Market Share Report: Don't Give Up on Lamar Miller

Target Market Shares

1. Eric Decker's Absence Has Boosted Brandon Marshall's Value

Given the high volume of targets that Brandon Marshall was seeing before Eric Decker's injury, nobody would have blamed you for thinking his role would be stagnant with Decker on the sidelines. It just hasn't come close to working out that way.

In the two games that Decker has missed, Marshall has accumulated 27 targets, having at least 12 in each. This is partly because the New York Jets have been trailing a bunch, forcing tons of attempts, but Marshall has a 34.2% target market share in those two games. That would lead the league if it were for the entire season.

Decker's injury is one that will stick with him the entire season even if he is able to play. And -- given the Jets' lack of a competent defense -- they'll probably have to chuck it quite a bit. Marshall's in a solid spot to keep on soaking up the targets for the foreseeable future.

2. Jeremy Kerley Keeps Getting Fed

Speaking of Marshall and Decker, their former teammate has suddenly become a target monster for the league's fastest team. Just like we all expected.

We're now five weeks into the season, and Jeremy Kerley -- somehow -- has a 30.0% target market share for the San Francisco 49ers. He has had at least 9 targets three times this year, including a 13-target outing in Week 5. Good thing none of us wasted draft picks on Torrey Smith in best-ball leagues, right?

This involvement appeared fluky for Kerley at first after he saw 11 targets in Week 1 on just a 66.7% snap rate. However, that snap rate has increased every week, and he was on the field for all 78 snaps in Week 5. Now, Kerley has only one more obstacle to overcome, and that's a shake-up in the status quo.

If Colin Kaepernick were to start, he could have a different preference at receiver than that of Blaine Gabbert. Until that happens, though, we should just assume that Kerley's going to keep on getting targets, for better or for worse.

3. What Happened to Jordan Matthews' Targets?

Through the first two weeks, only Mike Evans had more targets on the year than Jordan Matthews' 23. Matthews had 33.3% of the team's targets, and things were looking just fine and dandy.

He has seven total targets the past two games. This is fine.

Part of this is because the Philadelphia Eagles haven't exactly been chucking it with great regularity, but Matthews is falling behind even the other receivers. Nelson Agholor, Dorial Green-Beckham, and Josh Huff all have more targets than Matthews the past two weeks, pushing Matthews' market share all the way down to 22.7%.

The positive for Matthews is that he doesn't seem to be injured, playing at least 84% of the snaps in both of his down games. That means we should expect his target number to rebound going forward. However, with Zach Ertz back on the field and with how the past two games have gone, we do need to lower expectations for Matthews going forward.