Gunnar Helm — Week 2: Two Targets, Down From Five
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Helm caught both of his targets for 13 yards: 5 on second and 21 in the second quarter and 8 on second and nine to the Philadelphia 7 on the third-quarter touchdown drive. Titans tight ends were thrown to three times on Cam Ward's 20 throws. He had five targets in Week 1, in a 24–20 loss to the Eagles.
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10 to 17, Eagles, three 31 left in the third quarter, second and nine at the Philadelphia 15. Cam Ward threw short left to Gunnar Helm, who caught it five yards behind the line and got to the seven, eight yards. +0.6 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 5.1 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. It left third and one. Ward converted it up the middle, and four snaps after the catch he scored the touchdown that tied the game.
The other target was second and 21 at the Tennessee 40 with 10 26 left in the second quarter, the snap after a 15-yard penalty on Calvin Ridley: short right, five yards, −0.6. The line: two targets, two catches, 13 yards, no first downs, −1 air yard and 14 yards after the catch, and about zero expected points on the two. One target in each half, and none on third down.
Ward threw 20 times, and tight ends got three of them: Helm's two and an incompletion to Daniel Bellinger. Carnell Tate had five targets, Elic Ayomanor three, and Helm, Ridley and Tyjae Spears two each. Tennessee called 27 designed runs against 22 pass plays.
Back in June the preview put Helm on the watchlist — the 20-fifth tight end off the board at pick one 80, priced above a rookie season of 3.4 targets a game, with the volume his to prove — and it said to watch his September targets against that baseline. Week 1 was five targets, four of them after halftime in a game played from far behind, and that episode said the number to watch was targets before the fourth quarter. Sunday both targets came before the fourth quarter, and there were two. Seven targets in two games is three and a half a game, which is the rookie baseline almost to the decimal. Tennessee is at the Giants on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
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