Arizona Cardinals
Rondale Moore played 83 percent of his snaps from the slot.
Two weeks ago, Moore played roughly a third of his snaps from the slot. In a shocking turn of events, moving the 5'7 receiver into the slot quintupled his yards per route run. With A.J. Green healthy, he and Marquise Brown played outside with Moore on the inside. Moore earned eight targets and posted a 7/68 line.
Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons had a -16 percent pass rate over expected.
Their PROE on the year sits at -10 percent. In Week 5, they threw the ball just 25 times. Drake London earned a 28 percent target share but converted on just four of those looks for 35 yards. London remains a FLEX option, but Arthur Smith has intentionally hidden the best parts of his offense, Kyle Pitts and London.
Baltimore Ravens
Lamar Jackson is on pace for 1,272 rushing yards.
That would be the single-season record for rushing yards by a quarterback. He would overtake the record from…himself. Jackson also leads the NFL with an 8.1 percent touchdown rate. The combination of rushing and passing production has him at QB2 on the year.
Buffalo Bills
Gabe Davis‘s 171 yards are the third-most for a player who caught just three passes.
Torry Holt holds the crown for this Super Bowl-era record I just made up, going for 184 yards on three catches in the year 2000. Davis once again ran a route on every one of Josh Allen’s dropbacks. The difference, this week, was that he got behind Pittsburgh’s defense multiple times and absolutely torched them. This is the Gabe Davis experience. He will burn us some weeks, but he will singlehandedly win you your matchup in others.
Carolina Panthers
Christian McCaffrey saw a dozen targets for the first time since Week 16 of 2019.
The Panthers are a dumpster fire, but we are finally getting the CMC we were promised. He saw 82 percent of the Panthers’ carries and a 29 percent target share. With Carolina’s offense in shambles, I can’t rank McCaffrey as my top running back, but he’ll sit just below Saquon Barkley.
Chicago Bears
David Montgomery earned a 24 percent target share.
Montgomery also saw 75 percent of the Bears’ backfield carries. As soon as he returned from his ankle injury, Montgomery resumed his role as a three-down back. He can safely be treated as an RB2.
Cincinnati Bengals
Hayden Hurst has at least seven targets in 3-of-5 games.
Hurst ranks 11th in total targets (28) and seventh in red zone targets (six). He currently sits at the TE10 slot in PPR leagues. Hurst is on the periphery of a high-volume passing attack. At the weakest position in fantasy football, that’s enough to make him a weekly starter.
Cleveland Browns
Donovan Peoples-Jones has a 20 percent target share.
DPJ reached 50 yards in five contests. The Browns’ skill position groups are fairly settled, but Peoples-Jones may be going overlooked as the team’s clear WR2. With bye weeks rolling in, worse players will be picked up off the waiver wire this week.
Dallas Cowboys
Tony Pollard has rushed for more yards than Ezekiel Elliott in two of the past three weeks.
Pollard rushed for 103 yards in Week 3 and 86 yards in Week 5, beating Zeke in both outings. He has twice as many carries of 10 or more yards as Elliott and as many missed tackles forced on 37 fewer carries. It’s the same old story in Dallas. Pollard looks better at every turn and gets half the work Zeke does. Pain.
Denver Broncos
Melvin Gordon out-carried Mike Boone 15-7.
Gordon was benched two weeks ago after coughing up a fumble-six. He returned to the starter’s role in Week 6, adding three catches to his 15 carries. It was a miserable game for the Broncos, but Gordon has a clear edge over Boone in this backfield.
Detroit Lions
Jamaal Williams ran a route on eight percent of Jared Goff‘s dropbacks.
Williams ranks dead last in PFF receiving grade. He’s also averaging less than one yard per route run. Seeing what he has to offer as a pass-catcher, Dan Campbell has given up on using Williams as anything other than a runner.
Green Bay Packers
Aaron Jones had more carries than AJ Dillon for the first time in 2022.
Jones out-carried Dillon 13-6. Dillon had out-carried Jones in three of the previous four weeks. The two were tied at 12 carries each once. Green Bay held a lead or was tied with the Giants until late in the fourth quarter, so this split wasn’t driven entirely by game script. Jones has at least 15 touches in each of his previous four games and should stabilize as a mid-range RB2.
Houston Texans
Per Pro Football Focus, Dameon Pierce set the single-game record for missed tackles forced (17).
By my count, seven of those broken tackles came on this play.
Dameon Pierce with the angriest of all angry runs!!!pic.twitter.com/Hj5dHwytcE
— Brett Kollmann (@BrettKollmann) October 9, 2022
Pierce rushed 26 times for 99 yards and a touchdown. He also caught 3-of-5 targets for 14 yards. With 60 carries and 13 targets over the past three weeks, Pierce looks like an RB1.
Indianapolis Colts
Alec Pierce led the Colts with nine targets.
Pierce also set a career-high in snap share, taking the field for 59 percent of Indy’s offensive plays. He went for 81 yards on six catches. He is averaging five catches for 64 yards over the past three weeks. Though Indy’s passing attack is scuffed to say the least, Pierce is emerging as a weekly FLEX option.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Christian Kirk had a six percent target share.
He saw one target on 42 Trevor Lawrence attempts. Kirk’s target share has been on the decline after his strong start to the year. He still has the best shot at being the Jags’ WR1, but his role is that of a FLEX option in fantasy leagues.
Kansas City Chiefs
Travis Kelce is the first player to catch four touchdowns while being held under 96 receiving yards. He had 25 yards.
Kelce now has seven touchdowns on the year. He leads all players in red zone targets (14) and all tight ends in end zone targets (6). With JuJu Smith-Schuster and Marquez Valdes-Scantling offering the Chiefs little in the way of scoring potential, Kelce has become the team’s de facto goal-line back.
Las Vegas Raiders
Josh Jacobs topped 20 carries in consecutive games for the second time in his career.
You have to go all the way back to 2019, his rookie season, to find the last time he did this. With nearly 300 rushing yards over the past two weeks, Jacobs is on pace for 1,666 yards on the ground alone. He also has at least five catches in each of the past three weeks.
Los Angeles Chargers
Austin Ekeler accounted for 43 percent of the Chargers’ yards but just 30 percent of their opportunities.
Ekeler rushed 16 times for 173 yards and a touchdown. It was the highest rushing total of his career by over 50 yards. Despite this, he ceded 10 carries and a rushing touchdown to Joshua Kelley. Ekeler has peaked at 63 percent of the team’s snaps. He remains a top-five fantasy option at his position, but relying on efficiency will make him more volatile than most RB1s.
Los Angeles Rams
Matthew Stafford leads the NFL in interceptions (seven) and sacks (21).
To be fair, Matt Ryan has him tied in both categories, but I already had the Pierce stat lined up. The only players who have led the NFL in both stats since the turn of the century have been Carson Wentz, Blake Bortles, and Jon Kitna. Stafford is throwing enough to keep Cooper Kupp afloat, but the offense is taken a massive hit from his mistakes.
Miami Dolphins
Jaylen Waddle has a 16 percent target share over the past three weeks.
Over that span, Tyreek Hill has a 29 percent target share. In the first two weeks, Waddle was at a 30 percent target share. The Dolphins have had pass attempts from three different quarterbacks in the past three weeks. Waddle is also dealing with a groin issue. It’s possible those factors are limiting him, but Waddle has become the clear WR2 on his team.
Minnesota Vikings
Alexander Mattison ran as many routes as Dalvin Cook.
This is similar to last week’s stat for Minnesota, but it’s worth repeating. Mattison and Cook each ran 17 routes in Week 5. Last week, Mattison ran 15 routes while Cook ran 20. Cook suffered a separated shoulder a few weeks ago and may have his workload managed throughout the year. If that comes in the form of Mattison playing on third downs, Cook’s ceiling will take a big hit.
New England Patriots
Rhamondre Stevenson set a career-high in rush attempts (26).
That also ties the high-water mark he set at Oklahoma. Damien Harris went down with a hamstring injury mid-game, leaving Stevenson as the Patriots’ only active back on the roster. He ran for 161 yards on 25 carries. Pierre Strong will join Stevenson on the gameday roster next week, but after running like a madman in Week 5, Stevenson could push for RB1 numbers until Harris returns.
New Orleans Saints
Taysom Hill leads the NFL in yards after contact per attempt (6.2).
Pro Football Focus also has Taysom Hill tied with Josh Allen and Nick Chubb for their highest rushing grade. In Week 5, Hill rushed nine times for 112 yards and three scores. He also threw a touchdown on his only attempt. Hill has five rushing touchdowns on the year. Despite playing a role that doesn’t fall into any typical fantasy position, he is worth starting on sites that have granted him tight end eligibility.
New York Giants
Darius Slayton saw a 27 percent target share.
The Giants were without all four of their top receivers for Week 5. Brian Daboll and company were forced to let Slayton play football. Slayton ran a route on 68 percent of Daniel Jones‘s dropbacks. He was targeted on a third of his routes. If the Giants continue to deal with injuries at receiver, Slayton will have some FLEX value.
New York Jets
Breece Hall leads all running backs in air yards (153) through five weeks.
Hall has a 5.2 aDOT and nearly three times as many air yards as the running back with the second-most air yards. For reference, Christian McCaffrey‘s aDOT currently sits at .4.
BREECE HALL IS DRAGGING THE DOLPHINS 😱
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) October 9, 2022
(via @nyjets)pic.twitter.com/DmBVmOpao1
One would think the bulk of Hall’s air yards came on his 79-yard reception, but the catch came roughly 20 yards downfield. Hall is an elite receiver and a workhorse on the ground.
Philadelphia Eagles
Jalen Hurts had eight red zone carries and scored two rushing touchdowns.
Hurts leads the NFL in red zone carries (24). That’s four more than Nick Chubb, who ranks second in the stat. If we were only getting his rushing stats, Hurts would be an RB2. Instead, he’s also an elite passer.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Diontae Johnson earned a 25 percent target share.
Johnson has displayed an uncanny ability to get open and earn targets throughout his NFL career. He did it with Mason Rudolph and Ben Roethlisberger. He’s now doing it with Kenny Pickett. His role should be good for WR2 numbers with the rookie under center.
San Francisco 49ers
Deebo Samuel played one snap at running back.
Samuel saw two of the 49ers’ 29 carries. Deebo struggled to get anything going through the air, bringing down just two passes for 20 yards and a score, but his usage was elite. He earned a 30 percent target share with an aDOT over 10.
Seattle Seahawks
Ken Walker out-carried DeeJay Dallas 8-1.
Rashaad Penny went down with a broken leg mid-game and will miss the remainder of the season. With Travis Homer on injured reserve, Walker and Dallas are the last men standing. Walker led the backfield with 30 snaps while Dallas was out there on just 10 plays. Nearly all of Dallas’s snaps were on passing downs.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Rachaad White set a career-high in snaps (31).
White’s 39 percent snap share was also a career-high. His snap share has risen in consecutive weeks. Versus the Falcons, he saw nine opportunities. White doesn’t hold standalone value yet, but he could eventually push for a role worthy of long-shot FLEX considerations. He also has the obvious contingent value of handling Leonard Fournette‘s role should the starter go down.
Tennessee Titans
Robert Woods averaged 1.28 yards per route run.
Woods is averaging 1.66 yards per route run and 7.3 yards per target on the season. Those marks are just outside the top 40 and top 50 receivers respectively. With Treylon Burks out for a bit while dealing with turf toe, Woods is being forced into a larger role. Given his lackluster efficiency metrics, that could be a problem.
Washington Commanders
Brian Robinson saw nine carries in his NFL debut.
Less than two months after being shot multiple times, Robinson was able to take the field once again. He led the Commanders with nine carries. J.D. McKissic led the backfield with seven targets. Antonio Gibson was phased out, seeing just six touches. This is a messy committee, but Robinson could quickly consume all of the rushing work.