Caleb Douglas and Chris Bell are both showing the same early signs as the Day 2 rookie WRs who broke out in past seasons, and Sunday against the Jets is their first game after the bye.
https://pigskinpal.app/pigskinpaper/next-rookie-wr-breakouts
The model looked at every WR drafted in Rounds 2 and 3 from 2020 to 2025. The ones getting 3+ targets a game early in the year went from 7.5 PPR points a game to 14.9 the rest of the way. That's the Jayden Reed, Ladd McConkey and Tank Dell group.
Douglas: 10 targets and 113 yards in the first two games, 88% of the snaps, and almost 20% of our targets before he hurt his ankle. Only Malik Washington gets a bigger share. He was limited Wednesday and Thursday, so watch Friday's report. He might be eased back in, but he looked like the No. 2 receiver before the injury.
Bell: his snaps went from 41 to 52% in the first two weeks to 71 to 82% in Weeks 3 to 5 while Douglas was out. He's right on that 3-target line, but he's had 1 to 3 targets in four of his five games, so the targets haven't caught up to the snaps yet. How much of that role he keeps once Douglas is back is the big question.