Fantasy Football Stat of the Day: Sharing the end zone in Tampa

(Leading up to the 2021 NFL season, FTN’s Tyler Loechner will dive into the fantasy football numbers to bring you his Fantasy Stat of the Day, five days a week.)

Knowledge is power. So are end zone targets.

13% of all fantasy receiving points are scored on passes that are thrown when the receiver is in the end zone. In fact, more total fantasy points are scored on end-zone targets than on targets where the receiver is anywhere from the 1- to 10-yard line — combined.

Distance From EZ	Targets	Rec. FPs	% of all Rec. FPs
0	1539	4252	13%
1	154	647	2%
2	136	410	1%
3	99	240	1%
4	121	313	1%
5	233	466	1%
6	96	271	1%
7	114	259	1%
8	105	222	1%
9	125	222	1%
10	242	412	1%

And when it came to end zone targets in 2020, two teammates towered over the rest.

Rob Gronkowski and Mike Evans actually can coexist as top red zone targets

Calvin Ridley an Adam Thielen paced the league with 23 end zone targets in 2020. But shortly behind them were two pairs of teammates: DK Metcalf (18) and Tyler Lockett (16), and Rob Gronkowski (17) and Mike Evans (15).

player	pos	tgt	ezTgt	%
Adam Thielen	WR	116	23	19.8%
Calvin Ridley	WR	153	23	15.0%
DK Metcalf	WR	137	18	13.1%
Davante Adams	WR	155	17	11.0%
Rob Gronkowski	TE	85	17	20.0%
Nelson Agholor	WR	95	17	17.9%
Tyler Lockett	WR	139	16	11.5%
Allen Robinson	WR	157	16	10.2%
Mike Evans	WR	122	15	12.3%
Tyreek Hill	WR	139	15	10.8%
Mike Williams	WR	93	15	16.1%
T.Y. Hilton	WR	107	15	14.0%
Michael Gallup	WR	113	15	13.3%
DeVante Parker	WR	113	15	13.3%

The teammate duo of Metcalf and Lockett combined for more EZ targets than Gronkowski and Evans, but there are many more mouths to feed in Tampa Bay, so that’s where we’ll focus for this article.

Among players with at least 50 targets, Gronkowski’s 20% end zone target rate was highest in the league. Meanwhile, Evans saw an end zone target on 12.3% of his looks.

The fact both Gronkowski and Evans were able to secure so many end zone targets while playing with so many other talented players — Antonio Brown (late in the season), Chris Godwin, Cameron Brate, O.J. Howard (early in the season) to name a few — is an impressive feat.

In the end, no other Bucs players saw even half as many end zone targets as Gronkowski or Evans. Godwin was next-closest with eight.

When Tom Brady and Gronkowski joined the Buccaneers, there were all sorts of questions about who would benefit and who would be hurt. A common consensus was the Evans would be the one to take the biggest blow with Gronkowski being such a good red zone threat.

It turns out that wasn’t true. There’s enough room in Tampa for both.