This is the Air Yards Report Week 9! Find out which players led Week 8 in Air Yards and how YOU should use Air Yards when setting your fantasy lineups.
PlayerProfiler is home to award-winning redraft rankings and tools. Our Player Rankings are second to none, and the World Famous Draft Kit contains detailed player write ups and cheat sheets to help You dominate fantasy drafts! Check it out.
What are Air Yards?
Air Yards measure how many yards the football travels past the line of scrimmage on a passing play. Some Air Yards come from completed passes, and some are incomplete passes. They are not a perfect measurement of future fantasy success but a tool that we can utilize to help us make lineup decisions.
In 2023, the Air Yards leaders were Mike Evans, DeAndre Hopkins, Davante Adams, A.J. Brown, and Tyreek Hill. Five of these six players, all save for Hopkins, finished inside the top 10 in fantasy points on the season. In 2022, the Air Yards receiving leaders were Tyreek Hill, Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson, A.J. Brown, and Stefon Diggs. All five players finished within the top six scorers at the WR position.
This season, we will parse through the Air Yards metric to help identify players who you should prioritize as starters in your fantasy lineups, players who disappointed but are likely to bounce back based on their Air Yards, and players you should feel free to fade despite voluminous Air Yards.
Air Yards Standouts Who Shined in Week 8
Zay Flowers | Baltimore Ravens — 195 Air Yards (1st Overall)
Zay Flowers led the league in Air Yards last week and finished as the WR14 after catching seven scoreless receptions for 115 yards. Even with the Ravens acquiring Dointae Johnson, Flowers will continue to operate as the Ravens top receiver. In the games that he doesn’t see significant Air Yards, Flowers will score fantasy points with his after the catch ability. He is currently No. 6 among all wide receivers with 254 yards after the catch and is the most dynamic pass catcher on the Ravens.
Calvin Ridley | Tennessee Titans — 167 Air Yards (5th Overall)
Prior to Week 8 Calvin Ridley was trending as a Prayer Yards MVP. He leads the league with 559 Unrealized Air Yards. However, he only has two games with double digit fantasy points. He finally realized some Air Yards in Week 8 finishing with 22.6 fantasy points. Even with the targets vacated by DeAndre Hopkins, Ridley will still remain a high variance fantasy producer with Mason Rudolph throwing him the football. I would not trust him against Christian Gonzalez and the Patriots this week.
Players Who Disappointed But Will Bounce Back
Michael Pittman | Indianapolis Colts— 136 Air Yards (11th Overall)
Despite leading the Colts in Air Yards in Week 8 Michael Pittman finished with only 2.6 fantasy points after hauling in one catch for 16 yards on seven targets. With Joe Flacco now under center for the foreseeable future, Pittman should see better days. Pittman saw his best three week span of fantasy production this season with Flacco under center in Weeks 4-6. Pittman averaged a respectable 14.8 fantasy points during these three games. Look for Pittman have a high end WR3 floor this week the Vikings.
Rome Odunze | Chicago Bears — 126 Air Yards (13th Overall)
I previously touted the Rome Odunze breakout after Odunze’s Week 3 performance against the Colts when he saw 245 Air Yards. Unfortunately, this wasn’t meant to be as Odunze only saw an average of 32 Air Yards after Week 3 until this past week when he broke the century mark for only the second time this season. Perhaps this usage is here to stay now with the Bears past the bye week and Odunze set to see a rookie bye week bump. He remains an intriguing flex play for me.
Tight End to Prioritize
Zach Ertz | Washington Commanders — 113 Air Yards (1st Overall)
The Commanders offense is humming and outside of Terry McLaurin the Commanders leading secondary receiver is none other than Zach Ertz. Ertz has seen almost double the amount of the targets as the Commanders third receiver Noah Brown. He also was the only tight end to see more than 100 Air Yards in Week 8. Ertz is a no brainer start at tight end moving forward.
For more articles from PlayerProfiler, check out the fantasy home page – NFL Fantasy | PlayerProfiler – Fantasy Football News & Media
