weeks as his routes have trended up since Week 3, from a season-low 32% to this week’s 76%. He’s the clear third target in the passing game right now and with the strength of this passing game and Tua Tagovailoa likely to return in Week 7, his stock has been repaired to the point where he’s a low-end TE1. 

Week 6 Miami Dolphins Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Tua Tagovailoa (when healthy)

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump.

Minnesota Vikings

Justin Jefferson (6-107), a #good player.

Adam Thielen (4-36-1) continues to catch too many touchdowns.

Irv Smith (64% routes) even chipped in with a touchdown on four receptions for just seven yards.

Nobody else saw volume in this condensed offense as Jefferson and Thielen combined for 86% of the air yards and 57% of targets. Pretty typical for the Vikings as they head into their Week 7 bye.

Week 6 Minnesota Vikings Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Justin Jefferson, Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright drop, though K.J. Osborn is in consideration as he dropped to 61% of routes this week from last week’s 82%.

New England Patriots

The “Zappe Slappies” were in full force in Week 6 as despite a 10-6 halftime score, the Patriots put foot to throat and dominated the Browns in the second half.

I mean, say what you want about the depressed offensive environment in New England with their weapons, but Bailey Zappe has been pretty #good for the Patriots after getting his feet wet. Some say he should even be the starter over Mac Jones when he returns. That’s how good he’s been.

Targets are still spread out evenly amongst their options, but this was the first week the Patriots got their second-round rookie Tyquan Thornton involved in the offense — and boy, did they ever. Thornton caught a short touchdown and then rushed for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. He represents an intriguing profile as not only a deep threat but a player that can take screen passes and rush the ball. New England is finding ways to get him the ball, just as Baylor found ways for him to contribute. The hope is that Thornton can cement himself as a consistent weapon like Jakobi Meyers (4-60, four targets, 92% routes) has.

DeVante Parker (4-64) had a mildly productive day as well, but Hunter Henry (4-61-1, seven targets, 75% routes) continued to run most of the pass routes even with Jonnu Smith back in the lineup which was encouraging.

The possible return of Damien Harris in Week 7 could muddy up the backfield with Rhamondre Stevenson looking like a stud in Week 6, but even with Harris in tow, I think Stevenson is good for the majority of the work even in a split with Harris moving forward.

Week 6 New England Patriots Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Jakobi Meyers

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump.

New Orleans Saints

The Saints were down their top three wide receivers, so they ran out Marquez Callaway (3-36, seven targets, 87% of routes) and Tre’Quan Smith (3-43-1, 70% routes) as their top two. Not great. They’ve gotten crushed with injuries but should get Chris Olave back for tonight’s game against the Cardinals, which always helps.

Juwan Johnson’s (4-41, six targets) routes shot up to near-Week 1 levels (81%) with the injury of Adam Trautman, who likely misses Week 7.

Week 6 New Orleans Saints Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas (when healthy)

Dump ‘Em: There are leagues where I’ve seen Jarvis Landry get dropped, and I’m fine with it if you need the room. This is still an offense that skews heavily to the run and Landry looks like the fourth option next to Thomas, Olave, and Kamara.

New York Giants

The Giants should be bad. But they’re not bad. They’re 5-1. Explain THAT one.

Nobody can. It's like aliens. Or the Easter Island statues. Things that just happen and cannot be explained with any sort of rhyme or reason. The story of the 2022 New York Giants.

The team employs replacement-level wide receivers and finally got their second-round pick Wan’Dale Robinson back, and he promptly scored a touchdown. He’s clearly the most talented of the bunch, but they’ll work him into the fold, as he only ran routes on 34% of dropbacks. 

Daniel Bellinger also caught a touchdown and saw a big increase in routes run from 36% in Week 4, up to 55% in Week 5, and to 81% in Week 6. If the ~80% routes hold, that’s good enough for me to enter the streaming tight end category.

Week 6 New York Giants Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Saquon Barkley

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump, but that assumes the only player you’re rostering in fantasy from the Giants is either Barkley or Robinson.

New York Jets

Welcome to the New York Jets’ new normal — featuring game-manager Zach Wilson, who is trending this team to Atlanta Falcons/Chicago Bears-levels of running the ball and ignoring young pass-catchers.

To be fair, the Packers are a run funnel, so this team only passed the ball 18 times, and nobody had more than two receptions. Wilson didn’t throw a touchdown. Elijah Moore didn’t earn a target. Both Moore and Garrett Wilson ran routes in the 62-67% range. They’re winning, but yet another team that doesn’t care about fantasy.

*sad trombone noise*

At least Breece Hall is trending towards RB1 status with his utilization (67% snaps, 33% routes but with 21 pass attempts and a positive game script, that could be a blip) and production.

Week 6 New York Jets Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Breece Hall

Dump ‘Em: I’d be dumping Corey Davis with the run-heavy antics of the Jets since Zach Wilson returned to the lineup, and the fact that in most weeks, Moore and G. Wilson should produce much more than they did in Week 6. Davis is the likeliest “odd man out” in most weeks. Though, as we saw this week, everybody was the “odd man out”.

Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles’ “Big Three” of A.J. Brown (5-67-1), DeVonta Smith (5-44-1), and Dallas Goedert (2-22) saw 86% of the targets, all ran at least 90% of routes, and only Goedert didn’t get into the end zone. Despite that, it was multiple middling performances compared to what we’ve seen from all three players this season, but the Eagles did also jump out to a 20-3 lead at halftime. So rather than subject Jalen Hurts to hits from a ferocious Dallas pass rush, they just handed the ball off a ton and then capped off the night with Smith’s touchdown.

Usually, two or three of these players are going to hit each week, and it was no different in Week 6. If the Eagles get into more neutral or negative game scripts, that’s when you’ll see the passing game open up to more volume. Luckily, this passing game is very efficient, so we’ll get plenty of usable weeks despite low pass volume in most weeks. The Eagles enter their bye week in Week 7.

Week 6 Philadelphia Eagles Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Dallas Goedert

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump, but if you haven’t dumped Kenneth Gainwell, you can go ahead and do that; especially with Philadelphia’s bye week here.

Pittsburgh Steelers

While the Steelers’ pass-catchers have struggled from an efficiency standpoint for the entirety of 2022, that… did not change (for the most part) in Week 6.

With Kenny Pickett leaving the game with a concussion, Mitch Trubisky came in and honestly, didn’t miss a beat in their upset over the Buccaneers. Chase Claypool (7-96-1) was the only thing that worked for Pittsburgh, with Diontae Johnson (5-28) suffering from a debilitating lack of efficiency and George Pickens (3-27) not really mattering for fantasy this week. The passing game condensed to these three with all running 88% of routes per dropback and combining for 73% of all targets as Pat Freiermuth was out as he was unable to clear concussion protocol.

Najee Harris caught the other touchdown (on 69% of routes) if you’re into that kind of thing. The ceiling for Harris in 2022 is a worse Joe Mixon: a middling RB2 on a team that will pass a bunch but fails to meet expectations due to awful efficiency.

Week 6 Pittsburgh Steelers Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Diontae Johnson, Najee Harris (for now)

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump.

San Francisco 49ers

In a slightly improbably trailing script for the 49ers in this one, the team got their greatest hits gang together to make some fantasy music. The best part (for fantasy managers) is that the production was centered around all three of Brandon Aiyuk (8-83-2), Deebo Samuel (7-79), and George Kittle (8-83). Only two others even had receptions in Week 6.

All three ran routes on at least 83% of dropbacks, combined for 70% of air yards and 75% of targets here. With their trailing script, they only ran the ball 28% of all plays, which is almost 20% lower than their typical run play rate for the season.

Week 6 San Francisco 49ers Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk

Dump ‘Em: If for some reason you picked up Tevin Coleman after his two-touchdown performance in Week 5, you can go ahead and drop him. He’s a low-upside handcuff and was not involved in the passing game during their trailing script.

Seattle Seahawks

I’m not sure if it was a defensive game the Seahawks got roped into or if it was an offensive ineptitude game with the Cardinals’ cone of influence that sucked Seattle into its vortex, but a 19-9 game wasn’t on anybody’s bingo card in Week 6.

DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett (both over 87% routes) combined for four receptions and 51 yards and Geno Smith had 31 pass attempts but threw zero touchdowns. What a weird game. Fortunately, because the Cardinals are #ungood, the Seahawks didn’t need too much besides four Jason Myers field goals and a fourth-quarter Kenneth Walker rushing touchdown.

Speaking of Walker, he got all but two running back carries but only ran routes on 40% of dropbacks. DeeJay Dallas was a bit of a fly in the ointment for Walker’s upside, but the hope is that Walker can open up even a little bit of that receiving work and shut the inferior Dallas out.

It was a listless offensive performance closer to this team's preseason expectations rather than the updated “maybe Geno might be good” version of the Seahawks that we started to get used to for a few weeks. Luckily for Seattle, listless was something Arizona could only wish for out of their offense in Week 6.

Week 6 Seattle Seahawks Fantasy Takeaways:

Start Your Studs: DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, Kenneth Walker

Dump ‘Em: Nobody to outright dump.