Target Breakdown: WR & TE Usage Report + Week 12 Waivers Preview

Box Score Breakdown

Backfield Breakdown

Target Breakdown ⬇️   

Weekly Injury Report 🚑

New Injuries

• WR Jordan Addison (leg cramps / day-to-day)
• WR Gabe Davis (knee / out for season)
• WR Darnell Mooney (hamstring / week-to-week)
• TE Jake Ferguson (concussion)
• TE Shane Zylstra (neck)
• TE Josh Oliver (ankle)

Falcons WR Darnell Mooney is the headliner here, with a hamstring injury forcing him out of Sunday's blowout loss to Denver in the third quarter and (briefly) interrupting a breakout season. He won't necessarily miss additional time, as the Falcons are on bye Week 12 and reportedly don't think Mooney's injury is serious.

Cowboys TE Jake Ferguson is the other regular(ish) fantasy starter listed here, and he'll face a challenge to avoid missed time in concussion protocol with the Cowboys on a short week after Monday Night Football. His early departure Monday opened the door for fellow Dallas tight ends Luke Schoonmaker (6-56-0 on 10 targets) and Brevyn Spann-Ford (4-42-0 on five targets) in an offense desperate for playmakers beyond WR CeeDee Lamb.

Jaguars WR Gabe Davis suffered the most serious injury of the week among pass catchers, and he's already been placed on IR with a season-ending knee injury (reportedly a meniscus tear). With Christian Kirk (shoulder) already out for the year, Jacksonville was left with Parker Washington and Devin Duvernay as the Nos. 2 and 3 WRs behind Brian Thomas in the second half of a blowout loss to Detroit on Sunday. The Jaguars now go on bye, amidst questions about Doug Pederson's job security and Trevor Lawrence's health (he missed the past two games with a left shoulder injury). If Lawrence returns after the bye, WR Brian Thomas and TE Evan Engram could get huge volume and big-time fantasy production down the stretch.

Missed Week 11

• WR Keon Coleman (wrist / week-to-week)
• WR Adam Thielen (hamstring / may return Week 12)
• WR Brandin Cooks (IR - ankle / eligible since Week 10)
• WR Josh Reynolds (IR - finger / eligible since Week 10)
• WR Treylon Burks (IR - knee / eligible since Week 11)
• WR Roman Wilson (IR - hamstring / eligible Week 13)
•   WR Bub Means (IR - ankle / eligible Week 14)
• WR Allen Lazard (IR - chest / eligible Week 14) 
• WR Simi Fehoko (IR  / eligible Week 14) 
• WR Chris Olave (concussion / eligible Week 15)

The biggest injury question marks for the upcoming week are players that were on bye Week 11, namely Tampa Bay's Mike Evans (hamstring), New York's Darius Slayton (concussion) and Carolina's Adam Thielen (hamstring). Evans seems likely to play, considering he practiced Monday and told ESPN's Jenna Laine that he could've pushed things and made an effort to play Week 10.

• TE Dalton Kincaid (knee / day-to-day)
• TE Sam LaPorta (shoulder / day-to-day)
• TE George Kittle (hamstring / day-to-day)
• TE Noah Fant (groin / week-to-week)

Stock Report 📊

I'm focusing on role/usage more so than results/performance here, although there are certainly cases where the two are related or poor per-target efficiency can't just be written off as a small-sample or matchup problem. Unless otherwise specified, statistics shown below are from Week 11.  'SZN' is used to denote full-year stats.

• TPRR = Targets per Route Run
• YPRR = Yards per Route Run

Trending Up 📈

Wide Receivers 📈

Jauan Jennings - 97% routes, 11 tgts, 79 AY (10-91-1)  /  SZN: 30% TPRR, 3.00 YPRR

Jaxon Smith-Njigba - 92% routes, 11 tgts, 92 AY (10-110-0)  /  SZN: 23% TPRR, 1.80 YPRR

Ladd McConkey - 74% routes, 9 tgts, 134 AY (6-123-0)  /  SZN: 25% TPRR, 2.43 YPRR

Jerry Jeudy - 96% routes, team-high 11 tgts, 164 AY (6-142-1)  /  20% TS in Winston games

Rome Odunze - 91% routes, team-high 10 tgts, 109 AY (6-65-0)

Michael Pittman - 88% snaps, 91% routes, team-high 8 tgts, 95 AY (5-46-0)

Christian Watson - 78% routes, 4 tgts, 98 AY (4-150-0)  /  SZN: 20% TPRR, 2.49 YPRR

Elijah Moore - 80% routes, 8 tgts, 158 AY (6-66-1)  /  19% TS, 25% AYS in Winston games

Quentin Johnston - 84% routes, 8 tgts, 165 AY (2-48-1)  /  SZN: 21% TPRR, 2.01 YPRR

Devaughn Vele - 71% routes, 5 tgts, 40 AY (4-66-0)  /  SZN: 21% TYPRR, 1.84 YPRR

Nick Westbrook-Ikhine - 6 tgts, 92 AY (2-117-1)  /  averages 4.8 tgts, 59.3 yards as starter

Curtis Samuel - 70% routes, 6 gts (5-58-1)

John Metchie - 61% snaps, 3 tgts (3-33-0)

KhaDarel Hodge - 40% routes, 2 tgts (2-22-0), Darnell Mooney injury

Parker Washington - 57% snaps, 63% routes, Gabe Davis injury

Devin Duvernay - 30% snaps, 40% routes, Gabe Davis injury

The 49ers-Seahawks game was especially interesting from a pass catcher standpoint, with Jauan Jennings and Jaxon Smith-Njigba solidifying their value and status as every-week starters, while Deebo Samuel and Tyler Lockett continued to disappoint. The possibility of Jennings being a legit WR1 for fantasy while Deebo lingers in WR3 range has to be one of the biggest fantasy surprises of the season. Even after Jennings' huge game against the Rams, nearly everyone assumed Samuel would benefit from Brandon Aiyuk's season-ending injury. Instead, George Kittle went on a hot streak, followed by Jennings coming back from a hip injury and getting double-digit targets in back-to-back weeks.

Tight Ends 📈

Brock Bowers - 95% snaps, 87% routes, 16 tgts (13-126-1)  /  SZN: 30% TPRR, 2.37 YPRR

Taysom Hill - 60% routes, 7-138-3 rushing, 10 tgts on 18 routes (8-50-0)

Hunter Henry - 88% snaps, 91% routes, team-high 9 tgts (6-63-0)  /  21% TS with Maye

Darnell Washington- 58% snaps, 40% routes  /  3-48-0 on 7 tgts past 2 weeks

Dawson Knox - 83% snaps, 78% routes, 6 tgts, 62 AY (4-40-0)

Luke Schoonmaker - 53% snaps, 10 tgts (6-56-0), Jake Ferguson concussion

Trending Down 📉

Wide Receivers 📉

Amari Cooper - 49% snaps, 55% routes, 3 tgts, 69 AY (2-55-0)

DeAndre Hopkins - 44% snaps, 54% routes, 4 tgts (3-29-0)

Jaylen Waddle - three tgts on 30 routes  /  SZN: 17% TPRR, 1.47 YPRR

Ricky Pearsall - 60% routes, two tgts on 18 routes, zero catches

Tyler Lockett - three tgts on 35 routes  /  SZN: 17% TPRR, 1.40 YPRR

Adonai Mitchell - 18% snaps, 16% routes

Dontayvion Wicks - 28% routes, zero tgts  /  SZN: 1.19 YPRR (despite 27% TPRR)

Diontae Johnson - 17% routes, two tgts, zero catches

Van Jefferson - 53% routes, 1 tgt, no catches  /  SZN: 11% TPRR, 0.66 YPRR

One of the stranger happenings this week was DeAndre Hopkins getting fewer snaps/routes/targets compared to the previous two games even though the Chiefs had a big-time matchup with the Bills. His knee may be acting up again; they added him to the injury report last week (after not being listed the prior week), albeit as a full participant in every practice. Travis Kelce also took slightly fewer snaps than usual, FWIW, and with no sign/report of any injury.

Amari Cooper also had a somewhat disappointing role in that game, playing around half the snaps even though Keon Coleman (wrist) was inactive. Granted, Cooper was coming back from a wrist injury of his own after missing two games, and two of his three targets went for long plays, i.e., his workload may pick up following the Week 12 bye.

Not listed is Nico Collins, who ended up playing only 47 percent of Houston's snaps in his first week back from a hamstring injury after missing five games. He caught four of seven targets for 54 yards, with a 20-yard gain overturned on replay and a 77-yard TD on a screen pass wiped out by an illegal man downfield penalty (on the first play of the game). Collins got

Tight Ends 📉

Mark Andrews - 59% snaps, 51% routes, 3 tgts, 36 AY (2-22-0)

Pat Freiermuth - 5 tgts past 2 games, w/ Darnell Washington playing more snaps in both

Kyle Pitts- 74% routes, 3 tgts on 26 routes (1-9-0)  /  SZN: 17% TPRR, 1.66 YPRR

Mike Gesicki - 2 tgts on 42 routes  /  6% TS when Tee Higgins plays this year

Waivers Look-Ahead ±

*Only includes players rostered in 60 percent or less of Yahoo Leagues

Wide Receivers

Potential Starters

1. Jerry Jeudy - 51%
2. Quentin Johnston - 41%
3. Christian Watson - 44%
4. Elijah Moore - 8%
5. DeMario Douglas - 28%
6. Rashod Bateman - 32% 
7. Wan'Dale Robinson - 47%
8. Alec Pierce - 18%
9. Kayshon Boutte - 4%
10. Nick Westbrook-Ikhine - 4%
11. Darius Slayton - 10% (concussion)
12. Devaughn Vele - 2%
13. Demarcus Robinson - 29%
14. Marquez Valdes-Scantling - 25%
15. Noah Brown - 10%
16. Michael Wilson - 11%
17. Kendrick Bourne - 1%

Bench Stashes

1. Xavier Legette - 28%
2. Keon Coleman - 47% (wrist)
3. Adonai Mitchell - 7%
4. Jalen Coker - 5%
5. Adam Thielen - 19% (hamstring)
6. Ricky Pearsall - 46%
7. Curtis Samuel - 9% 
8. Jordan Whittington - 2%
9. Dontayvion Wicks - 19%
10. Jalen McMillan - 13%

Potential Drops

1. Jaylen Waddle - 89% (shallow leagues)
2. Diontae Johnson - 69%
3. Tyler Lockett - 60% (shallow leagues)
4. Romeo Doubs - 52% (shallow leagues)
5. Mike Williams - 20%
6. Ray-Ray McCloud - 17%
7. Jalen Tolbert - 16%
8. Joshua Palmer - 14%
9. JuJu Smith-Schuster - 11%

Tight Ends

Recommended Adds

1. Taysom Hill - 54%
2. Jonnu Smith - 54%
3. Hunter Henry - 45%
4. Zach Ertz - 33%
5. Will Dissly - 23%
6. AJ Barner - 1%
7. Luke Schoonmaker - 0%

Hill and Smith are already rostered in most leagues, but it's worth making an aggressive move to get one of them if they happen to be available... even for teams that don't need TE help. Both have recent usage/production that makes them startable in a FLEX spot. Henry, Ertz and Dissly are also solid choices, just not quite at the level where you might use a double-TE strategy - they're more of bye-week replacements or streaming options in most leagues.

Potential Drops

1. Pat Freiermuth - 57%
2. Mike Gesicki - 32%
3. Luke Musgrave - 18% (IR - ankle)
4. Tyler Conklin - 16%
5. Colby Parkinson - 8%
6. Chigoziem Okonkwo - 5%