• Two teams turn to three-back committees: Both the Dallas Cowboys and Cleveland Browns rotated three running backs who each got significant playing time.
• Jaxon Smith-Njigba lives up to the draft hype: Smith-Njigba’s role in the Seattle Seahawks offense has expanded, leading to his first 100-yard game in the NFL.
• Unlock your edge with a PFF+ subscription: Get full access to all our in-season fantasy tools, including weekly rankings, WR/CB matchup charts, weekly projections, the Start-Sit Optimizer and more. Sign up now!
Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes
Nathan Jahnke’s fantasy football recap highlights key player usage and stats, providing the essential insights needed for fantasy success in 2024. This analysis focuses solely on players relevant to fantasy football leagues.
Here are Nathan’s 10 biggest reactions to the games from the Sunday slate. For a more detailed analysis, be sure to read his full Sunday recap.
The Browns went back to a three-man committee: D’Onta Foreman was much more involved in the Browns offense this week.
In Week 1, Jerome Ford was the clear feature running back, playing 57 of a possible 76 offensive snaps. This was a career-high in both total snaps and percentage of offensive snaps. This made it seem like Ford would be a safe player to start in fantasy leagues.
Instead, this week started as a three-man committee. Foreman only played one snap in the first game but started this game with seven snaps on the first drive. In the first half, Ford played 14 of a possible 36 snaps, while Foreman played 12 and Pierre Strong Jr. played nine.
Strong suffered a hamstring injury early in the second half, which turned this back into a two-man committee. Foreman ended up with twice as many carries as Ford, and he was on the field for the goal-line snaps. Foreman is worth a waiver-wire pickup, but it will be hard to trust either running back going forward. Foreman might end up being the better option of the two if he can convert some goal-line work into touchdowns.
Deuce Vaughn complicates running back rotation: Vaughn played 10 offensive snaps and ran the ball four times, making it just the third game of his career with significant work.
The Cowboys utilized a two-man rotation last week with a rotation by drive. Ezekiel Elliott took the first drive, while Rico Dowdle had the second. This week, Dowdle was up first. Vaughn typically only played if a drive lasted five or more plays. Ideally, the Cowboys would trust Dowdle or Elliott to play significant snaps on one drive followed by a few snaps on the next.
This meant no Cowboys running back had more than 30 rushing yards or reached double-digit attempts. Dowdle is still worth a waiver-wire target, as he was the most effective back in this game and caught four passes for 29 yards. The fact that he started this week over Elliott is a step in the right direction. The Cowboys will need to abandon the strict rotation by drive for Dowdle to be worth starting.
Zamir White plays more snaps but doesn’t produce: White played a much higher percentage of the offensive snaps, but that only led to 6.8 PPR points.
Last week, White was in a near-even split with Alexander Mattison on early-down and short-yardage snaps. Mattison played 19-of-20 snaps on third downs and two-minute drills.
This week, the distribution was very different. White took a clear majority of early-down snaps. The other good news for White is that he took some of the two-minute drill snaps, splitting with Ameer Abdullah. Last season, he barely played in the two-minute drill. Mattison continued as the third-down back.
The bad news for White is Mattison continued to split short-yardage work. That included a goal-line snap that led to a Mattison touchdown.
If the Raiders are in a game script where they are winning, White can be a fantasy starter in this split because he should see 15-plus carries in those games. The Raiders were down by 10 points with 10 minutes to go and had a comeback victory, so even though they won this game, it wasn’t a situation where they could commit to the run. In close games or games where the Raiders are losing, White should be left on benches in fantasy leagues.
Jonathan Taylor was limited in passing situations: Taylor was a feature back in Week 1, but not in this game.
Taylor played in 43 of a possible 45 snaps in Week 1, including all seven snaps during two-minute drills and all but one on third downs. This week, the story was different. Trey Sermon and Tyler Goodson split 18 snaps in the two-minute drill and played most of the third-down snaps. It is worth noting those two-minute drill snaps occurred in the last few minutes of the game when the Colts were down, so things may have been different if the two-minute drill snaps happened in the first half or if the Colts weren’t down by two scores for most of it.
This is good news for Taylor’s ability to stay healthy this season but bad news for Taylor’s fantasy ceiling and ability to catch passes. After running 12 times for 103 yards and catching two passes for 32 yards, it could be a time to sell high.
Zack Moss dominates offensive snaps for Bengals: Chase Brown can be dropped in some fantasy leagues based on his low usage.
The Bengals’ backfield split was somewhat similar to last season. The lead running back played in short-yardage and goal-line situations in addition to roughly 75% of the early-down snaps. Brown played in the other 25% of snaps and not much else. The only difference is Joe Mixon was the lead back last year and didn’t play much on third downs, while the Bengals seem to trust Moss more on third downs.
That didn’t lead to much fantasy production this week. Moss ran 12 times for 34 yards, while Brown ran four times for 31 yards. The Bengals have struggled to start most seasons, so chances are the offense will turn things around. If that happens, that will be huge for Moss’ fantasy value, making him a buy-low option.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba leads in two-receiver sets: The Seahawks’ wide receiver is playing an expanded role this season.
Smith-Njigba played in 11 of a possible 19 snaps in 11 personnel last week. This is much more than what he played last week, and it was good to see him play above Jake Bobo. It was worth noting Tyler Lockett was limited in practice leading up to Week 1.
Lockett was again limited to start this week, and Smith-Njigba played in seven of 12 possible snaps in 12 personnel. Lockett may play more once he’s fully healthy, but after how well Smith-Njigba played in this game, we may have reached the point where Smith-Njigba is a clear top-two wide receiver for the Seahawks while Tyler Lockett is third.
The Seahawks also ran 11 personnel for 54 snaps, so the 12 personnel snaps didn’t really impact Smith-Njigba’s fantasy value for this game, but it’s a positive sign for him, in general, to go along with his positive stat line.
Mike Williams overtakes Xavier Gipson: The former Los Angeles Chargers’ star wide receiver barely played in Week 1.
Williams missed most of 2023 due to an ACL tear, and when he signed with the Jets in the offseason, it wasn’t clear if he would be ready for Week 1. He ended up playing nine offensive snaps with Xavier Gipson as the third wide receiver that week.
This week, Williams almost always joined Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard in 11 personnel. Wilson and Lazard took most of the work in 12 personnel, outside of four snaps where Williams replaced Lazard. Williams also joined Wilson in 21 personnel, where Lazard didn’t take a single snap.
Williams caught his only target for 19 yards, while Lazard caught two passes for 11 yards. It wouldn’t be surprising if Williams ends up playing more snaps out of 12 personnel in the future while gaining more targets.
It’s worth noting Gipson led the Jets in snaps from the slot in Week 1, so Williams joining the lineup led Lazard to become the primary slot receiver. Wilson also ran 14 snaps from the slot, where he caught three of his passes for 49 yards.
Noah Brown makes his Commanders’ debut: Brown was active after being inactive last week, replacing Jamison Crowder in the lineup. Brown was signed after the Houston Texans released him on cutdown day.
Last week, the Commanders’ wide receiver rotation was simple, Terry McLaurin had one of the two outside wide receivers. Dyami Brown and Olamide Zaccheaus rotated as the other outside receivers, while Luke McCaffrey played in 32-of-33 snaps in 11 personnel, primarily from the slot. No one else was playing in the slot with any kind of consistency.
This week, Dyami Brown was clearly ahead of Zaccheaus in both 11 and 12 personnel. This led the Commanders to use Zaccheaus more in the slot compared to Week 1 or the preseason. Zaccheaus has a history of primarily playing in the slot, both last year with the Philadelphia Eagles and earlier with the Atlanta Falcons. This meant McCaffrey only played 39-of-57 snaps out of 11 personnel.
Noah Brown was the primary backup to Dyami Brown on the outside. Noah Brown was the Commanders’ most productive receiver, with three receptions for 56 yards. Dyami Brown has only one game of 56 or more yards in his NFL career. It wouldn’t be surprising for Noah Brown to gain more playing time as early as next week. He’s worth a waiver wire target if he becomes Jayden Daniels’ favorite wide receiver.
Ravens decrease 12 personnel usage: The Ravens ran 40 plays in 12 personnel this week compared to 21 snaps in 11 personnel and 11 in 21 personnel last week.
Isaiah Likely was the waiver wire pickup after his dominant Week 1, but a lot changed from last week to this week. The Ravens’ distribution of formation changed significantly, with 28 snaps in 11 personnel, 19 snaps in 12 personnel and 11 snaps in 21 personnel. This meant there were significantly fewer plays where Mark Andrews and Likely were on the field simultaneously.
Last week, Andrews played seven-of-eight snaps in 11 personnel in the first half, but Likely was the leader in the second half with eight-of-13. This week, we were back to Andrews being the primary tight end in 11 personnel throughout the game, playing 21-of-28 snaps while Likely played the other seven.
Likely continued to join Charlie Kolar in 22 personnel, while Kolar took most of the snaps in 21 personnel. Those are mostly rushing plays, but it meant a few pass plays with neither Likely nor Andrews.
This all added up to Likely running a route on less than half of the Ravens’ passing plays. Likely should stay on fantasy rosters, but starting him going forward will be much harder.
Don’t get tempted by Mike Gesicki: The tight end led the Bengals in receiving but is in too much of a rotation to be trusted going forward.
The Bengals have had a rotation at tight end for several years under Zac Taylor, and this year is no different. In Week 1, Gesicki caught three passes for 18 yards while playing 39% of Cincinnati’s 11 personnel snaps and 21% of 12 personnel.
Bengals backup tight end Tanner Hudson missed this game due to a knee injury, so it was expected that Gesicki would play more offensive snaps. His time only increased slightly to 54% of 11 personnel snaps and 29% of 12 personnel snaps. After this big game, his playing time could remain around this rate, but Drew Sample and Erick All aren’t going anywhere in 12 personnel.
Gesicki may have a game like this again, but once Tee Higgins is back, Gesicki won’t be as big of a priority in the passing game, and we should see many more games like Week 1 than Week 2.
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