Snap Count Observations from Week 11 (Fantasy Football)
The fantasy playoffs are so close and it’s time to make that final push to land the #1 seed or the final spot or whatever takes to get you that #FootClanTitle. With just two weeks left in the typical fantasy regular season, trade deadlines have likely passed and waivers are starting to run dry. This is still no time to get complacent. Use Week 11’s snap counts to judge which players deserve a spot in your last lineups and which players are safe to hit that drop button.
100% Club
Every week, I like to highlight any RB/WR/TE that plays every offensive snap for their team. The lists have not been long this season but this week we at least get a pleasant surprise, as Dallas Goedert was the only player to make the club in Week 11. Goedert was all but ignored in his first game back in Week 10 but bounced back with a great fantasy week and played all 68 snaps for the Eagles in Week 11.
Week 11 Snap Count Observations
Atlanta RBs (Brian Hill 26, Todd Gurley 23)
While neither RB had much fantasy value in Week 11, one of them still has name recognition. Gurley looked good to start the year but his snap counts have fluctuated and he is far more TD-dependent than you really want from your fantasy RBs. The Falcons got thoroughly beat down in this game and Hill ended up playing more snaps than Gurley. It’s not a great situation heading into the fantasy playoffs.
Baltimore TEs (Mark Andrews 56, Luke Willson 11)
When Nick Boyle went down for the year, it created a perfect storm for Mark Andrews. The Ravens have run a ton of two-TE sets over the last few years and they no longer had two TEs. As a result, Andrews played the most snaps (56) and highest snap percentage (86%) that he has played in the last two seasons. While you never want to see a player hurt, the timing could not be better for Andrews to play more. He has been hot and cold this season but is entering fantasy crunch-time on a top-3 tear.
Denver WRs (Tim Patrick 54, Jerry Jeudy 41, KJ Hamler 38, DaeSean Hamilton 15)
Patrick was injured a few weeks ago and all three of the Broncos young WRs had a few moments in the sunshine while he missed time. Now that he is back, the WR1 role in this offense looks firmly in his pocket. He caught five balls for 119 yards this week after another 10+ fantasy point performance in Week 10. Patrick remains a sneaky WR3 with a very nice upside as the season winds down.
Green Bay RBs (Aaron Jones 30, Jamaal Williams 30)
Aaron Jones had another solid fantasy day because that’s what he does, but why in the world do the Packers insist on splitting time like this? It was the most literal 50/50 split one could imagine, with each playing 30 of 60 total snaps. Jones out-touched Williams 14-6, but we can only dream of what could be if Jones played 60-75% of the snaps regularly.
Indianapolis Colts RBs (Jonathan Taylor 47, Nyheim Hines 28, Jordan Wilkins 9)
Just when the entire fantasy world was ready to write Taylor off, he has a good game and leads this backfield in snaps, touches, and fantasy points. Outside of the skewed playing time, he also touched the ball 26 times, to just 14 by both Hines and Wilkins combined. Maybe he is finally over his ankle injury and will be featured moving forward? I wouldn’t hold my breath but it’s a step in the right direction.
Kansas City RBs (Clyde Edwards-Helaire 40, Le’Veon Bell 20, Darrell Williams 20)
It appears that the downfall of CEH was not quite as imminent as some had supposed. Even while splitting time, he has led this backfield in snaps in every game this year and is still the RB10 on the season. The larger concern here is for Bell, who played the same amount of snaps in his 4th game with the team as Darrell Williams. He did score his first TD and it looks like the coaching staff is trying to get him more involved, but he is no threat to Edwards-Helaire at this point.
Los Angeles Chargers RBs (Kalen Ballage 55, Troymaine Pope 16, Joshua Kelley 11)
I’m not writing this to show that Ballage is an asset…those words would just make 2020 too real for me…this is more about the DOWNFALL of Joshua Kelley. For three weeks, it really looked like Kelley was going to be the new Melvin Gordon and then wheels just fell off. His snap counts have dwindled and he is now playing firmly behind an unheard-of UDFA as the RB3. Justin Jackson will be back, Austin Ekeler might be back, and Kelley should not be rostered in any redraft league.
Las Vegas WRs (Nelson Agholor 44, Henry Ruggs 32, Hunter Renfrow 20, Bryan Edwards 9)
Speaking of 2020 being too real…Nelson Agholor is a legit WR, both for his team and for fantasy football. He has hit 13+ fantasy points in five of his last seven games, and the two misses were due to weather and a Raiders blowout where he wasn’t needed much. He’s played 65% of the total snaps for the Raiders on the year, despite not really winning his job until Week 4. Agholor is likely sitting on your league waivers right now and you can plug him into your WR3 spot and have a safe play with legitimate WR1 upside, especially over the next couple of weeks.
Miami RBs (Salvon Ahmed 43, Patrick Laird 17, Matt Brieda 7)
People are starting to criticize how Brain Flores is using Tua Tagovailoa but his RB usage is even more strange. I’m all for playing the best players but his use of the team’s acquisitions is puzzling. They signed Jordan Howard and he basically refused to play him. They cut him this past week. They traded for Matt Breida and he has only played 17% of the snaps on the season. When Myles Gaskin got hurt, they traded for DeAndre Washington. He has played a total of 14 snaps since then. Instead, a UDFA that backed-up Gaskin in college has dominated the snaps in Gaskins’ absence. Gaskin should return from the IR in the next week or two and it will be interesting to see if he takes his full workload back or if Ahmed steals some work.
Philadelphia WRs (Travis Fulgham 65, Jalen Reagor 63, Greg Ward 46, Alshon Jeffery 5)
The biggest worry most had for the emergence of Fulgham and Reagor was what would happen when Jeffery came back. Two things immediately jumped out at me when looking at this snap count:
- The Eagles are running a lot of 3-WR sets while Zach Ertz is hurt.
- Alshon Jeffery is not close to 100% yet, but there is room for him when he is.
Because of the injury to Ertz, it appears that all three will be able to play enough to make some noise in fantasy. The real question lies when Jeffery hits 100% and Ertz returns. Will the Eagles go back to 12-personnel? Will Jeffery take snaps from the rookies? It’s hard to say. The good news is none of those things should come to pass immediately and the Eagles have Seattle this week.