Jalen Coker — Week 2: Eight of Nine Again, for Sixty-Six

20 to three, Panthers, 13 14 left in the third quarter, third and 12 at the Carolina 25. Bryce Young threw short right to Jalen Coker, who was ruled down at the 36, a yard short. Carolina challenged the spot, the ruling was reversed, and the catch went in the book as 12 yards and a first down at the 37. +2.5 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 3.2 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. Seven plays later Young hit Darren Waller for 12 yards and the touchdown, and it was 27 to three.

The line: nine targets, eight catches, 66 yards, no touchdown, three first downs, 48 air yards, +1.7 expected points on his targets. The catches went eight, 25, three, seven, 12, three, three and five. The 25 was deep right on first and 10 at the Atlanta 36 with seven 37 left in the second, to the Atlanta 11, the snap after Tetairoa McMillan's 27. After no third-down targets in Week 1 he had four: incomplete on third and three at the Atlanta three in the first quarter, the snap before Chuba Hubbard's fourth-down touchdown; the 12; three on third and three at the Atlanta 13, converted; and five on third and seven at the Atlanta seven, down at the two, two yards short. Three caught, two converted. Four targets inside the Atlanta 20 produced three catches for 11 yards and no score. Four targets before halftime, five after.

He also handled the punts: a 36-yard return to the Atlanta 34 with seven 29 left in the first quarter, five more tacked on by penalty, ahead of a 37-yard field goal; a 13-yard return in the second; and a fair catch at the six to open the fourth. Nine targets were second on the team to McMillan's 10, and the two of them had 19 of Young's 36 throws. McMillan had a hundred 32 air yards to Coker's 48.

Back in June the preview made no call on Coker: the 50-fifth wide receiver off the board across 22 career games, a June 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. Week 1 was nine targets, eight catches, a hundred 38 yards and two touchdowns. Sunday was the same nine and the same eight for fewer than half the yards. 18 targets in two games, 16 caught, 204 yards. The target count is the thing the preview asked for, and it has repeated once; the swing in yardage is what two games look like. Carolina is at the Browns on Sunday the 20-seventh.

_Data via nflverse._