Garrett Wilson — Week 3: Thirteen Targets, Fourth-Down Touchdown
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 28
Wilson caught 10 of 13 targets for 107 yards, six first downs and a 23-yard touchdown on fourth and six with 4:11 left, ruled down at the 1 and reversed on a Jets challenge, before a two-point throw tied it 24–24. His 13 targets were 36 percent of the Jets' throws with a receiver, the most in the game, in a 31–24 loss to the Lions.
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24 to 16, Lions, four 11 left in the fourth quarter, fourth and six at the Detroit 23. Geno Smith threw deep right to Garrett Wilson, who was ruled down at the one. The Jets challenged the ruling, it was reversed, and it was a 23-yard touchdown; a pass-interference flag on Detroit was declined. +4.7 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 20.1 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it, the largest on any pass or run by either team. Smith then hit Sterling Shepard for two, and it was 24 all. On that drive, which began after Detroit failed on fourth and one, Wilson caught four passes for 48 yards, including six on third and four.
The line: 13 targets, 10 catches, a hundred seven yards, one touchdown, six first downs, +7.3 expected points on the targets. The catches went six, three, nothing, 11, 32, four, six, 15, 23 seven. The 32 was deep middle from the Jets 45 with nine 37 left in the third, to the Detroit 23, on a drive that ended in a field goal. Three third-down targets, all caught, two converted: the six on third and four, and seven on third and three at the Detroit 47 with one 45 left on the last drive. Early in the fourth, on third and 17 from the Detroit 20, a deep throw his way fell incomplete but a pass-interference penalty moved the Jets to the four, and they scored three snaps later; the two-point try after that touchdown was thrown to him and fell incomplete. Five targets before halftime, eight after. His last target, with 56 seconds left, was incomplete, and he was hurt on the play; Aaron Glenn said afterward he was evaluated for a head injury and cleared, per Heavy. On the next snap Smith was sacked and fumbled, and Detroit recovered.
13 targets were 36 percent of the Jets' 36 throws with a receiver, ahead of eight to Kenyon Sadiq and five to Jeremy Ruckert. They were the most targets and his hundred seven the most receiving yards by any player in the game, two ahead of Sadiq. Adonai Mitchell, who had 12 targets last week, was inactive with a finger injury, per ESPN.
Back in June the preview called Wilson a proven alpha whose ceiling hung on his quarterback: a 35 percent target share in seven games last season before a knee injury ended it, and the question was how Geno Smith, new to him, would feed him. Week 1 was seven targets, six catches, 79 yards, 30 percent of the throws. Week 2 was seven targets again, five catches, 57 yards and a touchdown, while Mitchell drew 12. This week the share was back at the preview's number, with Mitchell out. Three games: 27 targets, 21 catches, 243 yards, two touchdowns. Three games settle little, and this one came with company missing. The Jets are at the Bears on Sunday the fourth.
_Data via nflverse._
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