Strength in Numbers: Actionable Week 9 Stats

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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. Bhayshul Tuten didn’t practice all week with an ankle injury but ended up playing on Thursday night. His final snap and touch rates were depressed because of the blowout game script, but Tuten was still the clear RB1 for Jacksonville in Week 9 despite the injury. At the time of Tuten’s last carry, he had gotten 12 of 15 team RB carries, though he was ineffective with 29 yards. Chris Rodriguez Jr. scored a goal-line touchdown in garbage time, but he’s now converted just two of six carries inside the 5-yard line into touchdowns this year. Tuten, on the other hand, has scored three touchdowns on four inside-the-5 carries, and he punched in a goal-line touchdown on Thursday one play after Rodriguez got stuffed. Jacksonville has often seemed committed to Rodriguez as its short-yardage back, but this is at least something I’m watching moving forward given how much more effective Tuten has been near the goal line.

2. The Ravens have been creative with their Josh Cuevas usage in recent weeks, lining Cuevas up at left guard before giving him a target and dialing up a screen for him last week as well. This week, Matthew Hibner was back as the TE2 in Baltimore, out-snapping Cuevas 30-9 and out-routing him 6-3. Even Nick Vannett played more snaps than Cuevas. It’s certainly weird to scale back the rookie TE’s usage like this, so we’ll see if it sticks, but it seems like Cuevas perhaps isn’t as ingrained as a consistent weekly option for them as his recent usage may have suggested.

3. Mike Gesicki played a season-high 63.5% of snaps in Week 8 with Erick All Jr. out, running a route on 70.4% of the Bengals’ dropbacks. On Sunday, with the Bengals in positive game script, Gesicki’s snap participation sank back down to 47%, though he still ran 22 routes on 32 dropbacks. Despite his fortunate touchdown run this season — which ended in Week 9 — Gesicki is still not a fantasy starter.

4. With Cam Skattebo out and Tyrone Tracy Jr. on injured reserve, the Giants turned to Devin Singletary as their three-down workhorse. Singletary played 93% of snaps, ran 27 routes on 36 dropbacks, got three targets (11.1% share), and handled 21 of 24 team RB carries. Unfortunately, Singletary only turned those 21 carries into 31 yards, while RB2 Greg Desrosiers had three carries for 20 yards. Desrosiers just signed with the Giants in late October but could push for more work in Week 10 given Singletary’s ineffectiveness if Skattebo remains out.

5. Elijah Mitchell still played on pass downs a lot, running 16 routes to Saquon Barkley‘s 15 and out-targeting Saquon 4-1, but Barkley got 13 of 16 RB carries. The Eagles have a much-needed Week 10 bye for Saquon, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see his role spike after the week off. It’s still hard to be overly enthusiastic about Barkley, however, given the overall offensive outlook with Joe Milton III under center. The Eagles averaged 3.3 yards per play on Sunday.