Just the Stats: Usage Trends from Week 8 (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.
Play-Caller Updates
Looking at the last month (Weeks 5-8), here are the 32 play-callers sorted by EPA/Play:
*Data from Fantasy Points Data Suite
- The Jaguars did not go for a single 4th down in the 1st month of the season. It helps when you’re winning as the Jags are 3rd in EPA play but they did up their no huddle rate to a respectable 25% over the last month.
- The Titans have upped their no-huddle rate over the last month (14% to a league-leading 26%) and the offense responded over the last two weeks.
- The Browns have stepped on the pedal for 11-personnel upping their usage from 64% the 1st month of the season to 80% over the last month.
- How bad has it been for the Chargers?
The Chargers have been one of the worst offenses of the past decade through 7 games in terms of EPA per play pic.twitter.com/ZcvHyIFUdZ
— SūmerSports (@SumerSports) November 1, 2026
RB Efficiency
Through the first 8 weeks of the season, here are the leaders at the RB position organized by yards per touch:
*Data from Stathead
- Jaylen Warren‘s 6.9 yards per touch is the highest of ANY RB* over the last decade through 1st 8 games of a season.
- Despite Brian Robinson Jr. missing the last couple of weeks, Bijan Robinson does not have a single carry inside the 10-yard the last three weeks. He has just one red zone reception on the season.
- With two guys in the top-7 of this list, the Rams offensive line deserves a ton of credit as they rank 2nd in yards before contact.
- Braelon Allen has been a beast the last month while Breece Hall was out. He averaged 5.6 yards per carry finishing as a top-10 RB in 3 of the last 4 weeks.
Week 8 Route Warriors
Looking at pass-catchers (RB, WR, TEs) who ran 20+ routes in Week 8, here are the studs and duds of the week.
TPRR Studs from Week 8
*Data from Fantasy Points Data Suite
- Chuba Hubbard‘s 33% TPRR is the highest over his last 12 games played dating back to Week 12 of last year.
- Among 101 TEs over the last decade to see 45+ targets through their team’s 1st 8 games, Tyler Warren ranks 100th in Yards per Target. Yikes.
- CeeDee Lamb‘s 41% 1st read target share is the number to hold onto, not the final result: 7-for-58 receiving yards against the lowly Cardinals.
- My man Keenan Allen still doing his thing with another 7 receptions and a 37% 1st read target share. He is now 7 more receptions from surpassing Tim Brown for 5th most receptions ever for a WR.
Cardio Kings from Week 8
- Jalen Coker‘s 10.5% TPRR was his lowest since a Week 17 game against Seattle last year.
- Among 89 qualified WR/TEs with 150+ routes run this season, Jerry Jeudy ranks 88th in TPRR (10%), 87th in fantasy points per route run, and 86th in % of team’s receiving yards. Woof.
- Since Week 4, Ollie Gordon II has 3 total receptions… for ZERO total yards.
- Omar Cooper Jr.‘s goose egg this past week was wild considering he ran the same number of routes (26) as Adonai Mitchell and out-snapped him (78% to 61%).