There's a classic football saying, “you can't make the club from the tub." Well, in fantasy football it's hard to win the strap if your players aren't getting the snaps. This week, I'm jumping all over the place to hit a number of players at various positions. Here are a baker's dozen of players that are being impacted significantly by a shift in their snaps.
Wide Receivers
The #freeDGB movement has hit a snag. Despite the recent uptick in snaps, rookie Dorial Green-Beckham continues to lag behind veteran Harry Douglas. Against the Jaguars on Thursday night, Douglas played 70 offensive snaps compared to 59 for DGB. Even when Douglas was out for multiple games with a rib injury, Justin Hunter (later placed on injured reserve with an ankle injury) was outsnaping Green-Beckham. Further clouding matters, Kendall Wright is expected to return this week to face the Raiders after missing three games with a knee issue. Outside of tight end Delanie Walker, there's no trustworthy Titans pass catcher.
A shoulder injury suffered by Corey Brown opened the door for rookie Devin Funchess to make his first career start against the Redskins. In addition to playing nearly 80 percent of the snaps (easily his highest mark of the season), Funchess matched the team lead with eight targets, converting four into catches for 64 yards. He also scored his second touchdown in three games. Even if Brown returns for the Thanksgiving game against the Lions, Funchess is flashing enough to stay ahead of Brown on the depth chart.
After missing three games with a knee injury, Vincent Jackson looked good and played 78 percent of the offensive snaps. In addition to scoring his third touchdown of the season, V-Jax caught four of his six targets for 56 yards. Even if Vontae Davis (hamstring) plays on Sunday, he would likely shadow Mike Evans. Last week against the Falcons, Julio Jones was doing fine against Davis prior to the aforementioned injury. Meanwhile, secondary WR Leonard Hankerson scored despite dropping a bunch of passes (including a second touchdown) that seriously damaged his stat line. Now healthy, Jackson looks like a dependable option going forward and has a nice matchup this week against Indy.
Running Backs
In the first two games coming out of the bye week, Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill played nearly an identical number of snaps. Even though Gio did very little in that first contest back, he ran 13 times for 72 yards in the following game, Week 9. In each of the two games since, Bernard outsnapped Hill by more than 25 snaps. Even though Hill scored twice last week facing the Cardinals, he continues to struggle mightily. Hill is now averaging a mere 3.3 yards per carry and has yet to record of run over 15 yards. As one of the most maddening fantasy players in recent memory, all of Hill's seven touchdowns have come in three multi-touchdown games.
Shaun Draughn played 91 percent of the offensive snaps for the 49ers. On the road against in Seattle, he mustered 12 carries for 37 yards while catching eight passes for 40 yards. Newly signed scat back Travaris Cadet was credited with three offensive snaps, but did not touch the ball. At the very least, volume is a weekly guarantee for Draughn. The journeyman has also shown more usefulness in PPR scoring than expected. Thanks to Blaine Gabbert's willingness to check it down for easy yards, Draughn has been targeted a total of 16 times the last two weeks.
With the Jets playing from behind, Bilal Powell saw 39 snaps compared to just 17 for Chris Ivory. In the six previous games, Powell was either severely limited or inactive due to an ankle injury. Once again healthy, Powell will continue to be on the field whenever the Jets are in obvious passing situations. Ivory wore down in the second half of last year and appears to be in danger of doing the same this season. Mixing in Powell hopefully gives a more rested Ivory the ability to finish strong.