Snap Count Observations: Week 9
Greetings fellow snap count enthusiasts. Marcus Meaney is on a bye week, which makes me the Week 9 streamer for your snap count observational needs. This is one of my personal favorite weekly articles because it points to a key and often overlooked component of evaluating a player, which is how often they are on the field. After all, statistics have shown that a player is far less likely to score fantasy points on plays where they were standing on the sideline.
Was that seemingly random player that scored a long touchdown heavily involved in the offense throughout the game or did he barely play at all? Is a player’s snap count increasing or decreasing as the season progresses or does it simply fluctuate at a somewhat predictable rate? All of these are important to consider when trying to figure out who you can and can not trust as the fantasy playoffs loom.
C.J. Prosise 55%/ Christine Michael 38%/ Alex Collins 2%
Wow. It would appear as if the woke one has gone full Rip Van Winkle and with the impending return of Thomas Rawls expected for Week 11, that may be all she wrote for this fairy-tale. On a more positive note, even with potential Rawls involvement, C.J. Prosise could continue to play a key role in passing downs and could emerge as a solid asset in PPR formats.
Steve Smith Sr. 83%/ Kamar Aiken 59%/ Breshad Perriman 50%/ Mike Wallace 50%
Steve Smith Sr. didn’t have a monster game his first week back from injury coming off of the bye but he did salvage his week with a late 2-point conversion catch. More importantly, he is no longer listed on the Ravens injury report and his snap count would seem to support that he’s healthy, which to me means that he’s back to being a weekly starter for most fantasy teams.
Terrance West 41%/ Kenneth Dixon 29%
Although Terrance West admittedly crapped your team with a sorry 15 carries for 21 yards and no TD, it is reassuring to see that he still commanded the majority of the backfields timeshare in a hard fought divisional game that the Ravens were able to win. Also worth noting was the absence of Buck Allen who had 0 carries and played primarily on special teams.
Jason Witten 96%/ Dez Bryant 70%/ Terrance Williams 60%/ Cole Beasley 40%
Speaking of players that crapped your team. Dez, oh Dez, why do you do this to us? One catch? Seriously? Unfortunately, Dez is not and has never been a high-volume receiver, which makes weeks like this, even in the best of matchups, a very real possibility. He’s still one of the best red zone weapons in the league, and coming off a 14 target week, the hapless Cleveland Browns were hyper focused on him at the expense of getting beaten by everyone else on that offense such as Cole Beasley.
Interestingly Beasley recorded a season-low 40% snap count in Week 9. I was ready to throw up a major red flag on Beasley until I spotted a trend through his first 8 games this season. In the four games that the Cowboys won by less than 8 points or lost the game his snap count is 64% on average. In the other four games where the Cowboys won decidedly that number drops all the way to 45.5%. That’s a difference of 18.5% that he’s on the field in tougher match-ups. Just food for thought.
Jack Doyle 74%/ Dwayne Allen 65%/ Erik Swoope 13%
In his two best weeks, Week 6 and 7, Jack Doyle’s snap counts in the absence of Dwayne Allen were 89% and 93%. Prior to that breakout his snap count averaged to about 57%. What I take away from this week is that yes, while his production is likely to decrease somewhat with Allen in the line-up, he should remain a useful and effective TE play going forward, and is certainly the TE to own on the Colts.
Robby Anderson 95%/ Brandon Marshall 93%/ Quincy Enunwa 76%/ Charone Peake 34%/ Jalin Marshall 29%
In a deeper league if you were rushing out to sign Jalin Marshall as a flier because of his TD last week, you may want to hold off. Despite not scoring Robby Anderson had only one less reception than Marshall and as you can see he out-snapped all WRs for the Jets.
Austin Hooper 75%/ Julio Jones 73%/ Mohamed Sanu 71%/ Taylor Gabriel 45%
If you started Hooper last week then your heart sank when Levine Toilolo was the TE that caught an early TD. Thankfully Hooper caught one very late in the game and as you can see he was on the field as much as any Falcons pass catcher. As long as Jacob Tamme remains sidelined he should be a solid weekly option for fantasy.