A year ago, Cincinnati Bengals wideout Ja’Marr Chase picked up 134 targets, catching 87 of them, over just 12 regular season games.
That was good for Chase to go for 1,046 yards and nine touchdowns while averaging 12 yards per catch. Thirteen of those catches went for 20-plus yards and he ranked near the top with 87.2 receiving yards per game.
Looking ahead to 2023, most projections expect Chase to rank near the NFL’s top when it comes to target shares and overall stats once more — for obvious reasons.
What’s interesting is seeing a projected target share from Tej Seth at SumerSports, which puts Chase even higher than the likes of Cooper Kupp:
highest projected target share for wide receivers in 2023 (@sumersports)
1. ja’marr chase, 26.4%
2. cooper kupp, 25.4%
3. justin jefferson, 23.3%
4. terry mclaurin, 22.9%
5. aj brown, 22.9%
6. dk metcalf, 22.6%
7. drake london, 22.4%
8. ceedee lamb, 21.1%— Tej Seth (@tejfbanalytics) June 1, 2023
Not that this feels all too unreasonable, but it’s a little surprising given just how many options Joe Burrow has in the passing game from pretty much anywhere on the field.
Chase finished at 24.2 percent as a rookie in 2021 over 17 games with 128 targets and 81 catches. It’s reasonable to expect he’ll hover in the same roughly top five on this list again, health provided.
