Category: Fantasy football player targets and utilization

Week 8 fantasy football action featured all 32 teams, and we saw a fair amount of the same old, same old in terms of utilization for the usual suspects, but a few notables stood out.

Running backs Breece Hall and Rachaad White have seen inflated PPR value the last two weeks with more stable receiving roles, whereas Saquon Barkley and Bijan Robinson each saw five targets in Week 8 but produced zero yards combined. Robinson didn’t even catch a pass. That can be chalked up as an anomaly, fortunately, but it stung nonetheless.

Barkley was utilized a ridiculous 41 times in Week 8, five familiar receivers all garnered 14 or more targets, and four tight ends each drew at least 10 looks. There were several moderate displays of fireworks statistically, but only CeeDee Lamb really went bonkers (41 PPR) with his massive utilization. Seven of the top 13 fantasy receivers in terms of points scored were utilized fewer than 10 times.

A few other interesting aerial tidbits include Seattle Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba‘s downfield target percentage nearly doubling, New England Patriots WR Demario Douglas garnering 13 total looks in the last two games, and the Dallas Cowboys‘ Brandin Cooks is finally doing something, anything, with his four targets — the exact target mark five times this year — with scores in consecutive games.

Let’s see if we can find any useful intel from player involvement among some of the less obvious situations.

Fantasy football is driven by data, and reviewing key utilization statistics even from “Bye-pocalypse” Week 7.

Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs leads the position in utilizations at 157, just one more than Jacksonville’s Travis Etienne. The latter has seen his work around the stripe increase of late, and his fantasy value hasn’t been stronger as a result. Meanwhile, Jacobs has struggled to matter most weeks.

Puka Nacua still leads the way for receivers with 84 targets, six ahead of Stefon Diggs. Aside from Nacua’s well-documented meteoric rise, no one really stands out from the first 10 receivers. Then we start seeing a bunch of surprise inclusions among the most targeted, such as Arizona’s Marquise Brown (61), Adam Thielen (60), Zay Flowers (60), Jakobi Meyers (57), and Christian Kirk (57) filling out the 11-15 slots, respectively. Among that group, Meyers has to be considered the safest to remain heavily involved. He has been quarterback-proof, is shielded by Davante Adams, and thoroughly knows the system he’s in.

Utilization trends are taking full shape, and fantasy gamers get a reprieve from bye weeks, so let’s see if we can find any useful intel from player involvement.

Fantasy football is driven by data, and reviewing key utilization statistics from Week 6 will help us evaluate what might be ahead in the foreseeable future.

Week 6 was full of big-time utilization with low-yardage outputs, such as Josh Jacobs‘ 30 plays creating only 93 yards and Alexander Mattison going for 72 yards on 18 rushes and seven targets. Alvin Kamara and Isiah Pacheco were in similar situations, whereas at least D’Andre Swift, Kenneth Walker III, and Travis Etienne all found the end zone.

Utilization trends are taking full shape, and fantasy gamers are entering the heart of bye weeks, so any extra piece of valuable info can make the difference between a win and loss.