Analyze Mason Taylor's matchup for week 11
With Justin Fields averaging 11.3 pass attempts over his last three starts and the Patriots allowing the 10th-fewest TE receiving yards, Mason Taylor is a clear sit; his target share has vanished and the Jets’ ultra-conservative offense offers no path to usable fantasy volume.
New England enters Week 11 giving up the 10th-fewest receiving yards per game to tight ends and ranks 9th in schedule-adjusted fantasy points allowed to the position, a tough draw for a rookie already starved for looks. The Jets’ game plan under Fields has leaned even heavier on the ground game and ultra-short passing, meaning Taylor will have to beat a disciplined Patriots coverage unit on the rare occasions Fields actually throws. Given that Taylor has seen two or fewer targets in four of his last five games, this matchup profiles as a worst-case scenario rather than a get-right spot.
Over his last five contests Taylor has averaged 1.6 targets and 1.2 catches for 7.8 yards, plummeting from the 20.4% target share he held in Weeks 4-8; he’s now entirely touchdown-dependent and hasn’t topped 4 receiving yards in two of his last three games.
Mason Taylor’s rookie promise has been swallowed whole by the Jets’ historically anemic passing attack. Since Week 6 the tight end has run 79 routes but seen only seven targets, translating to a microscopic 8.9% target rate. Quarterback Justin Fields’ extreme reluctance to throw—he’s averaged 11.3 attempts over the last three starts—has turned the entire receiving corps into fantasy afterthoughts, and Taylor’s 1.26 yards per route run from earlier in the year has collapsed to 0.38 over that same span. Even his red-zone usage has dried up; after earning seven inside-the-20 targets during a five-game stretch mid-season, he’s received exactly zero since Week 9, rendering the 6'5" rookie completely touchdown-dependent in a volume-starved offense.
The Patriots compound the problem. New England’s defense has surrendered just 37 receiving yards per game to tight ends, rarely allowing the seam throws or play-action strikes that buoy fantasy production at the position. They play man coverage at the sixth-highest rate, bracket athletic TEs with safeties, and have yet to allow a tight end rushing touchdown, eliminating the cheap goal-line score that might otherwise salvage Taylor’s day. With the Jets installed as 6.5-point home underdogs and a 35-point total, game script projects for another run-heavy, clock-draining slog that will cap Taylor’s already meager route participation.
Bottom line: until the Jets overhaul their quarterback situation or dramatically alter their offensive philosophy, Taylor profiles as a low-floor, low-ceiling TE whose only path to fantasy relevance is a fluky touchdown on one or two targets. In a Week 11 landscape that features viable streamers like Cade Otton, Dalton Schultz, and Harold Fannin Jr., there’s simply no reason to risk a zero in your lineup. Keep Taylor stashed in dynasty formats—his size and collegiate production still hint at future upside—but redraft managers should treat him as an easy drop and move on to higher-volume options.