NFL

Fantasy Football: Regression Candidates Through Week 14

If you're still alive in your fantasy leagues, congratulations on not facing Le'Veon Bell.

Bell is one of a handful of week-winning, game-changing players in fantasy -- but most players aren't ultimate trump cards.

In this week's Regression Candidates, we'll take a look at four contributors performing both above and below expectation.

Negative Regression Candidates


Andrew Luck, QB, Indianapolis Colts

Donte Moncrief was the most obvious negative regression candidate for the past few weeks -- he had scored in every full game he had played, up until Sunday -- but I opted to avoid mentioning him in this column every week after writing him up about a month ago.

His quarterback, Andrew Luck, has been up and down recently, but faces off against the tough Minnesota Vikings this week. The Vikings suppress fantasy scoring, allowing the third-fewest points to opposing quarterbacks. Luck's efficiency has been middling, ranking just 20th in Passing NEP per drop back, but he's made up for it with volume. However, additional volume against a top-flight defense might not be a good thing.

Tevin Coleman, RB, Atlanta Falcons

Tevin Coleman has rushed for a touchdown on six of his 18 red zone carries. This conversion rate of 33.3 percent is the second-highest in the NFL (behind Latavius Murray), but it has come on a completely unsustainable market share of rushes inside the 20.

Only two other running backs have scored at least six touchdowns on fewer than half of their team's carries in the red zone -- LeSean McCoy (49.2%) and Ryan Mathews (46.7%) being the others -- but Coleman's red zone market share is just 25.7%. His game-breaking speed and involvement in the pass game will keep him relevant, but his rushing touchdown total is inflated.

Kenny Britt, WR, Los Angeles Rams

Kenny Britt is unfortunately tied to the league's least efficient quarterback play, but he's performed very admirably despite the limitations of his previous head coach and passers. Britt is poised to become the first Los Angeles Rams receiver to surpass the 1,000-yard mark since Torry Holt in 2007.

The Rams travel to Seattle, though, making essentially everyone on this team unplayable (and hopefully you weren't relying on many of them in the first place).

Cameron Brate, TE, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The post-Rob Gronkowski tight end position is a wasteland.

If you're starting Cameron Brate, you likely don't have a better option, and that's okay. Brate has become a touchdown-dependent option, and his target share has been extremely inconsistent this season. Among players with 10-plus targets in the red zone, Brate has converted the third-highest rate of targets into touchdowns (46.2%).

This is double the league-average rate, and his size -- and Jameis Winston's propensity to target the tight end -- have a good amount to do with this. However, given the upcoming matchups -- which are favorable for Mike Evans -- Brate can be expected to regress.

This table contains a list of running backs with six or more red zone touchdowns, sorted by touchdown rate.

Player Red Zone Carries Red Zone Touchdowns Red Zone TD%
Latavius Murray 32 11 34.4%
Tevin Coleman 18 6 33.3%
Ezekiel Elliott 33 10 30.3%
LeSean McCoy 30 8 26.7%
LeGarrette Blount 48 12 25.0%
Ryan Mathews 28 7 25.0%
Jonathan Stewart 33 8 24.2%
Le'Veon Bell 25 6 24.0%
DeMarco Murray 37 8 21.6%
David Johnson 43 9 20.9%
Melvin Gordon 50 10 20.0%
Matt Forte 31 6 19.4%
Carlos Hyde 31 6 19.4%
Jeremy Hill 37 7 18.9%
Matt Asiata 33 6 18.2%
Devonta Freeman 40 7 17.5%


The following table includes players with at least 10 red zone targets, 5 red zone touchdowns, and a red zone touchdown rate above the league average rate of around 23%.

Player Targets Receptions Touchdowns TD %
Donte Moncrief 10 8 6 60.0%
Doug Baldwin 10 9 5 50.0%
Cameron Brate 13 8 6 46.2%
Michael Thomas 11 8 5 45.5%
Mike Evans 15 7 6 40.0%
Jordy Nelson 26 17 10 38.5%
Hunter Henry 13 8 5 38.5%
Anquan Boldin 16 12 6 37.5%
Allen Robinson 16 8 6 37.5%
Antonio Gates 14 6 5 35.7%
Theo Riddick 14 11 5 35.7%
Davante Adams 15 10 5 33.3%
Kyle Rudolph 17 11 5 29.4%
Michael Crabtree 18 10 5 27.8%


Positive Regression Candidates


Cam Newton, QB, Carolina Panthers

Cam Newton has been a massive disappointment. He ranks just 15th in scoring at quarterback, but has been especially horrific in three of the last four weeks.

He has completed just 52 of his last 121 passes over the past month (42.9%), and hasn't supplemented this atrocity with his legs, totaling just 56 rushing yards and one touchdown over the same timespan.

Newton and the Carolina Panthers do face the Washington Redskins this week, who are below-average against the pass. It has become hard to trust Cam lately, but a lot of top-flight passers are in awful matchups, so you could do worse than starting Newton.

Spencer Ware, RB, Kansas City Chiefs

Spencer Ware's production has dipped over the past few games, which likely coincides with never having handled this type of volume in his career before and starting left guard Parker Ehinger's season-ending injury a few weeks ago.

Despite all of that, Ware has had some poor touchdown luck. Last Thursday, he out-carried Charcandrick West 20 to 2, but it was West who punched in the goal-line touchdown. Ware's volume continues to be there, and he keeps getting goal-line opportunities -- things just haven't broken his way. At some point, they will.

Pierre Garcon, WR, Washington Redskins

Pierre Garcon is an underrated and overlooked part of the Washington Redskins passing attack to the majority of fantasy owners.

As discussed here on numberFire this week, he ranks first among Washington pass-catchers in snaps played, targets, catches and is just 31 yards behind Jamison Crowder for the team lead in yards.

He isn't a flashy name, but he's a high-volume option connected to one of the league's most prolific passing attacks. Despite the volume, Garcon has scored just three times, including once inside the red zone despite 12 targets inside the 20. He's a good bet for positive touchdown regression.

Jermaine Gresham, TE, Arizona Cardinals

Jermaine Gresham has caught five passes in three consecutive games on an average of 7.7 targets a game. He's tied for fourth among tight ends in targets over this time, and has stepped up at a time where Michael Floyd has been demoted and John Brown has battled his sickle-cell condition.

The Arizona Cardinals will play the New Orleans Saints, who, while improving, are not known for their defensive prowess. Considering that the tight end position has been a complete disaster, streamers could do a lot worse than Gresham this week and for the remainder of the season.

This chart shows the running backs who have 15 or more red zone carries and 5 or fewer rushing touchdowns inside the 20 -- again sorted by touchdown rate.

Player Red Zone Carries Red Zone Touchdowns Red Zone TD%
Tim Hightower 21 1 4.8%
Jerick McKinnon 16 1 6.3%
Darren Sproles 15 1 6.7%
Mark Ingram 23 2 8.7%
Spencer Ware 23 3 13.0%
Devontae Booker 21 3 14.3%
Frank Gore 27 4 14.8%
Lamar Miller 27 4 14.8%
Doug Martin 20 3 15.0%
Todd Gurley 26 4 15.4%
C.J. Anderson 23 4 17.4%
Matt Jones 17 3 17.6%
Isaiah Crowell 22 4 18.2%
Robert Kelley 22 4 18.2%
Jordan Howard 24 5 20.8%
Jay Ajayi 23 5 21.7%
Terrance West 23 5 21.7%
Christine Michael 20 5 25.0%
Cam Newton 15 5 33.3%


This table shows players with at least 10 red zone targets who have a red zone touchdown rate below the league average rate of around 23%.

Player Targets Receptions Touchdowns TD%
Amari Cooper 11 5 0 0.0%
Nelson Agholor 14 5 0 0.0%
Chris Conley 12 3 0 0.0%
Jermaine Kearse 11 0 0 0.0%
Golden Tate 10 4 0 0.0%
Jason Witten 15 9 1 6.7%
Tyrell Williams 14 8 1 7.1%
Pierre Garcon 12 4 1 8.3%
Darren Sproles 11 5 1 9.1%
Quincy Enunwa 10 3 1 10.0%
Coby Fleener 13 9 2 15.4%
Devonta Freeman 13 8 2 15.4%
Julian Edelman 12 6 2 16.7%
Allen Hurns 12 5 2 16.7%
Greg Olsen 12 7 2 16.7%
Larry Fitzgerald 17 10 3 17.6%
Emmanuel Sanders 17 8 3 17.6%
Dorial Green-Beckham 11 6 2 18.2%
Marvin Jones 10 4 2 20.0%
Steve Smith 10 6 2 20.0%
Jamison Crowder 15 8 3 20.0%
Travis Kelce 15 7 3 20.0%
T.Y. Hilton 10 8 2 20.0%
Brandon Marshall 19 7 4 21.1%
Seth Roberts 18 8 4 22.2%