2015 Fantasy Football Snap Counts: Week 6

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. As promised, this week is all about the crowded and confusing backfield situations currently developing in the NFL.

Arizona Cardinals

After missing three games with a knee injury, Andre Ellington has only played a total of 15 and nine snaps over the last two games, respectively. Chris Johnson is coming off his least-productive game as a rusher, but remains the lead dog in the backfield after playing more than 50 percent of the snaps in two of the last three games. Rookie David Johnson has only been given three carries in each of the last three games, although he was heavily targeted in the passing game back in Week 4.

Now on pace for nearly 1,200 rushing yards and currently averaging 4.8 yards per carry, Chris Johnson has reached full-fledged fantasy zombie status. Chris Johnson's only two touchdown runs of the season came back in Week 3 while David Johnson poached a pair of touchdowns away in Week 5, a game in which he only recorded three carries for six yards.

Buffalo Bills

In addition to missing the last two games with a concussion, the path to usefulness for Karlos Williams has been further obstructed by LeSean McCoy returning sooner than expected from a hamstring injury. Of the 71 offensive snaps the Bills played in Week 6, McCoy was on the field for 58 of them and got all 17 of the carries given to running backs. Dan Herron played a dozen snaps and caught two passes while Boobie Dixon saw the field just once.

Cincinnati Bengals

Week 6 against the Bills marked the first time in which Jeremy Hill handled more carries than Giovani Bernard since the opener. Hill's 16 carries marks just the second time in which he exceeded double-digit carries since running 19 times in Week 1. Explosiveness has been missing from Hill all year as he's yet to record a run over 11 yards. Last year, Hill had a long of 12 or more yards in each of the last 10 regular season games. On the flip side, Bernard has a long of at least 13 yards in all but one game this year.

Percentage of weekly offensive snaps

Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys will use the bye week to juggle their lineup around quite a bit. Brandon Weeden will be benched in favor of Matt Cassel while Tony Romo remains out with a broken collarbone until at least Week 11. In the backfield, Joseph Randle and his 3.9 yards per carry average is in jeopardy of losing a significant number to Christine Michael. While extremely athletic, there's a reason why the Seattle Seahawks gave up on Michael after rarely having him active on game day. Immature and inconsistent, Michael never appeared to grasp the nuances of playing running back. A few blown blocking assignments could quickly have Randle securely back on top of the depth chart, even though he's never played more than 43 percent of snaps in any game this season. Last week without Lance Dunbar (torn ACL), Darren McFadden played a season-high 43 percent of the snaps as the preferred receiving back, securing nine of 10 targets for 62 yards.

Denver Broncos

The Broncos head into their bye week facing a number of issues on their offense, despite owning a perfect 6-0 record. Chief among the items to sort out is the backfield. While facing the Cleveland Browns in Week 6, Ronnie Hillman out-snapped and out-carried C.J. Anderson for the first time. Anderson only managed 41 yards on 13 carries while Hillman gained 111 yards with 20 carries. Two big runs skew the recent numbers a bit for Hillman, but those are two more big runs than Anderson has managed.

Percentage of weekly offensive snaps

Green Bay Packers

Since suffering an ankle injury back in Week 2, Eddie Lacy has done very little and just saw his backup James Starks run for 112 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries against the San Diego Chargers. Perhaps due to the upcoming bye week, Lacy was limited to just three yards on four carries. While rest could do Lacy a lot of good, he'll return to action facing a pair of formidable units on the road in the Denver Broncos and Carolina Panthers.

Kansas City Chiefs

In their first game without Jamaal Charles (knee), the Chiefs played Charcandrick West on 43 of 62 offensive snaps. Aided by a late West fumble, Knile Davis took a total of 19 snaps. However, neither back could spring a run over 10 yards and haven't turned any heads in limited action thus far. At least for now, West remains the guy to own. Any additional ball security issues may open the door for Davis, who was quiet for much of last year after some big games in September.

Miami Dolphins

Coming off a Week 5 bye and a coaching change, Miller posted what was easily his best performance of the season. Facing the Tennessee Titans on the road, Miller set season-high marks across the board with 19 carries, 113 yards, and his first touchdown of the year. Even though the rushing attempts match the second-highest of his career, Miller was on the field for 70 percent of the snaps which was actually down from 78.5 percent playing Week 4 in London. The vast majority of Jonas Gray's playing time came in the fourth quarter with the game nearly decided. Miller is finally looking like the bell cow and should see the vast majority of snaps going forward in competitive situations.

New England Patriots

LeGarrette Blount recorded a total of 17 touches while Lewis got four carries and snagged three receptions on six targets. However, it was Lewis that saw the field more frequently by playing 39 of the Patriots' 69 snaps versus 29 for Blount. Lewis has seen his number of carries drop each of the last three weeks and is only averaging slightly more than six carries per game after running 15 times in the opener. The abdominal issue Lewis has been dealing with may have played a factor in this one, but we know that rolling out any Pats running back comes with the risk that the game plan and game flow may not work in their favor.

San Diego Chargers

The bloom is officially off the rookie rose for Melvin Gordon. Through six games he's yet to find the end zone and averaging just 3.8 yards per carry despite hitting a small number of big runs. However, the biggest issue for Gordon has been putting the ball on the ground, which cropped up during his final year at Wisconsin. Last week's two fumbles (one lost) put Gordon the bench for the second half, just one week after playing a season-high 62 percent of offensive snaps. That marked the first time all season in which he saw the field more frequently than Danny Woodhead. Branden Oliver had been a non-factor nearly all season, but got a season-high 10 touches after Gordon took a seat. The only safe bet here is Woodhead being the only viable option week to week.

Tennessee Titans

You can't talk crowded backfields with bringing up the Titans. Unfortunately, none of their guys are playing that well and rookie David Cobb is eligible to come off the IR/designated to return list in Week 9. Just for fun, here's a chart with the weekly percentage of snaps played for the messy stable of Titans running backs.

Washington Redskins

The Redskins will continue to use three running backs, which makes them all extremely tough to roster for fantasy purposes. Chris Thompson is easily the top pass catcher of the bunch, so there's argument for some very deep PPR value there. As is the case with the Titans, there's not much to read into because no one is going to stand out with the current arrangement. That said, there's another weekly chart to digest. Note that Matt Jones missed last week with a toe injury.