In this weekly article, Ryan Ramsarran uses the Advanced Stat Explorer and other RotoViz tools to dive deep into wide receiver usage trends. Usage is key for making waiver wire adds, start/sit decisions, and finding the next blowup WR in DFS. We’ll use the advanced WR metrics to highlight a few buy-low options at the position each week.
Welcome back to the wide receiver advanced stats series! Week 1 was absolutely bonkers, with huge upsets and some unfortunate injuries. Wide receivers especially had a roller coaster weekend, with some surprise stars as well as some duds from studs.
Before we get into it, we’re going to start off with one of the best catches of the weekend by none other than Garrett Wilson:
NFL films released a video showing another angle of the Garrett Wilson TD from last night.
Garrett turned a bad pass from Zach Wilson into a score with one hand.pic.twitter.com/O728up6g9rhttps://t.co/5DAYQRhX3d
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) September 12, 2023
Routes Run and Routes per Target
Routes run is the first key statistic I’ll focus on because WRs need to be on the field to produce. The second statistic is routes per target. Unlike RB usage, targets are earned as a WR and routes per target is a helpful measure in figuring out which players are good (or which players coaches want to get the ball to).