You would think after five weeks we would have everything figured out. But let me let you in on a little secret. I’ve been doing this for a few years now and it’s almost never fully figured out. Sure, some teams use the same couple of guys every snap and we love that about them. But there will always be rookies getting ramped up. There will always be injuries. And we are now into bye weeks. We need to not only know who is trending up or down but we need to know who the next man up is. We told you for two weeks now about guys like Emari Demarcado and Tyjae Spears. This article is honestly the basis for everything I do, especially my weekly fantasy rankings.

This article goes best with our snap count tool where you can see all of the raw snap numbers. But I take it a step further letting you know who got the pass snaps, two minute drill, who pass blocked, who played slot, who played two WR sets. I do my best to let you know who is getting the work and who isn’t. So, without further ado, here is Week Three.

 

Fantasy Football Week 6 Snap Count Preview

San Francisco 49ers - 71 Snaps

WR: Unless someone gets hurt this one is locked in - they use a fullback so Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel are the only two that play the whole game. Jauan Jennings is your next man up.

RB:  Christian McCaffrey is a megastar. When healthy, Elijah Mitchell is the handcuff but he’s hurt so it’s currently Jordan Mason.

TE: George Kittle’s usage has not been his problem as he always plays a ton. The problem for him this year has been his spot in the target pecking order. His route participation of 83.6% on the season is 6th of all tight ends.

Chicago Bears - 64 Snaps

WR: They were using a lot of three WR sets with Chase Claypool but, since he’s been gone, you’ve basically had DJ Moore (56) and Darnell Mooney (50) on the full snaps then they mix and match other WRs with the fullback and blocking tight ends. Equanimeous St. Brown was third but only 24 snaps. Not relevant.

RB: Whelp. Khalil Herbert AND Roschon Johnson got hurt. Herbert will miss time on IR. If Roschon can clear concussion protocol, he’s the preferred guy. Otherwise, we’ll likely see D’Onta Foreman.

TE: We’ve mentioned this most weeks but Cole Kmet still doesn’t play a full snap share. And he only ran 23 of 33 routes. He’s involved enough to be worth a start in some places but, despite where he ranks in PPR points, he’s really not in that class of player. TDs carrying a lot of weight there. Also worth noting is that Marcedes Lewis played 22 snaps and did not run a single route which is fairly rare. Just a complete non-factor.

Cincinnati Bengals - 82 Snaps

WR: If you read this one last week you knew what to expect - Trenton Irwin filled in for a banged-up Tee Higgins and that’s what we got this week. Tyler Boy kept his slot role (60 snaps, 53 from slot) and Irwin took the job opposite Chase (62 snaps, 43 out wide). Maybe a DFS dart?

RB:  Joe Mixon with 63 snaps. I honestly don’t care how inefficient he is - he’s the starting RB for the Bengals playing a massive snap share. You have to get him into lineups.

TE: Irv Smith Jr still isn’t relevant even with Tee Higgins out. We asked this question in the offseason, “how many WRs need to be hurt for Irv Smith to be relevant?”. Well, we know the answer is more than one.

Buffalo Bills - 60 Snaps

WR: Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis. That’s it for now because they use too many tight ends. The next leading wide receiver was Kalil Shakir - he played 19 of 60 snaps. Can’t touch it.

RB:  Bad game script for James Cook but there was some silver lining. Before he gave up a lot of pass plays to Latavius Murray but this week Cook played 31 pass plays and Murray played 9. So even though it was bad statistically, the usage was actually good.

TE:  There were complaints about the playing surface in London and they might be warranted. Matt Milano and DaQuan Jones are out for the season. Dalton Kincaid left with a concussion and Dawson Knox left with a wrist injury. Both logged limited practices today which trends towards them playing. This means neither can be trusted because they split playing time.

Cleveland Browns - 69 Snaps

BYE

Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 71 Snaps

BYE

Denver Broncos - 63 Snaps

WR: Marvin Mims watch continues - still only 20 snaps this week. Which was fourth behind Jerry Jeudy (54), Courtland Sutton (54), and Brandon Johnson (32). The trade rumors are swirling though - perhaps that could unlock Mims.

RB: Javonte Williams was out and the split was what we expected. Jaleel McLaughlin got the extra run work, and Samaje Perine got the extra pass work. If Williams is out again, I expect more of the same.

TE: We didn’t care about Adam Trautman but we do care about Greg Dulcich, who was just designated to return. He might not play Thursday but he’s worth a stash. A WR trade would be huge.

Arizona Cardinals - 57 Snaps

WR: So, even though he had a down week in the box score, Michael Wilson played the second most snaps at WR which is something he hasn’t done since Week One. That is honestly better for his long-term value than a few more targets. Marquise Brown played 52 snaps followed by Wilson (43) then Rondale Moore (38).

RB: We had mentioned Emari Demercado was the guy with no Keontay Ingram and he looked good out there. With James Conner set to miss extended time, it will be Ingram vs. Demercado. The rookie is certainly intriguing.

TE: Zach Ertz played 43 snaps and ran 30 of 36 routes so he’s certainly a guy you can throw in the lineup if need be, especially in PPR. Won’t likely set the world on fire but he’ll give you something.

Dallas Cowboys - 49 Snaps

WR: The Cowboys have yet to really play a real game - they either get blown out or blow out their opponent. But we know that they use Lamb in the slot for three WR sets with Michael Gallup and Brandin Cooks on the outside. In two WR sets Lamb moves to the outside and usually Cooks comes out.

RB:  Tony Pollard is the man. Rico Dowdle is the likely next man up but they could use a committee. 

TE: We warned that, based on his usage, Jake Ferguson could have some rough games. He only ran 22 of 30 routes which is not only typical for him but that’s actually his best route participation yet this season. They like rotating the tight ends. So be careful.

Los Angeles Chargers - 65 Snaps

BYE

Kansas City Chiefs - 70 Snaps

WR: They like rotating the wide receivers and I’m not sure when that will stop. Marquez Valdes-Scantling typically leads but even he played only 43 snaps. Skyy Moore (37), Kadarius Toney (25) and Rashee Rice (20) are the most exciting but they don’t play close to a full workload. Rice is the one we like.

RB:  Isaiah Pacheco is the man here - he gets the bulk of the run work and at least half the pass work each week so he’s the only one you can start.

TE: Travis Kelce is awesome but keep an eye on that ankle issue. Noah Gray is actually viable if Kelce plays limited snaps. Gray could be a DFS Showdown play this week.

Indianapolis Colts - 66 Snaps

WR: Michael Pittman is the snap king - over 99% snap share. Leads all WRs and that goes back to last season. Alec Pierce continues to play over Josh Downs despite not producing but he’s the split end so what can we do? Downs is more interesting for fantasy.

RB: Jonathan Taylor’s return was supposed to be the end of Zack Moss but Moss said “not so fast”. I don’t see why they wouldn’t at least split the work if Moss is running well. Protects the big investment they just made in Taylor.

TE: Kylen Granson is your best bet here in terms of routes run but he hasn’t done enough to matter. So we are really just waiting to see if Jelani Woods can be anything.

Washington Commanders - 70 Snaps

WR: Terry McLaurin, Jahan Dotson, Curtis Samuel. That’s it. Highly consolidated as it’s been. Dyami Brown (17 snaps) is just a field stretcher.

RB: This is not the first time we have seen this. When it comes down to the two-minute drill, Antonio Gibson plays. So sometimes he will play more than Brian Robinson. That’s the one knock and Brian Robinson. And the schedule is kind of scary from the front.

TE: Logan Thomas is the man. At this stage, his usage and target share aren’t really that far off from someone like Evan Engram. He ran 49 routes this week and is clearly a focal point. And when he’s out, they use Cole Turner like that. Which is nice.

Miami Dolphins - 54 Snaps

WR: See the 49ers WR write-up - it’s the same offense. Just substitute Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle for Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel. They both use so much fullback the WR3 doesn’t matter.

RB:  I’m sure you have heard that De’Von Achane has gone to IR. Jeff Wilson has said he is “ready to go” once activated but for now, we are looking at Raheem Mostert starting with Salvin Ahmed and Chris Brooks mixing in.

TE: Durham Smythe plays a full snap share but he’s not the most explosive athlete. Even when he does get a few targets, don’t expect much.

Philadelphia Eagles - 79 Snaps

WR: AJ Brown played 78 of 79 snaps, and DeVonta Smith played 74 of 79. We aren’t worried about it either. Quez Watskins returned to take his role back from Olamide Zaccheus but he’s no more than a DFS dart. 

RB:  D’Andre Swift continues to pop though Kenneth Gainwell seems to be the preferred back for pass blocking. As long as the game scripts continue to be good though, Swift should have no trouble.

TE: Dallas Goedert has always been a guy who plays a ton of snaps and is capable of good, capable of bad games. To truly unlock his upside, he needs Brown or Smith to go down though.

Atlanta Falcons - 76 Snaps

WR: Drake London will continue to be the top dog. Mack Hollins had been but last week Khadarel Hodge played more snaps. And now they have traded for Van Jefferson. I can’t say whether Van Jefferson will become relevant once he learns the playbook but I can say that Hollins and Hodge can probably be dropped.

RB: Bijan Robinson 47 snaps, Tyler Allgeier 33. At this stage we wouldn’t dream of benching Bijan, Allgeier is a handcuff plus at best.

TE: Kyle Pitts still isn’t 100% healthy so he and Jonnu are splitting snaps. Jonnu technically ran 27 routes to 26 for Pitts but Pitts is still the more athletic player and better start, even nursing a knee issue. With the usage, both could possibly be relevant honestly.

New York Giants - 73 Snaps

WR:  We noted the increase in snaps for Wan’Dale Robinson and the production that came with it. He was on track for a solid game but suffered a concussion. We’re still stashing him as he looks like the best WR out there. Darius Slayton has been the only WR playing a full snap share but the guy we are rooting for is Jalin Hyatt. He played 33 of 73 this week which doesn’t cut it but hopefully, the rookie gets fully ramped up.

RB: Whenever Saquon Barkley is out, we start Matt Breida. Whenever Barkley is back, Breida goes back to the bench. The third man is clearly rookie Eric Gray.

TE: Outside of the early season hamstring issue, the usage for Darren Waller has been pretty consistently good. Given the TE landscape, you should be pretty happy to have Waller. He played 67 of 73 snaps and ran 44 of 46 routes.

Jacksonville Jaguars - 66 Snaps

WR: Zay Jones came back but tweaked the knee issue and left. Whenever he is out, Tim Jones plays. The other guys we know - Calvin Ridley and Christian Kirk.

RB: Travis Etienne has been playing a massive snap share so a massive game at some point was inevitable. 73 of 88 snaps. Tank Bigsby is a distant backup.

TE: Evan Engram has been incredibly reliable - even in his bad games like this one he gets eight targets. He played 75 snaps here and ran 44 of 52 routes.

New York Jets - 65 Snaps

WR: Allen Lazard (60) and Garrett Wilson (54) lead in snaps every week. Randall Cobb (23) plays slot but this week Xavier Gipson (20) also mixed in with him. But that doesn’t matter a whole lot.

RB: Breece Hall (34) continues his ascension but he’s not quite there yet. And Michael Carter quietly played 19 pass snaps to Hall’s 11 which is a little concerning.

TE: Tyler Conklin played 36 snaps, and CJ Uzomah played 29. If you have to start one it’s Conklin but it’s a split.

Detroit Lions - 60 Snaps

WR:  With no Amon-Ra St. Brown we saw Marvin Jones, Josh Reynolds, and Khalif Raymond get the start but they mixed and matched in the blowout. The guy were are watching is Jameson Williams who played 28 snaps. That’s a 46% snap share which is far and away the highest he’s played in his short career. Not enough to start him but enough to be interested in rostering him.

RB: David Montgomery is the king here. He played 45 of 60 snaps. And Dan Campbell said that is how they want it, with him carrying the water and Jahmyr Gibbs in more of a complimentary pass-down role.

TE: Sam LaPorta is obviously producing at a high level. The one thing we want to see usage wise is less pass blocking. Four pass block snaps aren’t much but that’s four routes he could have been running. He’s over 10% on the season which is a little high. But who cares, we are splitting hairs with that.

Green Bay Packers - 58 Snaps

WR: After one game of partial snap share, Christian Watson (49) is now fully up and running. He played one fewer snap than Romeo Doubs (50). As expected, Dontayvion Wicks (13) went on the back burner and Jayden Reed (29) operated mostly out of the slot.

RB: AJ Dillon doesn’t get the full job when Aaron Jones is out as Patrick Taylor steps in. Disappointing.

TE: Luke Musgrave played 40 of 58 snaps and ran 24 routes which was third behind Watson (30) and Doubs (34). That’s honestly not going to do it for us, we need him running more routes to really compete for targets with those two.

Carolina Panthers - 71 Snaps

WR: Well then. We finally found out who the odd man out will be when everyone is healthy. Despite getting 10 targets last week, Terrace Marshall didn’t play a snap. Meanwhile, Adam Thielen (69), DJ Chark (70), and Jonathan Mingo (60) played virtually the whole game. Even Laviska Shenault played 17 snaps. Perhaps they should consider trading Marshall to the Bills to rejoin his former coach Joe Brady.

RB: Miles Sanders clearly has not been healthy for most of the year. This week he split snaps almost evenly with Chuba Hubbard, 33 to 34. Hard to trust either unless Sanders actually sits out a game.

TE: Hayden Hurst, as he always does, only ran a partial number of routes. 31 of 49. Not to be trusted.

New England Patriots - 54 Snaps

WR: Pop Douglas and JuJu Smith-Schuster both left the game with concussions so we’ll have to monitor that. DeVante Parker (53) consistently plays a full snap share on the outside. Kendrick Bourne is your next best bet but this team is bad.

RB: Rhamondre Steveson (27) split with Ezekiel Elliott (25) but mostly because it was a blowout.

TE: Bad matchup for Hunter Henry but at least he played 42 snaps - Mike Gesicki primarily played wide receiver but he only played 16 snaps.

Las Vegas Raiders - 64 Snaps

WR: Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers are all you really need to think about. The next highest WR in terms of snaps was Hunter Renfrow with only 20.

RB:  Josh Jacobs with 54 snaps out of 64 is a stud in terms of usage and he’ll have big games. Ameer Abdullah is the next man up.

TE:  Michael Mayer for the first time ran more routes than Austin Hooper. But that was still only 16 of 36 possible routes so not moving the needle yet.

Los Angeles Rams - 56 Snaps

WR: There you have it folks - Puka Nacua (56) and Cooper Kupp (53) can thrive together. Tutu Atwell also maintained his full snap share (52). And so there are no questions, they traded Van Jefferson to the Falcons.

RB:  Kyren Williams with 47 of 56 snaps is rare usage making him a viable option pretty much any week.

TE: Tyler Higbee still played his normal snaps but what actually is his upside with the target hogs in this offense?

Baltimore Ravens - 70 Snaps

WR: Zay Flowers is the man (69). Odell Beckham (37) and Rashod Bateman (27) returned but they aren’t fully ramped up as Nelson Agholor (41) still played over them.

RB:  Just when we think Gus Edwards has the job, he once again doesn’t. Gus got more run work but Justice Hill played 29 pass snaps to 17 for Edwards. So this game script called for me Hill.

TE: Mark Andrews continues to have some of the best deployment in the league. His route participation is near 90% and he plays a huge chunk of his snaps at WR. He’s our full tight end write up for this week if you want to know why he’s still the TE2 rest of season behind only Travis Kelce.

New Orleans Saints - 72 Snaps

WR: No change here - Chris Olave (57) and Michael Thomas (51) are your full-time guys, and Rashid Shaheed (41) is a part-time player. That doesn’t seem likely to change.

RB: Alvin Kamara is back and he is the dude. The only threat could be Jamaal Williams in short yardage when he returns.

TE: Juwan Johnson wasn’t really relevant so we have no interest in Taysom Hill or Jimmy Graham with their split. Neither played more than 28 snaps.

Seattle Seahawks - 55 Snaps

BYE

Pittsburgh Steelers - 62 Snaps

WR: They go on a bye week this week then Diontae Johnson should be back. So that likely puts Calvin Austin on the backburner with Allen Robinson and George Pickens in their typical roles.

RB: Analytics Twitter wants Jaylen Warren to happen but he’s basically the new Tony Pollard. They like Najee for short yardage and certain pass-down situations and that will limit Pollard’s snap share. I mean, Warren’s.

TE: Pat Freiermuth will be out for multiple weeks. They used a mix of Darnell Washington (46) and Connor Heyward (37) but Heyward ran 18 routes to 17 for Washington.

Houston Texans - 71 Snaps

WR: Nico Collins is the split end meaning he will get tough matchups - like AJ Terrell this past week and Marshon Lattimore this next week. Robert Woods and Tank Dell are the slot/flankers but Dell is in concussion protocol so we could see John Metchie play a bigger role.

RB: Dameon Pierce is unlikely to ever get the full job because they don’t want it that way. He gets the carries, and Devin Singletary and Mike Boone get the pass work.

TE: Dalton Schultz is kind of like Hayden Hurst in that he doesn’t really play the full game most of the time. Here he played 35 of 59 snaps.

Tennessee Titans - 61 Snaps

WR: Great news for DeAndre Hopkins - his best snap share yet with 51 of 61. Maybe the ankle injury is behind him. We’re not super interested in Nick Westbrook-Ikhine-Ikhine-Ikhine (42) and Chris Moore (38). Stash Treylon Burks if you want, he’s supposed to be back soon.

RB: Same deal as it’s been this year. Derrick Henry is the preferred run down back but Tyjae Spears mixes in on pass downs.

TE: If Chigoziem Okonkwo ran 25 of 39 routes which isn’t enough. Can’t trust him.

Minnesota Vikings - 73 Snaps

WR: No Justin Jefferson for a while means KJ Osborn and Jordan Addison as the two top options. Brandon Powell is expected to be third for now but Jalen Naylor is coming back soon.

RB: Alexander Mattison (37) is the top dog but Cam Akers (21) played more snaps than he has so far. We’ll keep an eye on it.

TE: T.J. Hockenson is a star and might be in line for more targets than ever. Have to be happy to have him.