Week 12: Looks and Touches

The following is a list of the Week 12 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.

Week 12 provided many highlights for fantasy owners, from Marvin Harrison's 80-yard TD reception to huge days from Ryan Fitzpatrick, Steve McNair, and Trent Green. Unfortunately, owners who had expected monster days from Byron Leftwich and his receivers were left in the cold with his early departure.

Larry Johnson and Shaun Alexander continue to rack up Touches and TDs, while Eli Manning relies heavily on his trusted trio of Jeremy Shockey, Plaxico Burress, and Tiki Barber.

It was a busy week in the NFL. Let's break apart the play-by-play accounts.

LOOKS

Talk about efficiency! Fantasy owners who started Kevin Curtis in the strong spot against the Texans had to sweat it out before finding production from the speedy wideout. He was targeted only three times on Sunday, with his lone catch being the 56-yard game-winning TD.

Kurt Warner may no longer be the MVP-caliber player we remember in St. Louis, but he sure has found a comfort zone passing in the desert. Of course, armed with receivers Anquan Boldin (20 Looks this past week) and Larry Fitzgerald, you're bound to have some modicum of success, even without a running game. Fitzgerald is ranked second among all receivers with 122 Looks on the season. That's a shade more than 11 per game. Who's the leader? Plaxico Burress of the Giants has been targeted by Eli Manning on 136 occasions (12.36 per game).

In what proved to be Steve Mariucci's finale in Detroit on Thanksgiving Day, rookie Mike Williams was given an extended look and saw 11 passes from three quarterbacks. Interim coach Dick Jauron has named Jeff Garcia the starter, so odds are that the ball will be spread more efficiently throughout the Detroit receiving corps going forward.

After coming on strong in the wake of the Terrell Owens fiasco, Reggie Brown dropped off the map this past week against the Packers. He was targeted just three times, recording zero catches.

Running backs and tight ends continue to rise up the Looks charts each week. Nine of the top 30 targeted players in Week 12 resided at one of those two positions, led by Jeremy Shockey's 14 Looks against Seattle.

TOUCHES

He just keeps on keepin' on. Edgerrin James and the Colts are riding high at 11-0, and the star tailback is showing tremendous durability. Through 11 contests, James has racked up an incredible 304 Touches (27.64 per game). Not surprisingly, fantasy studs LaMont Jordan, LaDainian Tomlinson, Shaun Alexander make up the next three spots. Given the size of Larry Johnson's recent workloads, he'll catch them in no time. In just four games as the lone KC tailback, and sharing time with Priest Holmes in the others, Johnson has already amassed 211 Touches.

Aided by nagging injuries to expected challenger Lee Suggs, Reuben Droughns has proven to be one of the most consistent and durable backs this year. He missed a portion of one game earlier in the year, but has been counted on to handle the ball 242 times for the Browns. Though not necessarily a scoring threat, there is some comfort in knowing that your back will rack up 22 Touches weekly.

Marshall Faulk has played the role of spectactor for the '05 season, watching Steven Jackson develop into a bona fide star (his six-yard Week 11 performance against Arizona aside). Jackson is handling the ball more than 20 times per game, a feat unheard of in the past several seasons for a St. Louis back.

Despite missing two games with a knee injury, Domanick Davis has already surpassed 200 Touches for the year (208 to be exact). With David Carr and the passing attack still working to find a consistent No. 2 receiver behind Andre Johnson, Davis continues to shoulder the load (23 Touches per game).