Just the Stats: Usage Trends for Week 1 (Fantasy Football)

Home  >  Analysis
The FootClan
Get the Ultimate Dashboard
Join the FootClan
@kyle_borg

Every Monday during the NFL season, I want to give you a blitz of ten usage stats, scheme changes, and oddities from the previous week of the NFL. The goal is to give you a rapid fire unfiltered look at how we digest a Sunday’s-worth of action and try to start deciphering what is valuable and what is not.

I wrote a 10 Usage Trends primer article before the season if you want more detail about some of the statistics and examples from the past. This data is supplied in the article is noted under each statistic.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This data includes games played from Wednesday-Sunday and does not include MNF games.

Personnel Updates from Week 1

*Data from Sumer Sports

  • With an emphasis across the league this offseason to “add more TEs” on the field, the numbers certainly reflect that in Week 1. The league average for 13-Personnel last year was 5.4% and that rate almost doubled in Week 1.
11-P % 12-P % 13-P % 21-P % Other
2025 58.1% 22.0% 5.4% 6.9% 7.6%
Week 1 56.5% 23.6% 9.1% 6.5% 4.3%
  • A reminder that the increase of 12/13 personnel sets actually helps fantasy WRs. It invites LESS viable competition for targets on field. If a blocking TE is NOT running a route, they CANNOT steal a target. If a blocking TE is running a route, they are NOT a serious target competitor compared to an NFL WR.
  • The Bills had a drastic shift utilizing 13-personnel on 40% of their snaps! The one area where Joe Brady succeeded throwing was with 3WRs on the field (0.65 EPA/pass attempt) thanks to the emergence of D.J. Moore as a viable option. Running the ball was painful though in 11-personnel. Over the last four years, they had been #1 in rush success rate when in 11-personnel but it was a train-wreck in Week 1.

  • We knew we wanted to see what the Chargers would become… and they didn’t disappoint “Chargering” to a home loss to the lowly Cardinals. They ran 12 plays out of Mike McDaniels’ favorite 21-personnel generating 5.0 yards per play in those looks. However, they averaged 5.3 on non-21 personnel plays and converted just two third downs and none of their 3 tries on 4th down on the day.
  • After leading the league in 12-personnel rate (41%) in 2025, the Browns all but abandoned that premise running 11-P at the 7th highest rate in Week 1. Part of that rate can be attributed to being absolutely demolished by the Jaguars.
  • The Titans 80% pass rate run almost exclusively out of 11-P is a boost in overall volume projections moving forward for Carnell Tate and Wan’Dale Robinson. However, the team also ran just 49 total plays and a league-low three of them inside the red zone. The issue for the Titans was the exact same in 2025: the offense never sustained drives ranking 30th in three-and-outs, 31st in 1st downs, and 32nd in % of drives to reach the red zone.

Per-Route Metrics

For Week 1, these were the league-leaders running 30+ routes run:

The FootClan
Unlock Exclusive Tools + Bonus Episode
Join the FootClan

*Data per PFF

  • It is wild seeing 3 players from the same team leading the way in routes run but the Saints fired off an off-the-charts 86 total plays.
  • Jalen Coker went ballistic in last year’s divisional round game against the Rams and picked up right where he left off.

  • Christian Watson‘s 3.87 yards per route run is wild stuff but he’s been off-the-charts on a per route basis for most of his career: 2.35, 1.64, 2.41, and 2.56 last year.
  • I had removed Romeo Doubs from my mind but this chart brought it all back again!
  • Dolphins Caleb Douglas‘ 94 receiving yards and 2.94 YPRR but him far ahead of the other Dolphins rookie pass-catchers. That is the 3rd highest Week 1 receiving yardage line for a Day 2 WR over the last decade trailing only Terry McLaurin (125) and A.J. Brown (100).
  • Kendrick Bourne (!?) was a chain-moving machine for the Cardinals converting 16.7% of his routes into 1st downs. It was the 2nd highest rate of his career trailing only that magical Week 5 game last year where he morphed into an alpha for the 49ers. His 30 snaps

Here is the rest of the WRs with the cut off being more than 10 routes run:

  • Zay Flowers gained 150 receiving yards (thanks in large part to this long play) on just 11 total routes run before bowing out to a hamstring injury. That was the fewest routes run of any WR to hit 150 receiving yards over the last five years surpassing Christian Watson‘s Week 11 of 2023 when he did it on 14 routes.
  • 7 of Stefon Diggs‘ 9 targets occurred in the slot this week. That was more than any game he had last year in New England.
  • Speaking of Washington, rookie WR Antonio Williams ran just 11 routes on the week but was targeted on 36% of them turning all four of his targets into 1st downs. The more intriguing point is that 42% of those routes occurred out wide. In college at Clemson his final year, he was at a career-high 93% slot rate. If he can continue to mix in outside, he could develop into more than just an occasional FLEX over time. The Commanders ran 11-personnel on 72% of their snaps (6th highest), a stark contrast from 2024 where they ranked in the bottom-10.

RB Receiving Usage

*Data from PFF

  • Bijan Robinson is on another planet in terms of usage. He saw 62% of Atlanta’s total rush attempts and targets on the day, the highest rate of his career!
  • Looking at the Buccaneers backfield, Bucky Irving was not usurped by any means by Kenneth Gainwell. In fact, Bucky saw 32% of Tampa Bay’s total rush attempts and targets on the day. Anything above 30% is an elite workload according to our “work” metrics on our site.
  • The Steelers had a clear plan when Jaylen Warren was on the field: he ain’t pass blocking!
  • Saquon Barkley‘s 45.8% pass block rate was by-far the highest in the league and the highest in a game for him since Week 7 last year.

TEs Routes & Pass Blocking

*Data from PFF

The FootClan
Unlock Exclusive Tools + Bonus Episode
Join the FootClan
  • Juwan Johnson‘s 52 routes run were an insane amount. The only TEs to put up more in a week over the last five years: Travis Kelce had 60(!) in Week 9 of 2022 while Trey McBride (Week 12 of 2025), David Njoku (Week 13 of 2024), and Sam LaPorta (Week 15 of 2024) all had weeks of 53 according to FantasyPoints.
  • Colston Loveland ran the 2nd most routes (35) of any TE in Week 1. Yet, he put up a goose egg (0-for-0). How rare is that? 68 TEs ran that many routes in a game in 2025. ALL of them caught at least 2 passes.
  • Hunter Henry‘s 31% pass block is somewhat concerning moving forward.
  • Kyle Pitts‘ stat line is an off combination: 21 routes run with just one target despite not attempting a single pass-block.
  • Terrance Ferguson lined up wide on 40% of his snaps, the highest of any TE and his most since Week 14 of last year.

Red Zone Participation

For a one week sample size, it is tough to draw a ton of conclusions for such a small piece of real estate. Keep in mind that over the last decade, nearly 70% of TDs were scored here. For Week 1 thus far, 66 of the 88 TDs were inside the 20-yard line.

I highlighted in the primer some of the names I was monitoring early on in the season.

  • Matthew Golden‘s TPRR (20%) and overall route routes (40) are the headline but don’t sleep on his six routes run inside the red zone. This was a huge step in the right direction considering he did not top three routes run inside the 20 in any game from Week 6 on last year.
  • Ladd McConkey paced the Chargers in red zone routes (7) but Quentin Johnston (6) and Tre’ Harris (6) were not far behind.
  • The Lions remained in 11-P while inside the 20 giving Isaac TeSlaa an opportunity to run 7 routes there.

Oddities from Week 1

Adding to this list like a running blog as the stats emerge throughout the day!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *