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Wide Receiver Matchup Chart - Wild Card Playoffs

JimmySmithDown below is a chart that matches up wide receivers with cornerbacks. Quite often, we see many casual football fans simply assume that elite cornerbacks follow the opposing team's No. 1 wide receiver around the field. That almost never happens. The below chart will help you determine which cornerbacks your top receivers will see in coverage each week. As you'll see, it's not always cut and dry, but we hope this information will allow you to make the best lineup decisions each week.

Understanding the chart:

The chart is split into three “zones”. The first is Left Wide Receiver (LWR) vs. Right Cornerback (RCB). The second is the exact opposite. The third matches up primary slot recievers with primary slot defenders. The percentage shown is how often the player has lined up in that position so far this season. In some cases, the number is very high and telling. In others, it's low and predictable. Other times it's low because of injury/depth chart movement.

Next to each defender, you'll see three additional columns.

One is ‘T/G', which refers to targets faced-per-game.

The second is ‘Cov', which refers to the coverage grade given to each defender by our fine analysts at PFF.  Most don't know what qualifies as a good or bad coverage grade, which is why it's on a 0-to-100 scale. 100 is bad and means its a great (A+) matchup for the receiver. Zero means good coverage and is thus bad news (F) for the receiver. 50 is, of course, an average matchup.

The third column is ‘FP', which identifies how each defender has fared in terms of fantasy points (ppr) per target so far this season.Only defenders who have seen 20-plus targets this season are graded. This is also on a 1-to-100 scale.

Most of us fantasy-football gamers are well aware of which wide receivers are elite, but we aren't quite as familiar with many cornerbacks. These columns help solve that issue.

Note: I wrote up notes for all fantasy relevant wide receivers in my Wild Card fantasy football rankings column. Included is each receiver's primary cover corner(s) and an explanation. View it here.

OFF DEF Left WR % Right CB % T/G Cov FP
ARZ CAR John Brown 33% Bené Benwikere 34% 5.3 44 20
CAR ARZ Kelvin Benjamin 58% Patrick Peterson 16% 5.9 69 60
BLT PIT Torrey Smith 48% William Gay 87% 6.6 55 54
PIT BLT Antonio Brown 45% Rashaan Melvin 94% 5.0 58
CIN IND Brandon Tate 45% Vontae Davis 96% 4.7 24 6
IND CIN Donte Moncrief 35% Adam Jones 97% 5.0 57 32
DAL DET Dez Bryant 45% Rashean Mathis 99% 5.6 41 33
DET DAL Calvin Johnson 43% Sterling Moore 68% 4.6 50 32
OFF DEF Right WR % Left CB % T/G Cov FP
ARZ CAR Michael Floyd 44% Josh Norman 54% 4.5 48 10
CAR ARZ Philly Brown 59% Antonio Cromartie 14% 5.1 60 44
BLT PIT Steve L. Smith 47% Antwon Blake 86% 4.7 58 68
PIT BLT Martavis Bryant 44% Lardarius Webb 76% 5.5 71 46
CIN IND Greg Little 42% Greg Toler 85% 6.6 95 61
IND CIN T.Y. Hilton 37% Terence Newman 98% 7.2 71 29
DAL DET Terrance Williams 50% Darius Slay 99% 6.4 51 34
DET DAL Jeremy Ross 39% Brandon Carr 88% 5.3 81 70
OFF DEF Slot WR % Slot CB % T/G Cov FP
ARZ CAR Larry Fitzgerald 61% Colin Jones 100% 2.8 75 55
CAR ARZ Jerricho Cotchery 71% Jerraud Powers 89% 5.3 50 43
BLT PIT Marlon Brown 72% Brice McCain 70% 3.9 65 43
PIT BLT Markus Wheaton 25% Anthony Levine 31% 3.5 71 74
CIN IND Mohamed Sanu 60% Darius Butler 89% 3.8 68 49
IND CIN Reggie Wayne 62% Leon Hall 63% 4.9 61 61
DAL DET Cole Beasley 91% Don Carey 100% 1.2 58
DET DAL Golden Tate 60% Orlando Scandrick 66% 4.9 40 36

 

Follow Mike Clay on Twitter: @MikeClayNFL

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