Quentin Johnston — Week 2: Five Targets, One Catch, Seven Yards
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Johnston led the Chargers with five targets and caught one, a seven-yard first down on the second snap of the game. All three deep throws his way fell incomplete, one on third and two with 0:47 left in the half before a punt that became a Raiders field goal. He added a seven-yard run, in a 26–14 loss to the Raiders.
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Seven to seven, 47 seconds left in the first half, third and two at the Chargers 31. Justin Herbert threw deep right for Quentin Johnston, 29 yards in the air, incomplete. −0.8 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and −5.6 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. The Chargers punted, and Las Vegas used the time that was left to get a 59-yard field goal and a halftime lead. Earlier on the same drive, on second and two, Herbert had gone deep left for Johnston, and that one was incomplete as well.
The line: five targets, one catch, seven yards, one first down, 64 air yards, −2.4 expected points on the targets. The catch was the second snap of the game, second and seven, short middle, out of bounds at the Chargers 42 for the first down. After that: incomplete short middle on third and eight with five 45 left in the first quarter, the two deep balls before halftime, and a third deep incompletion on second and 11 with two 33 left in the game, down 10, one snap before Herbert's second interception. Three throws labeled deep, none caught; two third-down targets, neither caught. A four-yard catch in the last three minutes came back on an illegal formation penalty. He also carried once, seven yards around left end on second and 10 with six 12 left. Four targets before halftime, one after.
His five targets led the team, with five players tied behind him at three: David Njoku, Brenen Thompson, Ladd McConkey, Charlie Kolar and Tre Harris. Five of 27 throws, a little under a fifth of them, for seven of Herbert's hundred 92 yards.
Back in June the preview called Johnston a watchlist — the 40-first receiver at pick 100 after a per-game top-16 season built on eight touchdowns from 51 catches, a touchdown share the show expected to regress, on six targets a game, a complement's load behind McConkey. Week 1 was six targets, two catches and 17 yards. Sunday was five, one and seven. The load is what the preview said it was, 11 targets in two games. What has come back from it is three catches, 24 yards and no touchdown. The preview expected the touchdowns to come down; it did not say the catches would. Two games is a short sample for a receiver who is thrown deep balls. The Chargers are at the Bills on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
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