Arizona has ruled out Marvin Harrison, clearing the way for the debate to begin. Can Michael Wilson keep it going against one of the league’s best defenses?
Wilson has been pretty remarkable. He’s finished with at least 10 catches and 118 yards in each of the three games Harrison has missed. That track record makes it look awfully likely that he’ll be catching a half-dozen passes (at least). That would make him tough to leave out of a Week 15 lineup.
Harrison has an unspecified heel injury. He hasn’t practiced at all this week, and he didn’t practice at all last week. That makes reasonable to wonder if Harrison might also be their featured receiver in Week 16 (a home game against Atlanta).
For this week, schedule looks problematic, with Houston ranking 5th in pass defense. Jacoby Brissett has averaged 308 passing yards in his eight starts, with 2 TDs in all but one of them. But the Texans are allowing only 193 passing yards per game, and with just 12 TD passes in their 13 games. Tough to envision Wilson getting close to 10 catches against this group.
But the two best wide receivers the Texans have seen (Puka Nacua, Jaxon Smith-Njigba) both put up their usual kind of numbers. And two other receivers in recent weeks have put up good numbers against this defense. (Two good receivers in the last two weeks, however, struggled to combine for only 5 catches for 47 yards on 12 targets.
Unpacking the list of all wide receivers who’ve seen targets against this defense in the first 14 weeks, I see four who finished with what you would call good numbers in PPR leagues. I’ve got those guys in bold.
There are six others who’ve finished with what might be called serviceable numbers – double-digit points in PPR formats. For those guys, I tagged them with black dots.
And that’s kind of it. I see four other receivers who are what we think of as big-time players who came up short against this defense – Rice and Pittman in the last two weeks, and Davante Adams and Brian Thomas early in the year.
As heavily as Wilson is used (with Harrison out), I would think he’ll wind up in the black dot club – something along the lines of 6 catches for 65 yards, with no touchdowns.
| WIDE RECEIVERS AGAINST HOUSTON | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk | Player | Team | Result | Tgt | No | Yards | Avg | TD | PPR |
| 1 | Puka Nacua | at LAR | W, 14-9 | 11 | 10 | 130 | 13.0 | 0 | 23.0 |
| 1 | Davante Adams | at LAR | W, 14-9 | 8 | 4 | 51 | 12.8 | 0 | 9.1 |
| 1 | Xavier Smith | at LAR | W, 14-9 | 1 | 1 | 36 | 36.0 | 0 | 4.6 |
| 1 | Tutu Atwell | at LAR | W, 14-9 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4.0 | 0 | 1.4 |
| 2 | • Mike Evans | T.B. | W, 20-19 | 11 | 5 | 56 | 11.2 | 0 | 10.6 |
| 2 | • Emeka Egbuka | T.B. | W, 20-19 | 7 | 4 | 29 | 7.3 | 1 | 12.9 |
| 2 | Sterling Shepard | T.B. | W, 20-19 | 4 | 4 | 34 | 8.5 | 0 | 7.4 |
| 2 | Ryan Miller | T.B. | W, 20-19 | 1 | 1 | 20 | 20.0 | 1 | 9.0 |
| 3 | Parker Washington | at Jac. | W, 17-10 | 11 | 4 | 34 | 8.5 | 0 | 7.4 |
| 3 | Brian Thomas | at Jac. | W, 17-10 | 6 | 2 | 55 | 27.5 | 0 | 7.5 |
| 3 | Dyami Brown | at Jac. | W, 17-10 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 3.5 | 0 | 2.7 |
| 3 | Travis Hunter | at Jac. | W, 17-10 | 2 | 1 | 21 | 21.0 | 0 | 3.1 |
| 3 | Tim Patrick | at Jac. | W, 17-10 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 16.0 | 0 | 2.6 |
| 4 | Elic Ayomanor | Ten. | L, 0-26 | 7 | 2 | 44 | 22.0 | 0 | 6.4 |
| 4 | Tyler Lockett | Ten. | L, 0-26 | 4 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 | .0 |
| 4 | Calvin Ridley | Ten. | L, 0-26 | 3 | 2 | 30 | 15.0 | 0 | 5.0 |
| 4 | Van Jefferson | Ten. | L, 0-26 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6.0 | 0 | 1.6 |
| 5 | • Zay Flowers | at Balt. | L, 10-44 | 5 | 5 | 72 | 14.4 | 0 | 12.2 |
| 5 | Rashod Bateman | at Balt. | L, 10-44 | 3 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 | .0 |
| 5 | DeAndre Hopkins | at Balt. | L, 10-44 | 2 | 2 | 46 | 23.0 | 0 | 6.6 |
| 7 | Jaxon Smith-Njigba | at Sea. | W, 27-19 | 14 | 8 | 123 | 15.4 | 1 | 26.3 |
| 7 | Tory Horton | at Sea. | W, 27-19 | 3 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 | .0 |
| 7 | Cooper Kupp | at Sea. | W, 27-19 | 1 | 1 | 32 | 32.0 | 0 | 4.2 |
| 7 | Jake Bobo | at Sea. | W, 27-19 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3.0 | 0 | 1.3 |
| 8 | Jauan Jennings | S.F. | L, 15-26 | 7 | 4 | 45 | 11.3 | 0 | 8.5 |
| 8 | Kendrick Bourne | S.F. | L, 15-26 | 4 | 3 | 44 | 14.7 | 0 | 7.4 |
| 8 | Demarcus Robinson | S.F. | L, 15-26 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 2.5 | 0 | 2.5 |
| 8 | Jordan Watkins | S.F. | L, 15-26 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 7.0 | 0 | 1.7 |
| 8 | Skyy Moore | S.F. | L, 15-26 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 | .0 |
| 9 | Troy Franklin | Den. | W, 18-15 | 10 | 4 | 27 | 6.8 | 0 | 6.7 |
| 9 | • Courtland Sutton | Den. | W, 18-15 | 6 | 1 | 30 | 30.0 | 1 | 10.0 |
| 9 | Pat Bryant | Den. | W, 18-15 | 3 | 2 | 20 | 10.0 | 0 | 4.0 |
| 9 | Michael Bandy | Den. | W, 18-15 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 16.0 | 0 | 2.6 |
| 10 | • Parker Washington | Jac. | L, 29-36 | 7 | 3 | 33 | 11.0 | 1 | 12.3 |
| 10 | Jakobi Meyers | Jac. | L, 29-36 | 3 | 3 | 41 | 13.7 | 0 | 7.1 |
| 10 | Austin Trammell | Jac. | L, 29-36 | 3 | 2 | 33 | 16.5 | 0 | 5.3 |
| 10 | Dyami Brown | Jac. | L, 29-36 | 1 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 | .0 |
| 11 | • Van Jefferson | at Ten. | L, 13-16 | 7 | 3 | 22 | 7.3 | 1 | 11.2 |
| 11 | Elic Ayomanor | at Ten. | L, 13-16 | 6 | 2 | 11 | 5.5 | 0 | 3.1 |
| 11 | Chimere Dike | at Ten. | L, 13-16 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 7.0 | 0 | 3.4 |
| 11 | Mason Kinsey | at Ten. | L, 13-16 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 14.0 | 0 | 2.4 |
| 11 | Calvin Ridley | at Ten. | L, 13-16 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 13.0 | 0 | 2.3 |
| 12 | Khalil Shakir | Buff. | L, 19-23 | 10 | 8 | 110 | 13.8 | 0 | 19.0 |
| 12 | Josh Palmer | Buff. | L, 19-23 | 4 | 2 | 21 | 10.5 | 0 | 4.1 |
| 12 | Elijah Moore | Buff. | L, 19-23 | 3 | 1 | -3 | -3.0 | 0 | .7 |
| 12 | Gabe Davis | Buff. | L, 19-23 | 2 | 1 | 22 | 22.0 | 0 | 3.2 |
| 13 | Josh Downs | at Ind. | L, 16-20 | 6 | 2 | 44 | 22.0 | 0 | 6.4 |
| 13 | Alec Pierce | at Ind. | L, 16-20 | 5 | 4 | 78 | 19.5 | 1 | 17.8 |
| 13 | Michael Pittman | at Ind. | L, 16-20 | 4 | 1 | 13 | 13.0 | 0 | 2.3 |
| 14 | Rashee Rice | at K.C. | L, 10-20 | 8 | 4 | 34 | 8.5 | 0 | 7.4 |
| 14 | Xavier Worthy | at K.C. | L, 10-20 | 4 | 3 | 55 | 18.3 | 0 | 8.5 |
| 14 | Tyquan Thornton | at K.C. | L, 10-20 | 3 | 2 | 19 | 9.5 | 0 | 3.9 |
| 14 | Hollywood Brown | at K.C. | L, 10-20 | 2 | 1 | 35 | 35.0 | 0 | 4.5 |
| 14 | JuJu Smith-Schuster | at K.C. | L, 10-20 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 | 1.5 |
—Ian Allan
