In this article we break down the snap counts of all the fantasy relevant players for each week. Each team has a snap count chart with the percentage of total snaps played and below that you will find notes for each position group on anything that author Andrew Cooper found interesting (which running backs played more pass downs, whether tight ends ran routes or blocked on pass plays, which wide receivers lined up in the slot, who might have been injured, etc.). For more analytics driven fantasy takes, follow Andrew Cooper on Twitter @CoopAFiasco.
49ers
WR: The return of Brandon Aiyuk and Kendrick Bourne dispatched the likes of Trent Taylor and River Cracraft though Deebo Samuel ramining out kept Richie James Jr. on the first working the outside. When all players were healthy, the 49ers had Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk at split end and flanker with Kendrick Bourne in the slot which means Richie James Jr. will likely take a backseat upon Deebo’s return unless he can summon another performance like week 9 and become indispensable. The worst thing for fantasy purposes would be some sort of rotation that dilutes multiple players’ snaps.
RB: The injuries continued as Jamycal Hasty was placed on IR with a broken collarbone. The 49ers now have 16 players on IR. Jerrick McKinnon is the lead dog and the only guy to trust right now in fantasy. He suffered a stinger late in the game himself but reports are he should be good to go.
TE: In his first week back from injury Jordan Reed was eased in but this week he played 31 snaps. Ross Kelley played 37 but he’s one of the slower TEs in the league with a near 5 second forty time so he was used primarily to block, running only 18 routes to 25 for Reed. Reed flashed his impressive talent with a one handed, shoestring catch this week and he should be a priority add for anyone that doesn’t have a top 5-6 TE.
Bears
WR: Same as it’s been for the last few weeks here. Allen Robinson and Darnell Mooney played the whole game on the outside. Anthony Miller came in to play slot only but left the field for two tight end sets.
RB: With David Montgomery out, it was Cordarelle Patterson that actually got the nod at starting running back and not Ryan Nall as some speculated. In fact, Patterson had 10 carries to only 1 for Nall. Patteson didn’t do a whole lot on offense but bailed you out with a kick return for a touchdown which is his real specialty (his 29.6 career yards per return is second only to Gale Sayers).
TE: To start the season, Jimmy Graham was in the primary pass catching role and Cole Kmet was brought up in a pass blocking role. This week we might have seen the beginning of a transition towards the highly touted rookie. Kmet still blocked more than Graham (17 vs. 14 snaps) but this week he ran more routes than Graham (18 vs. 15). The most alarming stat for Graham is that he had been averaging 27 snaps per game at WR for the first 9 games and this week he only played 11 - 6 at slot and 5 out wide. Kmet played 10 snaps at slot and 4 out wide. We could be seeing a changing of the guard here which would obviously cap Graham’s upside.
Bengals
WR: The Bengals continue to use on of the consolidated snap shares in the league with Tee Higgins and AJ Green taking the snaps on the outside with Tyler Boyd in the slot for nearly all passing snaps. The wind this week was brutal which made things especially difficult for AJ Green who had zero catches on 5 targets (some of which looked like this). We have harped on the fact that it’s incredibly rare for teams to have three guys that all have 100+ targets (full info on that here). Because the Bengals have such a consolidated snap share and are 2nd in pass attempts, they are currently the only team with three guys on pace for 100+ targets.
RB: Anytime Joe Mixon is out, Gio Bernard is worth a start. Joe Mixon is expected to be back this week which should return Bernard to irrelevancy unless they ease Mixon back in..
TE: Drew Sample played nearly the whole game and even ran 32 routes but didn’t give you anything fantasy relevant. The reality is that CJ Uzomah was supposed to be the pass catching TE with Sample as the primary blocking TE but Uzomah got hurt. That doesn’t all of a sudden make Drew Sample a good pass catcher though. Clearly.
Bills
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WR: In games without John Brown , Cole Beasley has played a snap share as high as 81%. Brown once again got hurt and Beasley played 79% though, for most of the game, Beasley’s snaps came at the expense of Gabriel Davis who took a bit of a step back. In games the games where Brown either gets hurt or has been out completely, Beasley has averaged over 9 targets a game. In the other games he’s averaged under 5. The issue has been that, when Stefon Diggs and Brown are both healthy, Beasley splits his snaps with Gabriel Davis. So, you might look at this week and think Cole Beasley is a slam dunk add that you can start right away but this was a shootout game where they played 73 plays and lost John Brown for the 4th. In games where John Brown is out, Beasley is a good play, but, if the ankle injury turns out to be fairly minor, don’t be surprised when Beasley underperforms. He’s a low aDot, low speed slot guy which translates to low YAC and low yardage totals in most games.
RB: This split has been a bit of a nightmare for most weeks. For awhile Singletary was getting the slightly better deployment but it now looks like Moss is getting a little more work, despite Singletary starting. Moss got 7 carries and ran 21 routes while Singletary got 4 carries and ran 18 routes. Would be nice if one of them would just go way.
TE: Dawson Knox is the best fantasy option out of the Bills tight ends but he’s not really a viable option in general. He played on 43 pass plays but they asked him to block on 12 of them. That deployment kills your viability, as we’ve seen with guys like Chris Hernden.
Browns
WR: Seems clear that the Browns want to use Khadarel Hodge and Rashard Higgins on the outside with Jarvis Landry in the slot. This game featured a lot of two tight end sets but it seemingly punished all the WRs evenly, rather than one missing more snaps than the other two like we see with the Bears. Given how run heavy this team is, Jarvis Landry is really the only one that can be trusted week to week.
RB: Kevin Stefanski loves to run. He must be a kid in a candy store with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt because they each got 19 carries and went for over 100 yards. Chubb gets the advantage in the red zone while Hunt gets extra work in the passing game. Both are viable plays though, if you own both, Chubb is the better option in standard league or positive game script games while Hunt might be the better option in full PPR and negative game script games.
TE: This game was a bit of a nightmare for passing, as you would expect given the weather. It’s promising that Austin Hooper ran 20 routes which ties Jarvis Landry for the team lead. What wasn’t promising was the targets.
Buccaneers
WR: Similar deployment to what we saw last week - Evans and Godwin played their full snap share while Antonio Brown played a smaller set of snaps. Evans and Godwin played 42 and 41 snaps respectively compared to 27 for Godwin so it’s yet to be seen if that will be his usage or if he’ll ramp up to a full snap share. The remainder of those plays were two tight end sets so you can forget about the likes of Scotty Miller and Tyler Johnson for now.
RB: Last week in a severely negative game script they leaned on Leonard Fournette . This week in a positive one it was a heavy dose of Rojo. That seems to be what they are going with so plan accordingly.
TE: Gronk played a full snap share with 65 snaps, 33 routes run, and only 3 plays pass blocking. Cameron Brate scored instead of him on a two tight end set goal line play but that’s going to happen from time to time - the goal is to fool the defense. Brate only ran 13 routes so not a reliable option despite the score.
Broncos
WR: KJ Hamler manned the slot with Jerry Jeudy on for the vast majority of snaps. Tim Patrick started opposite Jeudy but ceded some snaps to DaeSean Hamilton this week. The route counts were Jeudy 49, Hamler, 47, Patrick, 29, Hamilton, 23. Not great for Patrick owners.
RB: Phillip Lindsay has been an unreliable pass blocker for two years now and is once again outside the top 100 RBs in PFF’s grades. Melvin Gordon is the guy you want.
TE: With Albert Okwuegbunam done for the year, Fant is free to have the full workload with brief spells or two tight end sets with primary blocking tight ends Nick Vannett and Troy Fumagalli . Despite the poor fantasy game this week, Fant has top 5 upside if he can establish himself as the 2nd target on the team. He’s averaging 6.625 targets per game and has only had less than 5 in a game once.
Cardinals
WR: The Cardinals are still running more four wide sets than any team in the league but they are down to 20% of snaps this year compared to 31% last year. DeAndre Hopkins and Christian Kirk play on the outside primarily with Larry Fitzgerald in the slot. When they go four wide, Andy Izabella comes in to play the other slot or they have Dan Arnold line up at WR.
RB: Seems like the Cardinals adopted a bit of a pass/run split this week as a lot of teams have. Kenyan Drake played 25 run plays (9 of them he didn’t get the ball) while Edmonds played 8 run plays. But Edmonds played 28 run plays to only 13 for Drake (21 routes run vs. 7 in favor of Edmonds).
TE: There is a world where Dan Arnold is a relevant fantasy asset. In that world they run four-wide sets featuring him while having him play in-line tight end in three wide sets. As of now that world doesn’t quite exist as he only ran 20 routes while guys like Hopkins (41), Larry (39), and Kirk (35) are running all the routes but 4 catches on four targets is promising. Keep an eye out.
Cowboys
(excel)
BYE
Chargers
WR: Keenan Allen in the slot, Mike Williams and Jaylen Guyton on the outsides. Those are the WRs that play and Jaylen Guyton only matters in the deepest of leagues.
RB: Kalen Ballage was reportedly sent to the practice squad when we wrote this article last week but they brought him right back for the revenge game stint and gave him a fairly full workload. Joshua Kelley has been relegated and Austin Ekeler will be back soon so he is expendable if you need a bench spot.
TE: Hunter Henry is playing a ton of snaps which we like but he’s being asked to block on 14.6% of his pass plays which we do not like. So even though he’s out there for 33 pass plays - the same number as Keenan Allen , he blocked on 8 of them so only ran 25 routes. There’s your problem right there. That kind of usage makes it hard to be a top half TE1 unless you are the top target on your team like Kittle. Henry is not that.
Chiefs
(excel)
BYE
Colts
WR: TY Hilton returned and answered the questions from last week. Michael Pittman Jr. at split end, TY at flanker, and Zach Pascal in slot. The ideal configuration is probably Parris Campbell in slot if he’s ever healthy.
RB: They seem to be rolling with the hot hand right now which is Nyheim Hines . He led in pass snaps (25) and runs (12) and it wasn’t close as neither Taylor or Wilkins had double digits in either category. Can’t trust anyone else besides him right now.
TE: With Jack Doyle out, Mo Alie-Cox has moved into the Doyle role. He played 34 in-line snaps, 6 in the slot, and 4 out wide. Burton is the move tight end playing 22 in-line, 11 in the slot, and 4 out wide. Despite MAC playing more snaps and running a couple extra routes, Burton is the one who’s most likely to produce given his role. Jack Doyle likely returns from confusion this week to muddy those waters.
Dolphins
WR: DeVante Parker played the whole game, per usual. Jakeem Grant primarily lined up opposite of him on the outside. Malcolm Perry spit the slot with Mike Gesicki and Mack Hollins . Perry and Hollins don’t play enough as of now to be worth anything.
RB: Miles Gaskins had been the savior of many fantasy teams so it seems more adept that a guy named Salvon would be the new savior. Brian Flores clearly is not interested in the split backfield his former co-workers ran in New England as he has used one primary back every step of the way this year and even cut Jordan Horward. The concern for Ahmed of course is the return of Matt Breida followed by Gaskins as well.
TE: Clearly they didn’t like what Gesicki was doing in the slot early on as they cut his slot snaps from ~30 a game over the first few weeks down to 9, 16, and 12 the last few games. Last week he played 26 total snaps at WR and this week he only played 15. Unless he can somehow do something to earn their confidence in the slot, he’s a tough start in fantasy.
Eagles
WR: Alshon Jeffrey returned but was extremely limited only running 15 routes and getting 1 target. Jalen Reagor and Travis Fulgham lined up primarily on the outside with Greg Ward in the slot.
RB: Miles Sanders is back and the job is his. Boston Scott mixed in a bit and managed to score on a big play but Sanders outsnapped him in every facet. Start Sanders with confidence.
TE: denThere are a lot of people that like Dallas Goedert and think he's bound to be a breakout fantasy tight end when he steps into the Zach Ertz role. And that may be. But even with Ertz out right now, he has not moved over into the role Ertz was playing. Zach Ertz was playing 34.4 snaps a game at WR and running 40 routes a game. Even over the last two games with no Ertz, Goedert is sitll playing 40.5 snaps at in-line TE and only playuing 16.5 at WR. He's playing his old role and they are filling Ertz's with wide receivers. Last year Goedert blocked on 13.2% of pass plays. This year he's blocking on 13.8% of pass plays including 10.5% last week. So, while Ertz is out, he's not a bad start because there are targets to be had but, once Ertz returns, he does too much blocking and he's likely behind Ertz and Fulgham in targets at least so he doesn't really have top 5 upside.
Falcons
BYE
Giants
WR: Sterling Shepard and Darius Slay ton played on the outside and Golden Tate split slot snaps with Evan Engram . Standard.
RB: Devonta Freeman aggravated his ankle injury and was placed on injured reserve. This backfield belongs to Wayne Gallman for the foreseeable future.
TE: Ideal usage once again for Evan Engram . 15 snaps at WR, ran 31 routes which was second only to Sterling Shepard , only blocked on 1 pass play. He and Daniel Jones just need to get on the same page.
Jaguars
WR: This one went as we predicted last week. DJ Chark plays split end. Keelan Cole plays slot. With Laviska Shenault banged up, Chris Conley took his snaps. When Shenault is back, Conley likely takes a backseat.
RB: James Robinson is the man here. What a pick up if you got him.
TE: Tyler Eifert ran 29 routes and blocked on zero pass snaps which is pretty healthy usage but he’s not running 35-38 routes like the WRs. The other tight ends are primary blockers.
Jets
(excel)
BYE
Lions
WR: Kenny Golladay was out again. Marvin Jones Jr. played a full snap share and Marvin Hall played the next highest running 26 routes to 25 for Jones. Danny Amendola and Quintez Cephus ran 18 and 19. With Golladay back it will likely return to Golladay and Jones on the outside being the only fantasy relevant options.
RB: FINALLY. De’Andre Swift gets a full workload. He played 43 snaps and no one else played more than 9. Hopefully this wasn’t just some experiment and they let the man work.
TE: Not great usage this week for TJ Hockenson - he played 29 pass plays but had to block on 7 and only ran 22 routes. Dealing with Chase Young might have had something to do with that.
Packers
(excel)
WR: Davante Adams and MVS were your outside receivers playing flanker and split end, as it has been. Equanimeous St. Brown manned the slot for some plays and they used a lot of two tight end sets for the rest. Allen Lazard likely returns this week - prior to his injury he was playing primarily slot and last year he was a top 12 WR on PFF in run blocking so I imagine he takes a lot of those snaps at the expense of St. Brown and the second tight ends.
RB: Typical split here. Aaron Jones got the bulk of the run work and split the pass work with Jamal Williams. Jones ran 20 routes to 18 for Williams.
TE: Fine usage for Tonyan running 29 routes (third behind MVS (40) and Adams (35)). He only pass blocked on 1 snap. Unfortunately now that all the stars are back, he’ll find himself pretty far down the target totem pole. He’s currently 4th behind Adams, MVS, and Aaron Jones and only has 3 more targets than Jamaal Williams (who missed a game). Lazard should slot in ahead of Tonyan and the RBs leaving pretty slim pickings.
Panthers
WR: Fairly consolidated snap share per usual. DJ Moore plays split end and is the deeper threat. Anderson and Samuel split snaps at slot and flanker running underneath.
RB: Easy one here. If CMC plays, it’s CMC. If he doesn’t, it’s Mike Davis . You can roll the dice on them easing CMC in but just know it’s exactly that - a gamble.
TE: In last week’s article we talked about how many routes Ian Thomas runs and how little he gets the ball. To add insult to injury, undrafted journeyman free agent Colin Thompson managed to get into the end zone. Thomas is not a reliable fantasy asset.
Patriots
WR: Jakobi Meyers is feeling like the real deal here. People are calling him the “new Edelman” though Edelman was playing primarily slot this season - Meyers lines up all over the field having played 97 snaps at slot and 161 out wide. That’s better for his usage as he doesn’t come out in two WR sets. Damiere Byrd and N’Keal Harry have been less inspiring but they are playing the other two WR roles.
RB: Another big game for Damien Harris on the ground, as the Patriots do, the backfield was split and Burkhead and White played the pass plays. Harris only has 2 targets in 6 games and hasn’t caught a pass in 3 games. He still has a decent floor the way they are running the ball but this caps his ceiling. There is also some risk in the return of Sony Michel so Harris feels like a good sell high candidate right about now.
TE: Ryan Izzo continues to play a million snaps and block on most of them - no tight end has blocked on more pass plays this year than Izzo. And he hasn’t even been great at it as his run blocking grade on the season is a 58.6 and his pass blocking great is a 41. Perhaps that’s why they brought in Jordan Thomas . We checked and the last time he played reliable snaps on the Texans he blocked on 28.8% of his pass plays as well so don’t get your hopes up.
Raiders
WR: Ruggs and Agholor on the outside with Hunter Renfrow in the slot. Renfrow comes out for two tight end sets. That’s been the deal for a couple weeks now.
RB: Josh Jacobs is the dude but Devontae Booker continues to get some carries in positive game script games. He’s not really a threat to Jacobs’s job but we’d love it if they would just give Jacobs ALL the carries. But then again, 39 carries would be a little excessive.
TE: Waller continuously plays the most snaps of the pass catchers and runs the most routes. With Kittle out, he’s the clear 2 after Kelce.
Rams
WR: Josh Reynolds and Woods played all the snaps - Kupp came out for two tight end sets but those were mostly run plays. Which makes sense to a certain degree but Kupp is also graded as the top run blocking WR in the league per PFF. Either way, for fantasy we care about catches - Reynolds ran 37 routes, Woods ran 35, and Kupp ran 30.
RB: This backfield just got about as frustrating as it could be. Akers got the most run plays but they spread the ball out there. Brown played 23 pass snaps, Henderson 14, and Akers 6. So Brown I guess possibly the guy you want? Who knows.
TE: Tyler Higbee does what he does - block on pass plays. This week he blocked on 28 of his 59 snaps, 12 of them pass plays. Gerald Everett played fewer snaps but ran 18 routes to 21 for Higbee. He was getting promising targets before this week but, at the risk of using a cliche, too many mouths to feed.
Ravens
WR: Marquise Brown is the only fantasy relevant WR on this team right now and he’s hardly relevant.
RB: The silver lining here is that Dobbins played the vast majority of the pass plays. He’s the guy you want even if the carries are split in an annoying fashion.
TE: With Nick Boyle out for the year, Mark Andrews is the guy. This week he ran 35 routes and blocked on no pass plays. No concern about blocking for Andrews as they added Luke Willson to handle that. Should be happy times for Andrews owners (hopefully) while we wish a full recovery to Nick Boyle .
Saints
WR: A weird game all around for the saints as they deployed a ton of two tight end sets and lost their QB. Michael Thomas is a reliable start. Emmanuel Sanders is the next closest. After playing a ton in recent weeks, Tre’Quan Smith took a massive backseat.
RB: Alvin Kamara is the guy while Latavius Murray mixed in as a change of pace, per usual.
TE: Adam Tratuman played a ton but only ran 6 routes. Jared Cook played 21 snaps and ran routes on 19. So pretty clear who you want out of those two though the upside is capped by the QB situation and the return of Thomas.
Taysom Hill : Exciting times in the world of Taysom Hill snap count trackers. This week he played 10 snaps at QB, 4 in the backfield, 1 in-line, 4 at slot, 2 out wide, 1 kick return, 5 on punt coverage, and 4 on punt return. With Drew Brees out the Saints will apparently run some kind of two QB rotation with Hill and Winston - possibly with both on the field at times. That sounds pretty ridiculous and we are excited for it.
Seahawks
WR: Lockett and Metcalf played pretty much the whole game as usual. David Moore was kind of there but only played half the snaps, also as usual. Not worth adding.
RB: DeeJay Dallas dominated last week but this week, despite starting, Travis Homer was the hot hand. Surprisingly, Alex Collins mixed in some work too. Chris Carson and Carlos Hyde are now back up and running so this party is probably over.
TE: The Seahawks are mixing up the tight ends too much to be used for fantasy. Hollister played the most snaps but Greg Olsen ran the most routes. It’s a guessing game between those two and the winner doesn’t always matter either. Will Dissly is a blocker.
Steelers
WR: Same as last week. Juju in slot. Chase Claypool at split end. Diontae Johnson at flanker. James Washington and Ray-Ray McCloud are the odd men out mixing in.
RB: James Conner played 69 or 73 snaps. So that’s that.
TE: Eric Ebron was already the man here but, with Vance out, he played 62 of 73 snaps and ran 43 routes. Rock solid usage but the targets are tough to come by.
Texans
WR: Brandin Cooks and Will Fuller play the whole game at split and flanker. That’s every week. Randall Cobb and Kenny Stills mix in at slot. Not enough usage for either.
RB: Duke Johnson played 54 of 57 snaps with no David Johnson . Duke is finally getting a chance.
TE: Tight end usage was too split (Fells 13 routes), Akins (12), Brown (10). Can’t recommend any of them right now in fantasy but, if you MUST, it would likely be Akins.
Titans
WR: AJ Brown and Corey Davis , every play. With Adam Humphries out again they filled the slot with Cameron Batson for limited plays then used two tight end sets. Only Brown and Davis matter
RB: Henry is the guy, Jeremy McNichols pitched in a little on pass plays.
TE: Better usage for Jonnu this week running 26 routes. They deployed Geoff Swaim in the MyCole Pruitt role (blocked on 28 of his 36 snaps) which freed Jonnu up. So that’s a positive. Brings him back in the TD dependent boom/bust conversation after being virtually dead.
Vikings
WR: Justin Jefferson has arrived. He and Thielen play the whole game on the outside. Chad Beebe plays some slot but they roll too much two TE sets for him to matter.
RB: Dalvin is the dude. Not a positive enough game script for a ton of Mattison. We are fine with that.
TE: With no Irv Smith, Tyler Conklin stepped up as the second tight end. If you had to start a guy here it’s Kyle Rudolph but the ceiling is the floor considering he either scores a TD or he doesn’t and most times he doesn’t.
Washington Football Team
WR: McLaurin, whole game - like clock work. Cam Sims however has not been clockwork but he played 83 of 88 snaps. Steven Sims in his return played 40 snaps and Isaiah Wright played 21. Beyond McLaurin, no one can be trusted just yet but snaps can lead to targets so keep an eye out for one of the Sims to get looks.
RB: Same split as usual. Gibson on running down, McKissic on passing downs. Concentiently, they get the Bengals with a spread of -1.5 so the game could go either way.
TE: We rave about Logan Thomas ’s usage - this was his best week yet. He played 68(!) snap at WR. 57 in slot and 11 split out. The reality is that he’s the slot WR on this team and he plays pretty much every snap. This gives him a fairly high ceiling if it can ever materialize.