Jalen Coker — Week 1: Eight of Nine for a Hundred Thirty-Eight
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Coker caught eight of nine targets for a hundred thirty-eight yards and two touchdowns — fifty-one yards deep left on second and five from the Carolina forty-nine in the second quarter, and eight yards with four oh five left in the fourth. His nine targets were worth plus twelve point five expected points, the most of any receiver on either team; the one that was not caught was the interception with eleven seconds left in the half, in a 59–37 loss to the Bears.
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Jalen Coker's 51-yard touchdown was the third play of its drive and 43 yards in the air. 12 49 left in the second quarter, second and five at the Carolina 49, Panthers down 21 to seven: Bryce Young deep left, Coker, touchdown. +4.6 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 11.1 points of win probability. Two snaps earlier he had taken a short throw 17 yards to the 44 on the first play of the drive; three plays, 73 yards, and it was 21 to 14.
The line: nine targets, eight catches, a hundred 38 yards, two touchdowns, a hundred 24 air yards, +12.5 expected points on the targets. The catches went 26, 17, 51, three, 14, six, 13 eight. The 26 was the third snap of Carolina's first drive, deep right to the Chicago two with roughing the passer added on. The eight was the last Panthers touchdown, second and eight at the Chicago eight with four oh five left in the fourth, short left — two snaps after his own offensive pass interference had wiped out a one-yard touchdown throw to Mitchell Evans from the one. The target that was not a catch was the interception: first and 10 at the Carolina 40 with 11 seconds left in the half, down 31 to 24, deep left, 22 yards in the air, Malik Muhammad at the Chicago 38, −10 points of win probability. None of the nine came on third down.
Nine targets on Carolina's 40 pass plays — Young accounted for 39 of them — with Tetairoa McMillan next at eight and Tommy Tremble at five. Five targets before halftime and four after. +12.5 is the highest expected-points figure for any receiver in the game; Kalif Raymond's +6.5 on nine targets was the next, and McMillan's eight came out at −2.5.
Back in June the preview made no call on Coker: WR55 across 22 career games, a contract that was belief rather than production, and a line that said if health held and the targets reached five a game, the price was cheap. Sunday the targets reached nine, and eight of them were caught for a hundred 38 two scores. That is one game and one game only; it is also the exact thing the preview said it would need to see. Carolina is at the Falcons on Sunday the twentieth. Five a game was the bar, and the first game cleared it by four.
_Data via nflverse._
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