Directional passing update for Week 10

During the NFL season, we’re going to break down how different offenses are utilizing their weapons all over the field. As the year goes on, patterns begin to emerge that will allow us to anticipate and exploit mismatches between a defense and an offense that we’re targeting. 

Short Passing

There’s going to be a lot of Cooper Kupp in this article once again this week. The sheer volume he’s seeing is absurd. Kupp has seen double-digit targets in all but one game. In that game, though, he saw 9 targets. Stefon Diggs appears on this list, too. There’s no way around it. He’s been incredibly disappointing this year. After closing out last season looking like a potential (overall) WR1, he’s just been sputtering along in 2021.

Mark Andrews and Travis Kelce are the tight ends on the short-middle list. They’re fifth and sixth, respectively, in yards on targets in this portion of the field. Deebo Samuel has been a yards-after-contact machine this year. 

Kupp and Samuel show up in the short left section of the field. CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper appear here, as well, which speaks to the way that the Cowboys move their top two receivers around the formation. 

Lamb has been slightly more productive on a per-route basis, scoring 0.43 fantasy points per route run. 

Deep Passing

Donovan Peoples-Jones has all of a sudden been given an opportunity with the departure of Odell Beckham. He’ll likely see some more deep shots on the play-action passes that the Browns can pull off when they choose to. Tim Patrick has carved out a role for himself in Denver, despite the Jerry Jeudy return. 

The Packers are the only team on this list that have multiple pass-catchers. Robert Tonyan and Davante Adams have produced when given deep middle targets. These are much smaller samples and can be skewed by one catch, obviously, but it’s interesting that they both appear on the list. Christian Kirk has also broken off a couple of huge plays in this zone of the field. Bryan Edwards could see a bump in targets here with Henry Ruggs no longer with the Raiders. 

Ja’Marr Chase looked like he was going to run away with every record and award for rookies this year. He hasn’t topped 50 yards in the last two games, though, and the team has lost both of those games. The volume hasn’t gone anywhere so it seems a bit fluky, but it is worth noting nonetheless. Michael Pittman is also enjoying a breakout this year. With 143 of his 658 yards coming on deep right targets. Pittman has found the end zone four times in the last three weeks. That’s unlikely to continue but if he continues to see the target volume that he has been, he should continue this sophomore breakout.