Fantasy football stats to know for Week 2

With Week 1 of the NFL and fantasy football season just about in the books, it’s time to take a look at what we saw over the weekend and apply it going forward. And while it is just one week through the season, there are situations where we need to react and adjust to, rather than just sit tight. 

Let’s take a look at some numbers that stood out from the first weekend of the season, shall we?

Tyler Higbee played 52-of-52 snaps in Week 1

It’s only the first week of the season, but it appears I am going to be wrong about Tyler Higbee this season. Even with Gerald Everett gone, I worried that Higbee still wouldn’t be used as a full-time player. That clearly was not the case at all Sunday night, as the Rams tight end played 100% of the snaps, catching 5-of-6 targets for 68 yards. More importantly, however, Higbee ran a route on 96% of Matthew Stafford’s dropbacks in this game, which is incredibly encouraging after ranking just 21st among tight ends in routes run a season ago. Stafford has already shown that he can fully unlock this offense and Higbee should return to being a trustworthy every-week fantasy tight end. After the consensus top-three, plus T.J. Hockenson and Mark Andrews, Higbee could very well be the next tight end up for fantasy football. 

Austin Ekeler saw zero targets Sunday

While it is too early to be completely alarmed, my eyebrow is certainly raised after Austin Ekeler failed to see a target in a game where Justin Herbert attempted 47 passes. He did see two goal-line carries (converting one into a touchdown) and 15 carries overall, but the path to Ekeler’s elite fantasy upside is his role in the passing game, which was nonexistent in Week 1. Mike Williams and Keenan Allen, meanwhile, each saw double-digit targets, combining to handle just over 54% of Los Angeles’ targets. There was a lot of hype surrounding Williams during the offseason about how offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi could use him in his offense and we saw it right away. Lombardi stated how the “X” receiver is heavily involved and if that trend continues, perhaps Ekeler’s pass-catching ceiling won’t be quite as high as we expected coming into the season.

D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams combined for 20 targets

All offseason, we knew the Lions had arguably the worst group of wide receivers in the NFL. And in the first game of the season, Detroit simply threw the football to their three best players in offense in Hockenson, D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Williams. The running backs combined for an insane 20 targets in this game, and while that obviously won’t always happen, Swift and Williams are clearly going to be heavily involved, especially with Jared Goff under center. In 2020, Goff’s 5.98-yard average depth of target was the second lowest among qualified passers. And in Week 1 of this season, Goff posted an aDOT just over six, while 14% of his pass attempts were behind the line of scrimmage. Both running backs caught eight passes and with the Lions likely chasing points for much of the season, I think Swift and Williams have very strong PPR floors going forward.

Corey Davis sees 19% of the Jets targets

After dominating the preseason target share, Davis continued to operate as New York’s clear top receiver Sunday. He hauled in five of his seven targets for 97 yards and a pair of touchdowns and continued to show a strong rapport with rookie quarterback Zach Wilson, who got much better as the game went on. Davis ran 13 pass routes over the course of the preseason and was targeted on 10 of them and while Elijah Moore didn’t play in those games, he was active Sunday and was an every-down player. He caught just one of his four targets for -3 yards, however. Even when Jamison Crowder and Keenan Cole return to the lineup, Davis will remain the clear top wideout on this Jets offense.