NFL Target Leaders in 2025 (And What It Means For 2026 Fantasy Drafts)

Ja'Marr Chase led the NFL last year with 185 targets ... despite missing a game.

It’s no coincidence that Chase finished as one of fantasy football’s most valuable players.

Targets drive fantasy scoring, especially in PPR leagues. More targets mean more chances for catches, yards, and TDs.

So if you want to predict which players will deliver next season, one of the best places to start:

Follow the targets.

But raw targets only tell part of the story.

Some players rack up volume simply because their teams throw a ton. Others dominate their teams' passing games. And some earn targets at elite rates whenever they’re on the field.

Let’s dig into the 2025 NFL target leaders, breaking them down by:

• Total targets
• Target share
• Targets per route run

Each metric reveals something different about last season and helps us project who might dominate targets in 2026.

The Players With The Most Targets In 2025

We’ll look at target share and targets per route below. But in terms of producing fantasy points, raw targets are king.

Here are the top 20 NFL target leaders in 2025.

Just how valuable are targets?

Sixteen of the 18 WRs on the top-20 list above scored 200+ PPR points, enough to finish among the postion's top 22. Thirteen of the 18 finished top-14 in PPR points.

Ja'Marr Chase not only led the league in targets last year despite missing a game. His 185 targets were the most by any player since Cooper Kupp's 191 back in 2021.

Chase will continue to lead a pass-happy Bengals offense this coming year. He paces all players with 180 targets in our 2026 projections.

Amon-Ra St. Brown has become a regular on the target-leaders list. Here's where he has ranked over the last four seasons:

• 2022: ninth
• 2023: fifth
• 2024: 10th
• 2025: second

With the Lions returning a similar cast in 2026, St. Brown is again one of the league's best target bets (and safest picks in fantasy drafts).

But the two most interesting players on the 2025 target leaders list are the non-WRs: Trey McBride and Christian McCaffrey.

McBride's 169 targets were 51 more than any other TE last year, bigger than the gap between the Nos. 2 and 21 TEs in targets. The 169 targets also set an NFL record for the position, zooming by Zach Ertz's 156 in 2018.

McCaffrey had a similarly historic season in terms of raw volume. His 129 targets were the fourth most by a RB. CMC now owns three of the top-six spots on that list.

NFL Target Share Dominators

Total targets are the more descriptive stat when looking back at last year’s fantasy scoring. But target share can be more predictive.

Target share helps separate a player’s usage from his environment. Earning 100 targets on a team that throws 400 times yields a higher target share than earning 120 targets on a team that throws 600 times.

Target share can help uncover a player likely to earn significantly more or fewer targets in coming seasons if his team’s pass volume changes.

Here are the NFL target share leaders in 2025.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba's 33.9% target share was the biggest mark since DeAndre Hopkins' 34.7% back in 2017. That massive share helped JSN finish second among WRs in PPR points, despite the Seahawks ranking 29th in pass attempts.

Garrett Wilson played on a bad Jets offense and missed 10 games last year, so he wasn't much help to fantasy squads. But he registered an elite 30.4% target share. And that jumps to 32.9% if we omit the Week 10 game Wilson left early.

There's still a big question mark at QB in New York, but Wilson has top-10 upside if the Jets ever figure it out.

Drake London has now topped a 28% target share in three of his four NFL seasons:

• 2022: 28.2%
• 2023: 22.4%
• 2024: 28.3%
• 2025: 28.1%

Trey McBride led all TEs and ranked 13th league-wide with a 25.4% target share. Very impressive -- but not quite as lofty as his third-place finish in total targets.

McBride benefited from the Cardinals leading the league with 649 pass attempts. Expect that number to decline in 2026, perhaps significantly. That could make McBride overvalued in fantasy drafts.

We can't leave this section without mentioning Wan'Dale Robinson, who ranked 11th in target share and eighth in total targets last year.

That wasn't just a one-year blip, either. Robinson racked up 140 targets on a 23.7% target share in 2024. And that season came alongside Malik Nabers!

Only four WRs have totaled more targets over the last two years:

• Ja'Marr Chase
• Amon-Ra St. Brown
• Jaxon Smith-Njigba
• Justin Jefferson

Robinson hits free agency in March and might garner a bigger contract than you'd expect. And don't be surprised if he's a high target earner for his new team in 2026.

Targets Per Route Leaders

Targets per route gives us an even more situation-specific look at a player’s usage.

As the name suggests, this metric tells us how frequently a player earns a target when he’s out in a pass route.

Targets per route is a better proxy for talent than raw targets or target share. Earning targets is a skill; it means you’re open, your playcaller is designing plays for you, and/or your QB is looking to get you the ball.

Targets per route is especially useful for uncovering players with big fantasy upside if they get larger roles. Look for players with low route rates but high targets per route.

Here are the 2025 leaders in targets per route (minimum 150 routes).

This is the most interesting list when it comes to projecting 2026 fantasy value.

The targets per route leaderboard features a bunch of the league's best players: Puka Nacua, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Amon-Ra St. Brown, etc. But there are a few surprising names in the top 20 worth highlighting.

Dalton Kincaid

It wasn't McBride leading TEs in targets per route last year. Brock Bowers? Nope.

It was Kincaid.

And this wasn't the first time he found himself on the targets-per-route leaderboard. Kincaid led all TEs and ranked 13th league-wide in targets per route in 2024.

Route volume has kept Kincaid from a true fantasy breakout so far. He ranked 25th among TEs with a 58% route rate in 2024 and fell to 37th at 44% this past year.

But it sounds like Buffalo wants Kincaid on the field more in 2026, which makes him an intriguing fantasy sleeper considering the target-earning ability he has flashed.

Luther Burden

Burden never captured a full-time role last year. He ran a route on just 43% of pass plays on the season and never topped 69% in a single game.

But Burden was very efficient on a per-route basis. On top of ranking 17th league-wide -- and first among rookies -- in targets per route, he also ranked fourth in yards per route. In fact, Burden's 2.69 yards per route was the best from a rookie WR with 50+ targets since Odell Beckham in 2014.

WR D.J. Moore's departure clears the path for Burden to step into an every-down role in 2026. If he maintains anything close to last year's efficiency, he'd be a fantasy WR1. Even if the efficiency dips a bit (and it likely will), Burden would still be a good bet for top-25 production.

Adonai Mitchell

Mitchell has been a targets-per-route hero through two NFL seasons. He posted a 0.27 as a rookie in 2024, ranking 22nd among 217 qualifying players. Then he ranked 20th out of 222 players last year.

Mitchell never found consistent playing time in Indianapolis. But he did after a mid-season trade to New York last year. And in six full games with the Jets, Mitchell:

• Averaged 8.2 targets per game
• Drew a 24.9% target share
• Was targeted on 23.2% of his routes

Mitchell has a clear path to a full-time role in 2026, barring a significant addition to the Jets' WR corps. But he'll battle for targets with Garrett Wilson and figures to have a QB problem.

So, despite the strong target-earning ability, Mitchell faces a tough path to a 2026 breakout. He's just a late-round flier in fantasy drafts.

What 2025 Target Leaders Mean For Your 2026 Fantasy Season

Capturing as many targets as possible in your draft is key to a winning season. That's why targets, target share, and targets per route are big factors in our 2026 player projections.

Those projections fuel the customized fantasy football cheat sheet on the Draft War Room, the most powerful drafting tool in the game.

Learn more about the Draft War Room in this quick video:

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Jared Smola, Lead Analyst

Jared has been with Draft Sharks since 2007. He’s now Lead Analyst, heading up the preseason and weekly projections that fuel your Draft War Room and in-season tools. He currently ranks ninth among 173 analysts in draft rankings accuracy.