NFL Player Red-Zone Statistics: Stevie's Tweet, Trading Terrell and More

Observations:  By Stegman

There were 139 targets inside the redzone during Week 12, which was good for third most for the season. 

Blinded by Science

Everyone in fantasy land was shocked to see Earl Bennett catch a couple of redzone touchdowns, except readers of this piece.

Maybe I was dreaming, but one reader was even questioning the point of this piece while focusing on the fact that Bennett only had one TD in 12 targets at this time last week. 

The answers can often be found inside the numbers, so please don't go accusing the one savvy owner for being lucky who might have started Earl Bennett last week because they may have been tormented by the injury bug (take your pick of Hakeem Nicks, Steve Smith, Malcom Floyd, Kenny Britt, Austin Collie—the list goes on). 

Tweetle-dee, Tweetle-Dumb

The take-away from the Bills/Steelers postgame press conference was that Stevie Johnson will never forgive himself. 

He knows we will forgive him, his teammates will forgive him but he NEVER will forgive himself. 

I'm good with it; I can get behind the passion. I'm the house chef and when my Chicken Vesuvio doesn't come out the right way, I light myself up; endlessly spewing about how I over-garlic'd the thing or what have you.  

Would I tweet about it? No way, but that's mostly because I know my follow count would go from like 45 to 30 within minutes. 

And I can promise you, even if I did tweet about my failed Vesuvio, I wouldn't be holding God responsible; he's not the one that tossed one too many garlic cloves on the Calphalon. 

I wish athletes would start taking credit for their spectacular plays and also the ones they mess up. I bet God does, too.

Not Even a Question

I recently asked fantasy 'ballers on our Facebook page who they thought was the MVP of this fantasy season through 12 weeks of action. 

It was almost a rhetorical question because the answer is obvious: It's Arian Foster.

And while I might entertain a Dwayne Bowe and his (count 'em) 13 TDs in seven weeks in the debate, third place isn't even close. 

Check it out: I'm basing this all assuming a 12 team league with a basic starting roster of one QB, two RBs, three WRs and one TE.

The fantasy PPG difference between Foster and the 24th RB is 10.6 fantasy points per game.

The difference between Bowe and the 36th WR is 7.9 fantasy PPG (and seven PPG for the 24th best WR). The differential between Aaron Rodgers and the 12th ranked QB is 7.6 fantasy PPG. 

The differential between Gates and the 12th best TE is 7.3 fantasy PPG, and Gates is currently crushing his owners with his myriad foot injuries.

Trending Upwards

Although he's not much of a redzone target in size, DeSean Jackson's owners have to be a little pumped up that Vick has doubled his RZ targets over the last three weeks relative to the first nine weeks of 2010. 

I am putting the over/under on Johnny Knox's total touchdown count at five for 2010 and I'll take the over. He's going to bust free for a couple of long ones and also catch two RZ TDs by the end of Week 17. Any takers?  

Who is Derrick Williams? 

James Jones owners with tight decisions to make at WR should be patient and have faith. He was targeted eight times in Week 12 (up from five in Week 11) including three more times in the RZ. 

The net result was only 44 yards on five catches, but the more important stat to focus in on was that Donald Driver was only targeted three times. 

And Finally...

If it's not too late, you may want to trade Terrell Owens. After watching his buddy Ochocinco draw all of the double teams in the first half of the season, he is now drawing CB1 match ups in every game, and any double-teaming will now be focused on him as well. 

He faces the Saints in Week 13 (they've allowed the fewest fantasy points to opposing WRs), Pittsburgh in Week 14 and the Chargers in Week 16 (second fewest fantasy points to WRs)—again, not cool.

*We ranked the below table by most redzone targets over the past three weeks. As always, the final column represents RZ touchdowns only. 

The RZ is defined as inside your opponent’s 20 yard line.

rank	Player	Team	Pos	Week 1-9 RZ Targets	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12	3 Week RZ Target Trend	Total RZ Targets	Total RZ TDs
1	Larry Fitzgerald	Arizona	WR	8	4	1	3	8	16	4
2	Earl Bennett	Chicago	WR	7	4	1	3	8	15	3
3	Dwayne Bowe	Kansas City	WR	8	3	1	2	6	14	7
4	DeSean Jackson	Philadelphia	WR	3	0	4	2	6	9	1
5	Santonio Holmes	Pittsburgh	WR	0	3	2	1	6	6	2
6	Danny Amendola	St. Louis	WR	11	1	2	2	5	16	3
7	Calvin Johnson	Detroit	WR	9	2	2	1	5	14	8
8	Dustin Keller	NY Jets	TE	9	1	4	0	5	14	4
9	Tony Gonzalez	Atlanta	TE	9	0	3	2	5	14	4
10	Jason Avant	Philadelphia	WR	8	2	2	1	5	13	2
11	Greg Olsen	Chicago	TE	7	3	1	1	5	12	4
12	Steve Johnson	Buffalo	WR	7	1	3	1	5	12	5
13	Chad Ochocinco	Cincinnati	WR	6	1	2	2	5	11	3
14	Braylon Edwards	NY Jets	WR	5	2	1	2	5	10	2
15	Arian Foster	Houston	RB	4	1	2	2	5	9	1
16	Jacob Tamme	Indianapolis	TE	4	3	1	1	5	9	3
17	Jeremy Maclin	Philadelphia	WR	4	2	0	3	5	9	5
18	Kellen Winslow	Tampa Bay	TE	3	2	1	2	5	8	2
19	Mario Manningham	NY Giants	WR	3	5	0	0	5	8	1
20	Terrell Owens	Cincinnati	WR	12	1	2	1	4	16	4

Click here for the rest of this chart **Top 200 Red Zone Targets!