Strength in Numbers: Actionable Week 8 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. Josh Jacobs was reportedly limited to 30-35 snaps in Week 7 in his season debut. The Packers revved up his workload on Thursday, with Jacobs playing 71% of snaps, running 15 routes on 41 dropbacks, and handling 21 of 25 team RB carries. Jacobs also had six targets (14.6% target share), catching all six for 13 yards and a touchdown. While Pierre Strong Jr. handled snaps in the 2-minute drill, Jacobs took the bulk of third-down snaps. Multiple other women have come forward with serious accusations against Jacobs, so we’ll see where this goes from here. But if he’s on the field, it appears he’s back to being a workhorse for the Packers.

2. Chuba Hubbard‘s route participation has been strong all season long, although the targets haven’t followed (7.8% seasonal target share entering Week 8). That changed on Thursday, with Chuba finishing second on the team with eight targets (19.5% target share). Carolina had only thrown 11.8% of its targets to running backs entering Week 8 — perhaps notable given the change in play-caller to Brad Idzik this year, but still far below where Bryce Young has been historically. Hubbard remains a clear every-down workhorse for Carolina, and he ran 25 routes on 47 dropbacks in Week 8. We can’t expect eight targets every week, but I would think the pass-catching volume continues to be better than it was in Weeks 1-7.

3. Christian Watson had a brief hospital trip before eventually returning in Week 8. Watson seemed fine, but it’s a little interesting that J. Michael Sturdivant out-routed Bo Melton with Green Bay down Watson for part of the game.

4. The Buccaneers completed zero passes in Week 8 — the first team to win a game without completing a single pass since 1974. They ran the ball 56 times. Bucky Irving had 27 carries; Kenny Gainwell had 25. Notably, Sean Tucker did not play a snap even though Gainwell entered the week as questionable. The carry split has been significantly tighter between Irving and Gainwell over the past two games, but they’ve had a staggering 101 team carries over that stretch. The Bucs are winning games leaning on their ground game, but obviously the last two weeks have been extreme scripts. Expect more normalcy moving forward, even if they remain a run-first team.

5. The Vikings used DeeJay Dallas in a third-down role in Week 1; they returned to that on Sunday. Per PFF’s Nathan Jahnke, Dallas played nine of 10 third-down snaps for Minnesota. Aaron Jones out-snapped Dallas 21-17, while Dallas out-snapped Jordan Mason 17-15 in total. Mason still got eight of 14 team RB carries, though he only managed 20 yards on those looks. Jones led the backfield in routes with seven, but that was still only a 21.2% route participation rate. He got the only two team RB targets. This was already a messy backfield with just Mason and Jones splitting time, and it would become even muddier if Dallas continues taking clear pass downs.