It has been a week. Or, more like a month. This season has completely flown by until we hit Week 15.
Hopefully, you overcame all of the COVID issues, injuries, and low scores to advance or make the playoffs in your leagues. I’ve got some really good teams that have died slow, painful deaths this week. Such is life. Fantasy sports and gambling is just a microcosm of life – we know very little and control even less.
As I’m writing this article, Seahawks-Rams and Washington-Eagles still haven’t played yet. I’ll come back and add them on Wednesday.
That said, here’s your Week 16 Stat-Pack:
Arizona Cardinals
The Cardinals offensive collapse was one of the many cherries on top of a brutal week. Their five drives in the first-half against Detroit gained 74 net yards.
Cardinals’ target distribution in their first game without DeAndre Hopkins: Kirk (12), Ertz (11), Green (8), and Wesley (8).
With Chase Edmonds back, James Conner played on just 44% of the snaps and got just 8 carries and 2 targets while Edmonds was on the field for 39% of the plays and got 6 carries and one target.
Conner played on 85% of the snaps in Weeks 9-14 without Edmonds.
Atlanta Falcons
The Falcons are using Cordarrelle Patterson as a RB first now, which will definitely help in the long run to get a big contract this offseason, but it’s nuked his upside for fantasy.
Mike Davis has run more routes (77) than C-Patt (68) over the last four games while Patterson has turned in 4 catches for 6 yards over the last two weeks.
After going 0/0 vs. Dallas in Week 9, Russell Gage is averaging 17.1 PPR points per game across his last five contests.
Gage leads the team in targets (47) while Kyle Pitts (38) is second over the last five weeks.
Baltimore Ravens
Mark Andrews in three games with Tyler Huntley at QB: 8/73 > 11/115/1 > 10/136/2.
Andrews gets the Bengals next and they just got destroyed by Noah Fant / Albert Okwuegbunam (8/115) and George Kittle (13/151/1) over the last two weeks.
Latavius Murray came out of nowhere to lead this backfield in both carries and targets against the Packers as Freeman got just 6 carries and 1 target.
Maybe Freeman is dealing with some sort of minor injury that we don’t know about? Because that is the only explanation that makes sense. Murray had one carry in Week 14 while Freeman had 13.
Buffalo Bills
Why did the Bills play Emmanuel Sanders ahead of Gabe Davis this year? Davis looked incredible in his start and put 5/85/2 on the Panthers.
Davis tied for the team lead with Stefon Diggs (38) in routes last week.
Buffalo made Zack Moss a healthy scratch again on Sunday against the Panthers and Devin Singletary took command of the backfield with 23 touches, 96 scrimmage yards, and a score.
Singletary’s 93% snap rate was a season-high and built off of his 82% snap rate in Week 14.
Carolina Panthers
The only good news in this offense? DJ Moore has a 31% target share with Cam Newton.
Brandon Zylstra ran 36 routes last week. Terrace Marshall ran 6. Yikes.
Chicago Bears
Darnell Mooney in four starts without A-Rob – 14.9 FPG.
Mooney when A-Rob plays – 9.6 FPG.
Since returning in Week 9, David Montgomery’s role has been amazing. He’s averaging 15.5 carries and 4.7 targets per game and played on 81% of the snaps.
Montgomery is also overdue for some TD luck. Since Week 9, Montgomery has eight carries inside-the-10 yard line and just 1 TD to show for it.
Cincinnati Bengals
We’ve seen how low Joe Mixon’s floor is when he doesn’t score a TD over the last two weeks as he’s turned in just 18/58 and 17/58 rushing.
Mixon now has an ankle injury and maybe that will cause the Bengals to open up the playbook here in a huge game against the Ravens?
Over the last two weeks, the Bengals have been extremely balanced as HC Zac Taylor has called 44 passes to 45 runs on early-downs.
Cleveland Browns
- Nick Chubb has played on a season-high 66% of the snaps in back-to-back games with Kareem Hunt banged up.
Dallas Cowboys
Dak Prescott before his calf injury (Weeks 1-6): 73.2% completion rate, 8.4 YPA, 115 passer rating, 302.2 YPG, and 22.8 FPG.
Prescott since his calf injury (Weeks 9-15): 64.9% completion rate, 6.5 YPA, 84.9 passer rating, 255 YPG, and 16.1 FPG.
Denver Broncos
Broncos backfield over the last two weeks…
Williams: 30 carries, 6 targets, 55% snap rate.
Gordon: 39 carries, 1 target, 45% snap rate.
The silver-lining is that Williams (34) has run more routes than Gordon (19) over the last two weeks.
Detroit Lions
Amon-Ra St. Brown over the last three weeks: 10/86/1 > 8/73 > 8/90/1.
St. Brown is still running the majority of his routes from the slot, but he’s gotten more burn as an outside WR that has helped fuel this breakout.
With D’Andre Swift and Jamaal Willams out, Craig Reynolds has handled 38 of the Lions 53 RB carries (72%) and is averaging 5.3 YPC over the last two weeks.
Green Bay Packers
Aaron Jones took over as the Packers clear lead back in Week 15 as he played on 63% of the snaps, his highest snap rate since Week 9.
Jones had 13 carries and ran 19 routes while AJ Dillon had 7 carries and ran 13 routes.
Houston Texans
Brandin Cooks with Davis Mills – 6.5 receptions and 71.1 yards per game.
Cooks in Tyrod Taylor’s starts – 4.7 receptions and 60.8 yards per game.
Cooks has gotten a massive 27% target share with Mills.
Not that it really matters, but Rex Burkhead took control of this backfield last week and set a season-high in snaps (64%).
Indianapolis Colts
Jonathan Taylor’s last 11 finishes: RB10 > RB2 > RB3 > RB5 > RB6 > RB2 > RB5 > RB1 > RB11 > RB3 > RB2.
At some point, the Colts are going to have to rely on Carson Wentz to throw for them to win and it’s hard to have any confidence in that…
Wentz’s pass attempts in wins – 25.6 per game.
Wentz’s pass attempts in losses – 41.5 per game.
Jacksonville Jaguars
Interim HC Darrell Bevell stuck to his word and played James Robinson as a true bell-cow. J-Rob played on 84% of the snaps and got 21 touches, both of which marked a high since Week 6.
Laviska Shenault over the last month: 16/136 on 28 targets.
Laquon Treadwell over the last month: 18/240 on 28 targets.
Kansas City Chiefs
I thought that the Chiefs would run it a little more against the Chargers bad run defense and… nooooope. Mahomes’ 410 yards against LA were a season-high.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire played on 71% of the snaps in Week 15, which was his highest snap rate since Week 1.
If Tyreek Hill (COVID) misses Week 16, don’t fall down the Mecole Hardman trap. Hardman was still fourth on the Chiefs in routes run last week.
Las Vegas Raiders
The good news? Josh Jacobs is finally involved in the passing game and is easily setting career-highs in receptions (3.9) and yards (27) per game.
The bad news? Jacobs is averaging just 3.7 YPC.
Vegas’ offensive line isn’t helping Jacobs out much, though. They rank 21st in yards before contact.
Los Angeles Chargers
- Austin Ekeler was clearly limited on a short-week ahead of TNF as he played on a season-low 34% of the snaps. Ekeler ran just 14 routes.
Los Angeles Rams
With Darrell Henderson back from his thigh injury and COVID, Sony Michel took control of this backfield and played on 73% of the snaps while Henderson was at 27%.
What was especially surprising is how little Henderson played on passing downs. Michel ran 25 routes while Henderson ran just eight.
Miami Dolphins
Duke Johnson came out of nowhere and took over this backfield and played on 58% of the snaps, which was well ahead of Myles Gaskin (37%).
Duke’s 22 carries were a career-high. Lol.
Minnesota Vikings
Justin Jefferson has seen a ridiculous 41% target share over the last three weeks with Adam Thielen out.
Kirk Cousins only threw it 24 times for 87 yards, but extended his streak of multiple passing scores to seven-straight.
New England Patriots
Rhamondre Stevenson flopped in his spot start and he’s another reminder how low non-bell-cow’s floors can be if they’re not involved in the passing game. Stevenson ran just 14 routes while Brandon Bolden ran 28 routes last week.
Mac Jones’ pass attempts in wins – 27.6 per game.
Jones pass attempts in losses – 41 per game.
New Orleans Saints
Alvin Kamara’s usage against the Buccaneers was bizarre as he played on a season-low 61% of the snaps despite all of their issues at WR.
Kamara even split the passing down work with Mark Ingram (17 routes to 16).
New York Giants
- The Mike Glennon-led Giants have scored one non-garbage time TD on their 34 possessions over the last three weeks. Is that bad? It seems bad. Just play Jake Fromm – it can’t possibly get worse.
New York Jets
Michael Carter was indeed limited in his first game back from an ankle injury as he and Tevin Coleman split carries with 8 apiece.
Carter was also limited in the passing game as he ran just 15 routes in the Jets 35 pass plays.
Jets WR routes run this past week were: Crowder (35), Cole (28), Mims (17), Berrios (10).
Philadelphia Eagles
Miles Sanders was excellent on Tuesday night and set a career-high in rushing yards (131).
Sanders also operated as the Eagles clear-cut lead back before Jordan Howard came in as the closer.
Sanders led the backfield in carries (18) in the first three quarters while Howard had just six carries before the fourth quarter.
Jalen Hurts is only the sixth QB since the merger to score 10+ rushing TDs in a single-season.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Diontae Johnson’s 11-game streak of WR25 or better finishes was broken this past week as he went just 5/38 vs. the Titans.
I know Najee Harris ruined a lot of good teams, but it wasn’t because of a lack of usage. Harris played on 100% of the snaps last week.
Harris has been on the field for 98% of the Steelers snaps over the last three weeks. He isn’t coming off of the field.
San Francisco 49ers
George Kittle has 28 receptions, 425 yards, and 3 TDs over the last three weeks. Not too shabby.
HC Kyle Shanhan remembered that Deebo Samuel is a top-5 wide receiver in the NFL this week and finally dialed up a couple of plays to him. After catching just 1 pass in three-straight games, Deebo got 5 targets and turned in 4/60 receiving along with 6/29/1 on the ground.
Deebo was out there as a full-time player once again last week and ran a route on 23 of the team’s 25 pass plays.
Seattle Seahawks
What is going on with DK Metcalf?
Metcalf is in the worst slump of his early career and is averaging just 3.8 catches and 37.5 yards per game despite seeing a pretty normal 8 targets per game over his last six outings.
Well, for whatever reason, Metcalf and Russell Wilson can’t get on the same page.
Since returning in Week 10, Russell Wilson ranks 37th out of 40 QBs in on-target throws (66.9%).
Only Andy Dalton (66.7%), Taysom Hill (66.7%), and Carson Wentz (63.5%) rank worse in on-target throws since Week 10.
Since Week 10, Wilson has targeted Metcalf 15 times on deep throws (15+ air yards) and the duo has only connected twice for 51 yards.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Ronald Jones made four spot starts with Leonard Fournette out or extremely limited last season and was extremely productive…
Week 4 vs. Chargers – 26 touches, 128 scrimmage yards, 0 TDs.
Week 5 vs. Bears – 20 touches, 125 scrimmage yards, 0 TDs.
Week 6 vs. Packers – 25 touches, 121 scrimmage yards, 2 TDs.
Week 14 vs. Vikings – 19 touches, 84 scrimmage yards, 1 TD.
With Gio Bernard out for the season and Ke’Shawn Vaughn still making rookie mistakes, RoJo will be a true bell-cow for as long as Fournette is out.
Tennessee Titans
D’Onta Foreman officially took control as the lead ball carrier last week and handled 22 carries while Dontrell Hilliard got 9 and Jeremy McNichols got 6.
However, Foreman was third in this backfield in routes (6) while Hilliard led the way (17).
While Julio Jones had yet another setback with his hamstring, the Titans top two wideouts this past week were Nick Westbrook-Ikhine (36 routes) and Cody Hollister (23).
Washington
Antonio Gibson was on pace for a massive game before hurting his toe again. He got 7 carries and 2 targets on Washington’s first two possessions before that toe injury acted up.
Once again, we’re left asking ourselves how good Terry McLaurin could be with adequate QB play.
McLaurin has 9 receptions for 124 yards over his last four games.
Taylor Heinicke has played well at times, but Washington has to be on the hunt for their future QB again this offseason…
Per SIS, Heinicke is 29th out of 31 QBs in on-target throws from a clean pocket at just 73.8%. Only Baker Mayfield (73.2%) and Justin Fields (70.3%) are worse.
