Malik Washington — Week 1: Eight Targets, Most on the Team
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Washington led the Dolphins with eight targets, caught three for fifty-three yards — thirty of them deep middle in the fourth quarter — and fumbled away a twenty-four-yard catch with two minutes left. Six of the eight targets were deep throws and four of those fell incomplete; his eight came out at minus three point two expected points, in a 27–13 loss to the Raiders.
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The most valuable pass play Miami ran Sunday went to Malik Washington. Second and 11 at the Miami 26, five 21 left in the fourth quarter, Dolphins down 27 to 13: Malik Willis deep middle, 30 yards to the Las Vegas 44. The catch was worth +2.7 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — the largest expected-points gain on any Dolphins pass or run all afternoon, and +1.3 points of win probability, the chance of winning after the play against before it, because the game was 14 points and five minutes from over. The drive ended four plays later on fourth and 12, turnover on downs.
The line: eight targets, three catches, 53 yards, no touchdowns, one first down, a lost fumble, and −3.2 expected points on the targets. Six of the eight were deep throws and two were caught. Before halftime it was four targets and one catch, for −1 — short right on first and 25 at the Las Vegas 46 with six 22 left in the half — around three deep incompletions: deep left in the first quarter, deep right on first and 10 from the Miami 35, deep right on first and 10 from the Las Vegas 49 with 21 seconds left in the half. After halftime, four targets and two catches for 54 yards: an incompletion short left with 13 18 left in the fourth, an incompletion deep right with 11 17 left, the 30-yarder, and the last one. Third and 13 at the Miami 10, two minutes left, down 14: deep middle, caught and carried to the Miami 36, and Jeremy Chinn knocked the ball loose, recovered by Las Vegas at the 34. 24 yards in the book, and −1.8 expected points. His one third-down target was that one.
The ball went eight times to Washington, seven to Caleb Douglas, five to De'Von Achane, two each to Chris Bell, Greg Dulcich and Kevin Coleman Jr., and one to Will Kacmarek; every throw has a receiver. Eight of 32 pass plays is a quarter. Douglas's seven went for 94 yards; Washington's eight for 53. Miami threw 13 times before halftime and 14 after, four of each to Washington. The eight throws carried a hundred 35 air yards between them, and 22 of his 53 yards came after the catch.
Back in June the preview called Washington a watchlist — receiver 71 at pick one 84, the one returning Miami wideout who had earned targets, with a 14 percent baseline and a vacancy nobody had claimed — and said the caveat cut both ways: claim it and 14 becomes 20-something. Sunday the share was 25 percent of the pass plays and the most targets on the team, and the catches were three, with a fumble on the last. One game with eight targets is the volume half of the preview's question answered once; the efficiency half is the other six. Miami is at the 49ers on Sunday the twentieth.
_Data via nflverse._
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