5 NFL Red Zone Trends to Monitor for Week 10

New Life for Larry Fitzgerald

Through the first six weeks of the season, Larry Fitzgerald saw only three targets in the red zone, never notching more than one in a game. Things started to pick up in Week 7 when he saw 2 targets, and then in Week 8 -- his first game with Byron Leftwich handling offensive coordinator duties in Arizona Cardinals -- he saw 3, as part of a season-high 12-target day.

Both of those last two marks were good for at least half of the Cards' red zone targets, accounting for 2-of-3 in Week 7 and 3-of-6 in Week 8. Even if we include the incredibly slow start to the season, Fitz' 34.8% target market share in the red zone is the seventh-highest in the NFL.

Like Chubb in Cleveland, playing in Arizona will still cap the touchdown upside available for Fitzgerald. According to numberFire's models, Arizona is the league's third-worst passing offense, but there's reason to believe that a significant amount of the scoring they manage to do will come through the air.

In their first Leftwich-led game, the Cardinals called nine pass plays and no runs in the red zone. That is in stark contrast to the first seven weeks of the season, where their 17 passes and 18 runs made them the NFL's sixth-most run-heavy team inside the 20-yard line.

With Fitzgerald's big market share, an increase in passing in scoring range will bring him some significant touchdown upside.