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One of the primary benefits of examining the weekly and season-long target leaders every week is to look for buying opportunities, whether via waivers or trade. Not every target hog is going to turn his opportunities into fantasy production, but I feel much more comfortable trading for a top receiver or chasing waiver potential if I know there are targets available. If you can find someone with a consistent target share you may be a bit unlucky in the touchdown department, you should definitely consider pursuing a trade. Let’s look at a couple of players who fit that description, as well as the several other noteworthy receivers heading into Week 7.
| Player | Team | Targets | Rec | Yards | TDs | Drops | Catch % | ADoT | Yards Per Target |
| Adam Thielen | MIN | 78 | 58 | 712 | 4 | 3 | 74 | 9.5 | 9.1 |
| Antonio Brown | PIT | 71 | 40 | 478 | 6 | 1 | 56 | 11.3 | 6.7 |
| Zach Ertz | PHI | 66 | 48 | 480 | 2 | 3 | 73 | 7.1 | 7.3 |
| Julio Jones | ATL | 65 | 44 | 707 | 0 | 3 | 68 | 15.6 | 10.9 |
| Odell Beckham Jr. | NYG | 65 | 45 | 506 | 1 | 1 | 69 | 10.8 | 7.8 |
| Davante Adams | GB | 65 | 47 | 557 | 6 | 4 | 72 | 10.4 | 8.6 |
| DeAndre Hopkins | HST | 63 | 44 | 657 | 3 | 0 | 70 | 13.6 | 10.4 |
| JuJu Smith-Schuster | PIT | 60 | 42 | 561 | 2 | 2 | 70 | 9.9 | 9.4 |
| Jarvis Landry | CLV | 58 | 31 | 392 | 1 | 4 | 53 | 10.2 | 6.8 |
| Michael Crabtree | BLT | 55 | 30 | 343 | 2 | 8 | 55 | 10.5 | 6.2 |
| A.J. Green | CIN | 55 | 33 | 494 | 5 | 3 | 60 | 13.7 | 9 |
| Emmanuel Sanders | DEN | 53 | 40 | 490 | 2 | 1 | 75 | 9.2 | 9.2 |
| Stefon Diggs | MIN | 53 | 40 | 435 | 3 | 0 | 75 | 10.5 | 8.2 |
| Tyreek Hill | KC | 50 | 34 | 567 | 6 | 2 | 68 | 15.8 | 11.3 |
| Eric Ebron | IND | 50 | 30 | 326 | 6 | 1 | 60 | 10.8 | 6.5 |
| Michael Thomas | NO | 49 | 46 | 519 | 3 | 1 | 94 | 7.4 | 10.6 |
| Robert Woods | LAR | 49 | 36 | 524 | 3 | 0 | 73 | 11.8 | 10.7 |
| Travis Kelce | KC | 48 | 33 | 468 | 3 | 2 | 69 | 9.6 | 9.8 |
| Corey Davis | TEN | 48 | 27 | 385 | 1 | 1 | 56 | 10.6 | 8 |
| Saquon Barkley | NYG | 48 | 40 | 373 | 2 | 1 | 83 | 0.1 | 7.8 |
| James White | NE | 47 | 37 | 323 | 4 | 1 | 79 | 3.6 | 6.9 |
| Tyler Boyd | CIN | 47 | 37 | 455 | 4 | 0 | 79 | 9.4 | 9.7 |
| Alvin Kamara | NO | 47 | 38 | 351 | 1 | 1 | 81 | 2.2 | 7.5 |
| Keenan Allen | LAC | 46 | 36 | 434 | 1 | 1 | 78 | 8.7 | 9.4 |
| Golden Tate | DET | 45 | 33 | 431 | 3 | 4 | 73 | 7.1 | 9.6 |
| Mike Evans | TB | 44 | 33 | 484 | 3 | 3 | 75 | 15.5 | 11 |
| Demaryius Thomas | DEN | 43 | 28 | 330 | 3 | 5 | 65 | 11.5 | 7.7 |
| Nelson Agholor | PHI | 43 | 32 | 310 | 1 | 3 | 74 | 8.1 | 7.2 |
| Jared Cook | OAK | 42 | 32 | 400 | 2 | 1 | 76 | 6.9 | 9.5 |
| John Brown | BLT | 42 | 21 | 424 | 3 | 2 | 50 | 22.3 | 10.1 |
| David Njoku | CLV | 41 | 27 | 245 | 1 | 5 | 66 | 8.3 | 6 |
| Chester Rogers | IND | 41 | 28 | 255 | 1 | 6 | 68 | 7.1 | 6.2 |
| Sterling Shepard | NYG | 41 | 31 | 341 | 2 | 1 | 76 | 8.5 | 8.3 |
| George Kittle | SF | 40 | 27 | 429 | 1 | 1 | 68 | 7.5 | 10.7 |
| Willie Snead IV | BLT | 40 | 30 | 313 | 1 | 1 | 75 | 10 | 7.8 |
| Kenny Golladay | DET | 40 | 27 | 428 | 3 | 1 | 68 | 10.9 | 10.7 |
| Jimmy Graham | GB | 40 | 27 | 349 | 1 | 0 | 68 | 9.8 | 8.7 |
| Quincy Enunwa | NYJ | 40 | 22 | 287 | 1 | 4 | 55 | 8.8 | 7.2 |
| Christian McCaffrey | CAR | 39 | 34 | 238 | 1 | 0 | 87 | 1.7 | 6.1 |
| Melvin Gordon III | LAC | 38 | 30 | 279 | 3 | 6 | 79 | 0.4 | 7.3 |
| Donte Moncrief | JAX | 38 | 18 | 253 | 2 | 3 | 47 | 15.2 | 6.7 |
| Allen Robinson II | CHI | 38 | 24 | 281 | 2 | 0 | 63 | 12.5 | 7.4 |
| Cooper Kupp | LAR | 37 | 30 | 438 | 5 | 2 | 81 | 9 | 11.8 |
| Ryan Grant | IND | 37 | 26 | 270 | 1 | 2 | 70 | 10.9 | 7.3 |
| Nyheim Hines | IND | 37 | 31 | 185 | 2 | 2 | 84 | 1.7 | 5 |
| Larry Fitzgerald | ARZ | 36 | 22 | 215 | 0 | 2 | 61 | 9.4 | 6 |
| Brandin Cooks | LAR | 36 | 28 | 505 | 1 | 1 | 78 | 13.2 | 14 |
| Keelan Cole | JAX | 36 | 25 | 336 | 1 | 2 | 69 | 9.8 | 9.3 |
| Austin Hooper | ATL | 36 | 30 | 273 | 2 | 1 | 83 | 7.1 | 7.6 |
| Pierre Garcon | SF | 35 | 20 | 225 | 0 | 4 | 57 | 9.2 | 6.4 |
| Dede Westbrook | JAX | 35 | 27 | 385 | 2 | 4 | 77 | 8.8 | 11 |
| Rob Gronkowski | NE | 35 | 26 | 405 | 1 | 1 | 74 | 12.6 | 11.6 |
| Antonio Callaway | CLV | 35 | 15 | 186 | 1 | 4 | 43 | 16.5 | 5.3 |
| Jalen Richard | OAK | 35 | 31 | 253 | 0 | 0 | 89 | 1 | 7.2 |
| T.Y. Hilton | IND | 35 | 21 | 294 | 2 | 2 | 60 | 10.2 | 8.4 |
| Devin Funchess | CAR | 35 | 23 | 312 | 2 | 1 | 66 | 13.7 | 8.9 |
Breakdowns
Alshon Jeffery is still at least a week away from making our target leaderboard after missing the first three weeks of the season, but it is only a matter of time. Jeffery had a season-high 12 targets Thursday night, giving him 29 through three games. Jeffery has vaulted himself into must-start territory going forward, but I wouldn’t blame anyone who wanted to try to sell high. In addition to Jeffery’s injury risk, the Eagles have the Panthers, Jaguars and their bye the next three weeks.- Odell Beckham has at least nine targets in every game this season. He still only has one receiving touchdown this season, and it is entirely possible his owner in your league is starting to panic. You should definitely find out.
- It is nearly impossible to trust small pass-catching backs week in and week out (just ask Nyheim Hines owners), but there is no doubt the Bears offense is at its best when Tarik Cohen is heavily involved. Cohen caught seven of nine targets for 90 yards Sunday, giving him 14 receptions on 17 targets over the last two games.
- Danny Amendola caught eight passes on 11 targets Sunday after catching 12 passes on 14 targets in his first four games combined. Brock Osweiler is obviously a check down artist, and Amendola is likely to see a high volume whenever Osweiler plays.
- Albert Wilson garnered some attention for racking up 155 receiving yards and two touchdowns on six catches Sunday. Wilson’s nine targets were encouraging, but his 6.0 ADot was not. Wilson isn’t a terrible desperation play if you are dealing with byes and injuries, but his big day had far more to do with the Bears being unable to tackle than anything Wilson was doing.
- Stefon Diggs may have fallen well behind Adam Theilen in Minnesota’s passing game, but he was still tied for eighth in the NFL in targets heading into Week 6. Diggs hasn’t caught a touchdown since Week 2, and you should at least see if the Diggs owner in your league is beginning to panic.
- Meanwhile, the aforementioned Theilen is on pace for 154 receptions on 216 targets, both of which would be NFL records.I can’t help but wonder if teams will decide at some point to shift their coverage towards Thielen and take their chances with Stefon Diggs .
- Cole Beasley is a thing again. If you want a reason to be encouraged, I would point to his 8.1 ADoT in Week 6. I still think he is a poor man’s Danny Amendola , but he wasn’t used that way on Sunday. At the same time, most of Beasley’s nine receptions came when he was wide open against zone coverage. After his second touchdown, Tony Romo commented on the broadcast that the Jacksonville defense didn’t have a plan for stopping Beasley. I can’t help but feel that if they had wanted to, they could have done so pretty easily. Beasley caught 10 passes total Weeks 2 through 5, and he still doesn’t have enough targets to crack our leaderboard. Until he does, he can safely be ignored outside of 16-team leagues.
- For the second consecutive week, Austin Hooper caught nine passes for 70+ yards on 10+ targets. He even threw in a touchdown for good measure. The Falcons lost Calvin Ridley and Mohammed Sanu in this game, and Hooper is startable in all leagues of both of those receivers are out.
- Jarvis Landry remains in the top 10 in targets this season, but he is outside the top 20 in receptions. I still think Landry is a good player, but I’m beginning to think he may be miscast as a No. 1 receiver. He is probably being held back by his quarterback as well. Landry’s numbers are remarkably similar to Michael Crabtree ’s, and I don’t see anything on tape that makes me think he should be ranked significantly ahead of Crabtree most weeks. That being said, I suspect a lot of fantasy players will be looking to trade away Landry or at least bench him after he caught just two of nine targets for 11 yards Sunday, and I think that would be a mistake.
- Keenan Allen had just five targets Sunday, but he is still 24th in targets, 16th in receptions and 21st in receiving yards on the season. We have already started getting “What’s wrong with Keenan Allen ” questions in the FantasyAlarm Sunday chat, and you should absolutely email the Keenan Allen owner in your league and see if he is willing to buy low. At the very least, Allen remains a high-end WR2 every week, and in a league where reliable receiving options are hard to come by, that still has a lot of value.