NFL Snap Counts Breakdown: Week 7

We’ve discussed from week to week the fantasy value of what Ron Rivera and the Panthers are doing in terms of consolidated snap counts and it seems that a few teams have also joined that mix (to the applause of fantasy owners everywhere).  Injuries have also given us some insight into the inner workings of some depth charts so that you can be way out in front of your league mates when a guy goes down. So let’s get into it!

49ers

• Breida left the game with a concussion giving way to Tevin Coleman for a good number of snaps but not much could really be done with them in a sloppy game.  He’s cleared protocol so expect the split to continue.  

• Same story here Marquise Goodwin as he left with concussion symptoms giving way to Kendrick Bourne but he too has cleared protocol.  Dante Pettis did next to nothing with his full snap share but perhaps we can blame it on the rain as well. Expect Pettis, Deebo Samuel and newly acquired Emmanuel Sanders to be your three WRs as soon as Samuel is back from injury. 

Bears

• Taylor Gabriel returned and was eased back in but he was playing a fairly full snap share opposite of Allen Robinson before the injury so we should expect that to resume moving forward with Anthony Miller in the slot.  If you owned Javon Wims anywhere feel free to drop him.

• Negative game script saw Tarik Cohen play a lot more snaps out of the backfield than usual in a game where they only ran seven times.  Running the ball is a luxury that the winning team has and the way the Bears are playing, there may not be many spots for David Montgomery to thrive.

Bengals

• The Bengals deployed a lot of three wide sets, mostly with Alex Erickson and Auden Tate out wide and Tyler Boyd operating out of the slot (42 slot snaps).  This may bode well for Auden Tate ’s value with AJ Green back if they plan to utilize 11 personnel heavily.  

• As with David Montgomery , Joe Mixon continues to be plagued by negative game script.  In Week 5 left tackle Cordy Glenn was out with an injury and in Week 6 he was suspended for personal conduct so hopefully he returns to play for the team at some point and help this atrocious line. 

• Another 50% snap share game for Eifert while Uzomah blocks.  Neither are worth owning.  

Bills

• Tight end Tyler Kroft made his debut this week and Dawson Knox owners will be happy to know that he spent most of his time in a blocking capacity.  Kroft spent nine snaps running routes and 15 blocking, including blocking on five pass plays, while Knox ran 15 routes and blocked 14 times but only blocked on one pass play.  If this usage continues, Kroft is not worth owning in any leagues while Knox is still worth a desperation play.  

• Also returning to action was Devin Singletary .  And, as is the case with the Bills, positive game script meant more action for Gore than Singletary.  It could be a Singletary game this week against the Eagles followed by a likely Gore game against the Redskins.  

• With Zay Jones being traded prior to the bye, there was some Duke Williams hype around the industry.  He played a good number of snaps but didn’t do much, catching one ball. There likely isn’t enough targets to go around on this team. 

Broncos

• Big news here of course is that Emmanuel Sanders has been traded to the 49ers.  This moves up Sutton, Hamilton and Fant in terms of relevance and opens a spot for a third receiver.  We expect Tim Patrick to eventually be that guy Eeek 11 when he’s eligible to return – for the time being Diontae Spencer and Fred Brown will be asked to fill in but neither should be particularly relevant.   

• Nightmare time split continues at running back, but given the usage and the way the season is trending, it seems to be official that Royce Freeman , handling the passing down duties, is going to be the better fantasy back this year, despite Lindsay still being the more efficient runner. 

• At this point everyone knows that Noah Fant had a brutal game, dropping some big plays on semi-heroic throws from Flacco.  That being said, he was out there for 48 snaps and ran 32 routes, pass blocking zero times, so the usage is there if he can figure it out.  

Browns

• BYE

Buccaneers

• BYE

Cardinals

• With David Johnson banged up, Chase Edmonds once again flashed impressive ability.  Even when both are on the field they have produced so even in a split backfield, this team may run enough snaps where they could both be relevant.  

• As we know, Kliff Kingsbury’s air raid system uses two outside receivers and two slot recovers, with the slot guys being the focal point of the offense.  The Cards switched it up this week with KeeSean Johnson taking a back seat and Trent Sherfield and Damiere Byrd manning the outside. Fitzgerald will always be in the slot but the interesting move was Pharoah Cooper playing a good chunk of snaps out of the slot.  If Christian Kirk is out again, Cooper may be a sneaky DFS play in that role.  

Chargers

• Dontrelle Inman and Travis Benjamin were replaced with Geremy Davis and Andre Patton which doesn’t matter much because the only fantasy relevant WRs are Keenan Allen and Mike Williams

• People will be calling for Melvin Gordon ’s head after the way the game ended this week but the fact remains that he is the more talented back on the ground.  This is looking more and more likely to play out like some of the other game script dependent splits where it will be a Gordon game in the wins and an Ekeler game in the losses.  

Chiefs

• I don’t care what team you are a fan of, losing one of the most exciting players to injury in Patrick Mahomes is bad for football and, therefore, the world.

• Tyreek Hill resumed his full snap share along with Demarcus Robinson and Mecole Hardman.  It will be interesting to see who takes the bigger hit if/when Sammy Watkins returns. As he plays split end, we believe that it will be Watkins at the X, Hill at flanker/slot, and Robinson and Hardman potentially just splitting those third snaps depending on situation which would hurt both their value.  

• McCoy once again looked like the best back and he continues to be the favorite for touches.  Both of the Williams’ are unstartable for the time being. 

Colts

• I know it was two weeks away with the bye week but the Colts snap shares were eerily similar to Week 5.  It seems they have found a set up they like and are going to stick with it. Although it was Pascal this week, Rodgers out-snapped him once again and Deon Cain is decisively third so, for the time being, only TY Hilton can be trusted at wide receiver.  

Cowboys

• Speaking of teams who have clearly found their starters, the Cowboys look to be back to rolling out their 11 preferred guys and not much else.  Last week we broke down how their wide receiver depth chart functions so that you can be ready to pick up the right wide receiver if/when one of Cooper, Gallup, or Cobb goes down.  For now it’s those three, Witten, and Elliott as your fantasy assets. 

Dolphins

• Despite only playing 50% of the snaps this week, Mike Gesicki continues to see good usage running routes on 27 of his 32 snaps, pass blocking once, and run blocking four times.  If you are in dynasty leagues or deep keeper leagues, it might be the time to acquire Gesicki as Brian Flores clearly plans to use him as a passing asset and, at only 24-years old, there is a lot of room for him to grow with whoever they bring in at quarterback.

• Perhaps it’s because they are actively shopping him but Kenyan Drake was out-snapped by Mark Walton once again and out carried by him 16 to six.  The idea of a trade is the only reason to roster Drake. 

Eagles

• If you look at the snap shares from week six for the Eagles, you will notice that there is only one difference in the snap share percentages – Miles Sanders and Jordan Howard swapped spots.  Howard had ~60% of the snaps last week to ~30% for Sanders and this week it was ~45% for Sanders to 35% for Howard. And that’s the difference between a game last week where the Eagles were competitive and the game this week where they were not.  Howard in the good times, and Sanders in the bad.  

Falcons

• If you didn’t watch the game of haven’t been following along then this is arguably the most important snap count break down for the week as just looking at the numbers doesn’t tell you what’s going on.  Here are the points in order of importance.

• Matt Ryan got hurt.  According to NFL Twitter doctor extraordinaire David Chao of ProFootballDoc.com, it looks like a high ankle sprain.  If Matt Schaub plays it could be either a downgrade to the whole offense for fantasy, they could lean on the run, or we’ve seen Schaub force it to both Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins so it could benefit Julio.  Almost certainly hurts Calvin Ridley

• Mohamed Sanu was traded to the Patriots which is great for both him and everyone still in Atlanta.  Consolidated snaps and targets is what we want. We will be watching closely to see if Russell Gage or Justin Hardy benefit from the additional snaps – we like Russell Gage .

• Ito Smith left with an injury and is already ruled out for the Seahawks game, which is good for Freeman owners because he fumbled again (he recovered it himself after a scramble) and then he got kicked out of the game defending himself against Aaron Donald .  With Smith out they can’t really punish Freeman but this should at least answer the question of who the Falcons like better out of Brian Hill or Quadree Ollison.  

Giants

• The Giants have battled injuries all season but finally got back their best two offensive weapons in Saquon Barkley and Evan Engram .  Sterling Shepard still remains missing.  

• Golden Tate played 52 snaps out of the slot so he is locked in there.  Darius Slay ton played a full role on the outside while Fowler and Latimer split time at the other outside.  This leads us to believe it will be Shepard and Slayton on the outside with Tate in the slot and Engram (15 slot snaps to seven total for the other WRs) in four wide sets.   

Jaguars

• Same story as previous weeks -  they clearly like the bellcow back while heavily utilizing the top three wide receivers

• With Swaim and O’Shaughnessy out, Seth DeValve handled the passing tight end work, though rookie Josh Oliver mixed in for his first game back from injury.  We know what we have in Devalve so we are more interested in the unknown which is Josh Oliver. He will need a much larger snap share to be relevant given that he ran routes on just under 50% of those 25 snaps.  

Jets

• Ouch.  Sam Darnold Halloween/ghost jokes aside, this game was a complete paddling and a wake up call for Jets hopefuls.

• The usual suspects played pretty much all the same snaps again so the one interesting story line is the return of Chris Herndon , who missed games stemming from a DUI suspension then missed additional games with an injury.  For those banking on Herndon here are some snap count stats that might bring you pause

• Last year Herndon blocked on 17% of his pass snaps which is well outside the 10% or less range we need for fantasy TE relevance.  

• Last year Adam Gase had Mike Gesicki block on 17% of his pass snaps while coaching in MIami.  This year Brian Flores has Gesicki blocking on four-percent.

• Adam Gase’s best tight end, Julius Thomas back in 2013 and 2014, also blocked on 20% of his snaps but he was only fantasy relevant because he caught 24 touchdowns over those two years.  Peyton Manning as quarterback averaged over 5,000 yards passing and 47 touchdowns over those two years. I can safely say Darnold is not going to throw three touchdowns a game on average.

• In the preseason Herndon saw limited snaps but, on those snaps he did play, he ran 27 routes and blocked on seven pass plays which is 25.9%

• Long story short, if Herndon does block on 15%-to-25% of his snaps, he will need to be hyper efficient with his targets to be fantasy relevant.  Otherwise he will be a TD dependent guy just like a lot of tight ends on the wire. For reference, OJ Howard this season has blocked on 14.4% of his pass snaps which has basically rendered him irrelevant.  

Lions

• If you had been following these articles you would have known that it’s not just Kenny Golladay at the top of this receiving corps but that Marvin Jones has actually led the wide receivers in snaps every single game.  He was always a powder keg waiting to go off and then he did.  

• Kerryon Johnson ’s injury opens the door for a new running back in town and Ty Johnson was probably the top add in a lot of leagues.  He’s 210 pounds while McKissic is 194 so he’s the favorite for goal line work so we’ll be watching closely to see if he gets a full workload or if McKissic’s pass catching abilities allow him to eat into that work.  

Packers

• Jake Kumerow and Allen Lazard manned the outsides in this one.  Banged up Valdes-Scantling and Geronimo Allison played sparingly but MVS still showed that, while healthy, he’s clearly a starter in this offense.  One of Lazard or Kumerow should take a back seat to MVS when he runs a full outside snap share (Allison will be in the slot) and the other will be droppable.  Then, once Davante Adams returns, they should both be droppable.  

• Business as usual at running back with Aaron Jones playing the primary running down back role and both of them splitting time in the passing game.  Jones is an RB2 while Williams holds his usage back and Williams is a dart throw FLEX play in matchups that require a lot of passing.   

Panthers

• BYE.    

Patriots

• Lot to unpack here, as always.  Josh Gordon is on the IR and Sanu is on the team.  So far we know that Dorsett has earned an outside role and Edelman has his slot/flanker role.  For a second-round pick we can expect Sanu to be used heavily, so the only path to relevance for Jakobi Meyers at this point is for four wide sets to be used heavily with Edelman and Sanu as the two slot guys.  Even then, hard for him to find the targets. 

• Ben Watson came in and played a 75% snap share immediately.  He ran 29 routes and only blocked on one pass play so he should be a viable fantasy right end if you need one.

• Case remains the same with Sony Michel and James White .  Keep an eye on Rex Burkhead because, had he been healthy, this is the exact kind of game he would have came in and played in the second half, likely vulturing a touchdown from Michel. 

Raiders

• Darren Waller continues to steam roll.  He only played 15 combined snaps from the slot and outside which was his lowest of the year but that didn’t matter – he’s still a wide receiver you can start at tight end.  

• With Tyrell Williams returning to practice you can just throw all the other wide receivers out the window.  This offense can’t support a pass catching back, a tight end, and more than one receiver for fantasy purposes. 

Rams

• Last year the Rams ran more 11 personnel than any other team and they started this year the same way, with Woods, Cooks, and Kupp playing 90%+ of snaps in each of the first three weeks.  There’s been a shift in recent weeks where Gerald Everett has begun to steal snaps from Cooper Kupp and this isn’t the first time Everett outsnapped Kupp. Everett is also now averaging 16 snaps out wide or in the slot for the season making him a valuable tight end asset in a barren landscape.  

• It may have just been the blowout but Darrell Henderson finally got a decent look after being highly touted in the offseason.  People had hoped he would Alvin Kamara but instead it seems he’s just the handcuff’s handcuff.  

Ravens 

• Whelp, it finally happened.  The Seahawks were able to slow the Ravens down and make them play at their pace.  So the team averaging 77 snaps a game played 58. And as expected, the snap shares for the players didn’t change so everyone just saw less work.  

• To put this in perspective, Mark Andrews led the team running 18 routes.  In the grand scheme of Week 7, 18 routes would be tied for 112th in terms of routes run with guys like Gio Bernard, Darren Fells , and Johnnu Smith. Because of the way the snap counts are spread out, this offense absolutely needs those massive offensive snap totals for anyone except Lamar Jackson or Mark Ingram to be fantasy relevant.  

• Luckily, teams like the Patriots, Bengals, Texans, and Rams on the schedule should allow for high paced offensive play.  It’s teams like the 49ers and Bills right around the start of fantasy playoffs that concern you. 

Redskins

• McLaurin remains the only fantasy relevant guy from the receiving standpoint. 

• Adrian Peterson wants to play against his old team but his status for this week is still up in the air.  If he and Chris Thompson (toe) both miss the game then Wendell Smallwood could a DFS play or a desperation plug and play in seasonal leagues.  He looked OK and there is no one else but it’s the Vikings defense.  

Saints

• Things have not changed much from what we said last week except it went from “only Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara are fantasy relevant” to “only Michael Thomas and whoever plays running back are fantasy relevant”.  Don’t be fooled by Josh Hill ’s snaps and the touchdown – he played on 26 pass plays and blocked on six of them which means he’s blocking on nearly a fourth of his pass snaps.  

Seahawks

• As we had predicted, Luke Willson spent a good chunk of the day blocking (either run or pass blocked on 17 of his 24 snaps or ~62%) but Jacob Hollister got a surprising number of snaps and ran routes on 27 of 37 of them (he was still asked to pass block on five pass plays unfortunately but at least he was out there).  He could be worth an add or stash in deep leagues where you need help.  

• Chris Carson dominated the snap count at running back once again, even with Prosise and Penny playing.  They’re both just getting healthy so I think one more week will tell us where they are going to eat into his usage or not.  Have to remember, there was a week where Penny got 10 carries to Carson’s 15 but that was also the third game in a row where Carson fumbled. 

Steelers

• BYE

Texans

• Will Fuller is hurt; the sky is blue, water is wet.  Hopkins and Stills manned the outside with Coutee in the slot.  If Stills hasn’t been added in your leagues go add him right now.  

• Well, that’s one annoying split down in Houston.  Only two left to go with Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson continuing their game script related split and Akins and Fells splitting snaps down the middle at tight end.  As opposed to the past couple weeks, Akins ran 29 routes and Fells ran 18 so the trend now looks to have Akins has the guy to own in fantasy. But who knows – they could be intentionally misleading with their tight end usage. 

Titans

• Ryan Tannehill seemingly injected life into this offense as we saw a lot of things we wanted to see.  Corey Davis and AJ Brown led the wideouts in snaps and receptions. Derrick Henry carried a full bell cow workload.  We even got to see Jonnu Smith log a full game at tight end.  

• Davis and Brown are now rosterable and potentially startable so add them if they are there.  Jonnu still blocked on 61% of his snaps which is concerning – he did the same thing with Walker out last year and it was actually Anthony Firksey who came on to assume the pass catching tight end role.  And despite only playing 15 snaps, Firksey ran 11 routes to Smith’s 19 so he’s once again right there taking a bite out of the passing game. I would not trust Smith to start in fantasy just yet unless you are absolutely desperate.   

Vikings

• Big news here is Adam Thielen has already been ruled out for tonight’s game against the Redskins.  It should be the Dalvin Cook and, if it’s bad enough, Alexander Mattison show but Diggs is now a strong play and OlaBisi Johnson is a potential spot start.

• Irv Smith Jr. despite playing less snaps, is now running just as many routes as Kyle Rudolph and contributed in a big way this past week with five catches for 60 yards.  If he’s not on your radar he should be. Despite having a decent game himself and scoring, Kyle Rudolph still blocked on 6 of his 28 pass snaps which mean he’s pass blocking on 21.5% of his pass plays.  Still want no part of that, especially if they face any kind of threatening pass rush.