Jaylen Waddle — Week 2: A Hundred Thirty-Eight on Ten Targets
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Waddle caught 8 of 10 targets for 138 yards and six first downs, led by a 49-yard catch to the Jacksonville 1, and converted three of his four third-down targets, the last a 29-yarder on third and 3 with 3:41 left that let Denver run out the clock. Week 1 was one catch for 2 yards; this was a 20–13 win over the Jaguars.
When Jaylen Waddle's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
The full episode, in writing
Seven to nothing, Jaguars, 10 oh four left in the second quarter, first and 10 at midfield, one snap after a Bo Nix keeper for a first down had survived a Jacksonville challenge. Nix threw deep middle, 47 yards in the air, and Jaylen Waddle was brought down at the Jacksonville one after 49. +3.6 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — the largest figure for any Denver play of the day, and 12.7 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. Denver then ran three times from the one, lost a yard in total, and kicked a field goal.
The line: 10 targets, eight catches, a hundred 38 yards, six first downs, +8.7 expected points on the targets, a hundred 53 air yards. The catches went one, 49, 20, one, 16, 14, eight and 29. No touchdown. The third downs tell it. Four targets, three caught, three converted: 16 on third and two from the Denver 36 in the third quarter, on a field-goal drive; 14 on third and seven at the Jacksonville 31 with 13 52 left, down 13 to six, worth nine points of win probability; and 29 on third and three from the Denver 27 with three 41 left, up 20 to 13, deep right, 28 yards in the air, a holding flag on the defense declined. After that one Denver handed off four times and knelt three, and Jacksonville did not see the ball again. The miss was third and two in the first quarter, deep right, 38 yards in the air. Two plays after the 14-yarder he caught eight more to the Jacksonville seven, and Nate Adkins scored two snaps later. Six targets before halftime, four after. He also had a false start on Denver's opening possession.
10 of Nix's 31 throws went to Waddle; Courtland Sutton was next with four. His hundred 38 yards were just under half of Denver's 288, and the most by any player on either team.
Sunday contradicted the first episode about as loudly as a second game can. Back in June the preview held Waddle at watchlist: a hundred targets in Miami that had not converted, a trade to Denver, and the target split with Sutton and Franklin as one of the things to watch. Week 1 was three targets, all on third down, all failed, two yards, fifth on the team. Week 2 was 10 targets to Sutton's four and three third downs moved. One game each way, and the honest reading is that the low one and the high one are both single games. The split is the number to carry forward. Denver is home to the Rams on Sunday night the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
When Jaylen Waddle's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
Keep going