32 Fantasy Stats, Week 6: Rashee Rice is Moving Up
Keaontay Ingram saw half of the Cardinals’ running back carries and targets.
Ingram rushed 10 times and caught both of his targets. He played ahead of rookie Emari Demercado and long-time veteran Damien Williams. James Conner will miss at least three more weeks with a knee injury while on injured reserve. The Cardinals' offense is faltering after a hot start, but Ingram’s role puts him on the RB3 radar.
Bijan Robinson is second among running backs in targets (32).
Robinson saw eight targets in the Falcons’ high-paced loss to the Commanders. Robinson leads all running backs in routes lined up in the slot and out wide. He has 20 more slot routes than any other running back. Robinson’s biggest issue is a lack of scoring chances. His first and only carry inside the five-yard line came in Week 2. He does not have a rushing touchdown this season.
Zay Flowers has 277 air yards over the past three weeks.
Flowers saw just 124 air yards over his first three games despite seeing 25 targets compared to 22 in his three most recent outings. The Ravens were scheming plenty of targets for Flowers early in the season, but he wasn’t seeing many downfield looks. Now Flowers is beginning to look like a more complete receiver.
Latavius Murray saw all three of the Bills’ carries inside the five-yard line.
Murray ran a route on 41 percent of Josh Allen’s dropbacks. James Cook ran a route on 47 percent of the dropbacks, but Week 6 was his first time falling below 50 percent. This is the doomsday scenario for Cook. He isn’t running enough routes or seeing enough touchdown opportunities to provide RB2 numbers.
Chuba Hubbard saw 76 percent of the Panthers’ carries.
Hubbard was only targeted once but did run a route on 64 percent of Bryce Young’s dropbacks. For a backup stepping into a starting role, this is as good as it gets. Hubbard will remain an RB2 for as long as Miles Sanders is sidelined.
D’Onta Foreman played on 64 percent of the Bears’ snaps.
Foreman earned 15 carries and ran 12 routes. He paced the backfield in both usage metrics. Should Roschon Johnson and Travis Homer miss Week 7, Foreman would be in line for RB2/3 fantasy numbers.
Joe Mixon is one of two running backs with five goal line carries but no touchdowns on those attempts.
Mixon has seen five looks within five yards of the end zone. He also leads the league in red zone rushes among running backs with one or fewer touchdowns. Even if Mixon has lost another step this year, his touchdown potential remains elite.
Nick Chubb is tied for a team-high in red zone carries.
Chubb has three red zone attempts. For those keeping count, Chubb last played in Week 2. The Browns’ offense was miserable under Deshaun Watson for all but one game and got infinitely worse once he went down. No one in their committee backfield has much value while seeing no work near the end zone.
Michael Gallup earned a 33 percent target share.
Gallup also saw 43 percent of the Cowboys’ air yards and a third of the team’s end zone looks. Gallup dropped a would-be touchdown on Monday and only four of his 10 targets were deemed catchable by Pro Football Focus. We chase volume in fantasy football, and Gallup’s volume has been trending in the right direction for weeks.
Russell Wilson averaged -.37 EPA per dropback.
The Wilson haters got what they were asking for in Week 6 after a relatively hot start to the year from the veteran quarterback. Wilson was intercepted twice, sacked four times, and averaged 4.3 yards per reception. He doubled his season-long interception total and posted just his second game with only one touchdown pass.
Craig Reynolds out-snapped Devine Ozigbo 43-6.
Jahmyr Gibbs could be back this week, but if he isn’t, it looks like we will be treated to a week of Reynolds operating as a workhorse back. Reynolds out-touched Ozigbo 12-4 last week.
Dameon Pierce played on 35 percent of the Texans’ snaps.
Devin Singletary played on 52 percent of the Texans’ snaps and ran a route on exactly half of C.J. Stroud’s dropbacks. Pierce out-carried him 13-12. Without much goal line work to go around and now in a full-blown committee, Pierce will tumble to the back of the RB3 range for my Week 7 rankings.
Jonathan Taylor saw 53 percent of the Colts’ carries.
While that’s not exactly where he was at the peak of his fantasy production, it’s a drastic improvement on what we saw from Taylor in his first game back. He earned 18 percent of the team’s carries in Week 5. Taylor also improved his route rate from 14 percent to 37 percent.
Travis Etienne set a season-high in red zone carries (four).
Etienne also saw his first carry inside the opponent’s five-yard line. He scored on the attempt. Etienne scored one touchdown in his first four games and now has four touchdowns over his previous two games.
Looking for more fantasy football content? Rotoworld has you covered. Watch Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry weekdays at noon ET LIVE on Peacock and the Rotoworld Football Show on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays wherever you get your podcasts.
Rashee Rice ran a route on 50 percent of Patrick Mahomes’ dropbacks.
Justin Watson dislocated his elbow in Week 6 and is expected to miss a few weeks. Rice set a season-high in routes in Week 6 and continued to look impressive on his limited opportunities. He caught four balls for 72 yards. Rice is averaging 2.75 yards per route run. If it holds, that would go down as the second-best rookie season since 2010.
Davante Adams has six catches for 74 yards in his past two games.
Adams has been dealing with a shoulder injury for a few weeks. The issue may be limiting his production. Adams’ target share has fallen to 16 percent in his previous two games. He’s Davante Adams, so I’m not writing him off after a quiet pair of weeks. It is worth noting though.
Quentin Johnston ran a route on 48 percent of the Chargers’ dropbacks.
The Chargers are using Josh Palmer ahead of Johnston and are even leaning into 12-personnel more, putting Donald Parham on the field more often sans Mike Williams. With no interest in using him from his team, Johnston can be dropped in shallow fantasy leagues.
Cooper Kupp has a 42 percent target share since returning two weeks ago.
He has accounted for over half of the Rams’ air yards and a third of the team’s end zone targets. He will rank as the WR2 when my rest of season rankings are updated later this week.
Raheem Mostert is first in the NFL in rushing touchdowns and 27th in receiving touchdowns.
Mostert has two more rushing touchdowns than any other running back and is tied with a bunch of players with two receiving scores. Until De’Von Achane returns, Monster should be treated as a top-five fantasy back.
Jordan Addison ran a route on every one of Kirk Cousins’ dropbacks.
Addison was running plenty of routes before Week 6, but he was still third on the depth chart behind Justin Jefferson and K.J. Osborn. With Jefferson on IR last week, Addison did not miss a route for the Vikings. Addison returned the favor with his fourth touchdown of the season.
Kendrick Bourne is top-20 in the NFL in targets and air yards.
If Mac Jones was playing halfway decent football, Bourne would be a WR2 based on this volume. Instead, Bourne is the WR32 after six weeks. Even with the New England offense melting down, Bourne is a solid FLEX option.
Taysom Hill set career-highs in targets (eight) and receptions (7).
Hill’s 33 routes, 23 of which came from the slot, were also a career-high by a hilarious margin. Without Juwan Johnson, the Saints opted to use Hill instead of turning to Jimmy Graham or Foster Moreau.
Saquon Barkley touched the ball 28 times.
The last time Barkley touched the ball that many times was in Week 10 of the 2022 season. After missing a month because of a high-ankle sprain, Barkley appears to be back at full strength.
He broke several long runs including a 34-yard scamper and added 27 yards over expected.
Breece Hall earned a season-high in snap rate (62 percent).
Hall didn’t do much with his 12 carries, though the Eagles allowed him to score a touchdown at the end of the game to get the ball back. Hall also caught all five of his targets for 54 yards.
Breece Hall gives the @nyjets the lead!
: #PHIvsNYJ on FOX
: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/B4mQvLOt8O pic.twitter.com/GDJBJaehLA— NFL (@NFL) October 15, 2023
Week 6 was Jalen Hurts’ first-ever game with three interceptions and multiple sacks.
That includes every game he played in college and high school. He has one other three-interception game in his life. That came in Week 12 of the 2021 season.
Jordan Mason out-carried Elijah Mitchell 5-2.
Mitchell has more experience in Kyle Shanahan’s system and is more trusted by the team, but his nagging knee injury could prevent him from taking on more than a part-time role. There is also the chance that Christian McCaffrey manages to suit up in Week 7.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba set a season-high in aDOT (7.4).
JSN has set a career-high in aDOT in every game of his career because it has risen in every outing since Week 7. His two highest games by route rate have also come over his past two appearances.
Chris Godwin has out-targeted Mike Evans once this year.
That was in Week 4 when Evans left the game early. When Evans is healthy for four quarters, Baker Mayfield views him as the Bucs’ clear WR1, and it’s not a close race. Evans is also seeing more air yards and more end zone looks per game, despite the partial appearance in Week 4.
Tyjae Spears has played on over half of the Titans’ snaps in all but one game this year.
The Titans run some 21-personnel looks, so Derrick Henry can still out-snap Spears even when the rookie sees half of the team’s snaps. He did exactly that in Week 6. But Henry’s season-long snap share of 56 percent is concerning. He is running a route on a third of the team’s dropbacks and the Titans are running the fewest plays per game in the league.
Terry McLaurin more than doubled his season-high in target share.
McLaurin was responsible for 55 percent of the Commanders’ targets in Week 6. His season-high before that game was 26 percent. While Jahan Dotson's usage remains in the gutter, McLaurin appears to be getting on track.
