Fantasy Football Reax: Cecil Shorts back at it, Justin Hunter flashes again

Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Cecil Shorts has plenty of difficulty staying healthy, and there were some rumblings that he could join Marqise Lee as backups in two-wide sets to rookies Allen Hurns and Allen Robinson. Both Lee and Shorts were healthy enough to play today, but it was Lee who received a back seat, as Shorts started over Hurns. Of course, “starting” is almost meaningless these days due to how vague it is, as it’s the targets that matter. But in this case, the “starting” designations were accurate predictors, as Lee and Hurns received two and four targets respectively, whereas Robinson and shorts combined for a whopping 25 targets.

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Allen Robinson caught eight of the passes thrown at him, but he could only turn them into 68 yards. Shorts didn’t average many yards per reception either, but 10.3 is more robust than 8.5. Additionally, he was targeted heavily again, as he caught ten passes for 103 yards on a whopping 16 targets, as the Jaguars were committed to throwing the ball (until they tried kicking a 55-yard field goal with 12 seconds left) in an effort to notch their first win of the season.

16 targets is an awful lot in an offense that is pretty deep at the wide receiver position, but it shows that Shorts is indeed still the top dog when he’s healthy. If you are willing to put up with a bunch of stays on the injury report and Sundays of checking up on his status during early games, then Cecil Shorts is worth scooping up. Ever since he broke out in 2012, there’s no denying his talent, and he finally has a QB with the kind of talent to match his own.

Tennessee Titans wide receiver Justin Hunter had to deal with a quarterback who doesn’t have the talent to match his own raw ability, but Charlie Whitehurst did average 8.3 yards per attempt in the narrow victory. Hunter had a very similar game to his Week 5 performance, as he caught three passes on just five targets but turned them into 77 yards, making big catches, including one where he was stopped at the one before Jackie Battle punched it in (which pissed of Bishop Sankey owners, of course).

Before he was injured in college, Hunter was one of the most explosive athletes in the nation, and he’s still pretty darn explosive, as evidenced by some of his plays over the past couple of weeks. The key is consistency, as Hunter was criticized heavily for his drops. His value is predicated on his ability to turn those big passes into touchdowns, and he has the YAC ability to do that. The issue is that the Titans aren’t going to score often, so he’s nothing more than a high-upside, boom-or-bust backup wide receiver on your fantasy roster, even if he’s absolutely worth owning due to his talent.

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