Fantasy Football Stock Watch: Examining high-value touches and targets

When it comes to fantasy football, volume has always been king. We want the players who generate the most targets and touches — more opportunities equates to more fantasy points. But not all opportunities are created equal.

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Over the summer, I wrote about money opportunities — the most high-value touches and targets players can receive, including end-zone targets, deep targets (20 yards or more), air yards, carries inside the 10-yard and carries inside the 5-yard line.

It's time to take a look at players whose stocks are up based on the high-value opportunities they saw in Week 2. Whether these opportunities resulted in fantasy production is irrelevant — if these players keep seeing high-value opportunities, fantasy points will follow.

We can use this information to inform our Week 3 sit/start decisions and help us identify intriguing buy-low trade targets and upside DFS options.  

END-ZONE TARGETS

Most WR end-zone targets | Week 2

Back atop the end-zone target list for the second-straight week are both A.J. Green and Calvin Ridley, though their high-value targets in Week 1 did not result in as many touchdowns as we would expect. Of their combined seven total end-zone targets, only Ridley hauled one in a for a touchdown (he also scored on a 22-yard reception). Green didn't score for the second-straight week. 

Green has seen a total of seven end-zone targets through the first two weeks, which is tied with Ridley for the most. This inefficiency on high-end volume is extremely concerning, especially for a player like Green, who entered the season with question marks after missing a season and a half.

My recommendation for any Green owner is to sell as soon as he cashes in on all these end-zone targets. I’d even be willing to trade him now — I'm sure you would have some suitors that would be more than happy to take on a player coming off a 14-target game. Green's strength of schedule is pretty tough up until the team’s bye week.

Diontae Johnson makes his debut on this list with two end-zone targets in Week 2, and this is just going to be the beginning. Johnson and JuJu Smith-Schuster are the only Steelers who have seen any end-zone targets. Johnson is seeing a large share of the offense’s total targets, so that will naturally lead to him seeing more end-zone targets.

That could happen as quickly as Week 3 — the Houston Texans have allowed the fourth-most end-zone targets (seven) over the past two weeks. Because Johnson is still perceived to be the No. 2 option behind Smith-Schuster, this might be the last time you will be able to acquire him in a trade.