Leaders in Percentage of Team Targets

by Chase Stuart on August 13, 2017

On Friday, I wrote about Rob Moore’s 1997 season, when he set the still-standing record for targets in a year. Moore had 208 targets, but as alluded to in that post, he did not set the record for percentage of team targets in a season, which is simply targets divided by team pass attempts (excluding sacks).

That honor belongs to Brandon Marshall, who was targeted on 40% of all passes for the 2012 Bears, and wound up with a post-1978 record 46% of the Bears receiving yards that year. Remarkably, Marshall saw over 30% of his team’s targets on three different teams, and saw 29% of a fourth franchise’s targets in a season (2015 Jets). The table below shows all players since 1992 with at least 30% (okay, 29.5%) of their team’s targets in a season:

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Rk	Player	Team	Year	Tar	Tm Pass	Perc	RANY/A	Rec	Yd	TD
1	Brandon Marshall	CHI	2012	192	485	39.6%	-0.83	118	1508	11
2	Sterling Sharpe	GNB	1993	189	528	35.8%	-0.76	112	1274	11
3	Marvin Harrison	IND	2002	205	591	34.7%	0.74	143	1722	11
4	Rob Moore	ARI	1997	208	602	34.6%	-0.97	97	1584	8
5	Roddy White	ATL	2008	148	434	34.1%	1.30	88	1382	7
6	Herman Moore	DET	1995	206	605	34%	1.62	123	1686	14
7	Andre Johnson	HOU	2006	163	481	33.9%	-0.66	103	1147	5
8	Marvin Harrison	IND	1999	184	546	33.7%	1.64	115	1663	12
9	Rod Smith	DEN	2001	172	511	33.7%	-0.48	113	1343	11
10	Steve Smith	CAR	2005	150	449	33.4%	1.05	103	1563	12
11	Michael Irvin	DAL	1995	165	494	33.4%	1.49	111	1603	10
12	David Boston	ARI	2001	175	526	33.3%	0.53	98	1598	8
13	Randy Moss	MIN	2002	185	558	33.2%	-0.36	106	1347	7
14	Randy Moss	MIN	2003	172	520	33.1%	1.92	111	1632	17
15	Brandon Marshall	DEN	2007	170	515	33%	0.57	102	1325	7
16	Eric Moulds	BUF	2004	152	461	33%	-0.68	88	1043	5
17	Jimmy Smith	JAX	2001	176	534	33%	-0.15	112	1373	8
18	Herman Moore	DET	1996	178	541	32.9%	-0.61	106	1296	9
19	Antonio Brown	PIT	2015	193	590	32.7%	0.44	136	1834	10
20	Julio Jones	ATL	2015	203	621	32.7%	-0.09	136	1871	8

Showing 1 to 20 of 88 entries

The target hog to appear most frequently on this list? That’s Football Perspective favorite and former Jacksonville Jaguar Jimmy Smith. Also noteworthy: the top five players by RANY/A among the group of receivers who saw at least 30% of their team’s targets: Rice, Harrison, Moss, and Irvin are the first four of those names. That’s arguably the top four receivers since 1992. The fifth? Rod Smith.

As always, please leave your thoughts in the comments.

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