Week two taught us a lot about things that we thought were true in week one. For example, I thought the Commanders were good enough to almost beat the Eagles. It turns out the Eagles might be bad. Also, the Chargers are BAD! Whoo-ey, woof. Yowza. Yikes. What a letdown. With two weeks in the books, we are starting to get some questions about our fantasy football teams, so let’s take a look at some question marks from week two. And I promise, this is Colston Loveland and Los Angeles Chargers-free; those have been done to death!
Is Jalen Coker the Real Deal?
Through two games, Jalen Coker is the WR5 on the season, with 16 receptions for 204 yards and two touchdowns on 18 targets. While he didn’t score a touchdown in week two against the Falcons, he didn’t really need to, as the Panthers entered clock-killing mode relatively early against the woebegone Atlanta squad. But is he for real? Well, we can’t really assess him against the rest of the league at this point, because he’s played two dreadful defenses so far this season in the Falcons and the Bears. But how does he stack up against Tetairoa McMillan, who we all acknowledge is at least a top-20 fantasy football wide receiver?
So far this season, Coker has run 83% of the Panthers’ routes; this sits behind Tetairoa McMillan’s 90%, but still ranks fourteenth. So far, so good. His 24.3% target share sits above McMillan, who has a 23% target share. On a per-route basis, Coker ranks tenth in yards per route run (T-Mac 25th), and Coker is 21st in targets per route run (T-Mac is 33rd). The major difference in their production comes in their average depth of target (aDOT). Coker sits at 9.9 yards downfield, which ranks 74th among the 112 wide receivers with at least 15 routes this season. McMillan ranks 26th, at 14.9 yards downfield. The killer statistic, and the one that puts the picture of these two wide receivers together: McMillan has a 59% catch rate, and Coker has an 89% catch rate.
So, what we see is two highly-used wide receivers in two very different roles. McMillan is going to have the bigger games over the course of the season; he gets targeted downfield more than Coker, but he also catches fewer passes because they are inherently more volatile. But you also see a highly-targeted, sure-handed receiver in the “alpha” range (his depth of target sits between Mike Evans and Jaxon Smith-Njigba). This will make him a more reliable week-to-week starter than McMillan; think about classic Mike Evans and Chris Godwin with the Tom Brady Buccaneers, where one handled the big plays, and the other did the yeoman’s work.
While I don’t think that Jalen Coker will finish the season as WR5, he’s a locked-and-loaded top-twenty WR as the season progresses, and his PPR floor might just find him finishing the season with more fantasy points than his teammate, Tetairoa McMillan. So yes, he is for real.
Is Drake Maye in Trouble?
Through two games, Drake Maye ranks as the QB30 in fantasy points per game, after putting up absolute stinkers against both the Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers. I was willing to waive away the Seattle game, as the Seahawks demolished him in the Super Bowl, the literal last game the two teams played. But, the Pittsburgh game has me worried about Drake Maye regressing hard back down to Earth in two key statistics that I worried about this offseason. Last season, Drake Maye led the NFL in both completion percentage (72%) and average depth of target last season (9.1). This simply doesn’t happen on a consistent basis; prior to Drake Maye’s 2025 season, since 2018 (as far back as Pro-Football-Reference.com data goes), 21 quarterbacks had an aDOT of 9+; the average completion rate (excluding Maye) was 63%. In the same timeframe, 13 quarterbacks completed over 70% of their passes in a season; their average depth of target (excluding Maye) was 7.1.
I didn’t worry about these because A.J. Brown was coming, and Brown would wallpaper over Maye’s inevitable regression. Well, we have no A.J. Brown for the near future, and Maye is regressing as hard as I feared. His completion percentage dropped five points, back down to 67.3%, which ranks sixteenth (behind Kirk Cousins). His average depth of target dropped to 7.72, which ranks 22nd in the league (behind Aaron Rodgers). It’s not surprising to see him come back down to earth after a stellar season, as he did things that literal multi-time MVPs and first-ballot Hall of Famers like Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees couldn’t pull off.
Unfortunately, there’s no help on the horizon. The weaponry is the same as long as A.J. Brown is on the horizon, just swapping out Kayshon Boutte for Romeo Doubs. The schedule also will do him no favors, as the Patriots no longer get to snipe the league’s dregs… well, except the Dolphins twice a year.
I don’t know how you can start Drake Maye at this point, at least not until he gets A.J. Brown back or hits an easy patch of the schedule. As of now, he has no AJB and the Jaguars and Bills on the horizon.
Is it Time to Pull the Plug on Marvin Harrison Jr.?
Through two games, Marvin Harrison Jr. has one catch for 33 yards on four targets. I knew this off the top of my head because he had one catch for 33 yards on one target in week one, and just one target in week two. So, things are a bit bleak in Arizona for the former can’t-miss prospect. Things get even worse when you look under the hood at MHJ.
Harrison Jr. is playing, so that idea that he’s hobbled or otherwise not available goes right out the window. He’s on the field a lot. MHJ is second on the Cardinals in WR snaps, playing on 76% of snaps, and running a route on 86% of Jacoby Brissett’s dropbacks. So, he’s involved. Unfortunately, the offense doesn’t have much interest in getting him anything underneath (probably because one of his four targets was an extremely easy drop underneath), as his average depth of target is 23 yards downfield. Six players have targets on the Cardinals, including running backs; he ranks dead last in target share behind Tyler Allgeier. The team isn’t even trying to get him involved, either, as he has zero designed targets and just two first-read targets.
If you have Harrison Jr. and are in a roster bind, I wholly cosign cutting him to the curb. He is offering nothing so far. Unfortunately, given what you spent on him, if you are not in a crunch, then you are probably stuck with him. Nobody is trading for him; you can’t cut him; you can’t start him. Good luck.
