Joel Bartilotta 
Welcome to the Week 9 edition of The Inside Look for the 2021 NFL season. This will be a data driven article and will go under the hood to see if the box scores tell the whole story about what transpired during the weekend. My goal here will be to either calm your nerves about a player that may have underperformed or cause you to rethink some of the spots you may have taken.
Outside of the MNF game we have a pretty good sense of what transpired this past weekend.
Let’s dig in to the data!
Wide Receiver Targets
Before we dig in to individual player performances I wanted to take a moment to talk about why we focus so heavily on Targets. Targets equal opportunities and in fantasy opportunity more often than creates production. The more targets that a player gets the better chance there is that the player will return on value.
I said it last week and I’ll say it again, Cole Beasley is back. At least in terms volume. He now has back to back double digit target games with 13 and 11 in the last 2 weeks. The issue this week for him was that he, just like his teammates, couldn’t get anything going as he finished the game with just 33 yard receiving.
With the volume still being there, we have to hope that Beasley is able to muster more than 3 yards per catch against the New York Jets next week.
The two guys that I really want to focus on are Keenan Allen and Marquise Brown. A week after we saw 8 wide receivers get over 100 yards receiving, this week we only saw 3. Allen and Brown were two of them. Brown played a pivotal role in yesterday’s Ravens win as he was one of the main pieces of the offense.
He finished with 9 catches on 12 targets and 116 yards. His 116 yards tied DeVonta Smith for the most yards receiving this weekend. This was Brown’s third 100 yards receiving game this season and next weekend he has a strong chance again with a match up vs. Miami.
Keenan Allen had one of his best games of the season with 12 catches on 13 targets and 104 yards. The only thing that could have made this weekend sweeter for him was a TD.
This was also Allen’s third 100 yard receiving game this year, but first since week 2. Up next weekend is a match up vs. the Vikings who just gave up a big game to Hollywood Brown. Can Allen make it two in a row?
Running Back Targets
We have some newcomers to this in week 9. Let’s start with Kenyan Drake. After only having a combined 6 targets in weeks 5-8, Drake was tied for the most targets among backs this weekend with 8. He was able to catch 6 of them for 70 yards.
It’s starting to look like the duo of Jacobs and Drake may be Jacobs on the ground and Drake through the air. If that’s the case going forward, Drake will be an important piece each week.
Devin Singletary is another guy that we aren’t used to seeing on this list. His addition was injury related as he was pressed into more action once Moss went down with an injury.
The 8 targets for Singletary were the most he’s seen all year. Singletary finished the game with 7 catches and 43 yards. If Moss is back next week, Singletary should step back into his supplementary role.
Just one running back crossed the 100 yards plateau this weekend and that was Cordarrelle Patterson. While he didn’t find the end zone this weekend, he finished with 126 yards receiving and 6 catches. He continues to be one of the more reliable backs in terms of targets. He hasn’t had a week under 5 targets since opening weekend.
Tight End Targets
George Kittle is back! After sitting out weeks 5-8 with an injury, Kittle came back with vengeance and led all tight ends with 101 yards receiving. He did this with 6 catches on 8 targets. Kittle is as important to this offense as anyone on the Niners and having him back is huge for them.
For the first time since week 1, Darren Waller had double digit targets. His 11 targets this weekend were the most for any tight end. He also had his highest yard total since week 1 with 92 yards receiving. With Henry Ruggs no longer on the team there will be a few more targets to go around for Waller and his teammates.
Quarterback Target Share
With Christian McCaffrey back in the mix seeing Sam Darnold as the QB that utilized his running backs in the passing game should come as no surprise. What should come as a surprise is that it wasn’t just McCaffrey.
Both Christian and Ameer Abdullah had 5 targets and Darnold threw 12 balls to his backs. As we get into the second half of the year we’ll see this trend with Carolina as they have a some solid pass catching running backs.
Yes, Jalen Hurts is appearing correct here. He didn’t throw a single pass to his running backs this weekend. His two biggest targets this weekend were DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert, who each had 6 targets a piece.
One thing that really stands out this week in terms of target share is the fact that not a single QB targeted his wide receivers more than 70% of the time. The last few weeks we’ve seen 4-5 QB’s over the 70% threshold with some between 80-90%.
This week both Prescott and Taylor hovered around the 69% mark and they were at the very top. 3 of the top 5 from last week were Geno Smith, Jimmy G, and Kyler Murray. Seahawks are on a bye, Jimmy G got Kittle back, and Kyler Murray and Hopkins were both out this week.
Running Back Touches
Party like it’s 2017! Well that’s what happened with Melvin Gordon this weekend, at least that’s what it felt like. For the first time this season Gordon cracked the 20 carry mark with 21 carries. It was the most he’s had all year after averaging just a shade over 9 during weeks 5-8. While it wasn’t the most efficient day as he had less than 4 yards per carry, he still found the end zone and that’s what mattes most.
In the “what could have been” category this week, we have Myles Gaskin. While he found the end zone once, he did very little his carries. He’s never been a big yard per carry back, but his week he had just 1.7 yards per carry and that my friends is pretty bad.
The Texans did a solid job plugging every hole that Gaskin could find. Up this week for Gaskin is a Ravens defense that has been pretty decent against the run.
172. That’s how many rushing yards Jonathan Taylor finished with on Thursday night. Taylor has been showing that he has as high of a ceiling as any back in the league. This is his fourth 100 yard game in his last 6 games and has touchdowns in all 6 of them.
Next week he gets to take on a Jaguars defense that has been pretty solid against the run. Can he make it 5 out of 7 for over 100 yards? And 7 straight with a TD? I’m excited to find out!
Playbook
The ‘Playbook’ as I like to call it shows a breakdown of the play splits that teams used this past weekend. Philly ran a predominantly run focused playbook this weekend. They carried the ball 39 times vs. just 17 passes. Jalen Hurts even got into the party with 10 rushes for 62 yards. This is a trend that we’ve seen before from the Eagles, regardless of the game script.
With Ezekiel Elliot in and out of the game with an injury, the Cowboys took the air plenty this weekend. Dak Prescott threw the ball 39 times, but only connected on half of them and ended up with just 232 yards.
To say this weekend was an embarrassing loss for the Cowboys would be quite the understatement. They’ll look to get back on track next weekend against a Falcons team that has won 3 out of their last 4.
Inside Look Wrap Up
This was as crazy of a week as we’ve seen since, well last weekend. Dallas was embarrassed by the Broncos at home, Jaguars made Josh Allen look like Mitch Trubisky, and the Falcons edged out the Saints in New Orleans. Can’t wait to see what happens next weekend!
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