Quentin Johnston — Week 3: Three Catches, Forty Yards
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 28
Johnston caught 3 of 6 targets for 40 yards and two first downs, including 21 yards on third and 1 on the last snap of the first half. His last target, third and 10 down 17–13 with 5:18 left, fell incomplete and cost 6.2 points of win probability; the Chargers turned it over on downs one snap later, in a 24–16 loss to the Bills.
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17 to 13, Bills, five 18 left in the fourth quarter, third and 10 at the Chargers 45. Justin Herbert threw short left for Quentin Johnston, 12 yards in the air, incomplete. −1.4 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and −6.2 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. On fourth and 10 the throw to Kimani Vidal fell incomplete, and six plays later James Cook scored to make it 24 to 13.
The line: six targets, three catches, 40 yards, two first downs, +0.4 expected points on the targets. The catches: six yards short right on second and eight at the Buffalo 41 in the first quarter, with a roughing-the-passer penalty adding 15, on the drive that ended in a field goal; 13 yards on second and 10 at the Buffalo 47 in the second, to the 34; and 21 short right on third and one from the Chargers 44 with four seconds left in the half, pushed out at the Buffalo 35 on the last snap before halftime. The incompletions were deep right on first and 10 in the second quarter, deep right on second and 10 from the Chargers 30 with a minute 56 left in the third, and the third and 10. Four targets before halftime, two after. Two third-down targets, one caught and converted. The first Chargers snap of the day was also a throw to him, incomplete, and it did not count because a roughing penalty on Buffalo gave the Chargers 15 yards instead.
Six targets was second on the team behind seven to Tre Harris and ahead of five to Ladd McConkey, six of Herbert's 34 throws.
Back in June the preview called Johnston a watchlist: a season built on eight touchdowns from 51 catches, a rate the show expected to come down, on six targets a game, a complement's load behind McConkey. Week 1 was six targets, two catches and 17 yards. Week 2 was five, one and seven. Sunday was six, three and 40, the most yards of the three. Three games: 17 targets, six catches, 64 yards, no touchdown. The target load is the one the preview described; the catches have not come with it. Three games settle little. The Chargers are at the Seahawks on Sunday the fourth.
_Data via nflverse._
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