Table of Contents
- Average Depth of Target Definition
- Average Depth of Target Statistics
- Can Average Depth of Target Help Me With Betting?
Average Depth of Target Definition
Average depth of target (also known as aDot) is a metric that shows how many yards down the field a player is being targeted on average. If a player had two targets in a game — one when he was 1 yard past the line of scrimmage and the other when he 20 yards — his aDot would be 10.5.
This metric can give you a better understanding of where a player is catching the ball on the field, which has some correlation to fantasy scoring, and especially scoring upside.
For example: If a player is catching 10 five-yard out routes per game, it's unlikely he's going to make a lot of big plays, but he may be slightly more consistent week to week. If you have a player who is consistently being targeted 10-15 yards down the field, it's much more likely he'll break one off for a touchdown.
JuJu Smith-Schuster had an incredibly low aDot of 5.55 last season, indicating most of his catches were for short yardage. Guys like Tyreek Hill (12.63) and D.K. Metcalf (12.91) routinely have the highest aDot's in the league because they can stretch the field, and those are the types of players who can win you a DFS contest or your matchup in season-long fantasy with one or two big plays.
Average Depth of Target Statistics
Below is a list of league leading WRs in aDot with 30 targets on the year. If you don't use a minimum number of targets, you'll end up with a list of tight ends who were targeted once all year on a fake punt.
| Player | Average Depth of Target (yards) | Targets |
|---|---|---|
| Henry Ruggs | 17.53 | 43 |
| Marcus Johnson | 17.13 | 31 |
| Scott Miller | 16.85 | 47 |
| Marquez Valdes-Scantling | 16.74 | 65 |
| Breshad Perriman | 16.17 | 54 |
When you increase the number of targets required to qualify, you can identify more valuable players. One more table is provided below with a minimum of 100 targets.
| Player | Average Depth of Target (yards) | Targets |
|---|---|---|
| D.J. Chark | 14.65 | 103 |
| Calvin Ridley | 14.17 | 139 |
| Jerry Jeudy | 13.61 | 112 |
| D.J. Moore | 13.43 | 117 |
| Chase Claypool | 13.10 | 112 |
| DK Metcalf | 12.91 | 126 |
| Tyreek Hill | 12.63 | 143 |
Can Average Depth of Target Help Me With Betting?
Like many other advanced individual statistics that focus on the receiver, this is a metric that will help you much more with daily fantasy betting, props and season-long fantasy decisions than with team betting, for many of the reasons stated above. This isn't a new stat, unknown to the fantasy community, of course. There's a reason Baltimore's Marquise Brown was such a trendy fantasy pick last season.
Average depth of target can assist you when you're looking for undervalued or new players to add to your roster or lineup because they often have more upside than someone only catching short passes, but may not have converted that one big play yet. The fantasy contributions for the players listed are below.
When evaluating players, it may also be useful to incorporate Air Percentage, which is a metric that directly combines the aDot with Air Yards to give you an easy look at how many air yards a player commands when considering volume and aDot. Try and play around with the numbers to see what works best for you.
