Directional passing update for Week 4

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. 

Bird’s eye view

From a team-level, the Philadelphia Eagles aren’t taking any chances up the middle on targets from Jalen Hurts. Less than 4% of their passes have been thrown over the middle of the field. 

We’ll zoom in a bit through the rest of the article, but here’s a look at how all of the pass catchers with at least 7 targets/game are being deployed across the league. 

Short passing

The first short passing matchup we’re going to highlight is CeeDee Lamb vs. A.J. Bouye.

This matchup is our highest rated across the entire slate this weekend. Nobody was going to sit Lamb, obviously, but this is welcome news for people with him on his squad (or those eying him for DFS).

The Panthers are hot, starting off their year with three straight wins. They have been targeted short left quite a bit already and they haven’t faced anyone of Lamb’s skill level yet. The Dallas standout has the highest yards per attempt of anybody with more than five targets in the short left zone of the field. 

Deebo Samuel and Justin Jefferson are the only two receivers with over 100 receiving yards on short throws up the middle. 

They both have slightly positive matchups this weekend. 

The Seahawks have been targeted in the short middle region of the field. Deebo Samuel could feast if the 49ers exploit that mismatch. The Brown, on the other hand, have been strong up the middle, giving up more production outside the numbers. 

Deep passing

We’ll start with the deep left target leaderboard from our Receiver Field Location tool. 

This is the complete list of players with at least 5 targets in the deep left section of the field. Cooper Kupp is popping up there, but I’m eying DJ Moore as well. By our rating, Moore has the fifth-best matchup on the slate. 

In the deep right portion of the field, we have Antonio Brown with the most yards left on the slate despite missing a game. Chase Claypool gets a tough assignment in Eric Stokes. 

Brandin Cooks has the fifth-best matchup left on the slate per our rating system. Tre’Davious White is his matchup, which may scare some people off, but White has only shadowed an opposing WR once so far this season. It will be interesting to see how that trend develops, but I’m not scared off Cooks because of the matchup. The Texans will be forced to throw early and often.