Another week with our honorary stat boy, Zach Fein of Fein Sports. A contributor with as much stat muscle as anyone in the business. You may not understand what he's says and use it for you fantasy leagues, but if you're in the mood to be baffled and confused, then boy does he have you covered. Because life is one big spreadsheet. This week he looks at the amount of targets receivers get based on their quarterback's attempts. I've simply been amazed at how often Matt Ryan throws to Roddy White. Half of Ryan's yards and touchdown passes have gone to White. In comparison, the leader in reception yards, Greg Jennings, only has 45 percent of Aaron Rodger's passing yards and a third of Rodgers' nine touchdowns. A more appropriate statistic is targets. The main principle of targets is that wide receivers can't create their own opportunities; instead, they can only perform with the passes thrown to them. A player with 20 catches and 50 targets is more valuable than one with the same amount of receptions but half the targets. Thus, I looked at not the amount of targets a receiver has received, but the amount of targets divided by his quarterback's amount of pass attempts. This creates a balance for pass-heavy and run-heavy teams, and can also judge how a player's targets fluctuate with his current quarterback and backup quarterback (with the condition that the WR's team has employed more than one QB this year). There are two provisions here, however. For teams who changed QBs mid-game, I did my best to count the amount of targets a player had through NFL.com's play-by-play data with both QBs. But I didn't check the play-by-play if a team used two quarterbacks in a game, and one had very few attempts (Kerry Collins in week one and Kevin O'Connell in week three, for example). In that case I just counted the backup's attempts as the starter's. Please note that I only counted attempts in games that the receiver played. This way, Bobby Engram doesn't get counted with only 12 targets in Matt Hasselbeck's 100-plus attempts. I included the top 50 receivers in targets per games played, and also a few notable ones that didn't make the cut (Chris Chambers, Donald Driver, etc). I kept Dwayne Bowe separate from the other receivers, because he was the only one to have three quarterbacks. (And yes, I know Brian Griese is now the backup in Tampa Bay, but I left him as the starter for simplicity.)
| Player | QB_current | %current | QB_backup | %backup |
| Dwayne Bowe KC | - | - | Huard | 39.3 |
| - | - | - | Croyle | 36.8 |
| - | - | - | Thigpen | 31.6 |
| Brandon Marshall DEN | Cutler | 51.5 | - | - |
| Bobby Engram SEA | Hasselbeck | 44.4 | - | - |
| Steve Smith CAR | Delhomme | 41.3 | - | - |
| Roddy White ATL | Ryan | 33.6 | - | - |
| Eddie Royal DEN | Cutler | 32.8 | - | - |
| Wes Welker NE | Cassel | 32.7 | Brady | 45.5 |
| Justin Gage TEN | Collins | 32.1 | Young | 20.8 |
| T.J. Houshmandzadeh CIN | Palmer | 31.5 | Fitzpatrick | 20.0 |
| Derrick Mason BAL | Flacco | 31.1 | - | - |
| Muhsin Muhammad CAR | Delhomme | 28.9 | - | - |
| Calvin Johnson DET | Kitna | 28.8 | Orlovsky | 8.7 |
| Santana Moss WAS | Campbell | 28.8 | - | - |
| Hines Ward PIT | Roethlisberger | 27.6 | - | - |
| Larry Fitzgerald ARI | Warner | 27.0 | - | - |
| Greg Jennings GB | Rodgers | 26.8 | - | - |
| Andre Johnson HOU | Schaub | 26.4 | Rosenfels | 25.6 |
| Plaxico Burress NYG | E.Manning | 26.2 | - | - |
| Braylon Edwards CLE | Anderson | 25.6 | - | - |
| Brandon Stokley DEN | Cutler | 25.6 | - | - |
| Santonio Holmes PIT | Roethlisberger | 25.4 | - | - |
| Matt Jones JAC | Garrard | 24.8 | - | - |
| Reggie Wayne IND | P.Manning | 24.7 | - | - |
| Justin McCareins TEN | Collins | 24.6 | Young | 12.5 |
| Anquan Boldin ARI | Warner | 24.5 | - | - |
| Bernard Berrian MIN | Frerotte | 24.3 | Jackson | 18.6 |
| Terrell Owens DAL | Romo | 24.1 | - | - |
| Amani Toomer NYG | E.Manning | 23.3 | - | - |
| Greg Camarillo MIA | Pennington | 23.2 | Henne | 8.3 |
| Laveranues Coles NYJ | Favre | 22.5 | - | - |
| Bobby Wade MIN | Frerotte | 22.4 | Jackson | 15.3 |
| Antonio Bryant TB | Griese | 21.8 | Garcia | 25.9 |
| Vincent Jackson SD | Rivers | 21.7 | - | - |
| Billy McMullen SEA | Hasselbeck | 21.7 | - | - |
| Roy Williams DET | Kitna | 21.6 | Orlovsky | 39.1 |
| Randy Moss NE | Cassel | 21.2 | Brady | 27.3 |
| Antwaan Randle El WAS | Campbell | 20.9 | - | - |
| Brandon Lloyd CHI | Orton | 20.7 | - | - |
| Lee Evans BUF | Edwards | 20.5 | Losman | 23.8 |
| Marvin Harrison IND | P.Manning | 20.1 | - | - |
| DeSean Jackson PHI | McNabb | 20.1 | - | - |
| Kevin Walter HOU | Schaub | 20.0 | Rosenfels | 9.3 |
| Isaac Bruce SF | O'Sullivan | 20.0 | - | - |
| Jerricho Cotchery NYJ | Favre | 19.4 | - | - |
| Torry Holt STL | Bulger | 19.1 | Green | 21.9 |
| Chris Chambers SD | Rivers | 17.4 | - | - |
| Chad Johnson CIN | Palmer | 16.9 | Fitzpatrick | 20.0 |
| Anthony Gonzalez IND | P.Manning | 16.9 | - | - |
| Donald Driver GB | Rodgers | 16.7 | - | - |
| Reggie Brown PHI | McNabb | 16.7 | - | - |
| Steve Breaston ARI | Warner | 16.2 | - | - |
| Lance Moore NO | Brees | 16.0 | - | - |
| Patrick Crayton DAL | Romo | 15.4 | - | - |
| Joey Galloway TB | Griese | 12.9 | Garcia | 31.7 |
| Ike Hilliard TB | Griese | 10.9 | Garcia | 17.2 |
- Jeff Garcia will start this week. All of the Bucs receivers in the table had their target percentage improve with Garcia as QB; upgrade the three of them this week as the Bucs play the Panthers. Don't forget that the Panthers have a stout run defense, so the Bucs will be passing all day long.
- I have been saying that Gage is a someone to pick up for some time now. Going back to week 10 of last year and this year (11 games total), Gage has had under 40 yards just twice and 60 yards just four times, and almost all of those game were with Vince Young under center. In his two games with Kerry Collins this year, Gage has ten receptions for 150 yards and a score.
- I love Bobby Engram. He's the only guy left in the Seahawks' receiving core—seriously—and Matt Hasselbeck should be targeting him all day long. That was shown last week as Engram had the fourth-most targets, with 12.
- Dan Orlovsky is rumored to be the starter in Detroit for this week as Kitna's back heals. In just one half last week, Orlovsky targeted Roy Williams nine times, compared to just two to Calvin Johnson. Williams is a top-15 receiver for this week, while I don't see Johnson as a starter in standard leagues, which start a total of 24 receivers and a flex.
- Muhsin Muhammad is a top-25 receiver for the rest of the year. I said it. He has 220 yards and two touchdowns in his last two games, and his schedule (TB, NO, ARI, bye, OAK, DET, ATL, GNB) in the next eight weeks is extremely easy.
- If you're in a points-per-reception league and have Kevin Walter, don't worry. Sage "Hey Mom, look! No hands!" Rosenfels rarely targeted him, but that should change with Matt Schaub taking back the job this week.
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