Isaac TeSlaa — Week 2: Twenty Yards on Fourth and Eighteen
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Friday, Sep 18
TeSlaa caught two of five targets for 26 yards, including 20 down the left sideline on fourth and eighteen with 2:12 left that kept the final touchdown drive alive, and had 81 air yards, second on the Lions. One target in Week 1 became five, fourth on the team, in a 41–31 loss to the Bills.
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41 to 24, Bills, two 12 left in the fourth, fourth and 18 at the Detroit 24. Jared Goff threw deep left to Isaac TeSlaa, who was pushed out at the 44, 20 yards. +2.9 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — on a play the win probability model valued at one-tenth of a point, because the game was decided. Three plays later Amon-Ra St. Brown caught the touchdown that made it 41 to 31.
The line: five targets, two catches, 26 yards, one first down, +1.8 expected points on his targets. 81 air yards, second on the team behind St. Brown's hundred 48, four after the catch. The catches: six on second and eight on the first drive of the second half, and the 20. The incompletions: deep middle and deep right in the last 40 seconds of the first half, 18 29 air yards, on the drive that ended in a field goal; and third and three at the Buffalo 12 with 12 28 left in the fourth, the last counted play before the fourth-down holding call that kept that drive alive. Two targets before halftime, three after; one on third down, not caught, and one on fourth down, caught.
Where he sat: fourth on the Lions in targets behind St. Brown's 13, Jahmyr Gibbs's eight and Sam LaPorta's seven, and one ahead of Jameson Williams's four. Goff threw 38 times, and the three throws that traveled 20 or more yards in the air went to TeSlaa twice and St. Brown once. Detroit threw 42 pass plays to 20 runs on a night it trailed from the first quarter.
Back in June the preview had TeSlaa at WR78 across 14 games, with very little target volume and no sustained role. Week 1 was one target, and the episode said the number to watch was whether it stayed one. It became five, more than Williams, with two of them thrown deep. One game does not make a role, and all five came with Detroit trailing by 17 or more. But the order in front of him did change for one night, and that is more than the June read expected. Detroit is home to the Jets on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
When Isaac TeSlaa's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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