Snap Count Observations from Week 10 (Fantasy Football)

This time of year is sort of limbo for fantasy managers, especially those that play in multiple leagues. For some leagues, the trade deadline has passed and waivers are the only way to move players. In others, this may be the last week to try to make a deal with another manager. With the fantasy playoffs just around the corner, setting the perfect lineup and building the right roster is crucial. Week 10’s snap counts cleared up a few situations for us, but also might have thrown up a few red flags as the fantasy season hits the homestretch.

100% Club

Every week, I like to highlight any RB/WR/TE that plays every offensive snap for their team. Week 10 gave us no such player. It is also interesting to note that no RB has yet achieved a 100% snap count in any game this season.

Week 10 Snap Count Observations

Arizona RBs (Kenyan Drake 38, Chase Edmonds 36)
While the two RBs split time evenly in Drake’s first game back, Drake received more touches and did quite well in his return. Drake turned 16 carries into 100 rushing yards and added nine yards on one reception. Edmonds had 11 total touches and ended the game with 77 total yards. Basically, both RBs were playable in this game but there is no guarantee how the snaps, and touches, will be distributed moving forward.

Cleveland WRs (Jarvis Landry 38, Rashard Higgins 38, KhaDarel Hodge 38, Donovan Peoples-Jones 16)
After Peoples-Jones caught the game-winner in Week 7, there is was hope that he would become a bigger part of this offense. After this week, those hopes can be officially dashed. Now to be fair, the Browns have played in bad weather in each of their last two games and haven’t thrown the ball much, but Peoples-Jones was still firmly the WR4 for the Browns, a team that doesn’t throw much on the best of days. Landry and Higgins are the WRs to roster from Cleveland with Odell Beckham out for the year.

Detroit RBs (D’Andre Swift 43, Kerryon Johnson 9, Adrian Peterson 7)
Much was made of this being Swift’s first official start and it looks to be well-deserved. Swift dominated the snaps and the touches in this game, turning 21 total touches, including five receptions, into 149 yards and a TD. Johnson and Peterson touched the ball just six times combined. Swift is taking over this backfield at the perfect time for fantasy managers.

LA Chargers RBs (Kalen Ballage 46, Joshua Kelley 17)
Last week, I pretty much refused to acknowledge that Kalen Ballage existed. He had a decent week in replacement in an injured Justin Jackson in Week 9, but they would certainly turn to their rookie RB in Week 10. Nope. Nope. With Jackson hitting the IR, the Chargers stuck with Ballage again and he delivered again. Ballage totaled 102 yards on 18 carries and five receptions, while Kelley barely saw the field and didn’t do much when he did.

LA Rams WRs (Robert Woods 56, Josh Reynolds 56, Cooper Kupp 37, Van Jefferson 13)
This game did not end up the cakewalk for the Rams passing game that some expected but all three WRs caught at least five passes. The concern is the massive dropoff in snaps that Cooper Kupp saw from Week 8 to Week 10. In Week 8, Kupp played 97% of the snaps. In their next game in Week 10 (the Rams had a bye in Week 9), Kupp’s snap percentage dropped to 53%. This one game drop is made worse when you consider that this exact thing happened to Kupp last year at the halfway point and he was very ineffective moving forward. If your league’s trade deadline has not passed, it might be time to move Kupp.

Miami TEs (Durham Smythe 39, Mike Gesicki 28, Adam Shaheen 22)
Sometimes snap counts clear up situations for us and I believe that is the case for the Dolphins and their tight ends. The long and short is: You can drop Mike Gesicki. He was constantly vultured for TDs before and now he isn’t even seeing the most playing time. There was hope he’d be a target monster when the season started, now he is not worth a spot on your fantasy roster.

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New England WRs (Jakobi Meyers 57, Damiere Byrd 42, N’Keal Harry 35)
While it looks like all three of the WRs played a lot, it does not matter when the team doesn’t throw the ball much. My favorite stat from this game was that on top of throwing a TD, Jakobi Meyers was the only WR to see a target in the passing game. There will inevitably be games where the Patriots will throw the ball more, and they can’t all go to Meyers, but he is clearly the WR1 on the team right now and definitely worth a spot on any fantasy roster.

San Francisco TEs (Ross Dwelley 37, Jordan Reed 31)
Reed looked much better this week than he did in his first game back from injury, catching five balls for 62 yards. He was still on the field less than Ross Dwelley but Dwelley is there to block. When Reed is in the game, especially with the injuries the 49ers have at WR, he is in the game to catch the ball. If he can stay healthy, maybe the biggest “if” in fantasy football, he has top-10 fantasy potential.

Tampa Bay WRs (Chris Godwin 72, Mike Evans 64, Antonio Brown 39, Scotty Miller 9)
While Brown did not see the field as much as Godwin or Evans, he saw plenty of targets and we can expect to see that for the rest of the season. Brown has looked good in his first two games back, not elite, but as good as most any other WR3 in the league. He is a fantasy WR3 at his floor and will have some bigger days as he gets his legs underneath him. He hasn’t exactly killed the value for Evans for Godwin, but their ceiling certainly feels capped.

Washington RBs (JD McKissic 62, Antonio Gibson 33, Peyton Barber 10)
Last week, the world was amazed when JD McKissic saw 14 targets in the game. This week he outdid himself and saw 15 targets in Washington’s loss to Detroit. He hasn’t set the world on fire with his touches and he’s only scored one TD this season, but his volume can’t be ignored. He scored his first TD of the season this week and seems like a safe RB2 with backend RB1 upside to end the season. On top of that, his emergence hasn’t really hurt Gibson. Gibson touched the ball 17 times this week, gaining 65 yards and scoring two TDs.

*All Snap Counts are from Fantasy Data