Andy Behrens is back with his weekly breakdown of receiving looks. Who are the big winners from last week? The (real?) Steve Smith (NYG), Mohamed Massaquoi, Antonio Gates, Calvin Johnson and Nate Washington with 16, 13, 12, 12 and 12 targets, respectively.
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Look for Steve Smith to slow down this week, as the Giants look to rest a hobbled Eli Manning/take the pressure off David Carr by relying on their running game against an overmatched Raiders front. Massaquoi could be a sneaky start this week against an injury-ravaged Bills secondary, as could Nate Washington in a game the Titans figure to be trailing in, and throwing the ball a ton.
As for the season-long numbers, the looks leaders are Randy Moss, Steve Smith (NYG), Nate Burleson, Reggie Wayne and Calvin Johnson, with 45, 44, 41, 40 and 39 looks. Burleson remains an underrated fantasy player, who figures to deliver solid WR3 production, if not better given his opportunities, throughout the year. Some other relatively under the radar names to consider: Jerricho Cotcheryy, Derrick Mason and Justin Gage. Cotcherry and Mason have quietly put up WR2 numbers through the season’s first quarter, while Gage is a decent spot-start option as the bye weeks come upon us.
On a related note, Jean-Jacques Taylor over at the Dallas Morning News has some analysis of the Cowboy’s passing game. The verdict? Romo and his wideouts have been abysmal (not that you needed us to tell you that). Taylor notes that Romo has only completed 45% of his passes to wide receivers this year, while the top ten quarterbacks in the league are all 60% or better. The fact that all of the Cowboy’s wideouts are converting less than half of their looks into catches tells you how much Romo has struggled with his accuracy down the field. Outside of the running backs and Jason Witten, stay away from Dallas players for fantasy purposes.
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