Week 8 Stat-Pack

Hopefully you survived a brutal week of bye’s and injuries without many scars. The fantasy regular season is approaching the halfway point – so it’s time to stack wins and cash playoff tickets. Let's dig in to the Week 8 Stat-Pack.

BYE teams (Bills, Cowboys, Jaguars, Vikings, Steelers, Chargers) were not included.

Arizona Cardinals

• Kyler Murray has 1, 6, and 10 rushing yards over his last three starts.

• Murray has scrambled just 12 times across seven games, which is ninth-most among QBs.

• For reference, Baker Mayfield has 16 scrambles in six games.

• DeAndre Hopkins has finished as a top-10 scoring receiver just once this season.

• Last year, Hopkins had seven top-10 finishes.

• Chase Edmonds set season-highs in carries (15) and snaps (69%) in Week 7.

• Edmonds is one of two RBs that have at least 80 touches and zero TDs this season.

• Still, Edmonds probably isn’t a TD regression candidate. James Conner has handled seven carries inside of the 5-yard line while Edmonds has just two inside-5 totes.

• Zach Ertz ran 19 routes in Week 7 – which was more than Rondale Moore (17).

Atlanta Falcons

• Cordarrelle Patterson’s weekly finishes over his last five games: RB4, RB19, RB1, RB17, and RB19.

• Patterson set a new season-high in snaps (73%) in Week 7.

• Over the Falcons last two games, Patterson has gotten more carries (28 to 17), ran more routes (54 to 45), and gotten more targets (14 to 5) than Mike Davis.

• Patterson’s routes run as a wide receiver: Week 1 (3), Week 2 (9), Week 3 (4), Week 4 (11), Week 5 (17), Week 7 (23).

• So, not only is Patterson getting more traditional RB work than Davis – he’s also being used way more as an actual wide receiver over his last two games.

• Calvin Ridley’s macro usage is still very strong… he’s seen at least 25% of Falcons’ targets in 4-of-5 games.

• For reference, DeAndre Hopkins has seen at least 25% of Cardinals’ targets in 2-of-7 games.

Baltimore Ravens

• Marquise Brown has now scored at least 19 FP in 5-of-7 games this year.

• Dating back to last year, Hollywood has scored at least 12.5 FP in 13 of his last 15 games (including postseason).

• Ravens RB snaps in Week 7 were: Freeman (29), Bell (22), Williams (21). Gross again.

Carolina Panthers

• Over the last three weeks, Sam Darnold has completed 52% of his passes for a pitiful 4.8 YPA and a 52 passer rating.

• We know Darnold has struggled with pressure his entire career, but his passer rating when he’s kept clean has cratered over the last three weeks: 58.5 (last).

• Robby Anderson has 27 targets over his last three games.

• He’s turned those targets into 55 yards.

• Chuba Hubbard continues to not get the same passing down usage that CMC gets and Mike Davis got last season. This past week, Royce Freeman (22) ran more routes than Hubbard (18).

Chicago Bears

• Justin Fields ranks last in sack rate (14.4%), last in passer rating (61.8), last in completions (57.3%), last in on-target throws from a clean pocket (67.4%), and last in EPA/dropback (-0.39). Yikes. It’s over for A-Rob and Mooney.

• Over the last three seasons, the Buccaneers have allowed over 100 rushing yards to three players: Chris Carson (2019), Dalvin Cook (2020)… and Khalil Herbert.

Cincinnati Bengals

• After everyone freaked out and called the Bengals morons for not throwing a ton to start the year, Cincy has completely reversed course. It’s almost like Joe Burrow was coming back from major knee surgery!

• In Weeks 1-3, the Bengals pass rate in neutral situations (game within a score, 1st-3rd quarter) was 55%. That was the sixth-lowest rate.

• In Weeks 4-6, the Bengals neutral pass rate went up to 65% (seventh-highest).

• Last week against the Ravens? The Bengals went 77% pass-heavy in neutral situations. I think Joe Burrow is back.

• Ja’Marr Chase has the most receiving yards by any rookie wide receiver in their first seven games (754)… but he could also get 0 yards next week and still have the most yards through eight games all-time, too (H/T Rich Hribar).

Cleveland Browns

• D’Ernest Johnson was awesome on TNF, but it’s Nick Chubb time…

• Back in 2019, Chubb was the RB5 (18.7 fantasy points per game) in Weeks 1-9 before Kareem Hunt’s suspension was up in Week 10.

• In that span, he played on 74% of the Browns' snaps, handled 20 or more touches in 7-of-8 games, and finished worse than RB25 once.

• Odell Beckham has played 28 career games with the Browns. He’s gone over 100 yards twice.

• OBJ has scored over 16 FP in just 6-of-28 games in Cleveland.

• The Browns have gone with a full-blown TE by committee over the last three weeks with Austin Hooper involved on just 53% of the passing plays followed by David Njoku (48%) and Harrison Bryant (27%).

Denver Broncos

• Over their last five games, Melvin Gordon has seen 54 carries to Javonte Williams’ 42.

• Williams has 20 targets to Gordon’s 14 in this span.

• The duo has also split goal-line work basically right down the middle in this span, with Williams getting 10 snaps inside-the-five while Gordon has 8.

Detroit Lions

• D’Andre Swift has finished worse than RB20 once this entire season and now has four top-10 weekly finishes.

• Right now, Swift is on pace for 102 receptions and 950 receiving yards.

• Only Najee Harris (7.7) is averaging more targets per game than Swift (7.4) among RBs.

• D’Andre Swift is averaging 13.3 PPR fantasy points per game as a receiver alone, which would be good enough to make him the RB19 and the WR34 by FPG.

• For even more perspective, Swift’s 13.3 FPG as a pass catcher is in the same ballpark as CMC’s 14.7 FPG he averages since the start of 2019.

Green Bay Packers

• Over the last three years, Aaron Jones has averaged 29.1 FPG when Davante Adams is out and a much more normal 16.5 FPG when Adams plays.

• When Adams misses, Jones averages 4.7 receptions, 57.9 yards, and 0.7 TDs on 6.3 targets per game.

• When Adams plays, Jones averages 3.0 receptions, 20.1 yards, and 0.1 TDs on 3.9 targets per game.

• This is in addition to Jones getting all of his normal carries when Adams is out. Jones gets 14.2 carries per game with Adams and 14.9 per game without him.

Houston Texans

• Texans offensive points scored in Davis Mills’ starts: 9, 0, 22, 3, and 3.

• Houston has scored on just 15% of their drives over the last five weeks. For reference, the league average is 38%.

• Houston has 52 drives over the last five weeks. Five have reached the red-zone.

Indianapolis Colts

• Is it finally happening? Did Frank Reich actually see the light? Jonathan Taylor set season-highs in snaps (69%) and carries (18) in Week 7.

• Taylor also led the backfield in routes (21) by a massive margin over Nyheim Hines (8). Taylor has now run more routes than Hines in four-straight games.

• Taylor leads the league in carries from inside-the-five with 15. The next closest back is Derrick Henry with 10 and Damien Harris / Ezekiel Elliott with 9.

Kansas City Chiefs

• Over the last two weeks with CEH out, Darrel Williams has handled 27 of the 30 RB carries and has run a route on 66% of the pass plays.

• Williams is seeing 8+ men in the box on just 9.6% of his carries, the fourth-lowest rate in the league.

Las Vegas Raiders

• Just how good has Derek Carr been? Well, only six QBs are averaging more EPA per pass than him – Stafford, Prescott, Murray, Brady, Mahomes, and Cousins.

• Carr’s passer rating from a clean pocket is 114.7 – also seventh-best.

Los Angeles Rams

• Only Terry McLaurin and Hollywood Brown have more targets of 15 or more air yards than Cooper Kupp (23).

• Kupp leads all WRs in targets inside of the 10-yard line with 9.

• CeeDee Lamb leads all WRs in targets when the QB is blitzed (25) followed by Kupp with 24.

• Sony Michel continues to not be a factor in this backfield with Darrell Henderson playing on 88% of Rams’ plays in Week 7.

• Over the full year, Henderson ranks third in snap rate (81%) behind only Najee Harris (86%) and Alvin Kamara (83%) among RBs.

Miami Dolphins

• Mike Gesicki is the TE3 in FPG (16.9) over the last five weeks.

• With Malcolm Brown (quad, I.R.) missing most of last week, Myles Gaskin got a season-high 15 carries and was heavily involved in the passing game as he ran a route on 55% of the Dolphins passing plays.

• Salvon Ahmed is averaging 2.7 YPC, which is 63rd out of 64 RBs. Only Phillip Lindsay (2.6 YPC) is worse.

New England Patriots

• Outside of two down games against the Saints and Buccaneers league-best run defenses, Harris has gotten at least 14 carries in five of his 7 games.

• And, in those five games, Harris has put up 16.4 FPG – which would tie him as the RB15 with Leonard Fournette.

• The Patriots get the Chargers next up that has been cracked for a league-high 5.39 YPC.

New Orleans Saints

• Outside of the one blip in the radar in Week 2 where he had 8 carries for 5 yards, Alvin Kamara has very much been the guy we drafted him to be.

• Kamara’s weekly finishes so far: RB10 > RB39 > RB10 > RB26 > RB5 > RB1.

• Kamara has a 22% target share – which leads all RBs.

• Adam Trautman has completely usurped Juwan Johnson as the Saints top tight end. Over the last three weeks, he’s run 65 routes to Johnson’s 25 (out of 105 plays).

New York Giants

• It’s a tiny sample, but the Giants offense has massive splits with Saquon Barkley on / off the field per SIS…

• With Barkley on the field, their offense has averaged 8.2 yards per pass play and 4.5 yards per run play.

• Without Barkley, the Giants have averaged just 6.6 yards per pass and 3.5 yards per run.

New York Jets

• The Jets came out of their bye and made it a point to get Michael Carter way more involved…

• Carter got his usual 11 carries, but made a huge jump in overall playing time as his 72% snap rate easily marked a season-high.

• Tevin Coleman being made a healthy scratch helped, but the big change was that the Jets played Carter (28 routes) on way more passing plays than Ty Johnson (16).

• In Weeks 1-5, Carter ran a route on just 30% of the Jets pass plays.

• In Week 7, that jumped to 65%.

• Out of 47 pass plays, Jamison Crowder (43) led the Jets in routes followed by Corey Davis (32), Elijah Moore (29), and Denzel Mims (16) in Week 7.

Philadelphia Eagles

• Jalen Hurts’ fantasy points by quarter (H/T John Daigle)…

• First quarter: 33.8

• Second: 26.3

• Third: 38.6

• Fourth: 75.9

• As expected, Dallas Goedert got a massive role with Zach Ertz now out in the desert. Goedert ran a route on a massive 88% of Eagles pass plays.

• For reference, Darren Waller leads all TEs in pass play involvement (90%).

• Goedert lined up in the slot or as an outside wide receiver on 70% of his routes.

San Francisco 49ers

• The 49ers came out of their bye and continued to let Elijah Mitchell run as the unquestioned featured back.

• Mitchell absolutely shredded the Colts in the first quarter – he had nine carries for 80 yards and a score – and then HC Kyle Shanhan inexplicably only gave him 9 more totes for the remainder of the game.

• Mitchell played on 66% of the team’s snaps on SNF while Ja’Mycal Hasty worked in for a 34% snap share in his return from an ankle injury.

• Mitchell also led the backfield in routes (17) ahead of Hasty (12).

• In his four starts, Mitchell has played on at least 60% of 49ers snaps in every game and has handled a monster 85% of the carries.

Seattle Seahawks

• Freddie Swain (6) out-targeted DK Metcalf (5) and Tyler Lockett (3) on MNF. Lol.

• Seahawks RB snaps this past week: Collins (39%), Penny (36%), Homer (21%).

• Penny actually led the backfield in routes (11) followed by Homer (10) then Collins (4).

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

• Ok, running QBs are cheat codes… etc etc etc… except for Tom Brady.

• Brady is now the QB2 in FPG (25.2) behind Allen (25.7).

• Brady is on pace for 51 TDs – which would be second-most all-time behind Peyton Manning’s 2013 season (55). Brady needs 35 TDs over his next 10 games to break the record.

Tennessee Titans

• Julio Jones was still very limited this past week as he ran a route on just 19 of the team’s 34 pass plays.

• Darrynton Evans made his 2021 debut and played just six snaps while Jermy McNichols got 10. Evans should take over as the No. 2 in the immediate short-term.

Washington

• Terry McLaurin is tied for the league-lead in targets of 15 or more air yards with Hollywood Brown (24).

• McLaurin has seen a whopping 48.6% of the team’s air yards, which is the second-highest percentage right behind Brandin Cooks (48.8%).

• We’re just going to have to live with the boom/bust games as Taylor Heinicke has been very up and down.

• McLaurin’s weekly finishes are the definition of a roller coaster: WR56 > WR3 > WR43 > WR4 > WR51 > WR60 > WR5.

• Don’t be surprised if Washington just shuts down Antonio Gibson at some point. He’s played on just 40% of the snaps over the last two weeks.

• Meanwhile. JD McKissic has been on the field for 63% of the snaps.