Adonai Mitchell — Week 2: Twelve Targets, Ten Before Halftime
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Mitchell led both teams with 12 targets, caught 6 for 63 yards and five first downs, and converted four third downs, including 15 yards on third and nine to the Green Bay 5 one play before the Jets' first touchdown. Ten of the twelve targets came before halftime, and all three throws of 20 or more air yards to him fell incomplete, in a 20–17 overtime loss to the Packers.
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Seven to nothing, Packers, six 39 left in the second quarter, third and nine at the Green Bay 20. Geno Smith threw short right to Adonai Mitchell for 15 yards to the five. +2.3 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 6.3 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. Braelon Allen scored on the next snap to tie it. Earlier on the same drive, a deep ball to Mitchell drew 34 yards of pass interference on Keisean Nixon.
The line: 12 targets, six catches, 63 yards, no touchdowns, five first downs, +5.6 expected points on the targets, the best figure on the Jets. The catches went seven, eight, 15, 14, eight and 11. Third down is where he lived: five third-down targets, four catches, four conversions — eight yards on third and one, the 15 on third and nine, 14 on third and 11 from the New York nine, and eight on third and five with 24 seconds left in the half. The fifth was third and nine in the first quarter, a throw 48 yards downfield that fell incomplete, and Javon Bullard's unsportsmanlike conduct penalty moved the chains anyway. That was one of three throws to him that traveled 20 or more yards in the air, and none was caught; the last, 43 yards downfield with two 48 left in a tied game, was defended by Evan Williams. His hundred 78 air yards were more than every other Jets receiver combined. 10 targets before halftime for five catches and 52 yards; two after for one catch and 11.
12 targets led both teams, one more than Christian Watson, and were a third of the 36 Smith throws that had a receiver attached. Garrett Wilson had seven, Isaiah Williams six, Breece Hall five. His 63 yards tied Hall for the team lead. Omar Cooper, who left the opener early, was placed on injured reserve on Saturday with an ankle injury, per the Jets' team site.
Back in June the preview called Mitchell a watchlist and named the fork: a quarter of his team's targets in the second half of last season after the trade to New York, six percent before it, a 45 percent catch rate, and the whole question being whether the share survives Garrett Wilson's return. Week 1 was three targets, three catches and 60 yards, and that episode said a footprint had not been built. Sunday built one, with Wilson active and thrown to seven times: 12 to Wilson's seven. The catch rate was six of 12, which is the other prong of the fork still standing. One game at a third of the targets is a week, and 10 of the 12 came in one half. New York is at the Lions on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
When Adonai Mitchell's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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