Strength in Numbers: Actionable Week 10 Stats

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. Miles Sanders got hurt early and was ruled out quickly thereafter. Jonathon Brooks was inactive. Raheem Blackshear played two snaps. That paved the way for Chuba Hubbard — fresh off a contract extension — to carry the ball 28 times for 153 yards and a TD and get six targets (4/16/0 result). Brooks will likely be active with Sanders presumably set to miss time, but the Panthers seem to love Hubbard, and he’s really given them no reason to go in a different direction. Brooks remains a frustrating hold, while Hubbard is a clear fantasy starter.

2. Jalin Hyatt stepped into the WR3 role with Darius Slayton concussed, but he had just four targets on 37 pass attempts — the story of his career so far. He’s not relevant for fantasy. Tyrone Tracy Jr. fumbled the game away, but he out-carried Devin Singletary 18-8 and ran 26 routes on 42 dropbacks, further solidifying himself as a three-down workhorse for the Giants. The role for Tracy is immensely valuable; it’s just a question of how valuable 15+ touches in a poor offense is, which is similar to the Chuba Hubbard question.

3. Jalen Coker out-snapped David Moore this week, and he played some in 2-WR sets, which is pretty important with Adam Thielen potentially returning soon. Jonathan Mingo‘s exit paves the way for Coker to operate in an every-down role without Thielen, but he will need to fend off Moore for outside WR snaps once Thielen returns and starts playing in the slot. We’ll see what happens, but it would be sensible for the Panthers to see what they have in their exciting rookie UDFA considering their season is over from a competitive standpoint.

4. Kendrick Bourne‘s snap share had increased each week he has been healthy this year (except for the past two games where he played exactly 78% in each). On Sunday, he played zero snaps basically out of nowhere. It’s unclear if he was being disciplined for something off the field or if they simply phased him out, but it’s awfully strange considering they treated Bourne as basically an every-down player in Week 9. Ja’Lynn Polk played more in Week 10 than the previous game with 10 routes on 29 dropbacks, but K.J. Osborn was the real beneficiary with 16 routes. This is an annoying WR corps week-to-week outside of DeMario Douglas.

5. JaMycal Hasty has apparently beaten out Antonio Gibson for the RB2 role. PFF’s Nathan Jahnke noted that Gibson’s snaps were in the fourth quarter once the game had been salted away. However, the bigger story is that Rhamondre Stevenson has now played at least 70% of snaps in three straight games, and he got 19 carries. The Pats’ offense isn’t very exciting, but Stevenson is a volume-based fantasy starter right now.