Week 7 Fantasy Football Market Share Report: Amari Cooper Provides Dilemmas

Red-Zone Market Shares

1. Joe Mixon Is Both Risky and Intriguing

Week 7 was no bueno for Joe Mixon. The Cincinnati Bengals fell behind early, and he had just seven carries and three targets. That's always possible when Giovani Bernard is there to operate in negative game script. But overall, there are still plenty of reasons to be intrigued by Mixon in the right scenarios.

The most basic is that they clearly just want to get him the ball. Since Bill Lazor took over as offensive coordinator in Week 3, Mixon has 63.6% of the team's running-back carries, which is a respectable mark for a guy who is sort of in a committee. He's also starting to get the work in close over Jeremy Hill.

Over the past four weeks, the Bengals have run the ball six times inside the 10-yard line. Five of those went to Mixon with just one going to Hill. Mixon added a target, as well, giving him a 37.5% overall market share inside the 10 since his role increased. Mixon also has the only two carries inside the five in this time. When the Bengals get in close, they are giving Mixon chances to score.

This means -- despite Bernard's and Hill's continued involvement -- Mixon has appeal for fantasy in the right scenarios. If the Bengals are favored and projected to put some points on the board, we're going to want to give him a sniff.

That's hyper relevant for Week 8. The Bengals have opened as 10-point favorites over the Indianapolis Colts, a script that sets up well for a rush-heavy approach. The Bengals should be able to score against this defense. It's risky to plug Mixon in on the chance that game script goes counter to expectation, but with his role near the goal line, there's some upside to quell those concerns a bit.

2. Hello, Julio

Shockingly, good things happen when you get Julio Jones the dang football.

Who ever could have predicted that?

Jones entered Week 7 with just one target inside the 20 the entire year; he exited with five, turning one of them into that beastly score above. The last time Jones had at least four red-zone targets in a game was December 6th, 2015. This is a noteworthy performance.

This was on top of 13 overall targets Sunday night for Jones, upping his market share to 29.3% in his five healthy games. He has 36.8% of the team's deep targets and now 19.2% of the red-zone looks, which is a pretty impressive portfolio. Things are certainly looking a lot better than they did last week.

It also may be beneficial for Jones that the team isn't performing as well as it did last year. This helps keep games closer, meaning they're forced to throw deeper into the contest. More throwing when you have almost 30% of the team's targets is never a bad thing, so he's getting a boost there, as well.

This is all just a long way of saying that the usage aligned with the narrative last week for Jones. They said they were going to get him the ball, and they did exactly that. With our long, national nightmare finally over, we can go back to viewing Jones for what he is: a wide receiver with massive upside who can go off at any time. There will still be frustrating games, but as Sunday night showed, it can sometimes be worth the wait.