Fantasy Football Week 2 Market Share Report: Chris Hogan's New Role

Receiving Market Shares

1. Jay Cutler Is Our Savior

With Ryan Tannehill going down to injury in the preseason, it was fair to worry about the fantasy stock of DeVante Parker and Jarvis Landry. The Miami Dolphins were already a slow, run-first team, and losing their starting signal caller made that unlikely to change.

Then along came Jay Cutler, and everything started looking a whole lot rosier.

Cutler peppered both Parker and Landry with targets Sunday, sending 24 of his 34 attempts to one or the other. Landry had 15 -- three of which were in the red zone -- and Parker got big action down the field.

Of Cutler's eight throws that traveled at least 16 yards beyond the line of scrimmage, five were to Parker with the other three going to Kenny Stills. This allowed Parker to finish with 47.66% of the team's targeted air yards, according to NFL.com's Next-Gen Stats, currently the second-highest mark in the league. You'll take that even if his targets do have a lower catch rate than those of Landry.

Overall, this was a huge win for both players. As the Denver Broncos have shown with Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders, there's immense value in fantasy just in knowing where the ball will go on a given offense. With Cutler seemingly funneling targets to Parker and Landry, the Dolphins could be crafting a similar output.

2. Marqise Lee Fills Allen Robinson's Void

The Jacksonville Jaguars are essentially a lower-efficiency version of the Dolphins. They also want to run the football, but when they decide to throw, the results will make your stomach churn. That said, if we ever decide to invest in the passing offense going forward, it should probably be via Marqise Lee.

In the team's first full game without Allen Robinson, Lee dominated the usage category with 12 total targets, five more than Allen Hurns received. Hurns did score with a pair of red-zone targets, but Lee got big usage on deep throws.

Blake Bortles threw it deep seven times on Sunday, and three of those went to Lee. We could write this off as being a one-game sample, but it's the same thing that happened in Week 1 with Lee getting three deep targets there, too. He has 50% of the team's long-ball looks through two games, and that's significant.

No matter the matchup, it's going to be hard to trust these guys due to Bortles' immense and innumerable issues. But Lee's role down the field is going to give him at least some sort of upside, and we can't fully ignore that just because he's on a bad team.

3. Jaron Brown Quietly Gets Heavy Usage

There was plenty of chatter about the Arizona Cardinals' receivers on Sunday, but most of it revolved around either Larry Fitzgerald's torpedoing of DFS lineups or J.J. Nelson's 120-yard day. Quietly, though, Jaron Brown saw a good amount of work.

Brown easily led the team in targets with 11, topping Nelson's seven and Fitzgerald's six. It just went a bit overlooked because Brown managed to haul in only four of those.

Part of the reasoning behind that poor catch rate likely stems from the depth of the targets. Brown was the targets on 6 of Carson Palmer's 11 deep attempts, twice as many as any other player on the team. He added in a pair of red-zone targets to make things even snazzier.

With John Brown still dealing with injuries, there's opportunity to be had on this team. It's possible that Nelson's abilities allow him to continue being the second receiver in the offense behind Fitzgerald. But Jaron Brown's opportunities in Week 2 means this is a debate that's yet to be settled, and Brown may be worth an add in season-long leagues and some dart throws in DFS when the matchup is favorable.

4. Devin Funchess Could Benefit From Carolina's Injuries

With Greg Olsen set to miss six to eight weeks due to a broken foot, there's an opening for opportunity in the Carolina Panthers' offense. If Week 2 was any indication, Devin Funchess could be the guy who steps up.

Funchess finished second on the team with seven targets, just one behind Kelvin Benjamin. More important than that, though, was where those targets came. Funchess had five deep targets out of eight such attempts for Cam Newton, and he added another look in the red zone.

In 2016, Olsen finished second on the team in targets at least 16 yards downfield. The only guy ahead of him was Ted Ginn Jr.. Neither guy will be suiting up for the Panthers for the foreseeable future, meaning those high-leverage looks are up for grabs. Funchess was fourth on the team in deep targets last year despite a limited role, so his emergence Sunday shouldn't be a surprise.

This trend is happening at just the right time for Funchess, too, given a date with the New Orleans Saints in Week 3.

Yummy. Funchess is $4,800 on FanDuel for that game and fully worthy of investment. You can also justify plugging Funchess into season-long lineups with how sickly the matchup is for his potential expanded role.