Over the past four weeks, Antonio Gates and Antonio Brown are tied for the league lead in receptions with 27 each, followed by Brandon Marshall with 26. There are five players tied for third place with 25 catches apiece: Wes Welker, Justin Blackmon, Jordan Cameron, Dez Bryant and…Kendall Wright.
Every player that was mentioned above is owned in at least 88 percent of Yahoo! leagues, excluding Wright, whose ownership is at just 31 percent. That should change – soon.
Despite a messy quarterback situation in Tennessee during his rookie season that saw Jake Locker start 11 games and Matt Hasselbeck start five, Wright still managed to put up respectable numbers and finished 2012 with 64 catches, 626 yards and four touchdowns.
This year didn’t get off to the greatest start with Wright only catching two balls for 11 yards in Week 1, but since then he has had at least five catches and 50 receiving yards in every game this year and that includes two games where Locker was injured and Ryan Fitzpatrick was handling QB duties.
Now that Locker is back from his injury (and will have Week 8 to heal up even further) Wright is poised to have a great second half of the season. In the five games that Locker has played this season, Wright has drawn 42 of his 58 total targets – an average of more than eight per game – and has hauled in 29 of those looks, good for a completion rate of nearly 70 percent.
After seven 2013 games, Wright is well on his way to surpassing the numbers that he put up as a rookie and already has 40 catches for 433 yards and a score. His yardage per reception has increased by a yard this season (9.8 in 2012 compared to 10.8 in 2013) and he’s getting substantially more receiving yards per game (41.7 in 2012 compared to 61.9 in 2013) and catching more balls (4.3 in 2012 compared to 5.7 in 2013) this year as well. The touchdown numbers aren’t there yet, but there’s reason to believe that they will come.
The reason is Locker.
Last season, the third-year quarterback had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 10:11; so far this season, that ratio is 8:1. Locker is completing almost 62 percent of his passes in 2013 after completing about 56 percent of his throws in 2012 and the Titans have gone 3-2 in his 2013 starts as opposed to their 4-7 record in 2012. Locker is simply playing better this season and it’s reflected in his numbers and in the success of the team. His improvement bodes well for Wright’s fantasy success for the rest of 2013 and beyond.
Evan Bleier is a freelance writer based out of wherever he can plug in his laptop. You can send him questions, comments and Buffalo wing suggestions @itishowitis or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.
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