What fantasy football receiver data trends are telling us after Week 2

Rams receiver Puka Nacua has been fantasy’s biggest surprise so far, but he’s going to be a lineup fixture all season long. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

I’ve been around the fantasy game for a while, and the target stat has come a long way, baby.

Targets didn’t become a tracked stat until 1992. Pro Football Reference wasn’t launched until 2003. My early days of fantasy football in the 90s involved scoring leagues by hand, sitting down in the morning with a pencil, a caffeinated beverage and the newspaper.

The pencil and newspaper are gone from my life now; the caffeine remains.

At one of my early fantasy gigs, I’d offer deep, hard-hitting analysis like, “It feels like every other Peyton Manning pass is intended for Marvin Harrison.” Being online in the mid-90s and finding a bar that had the NFL Sunday Ticket was hitting the lottery, a rocket ship to the moon.

Receiving stats and analysis have blossomed since. Heck, this article a decade ago would have been merely about targets, full stop. Today, we have so many additional data points — first-read targets, average depth of target, catchable targets, routes run, red-zone data; the cup feels bottomless.

My goal every Tuesday this season is to analyze wide receiver data and trends, tracking where the puck has been and trying to figure out where the puck is headed. Targets will still factor in plenty, of course. But remember: we have several different buckets to examine now.

Puka Nacua, too good to be true

Nacua has been the breakout star of the fresh fantasy season, the runaway leader in targets (35) and catches (25). Nacua is also second in yards, with 266 (Justin Jefferson is already at 309).

Nacua’s start reminds me of what Anquan Boldin did in 2003. Boldin was the 54th overall pick in the 2003 draft — back when a pick in that range wasn’t expected to produce immediately — and he smashed in his debut, a 10-217-2 explosion at Detroit. Boldin followed it up with 8-62-0 the next week, and…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/on-target-%F0%9F%8E%AF-puka-nacua-is-here-to-stay-and-more-fantasy-football-receiver-data-trends-182715390.html?src=rss

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2023-09-19 19:49:59

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