We’re going to get a lot of stuff wrong, but sifting through usage metrics can help us work through what matters and what doesn’t. That’s the goal of this article: to break down the most actionable takeaways from each week in a concise, numbers-filled format and work through what’s important. Let’s get right to it:
1. Amon-Ra St. Brown didn’t practice all week and needed a pregame workout to confirm he’d be able to play. Despite that, he was able to play 91.9% of snaps, run 35 routes on 36 dropbacks, and earn nine targets on 34 pass attempts for a 26.5% share. Honestly, it was a very impressive effort from St. Brown off the Thanksgiving injury, and we have no concerns for him moving forward.
2. The Lions turned to Anthony Firkser as their TE1 in Week 14, with Firkser out-routing Ross Dwelley 21-5. Each TE earned one target. With Brock Wright now on injured reserve, Firkser will presumably be Detroit’s TE1 for the foreseeable future. He is clearly still not fantasy-relevant.
3. CeeDee Lamb was concussed in the second half, thrusting Ryan Flournoy into a full-time role. Flournoy ran 37 routes on 54 dropbacks in total and led Dallas with 13 targets, which he turned into a 9/115/1 line. Flournoy has been impressive when called upon this year, earning 0.22 targets per route run at 8.3 yards per target. Lamb has a long week to get cleared, but Flournoy would be the WR2 in Week 15 if he’s out with KaVontae Turpin seeing an expanded role as well.
4. Jay Glazer reported pregame that both Adam Thielen and Marquez Valdes-Scantling could play a lot in their Steelers debuts in Week 14. Roman Wilson ended up being a healthy scratch. Thielen finished second among PIT WRs in snap rate (48.1%) but was out-routed by both MVS and Calvin Austin III (16 each; Thielen ran 11 routes). Austin had two targets, while both Thielen and MVS had one. The real story was DK Metcalf consolidating volume with a 35.3% target share. We’ll see whether this continues — he likely actually has more target competition now if the only change is Thielen and MVS over Wilson — but perhaps the Steelers’ unhappiness with their WR corps leads to them force-feeding Metcalf more.
5. A first-half Darnell Washington injury led to Pat Freiermuth running 22 routes on 35 dropbacks, though he only caught two of three targets for nine yards. Freiermuth out-routed Jonnu Smith 22-12, and Jonnu only ran 12 routes on 27 snaps.
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