The idea of The Target Squad series is to let you know which CBs have been picked on recently and over the course of the year.  By taking a look at a few CBs who’ve been performing well or shoddily, it may give us some insight as to those tough sit/starts when our WRs aren’t up against either Revis or the Detroit secondary.  For comparison’s sake, league average completion % against CBs was roughly ~ 61% last year.  From a target perspective, league average was about 65 targets on the year, although some elite CBs like Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Darrelle Revis were targeted over 110 times (both of those guys had very good completion % against).

Positive Matchups

Bryant Mcfadden was targeted a not-so-small 14 times in 74 snaps against Atlanta.  Part of the reason was that he was covering Roddy White for much of the game, so I can give him the benefit of the doubt here since White was targeted an absurd 21 times.  However, his coverage rating in 2009 with the Cardinals was -5.8 last year, which was good for 92^nd best.  That’s ugly.  I believe he warrants closer monitoring as the season progresses – if the targets keep up, WRs against the Steelers could turn into a sneaky play for the first time in awhile.

Glover Quin over in Houston was targeted 13 times and gave up 11 receptions.  Quin is a relatively new kid on the block, but did manage to see enough play time last year to infer that this may have been more because of Manning airing it out than anything (remember, the Colts only rushed about 10 times total during the game).  However, the telling stat here is that Quin was covering Austin Collie for the majority of his snaps, and when he was, Collie was targeted 9 times for a total of 9 receptions.  I doubt much happens this week against Quin since Santana Moss will likely line up against Kareem Jackson and the Redskins have no other WR weapons, but if someone like Anthony Armstrong has a nice game, you’ll know why.

Derek Cox if the Jacksonville Jaguars has had an underwhelming career to this point.  Last year, as a fulltime Jacksonville starter, he held a -16.4 coverage rating.  Against Kyle Orton and the Broncos (by and large a subpar passing attack), he played a mere 47 snaps, yet was targeted 9 times and gave up 8 receptions for 140 yards and a 155.8 QB rating against.  This included 3 targets while covering Brandon Lloyd (yes, that Brandon Lloyd) with 3 completions for 81 yards.  There’s a reason the Jaguars secondary is considered weak, and if Cox plays even 50 snaps a game, you know why.  Start opposing receivers against Jacksonville.

Negative Matchups

Amazingly, a St. Louis CB actually had a great game.  Ronald Bartell, who I’ve always thought had some nice potential, turned in a serious game, allowing 1 completion on 11 targets.  You won’t see that again, as last year Bartell had a -9.2 coverage rating, but he did have a solid 2008 with a 3.7 coverage rating, good for top 25 in the league.  Part of the reason was Derek Anderson, but considering he covered Larry Fitzgerald on every play he was targeted, that’s still an impressive feat.  I won’t be surprised if Bartell once again exhibits the flashes of potential we saw in 2008.

The New England Patriots played much better than the final box score indicates.  Just after halftime, the team went up 31-3 and played fairly vanilla the rest of the way.  Part of the reason the defense played so well? CB Devin Mccourty.  I can still remember negative reactions all over the place when the Pats took Mccourty over guys like Sergio Kindle and Jerry Hughes, but the early results are favorable.  Mccourty locked horns with Terrell Owens for most of the day and basically shut him down despite the Bengals being in throw-it mode for 3 quarters.  Mccourty also defended 2 passes (tied for 2^nd on the week in the NFL), and played very well against the run (which has always been a strong point of his), coming in at 11^th best on the week with and 0.7 rating against the run.  Mccourty doesn’t face an overly tough matchup this week against the Jets passing game, but I won’t be surprised if Braylon Edwards and Jerricho Cotchery are locked down well and Sanchez has to throw outlets all game.  He’ll have his ups and downs as a rookie, but the Pats secondary with Mccourty, Leigh Bodden, Darius Butler, Patrick Chung and Brandon Meriweather is looking pretty serious for 2011.

One of the things we need to look at for negative matchups is a player who was on the field fulltime, but was barely targeted at all.  Your winner this week?  None other than Nnamdi Asomugha.  He was on the field for 59 snaps, and although Vince Young isn’t exactly Tom Brady in terms of passing threats, he was targeted…drum roll please…0 times.  This isn’t a coincidence.  Asomugha was targeted an absolutely absurd 28 times in 979 snaps last year (by comparison, the other elite CB in the league, Darrelle Revis, was targeted 111 times in 1008 snaps last year).  In 2008, that target number was 30.  You all know this, but if your fantasy WR is set to be on Nnamdi’s side of the field, stay far, far away.

All in all, a 1 week sampling can give us some insight as to which CBs may be picked up and which may be turning a positive corner.  Once we get a few weeks under our belts, we’ll really be able to see who to avoid and exploit from a fantasy perspective.  For now, keep these names in the back of your head as players to watch in Week 2.

Comments are closed.