Looks and Touches: Week 9

The following is a list of the Week 9 leaders in looks and touches. It defines those running backs and receivers who received the most attention this past weekend.

Touches is defined as the number of times a running back carried or caught the football.
Looks is defined as the number of times a player was the intended target of a pass.

TOUCHES
• A few unexpected things happened in Cincinnati on Sunday: the Bengals won a game and Cedric Benson was very productive. Pretty much anything positive that Benson did was a season high for a Bengals RB, including touches (25; 24 carries, 1 catch) and yardage (109; 104 rushing, 5 receiving). In Chris Perry's six starts, he averaged 50 yards of offense on 18.3 touches. In Benson's three starts, he's averaged the same amount of touches (18.3) but has managed 80 yards per game.

• Ray Rice was massive in Week 9, turning his 24 touches (21 carries, 3 catches) into a league-high 176 yards (154 rushing, 22 receiving). He's been effective all season, however, when given the chance. In the four games in which Rice has seen at least 10 touches (Weeks 1, 6, 8, 9), he's averaged 112 yards of offense (76 rushing, 36 receiving) on 18.3 touches (14.3 carries, 4 catches).

• Tim Hightower's strong performance in Week 9 (23 touches, 108 yards, 1 TD) has clearly established that he's the starting RB in Arizona, ahead of Edgerrin James. If one play was the microcosm of what Hightower brings to the table that Edge doesn't, it was his 30-yard TD run – Edge hasn't logged a carry of at least 30 yards since Week 7 of the 2005 season, a span of 47 games.

• The platoon watch notes when a team's RB2 is given at least half as many touches as the RB1, regardless of the reason. Platoon watch for Week 9 included: Baltimore (Ray Rice 24, Le'Ron McClain 15), Buffalo (Marshawn Lynch 12, Fred Jackson 10), Denver (Michael Pittman 9, Peyton Hillis 7), Detroit (Kevin Smith 16, Rudi Johnson 10), Jacksonville (Maurice Jones-Drew 12, Fred Taylor 6), Kansas City (Jamaal Charles 18, Kolby Smith 10), New England (BenJarvus Green-Ellis 16, Kevin Faulk 15), NY Giants (Brandon Jacobs 17, Derrick Ward 14), NY Jets (Thomas Jones 18, Leon Washington 9), Oakland (Justin Fargas 6, Michael Bush 6), Seattle (Julius Jones 11, Maurice Morris 8), and St. Louis (Antonio Pittman 14, Steven Jackson 7).

• Yards-per-touch leaders for Week 9 (minimum 10 touches) included: J.J. Arrington (10.82, 11 for 119), Ray Rice (7.33, 24 for 176), and Brandon Jacobs (6.88, 17 for 117). The bottom three: Antonio Pittman (1.93, 14 for 27), Marion Barber (2.1, 20 for 42) and Joseph Addai (2.21, 19 for 42).

LOOKS
• Calvin Johnson's career-high 18 looks gave us our ninth different looks leader in nine weeks. He also set a career-high with eight catches and scored a TD for the fourth consecutive week. The excessive utilization moved him into a tie for the 10th-most looks in the league (73).

• Greg Camarillo went from being quietly productive to a PPR must-start in Week 9, turning 15 looks into 11 catches for 111 yards. It was the second time in three weeks that Camarillo had at least 11 looks, and over the past five games he's averaged 9.6 looks, 6.4 catches, and 67.4 yards.

• Owen Daniels has emerged as the draft bargain of the TE position. While he was the 12th-ranked player at his position in ADP (110.4), he's currently third among his peers in standard scoring leagues with 62 points, and his 58 looks on the season are good for fourth.

• Remember back when Mark Clayton was going to be a top-line WR? His 11 looks in Week 9 were just the third time he'd been targeted in double digits in his past 31 games, and his receiving TD was the first he'd logged in his past 25 games.

• Notable names not among the Week 9 looks leaders: Joey Galloway (3), Maurice Jones-Drew (2), Heath Miller (0), Zach Miller (3), Amani Toomer (3) and Roy Williams (2).

• Top 10 players in catch percentage (minimum 4 looks per game): Steve Slaton (94%, 30/32), Ike Hilliard (87%, 33/38), Marion Barber (85%, 33/39), Brian Westbrook (84%, 26/31), Kevin Faulk (83%, 25/30), Marshawn Lynch (79%, 27/34), Matt Forte (79%, 30/38), Josh Reed (79%, 26/33), Brandon Jackson (79%, 22/28) and Chris Cooley (76%, 48/63).

• Bottom 10 players in catch percentage (minimum 4 looks per game): Ashley Lelie (21%, 7/34), Justin McCareins (36%, 14/39), Braylon Edwards (41%, 26/64), Justin Gage (41%, 13/32), Roy Williams (43%, 20/46), Mark Clayton (44%, 17/39), L.J. Smith (44%, 12/27), D.J. Hackett (45%, 10/22), Santonio Holmes (46%, 25/54) and Bobby Engram (47%, 15/32).

Note: Looks data provided by FFToday.com

Note: Looks data provided by FFToday.com