Harold Fannin — Week 1: Three Targets, Two of Them Down Thirty-One
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Fannin was thrown to three times Sunday. The first was third and six at the Cleveland twenty-one in the first quarter, incomplete, and the Browns punted; the other two were catches of nine and twelve yards in the last two minutes of the third quarter with Cleveland down 34–3. Two catches for twenty-one yards, on a day the Browns' tight ends were targeted four times, in a 34–10 loss to the Jaguars.
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The first ball thrown to Harold Fannin this season was a third down, and it did not connect. First quarter, six 47 left, third and six at the Cleveland 21, Browns down seven to nothing on the possession after Foyesade Oluokun's interception: Deshaun Watson short right, incomplete, with Dennis Gardeck in on the play per the play-by-play. That play was worth −1.3 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 3.4 points of win probability, and Cleveland punted. Jacksonville went 74 yards the other way and led 14 to nothing.
The two catches came late and together. Third quarter, one 39 left, first and 10 at the Cleveland 15, Browns down 34 to three: nine yards, short right, to the 24. Then second and one at the 24 with 50 seconds left, short left, 12 yards to the 36 for a first down, his longest catch of the day. The next snap was a sack. Three targets, two catches, 21 yards, no touchdowns, and the three throws his way came out at −0.2 — the two catches were positive plays, and the third-down incompletion was the whole of the minus. He is also in the play-by-play on defense, credited with the tackle on Arik Armstead's fumble return in the fourth quarter, on a play the replay official then reversed to a Watson scramble.
The tight-end room's day was four targets on 22 throws: three to Fannin, one to Blake Whiteheart, whose 14-yard catch on the first play of the game was the longest tight-end catch Cleveland had. Fannin had one target before halftime and two after. KC Concepcion led the Browns with five, Jerry Jeudy and Denzel Boston had four each. Cleveland converted one third down of eight all afternoon, and Fannin's was one of the seven that failed.
Back in June the preview's case for Fannin was a 72-catch rookie season, sixth among tight ends per game, built while sharing the room with David Njoku — and now the room was his alone. Sunday he had the room and three targets in it, two of them with the game long decided. That does not say the role is smaller than the preview thought; it says the first game of it was played from four scores down with the passing game worth −9.8 expected points as a whole. Cleveland is at the Buccaneers on Sunday the twentieth. The number to watch is targets before the game gets away.
_Data via nflverse._
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