NFL Week 13 active gave us more than enough thrills, curse words, and headaches, even with six fewer teams on the slate than usual. From a fantasy football perspective, there wasn’t a great deal of information to glean from utilization unrelated to injuries. That tends to be the case this late in the season, but we saw a several players across running back, wide receiver and tight end who were substantially utilized but didn’t do much of anything.
This happens to some degree each week, of course, though it’s not too common for it to occur from all three of those skill positions. Perhaps it stands out more with fewer teams, but it’s worth a quick peek.
Indianapolis Colts RB Zack Moss was utilized 22 times and produced just 7.7 points in PPR. Green Bay’s AJ Dillon touched the ball 19 times for 9.7 points, and Pittsburgh Steelers running back Najee Harris managed the same output on his 19 utilizations (18 handles). No performance at the position stung more than Austin Ekeler‘s 4.7-point day (17 utilizations).
At receiver, another Los Angeles Charger, Quentin Johnston, posted a personal-best for targets (7), tied his high-water mark in catches (5), and set a career-high in yardage (52). On the plus side, the rookie is trending in the right direction after already being deemed a bust by the least charitable among us, but Johnston still produced just low-end WR3 returns on moderate WR2 utilization. New York Jets WR Garrett Wilson struggled to reach eight fantasy points on seven targets (tied 20th) as Gang Green turned to third-stringer Trevor Siemian in a failed bid for offensive competency. New England’s DeVante Parker couldn’t capitalize on his nine targets, going for only 4-64-0, and Seattle Seahawks rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba turned the eighth-most utilizations (11 targets) into the 23rd-most PPR returns (7-52-0).
Tight ends Tyler Conklin (9 targets), Tucker Kraft (6), and David Njoku were the most egregious examples of high-volume, low-return efforts for the position. Conklin and Kraft combined for just 13.2 PPR points, while Njoku’s six looks resulted in a lowly 2-17-0 line with quarterback Joe Flacco making his Cleveland debut. Njoku was playing some of his steadiest ball leading up to this one, so there’s reason to be concerned going forward. Kraft and Conklin may have been someone’s bye-week replacements but will return to obscurity.
As we enter the home stretch of the fantasy season, most pecking orders have stabilized, although we’ll see a handful of transitions toward the youth movement as teams fall out of the playoff race. That means fewer notable situations arise, and some of the inclusions will be a rehashing of developing roles.