“This is what I call a target-rich environment.”-Maverick, Top Gun, 1986

If you clicked on this article, I probably don’t need to sell you on the importance of targets in fantasy football. Any player can catch a long pass or score a couple of touchdowns, but targets and other related stats can help put you ahead of the curve when it comes time to making lineup decisions, waiver moves and trades throughout the season.

The purpose of this article will be two-fold. At the top, we will have a table of the season-leaders in targets along with their receptions, yards, touchdowns, red zone targets, red zone target percentage and drops. We will also list the total number of pass attempts for that team as well as each players’ target percentage. The second part of the article, and I would argue the most important, is where I try to put those targets into context. After all, not all targets are created equal. If they were, we wouldn’t have to create a whole table and provide additional analysis. The reason we do those things, instead of just giving you a list of target leaders and calling it a day, is to give you an idea of which performances are repeatable and which players will remain valuable going forward.

For my money, the most important stats in the table after targets and receptions are pass attempts and target percentage. All offenses throw a ton in today’s NFL, but if you are looking for a third wide receiver, a pass-catching running back or a tight end off waivers, some of the best places to look are the teams that throw the ball the most. On the other hand, if a player is getting 20-percent of his team’s targets, it probably doesn’t matter how much the team is throwing the ball.

Another important aspect of the table is the number of receptions compared to the number of targets. Alshon Jeffery overcame a low catch rate last season thanks to catching nine touchdowns. On the other hand, injuries and terrible quarterbacking kept Emmanuel Sanders ’ catch rate down, and his overall numbers suffered as well. Catch rate can be important for identifying regression candidates, as JuJu Smith-Schuster will almost certainly see his 73-percent catch rate from last season decrease in 2018. Of course, context is important here as well. Golden Tate had a 77-percent catch rate in 2017, and considering he is primarily used in the short passing game and he has an above-average quarterback, a high catch rate would not be at all surprising in 2018.

The rest of the table will be pretty much self-explanatory. The best way to score touchdowns is by getting targets and receptions in the red zone, which is why we track red zone targets and red zone target percentage. Those stats are a big part of why I am so high on Julio Jones in 2018. Jones had 19 red zone targets through Week 16 of last season, but caught just 26.3 percent of them. Jones and Matt Ryan are too good for those numbers to repeat in 2018.

I feel even more confident making that statement after I went back and watched all of Julio Jones ’s red zone targets from 2017. He was stopped just short of the goal line a few times, and there were several other throws that Jones nearly caught but just missed.

This is just one example of what I meant above about putting the target numbers into context. When you actually go back and watch the targets, you have a much better idea of what they mean. In addition to watching the targets for the top players and others who may be of note, I will also attempt to put the targets into the context of game script. If Tarik Cohen gets a ton of targets in Week 1, that will be noteworthy. However, if he gets those targets on underneath routes against soft coverage in the fourth quarter while the Bears are getting blown out, those targets suddenly look a lot less appealing. Maybe the Bears will trail a bunch of games and Cohen will rack up catches in garbage time, but I wouldn’t want to count on it. I would feel much more optimistic about those same targets if they were spread throughout a close game.

Of course, the value of those targets also depends on other factors, chief among them Mitchell Trubisky ’s talent. If Trubisky fails to show massive improvement from 2017, Tarik Cohen ’s value as a pass catcher is likely capped. If Trubisky is in fact the next Jared Goff , the sky is the limit for Cohen. These are the kinds of factors we will consider in this space each and every week in an effort to identify the pass catchers you can trust going forward.