Fantasy Football: Key utilization stats to know from Week 7

Recapping the most important fantasy football player utilization data from Week 7 play.

What a disastrous weekend in the 2024 National Football League. We saw a lot of offensive stars, including plenty of fantasy football standouts, go down to injury.

For a couple of weeks, we had a reprieve from the injury bug. Things were starting to go a little better, but in Week 7, it caught up in a hurry.

The San Francisco 49ers saw WR Brandon Aiyuk go down with torn anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligament injuries, and he is done for the season. Joining him on the shelf for the season is Cleveland Browns QB Deshaun Watson, as well as Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin.

While they’re not done for the season, Washington Commanders QB Jayden Daniels barely played in Week 7 due to an injury to his ribs, and he is hopeful of a Week 8 return. Las Vegas Raiders QB Aidan O’Connell wasn’t as lucky, as a fractured thumb sidelines him for a month.

While a lot of the injury news was at the quarterback position, that has a trickle-down affect to the skill positions, especially at the tight end and wide receiver. For instance, when is the last time Miami Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill had a big game? That last time his regular QB Tua Tagovailoa was healthy. It doesn’t take much to throw things off and affect fantasy values dramatically.

The good news is that we won’t have any teams in a bye in Week 8, so if you’re making some moves based on utilization, injuries, etc., at least there are more possibilities heading into the new week.

Fantasy Football: Top utilization stats to know from Week 7

Recapping the most important fantasy football player utilization data from Week 7 play.

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.