Advanced Targets - Week 8 Wrap

Advanced Targets goes behind the scenes and provides snap and pass route splits in addition to target numbers. Yards per route (YPRR), targets per snap (TA/SN), targets per route (TA/PR), and pass routes per snap (PR/SN) are exclusive PFF metrics that will help inform your start/sit, waiver wire, and trade decisions in a way no other service can.

Following each of the last two seasons I’ve recommended against thinking Calvin Johnson’s numbers would necessarily regress. After Sunday’s 326-yard explosion, he’s up to 2.85 yards per route on the season, a number well above his efficiency level in last year’s record-setting campaign. Although Adrian Peterson won the MVP, Megatron’s season was far rarer. This perhaps implies a greater likelihood of regression, but it also implies a greater degree of dominance. I've written multiple PFF Contrarian columns explaining why Jamaal Charles, not Adrian Peterson, is the best back in the NFL. Meanwhile, Johnson is the best wide receiver by a truly astonishingly amount.

You can tell that we remain tightly in the grips of two bad ideas when Peterson was drafted No. 1 in nearly every league this year. Drafting Peterson No. 1 was defensible in standard leagues, but Peterson was going No. 1 in ppr leagues.  The two false ideas are 1) anybody who dares to point out Peterson’s significant weaknesses as a fantasy back must be an idiot and/or hate Purple Jesus, and 2) value-based drafting works.

As always, I would caution you against believing my outside-the-mainstream ruminations. I would also caution you against not believing them. Let’s see what else the PFF advanced receiving splits have for us.

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Shawn Siegele is a lead writer for PFF Fantasy and creator of Money in the Banana Stand. He also contributes to RotoViz and FanSided. You can follow him on twitter @FF_Contrarian.