Just the Stats: Usage Trends from Week 7 (Fantasy Football)
Every Monday during the NFL season, I want to give you a blitz of 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 supplied in the article is noted under each statistic.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This data includes games played from Thursday-Sunday and does not include MNF games.
Early Downs Offense
For this week, we filtered offensive performance looking at early downs (1st and 2nd) to see which teams are most successful.
*Data from Fantasy Points Data Suite
- It is not rocket science but the teams below expectation in terms of pass rate on the early downs also struggle from a yards per play basis.
- The Packers passing game is doing a ton of heavy lifting as they rank dead last in EPA per rush on early downs.
- The Colts rush success rate stands out on the chart as the 2nd best in the league mired on a team that is in the bottom-5 in yards per play on early downs.
- The Falcons figures needs some context if you separate their numbers from Cooper Rush (Weeks 1 & 2) and Michael Penix Jr. (Weeks 3-7). In the 3 games Penix has completed 70+ percent of his passes, Atlanta is 3-0. In the 2 he is under 60 percent, 0-2.
Defensive Coverages
*Data from Fantasy Points Data Suite
- The Vikings are basically on another planet from the rest of the league in terms of creating pressure. The Vikings defense blitzed on 85.2% of Daniel Jones‘ drop backs, the highest blitz rate by a defense in a game in the Next Gen Stats era.
- The Cardinals might be the worst defense in the league while also having some of the most extreme defensive utilization of any team thus far. Part of the issue is a lack of pressure (25th) and a revolving door of injuries in the secondary.
- The Dolphins are allowing opposing QBs to complete 76.6% of their passes. That is the highest % EVER allowed by any team through their 1st 6 games.
- The Buccaneers are running Cover 3 or 4 on 68% of opponent drop backs, the highest in the league. Yet, they’ve allowed eight passing TDs (versus only two) when they haven’t utilized those cloud coverages.
- The Bengals were the laughingstock of the league last year on defense. Through seven weeks, they rank 4th in points allowed, 10th in EPA per play, and #1 in sacks while playing a heavy man-based scheme.
Al Golden has evolved Cincinnati’s defense by pairing heavy Cover 1 usage with a unique pivot to rotational split-field shells (Cover 6/8).
In Base, Golden calls Cover 6 (QQH) with a boundary "Fist" check (2-Man) to wall the run, layer the intermediate, and bracket early-down… pic.twitter.com/v5re3yhp0O
— Cody Alexander (@The_Coach_A) October 26, 2026
RB Fantasy Scoring
For this week, here are the top-24 RBs in fantasy (half-point scoring) and the percentage of their fantasy points from rushing and receiving.
- 63% of Ashton Jeanty‘s fantasy points have come through the air, the HIGHEST of any RB in the top-24 of fantasy points. He essentially is a glorified receiving back but the usage is carrying him to fringe RB1-status. His 3.1 yards per carry is the 6th lowest of any RB with 100+ rush attempts through the first seven games of a season since 2010.
- On the other end of the spectrum, 93% of Ollie Gordon‘s fantasy points are on the ground. That is higher than every other RB not named Chris Rodriguez Jr. On the season, Ollie G was targeted on just 8 of his 71 routes this season.
- Emanuel Wilson became just the 5th RB since the beginning of the 2023 season to hit 100+ rushing yards against the Kansas City Chiefs.
- RJ Harvey seems like a running back in name-only. He’s been targeted on 37% of his routes and yet as a runner, he’s yet to have a gain of 10+ yards.
TE Route Shares
I wanted to give a look at the route participation (% of team’s routes run per week) for TEs over the last month to see if you can spot some progression for certain players.
- Trey McBride is an absolute maniac. He ran 53 routes last week and is on pace for 143 receptions this season. Remember, he set the single-season record last year with 126 receptions.
- Colston Loveland was targeted on a season-high 41% of his routes on Thursday versus the Patriots. After a dreadful start to the season, he is averaging a 25% target share and 26% TPRR (both 3rd best among TEs) over the last month.
- Kyle Pitts might be coming through with TDs over the last few weeks but his usage remains in the mid-TE2 level. Over the last month, he ranks 20th in routes, 14th in target share, and 33rd in air yards share.
- Juwan Johnson‘s role seems to be slowly dwindling. He’s dropped in route share since leading all TEs through the first three weeks of the season.