I was doing some early work on the playoff teams yesterday – carefully looking at the production of all players on teams that have already qualified for the postseason. (We’ve got a couple of playoff products going out early next week). It was the New York receivers that surprised me the most.
Darius Slayton, of course, has been playing well for most of the season, but Isaiah Hodgins (pictured) and Richie James have also come on recently.
I remember being impressed by Hodgins in a preseason game against the Colts. He caught about 9 balls, with one sideline catch in particular looking really good. With that game, I thought he was going to make the roster in Buffalo. Instead, he went to the practice squad, and the Giants grabbed him (Brian Daboll, of course, coached Hodgins last year). Hodgins has been starting for about half the season, and he’s been pretty good. He’s caught touchdowns in four of his last five games.
Richie James has been bouncing around the league for years. His signature game (as I recall it) came when he was playing for San Francisco in a Thursday night game against Green Bay a few years back – the 49ers had other wide receivers injured, and James stepped up in a big way. After Wan’Dale Robinson was lost with a season-ending injury (in the current season), the Giants plugged James into their slot-receiver role, and he’s been catching a lot of balls.
If we’re using PPR scoring, both Hodgins and James have been top-20 wide receivers over the last five weeks. With the Giants likely to open the playoffs at Minnesota (which tends to give up a ton of passing production) I expect we’ll be talking about Hodgins and James as value-type guys next week.
| TOP 30 WIDE RECEIVERS (Weeks 13-17) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | No | Yds | TD | PPR |
| Justin Jefferson, Min. | 43 | 539 | 3 | 116.0 |
| A.J. Brown, Phil. | 31 | 570 | 4 | 112.0 |
| DeVonta Smith, Phil. | 32 | 520 | 4 | 108.0 |
| Tyreek Hill, Mia. | 30 | 454 | 3 | 105.6 |
| CeeDee Lamb, Dall. | 38 | 450 | 3 | 103.4 |
| Davante Adams, L.V. | 24 | 444 | 4 | 92.4 |
| Keenan Allen, LAC | 42 | 430 | 1 | 91.8 |
| Amon-Ra St. Brown, Det. | 35 | 396 | 2 | 88.0 |
| Jerry Jeudy, Den. | 32 | 369 | 3 | 86.9 |
| Mike Evans, T.B. | 26 | 422 | 3 | 86.2 |
| Chris Godwin, T.B. | 38 | 383 | 1 | 82.3 |
| JaMarr Chase, Cin. | 32 | 355 | 2 | 78.1 |
| Isaiah Hodgins, NYG | 25 | 250 | 4 | 76.0 |
| K.J. Osborn, Min. | 27 | 288 | 3 | 73.8 |
| DK Metcalf, Sea. | 28 | 337 | 2 | 73.7 |
| Richie James, NYG | 29 | 289 | 2 | 69.9 |
| Zay Jones, Jac. | 20 | 240 | 4 | 67.7 |
| Brandon Aiyuk, S.F. | 23 | 304 | 2 | 67.0 |
| Jahan Dotson, Was. | 18 | 272 | 3 | 63.2 |
| DJ Moore, Car. | 16 | 273 | 3 | 62.7 |
| Amari Cooper, Cle. | 19 | 317 | 2 | 62.7 |
| Mike Williams, LAC | 21 | 353 | 1 | 62.3 |
| Diontae Johnson, Pitt. | 28 | 339 | 0 | 62.1 |
| Tyler Lockett, Sea. | 23 | 271 | 2 | 62.1 |
| Garrett Wilson, NYJ | 25 | 386 | 0 | 61.6 |
| DJ Chark, Det. | 18 | 374 | 1 | 61.4 |
| Jaylen Waddle, Mia. | 14 | 349 | 2 | 60.9 |
| Terry McLaurin, Was. | 20 | 277 | 2 | 60.9 |
| Tee Higgins, Cin. | 16 | 196 | 3 | 55.6 |
| JuJu Smith-Schuster, K.C. | 27 | 245 | 1 | 55.5 |
Statistics compiled using search tools at Pro-Football-Reference.com
—Ian Allan