Market Share Report: Christine Michael's Stock Takes a Hit
Target Market Shares
1. Davante Adams' Resurgence Continues
Who would have thought heading into the season that Davante Adams would be a "must-have" in cash games at any point in the year? That's the territory you get when a player has 30 targets over a two-game span.
Adams -- playing partly in the backfield with Ty Montgomery injured -- saw 14 targets on Sunday, five more than any other player on the entire team. He also led the team in targets back in Week 7 with 16, pushing his market share for the season up to 20.9%. Combine that volume with his new-found love of efficiency, and you've got a whole different player from the one we grew used to.
With both Montgomery and Randall Cobb being out Week 8, it's easy to write off Adams' big usage as a product of attrition. But when you add in his 16 targets the week before that -- when both players were active -- it's a bit harder to ignore. We'll want to keep tracking his usage in the coming weeks, but with the Packers' soft schedule, this is a guy to whom we'll want plenty of exposure to going forward.
2. Golden Tate Stays Relevant
When Golden Tate netted 22 combined targets in Weeks 6 and 7, the easy explanation was that he was benefiting from Theo Riddick's absence. Tate is unable to run more than five yards beyond the line of scrimmage without disintegrating, so it makes sense that his role would spike with Riddick out of the equation.
Even with Riddick back on the field in Week 8, though, Tate saw nine targets, equaling his season high prior to Riddick's injury. We absolutely need to note that.
It wasn't just Riddick who was back in the fold, but so was tight end Eric Ebron. Those two combined for 21 targets, leaving a scant few available for the wide receivers. Tate's nine targets out-paced Marvin Jones (seven) and Anquan Boldin (three), and that clearly has implications beyond just Tate himself.
For Tate, it means he'll at least have fantasy relevancy, even if his role limits any upsides in that. For Jones, it's going to give him a wholly unappealing floor each and every week. He's still going to have solid upside simply because he is a deep-threat option, but it'll be hard to rely upon him unless his target market share rebounds. We just don't want to bank on that happening based on what we saw Sunday.
3. Dez Bryant Returns to a Meaty Role
Nobody would blame you for being a bit skeptical of Dez Bryant as a fantasy option entering Week 8. He had missed multiple weeks due to a knee injury, and he was facing numberFire's top schedule-adjusted pass defense in the Philadelphia Eagles. Dez just isn't your normal cookie.
Bryant garnered 14 targets on 40 total attempts -- a 35.0% market share -- in his first game back. Sure, he wasn't overly efficient with those targets, catching just 4 of them, but he did turn that into 113 yards and a touchdown. Even if the yardage production hadn't been there, simply seeing such grotesque volume would have been encouraging.
Bryant didn't appear to have any restrictions with an 88% snap rate, propping up his forward-looking floor. Add in three red-zone targets to give Bryant a ceiling, and you can see why this is a guy we'll feel safe in targeting for the rest of the season.
