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John Laghezza's fantasy football RB breakouts watch for Week 4 based on snap count risers/fallers in 2025. Whose usage and fantasy value is trending up or down?
Week 4 means somehow a quarter of the football season is about to be in the books, even though it feels like we just started yesterday. Every NFL slate shakes up the Etch-A-Sketch, rewriting team trajectories and our fantasy futures with them. At the end of the day, though, some things do stay the same -- regardless of format or flavor, touches, targets, and opportunities rule the day. Talent mostly be darned (especially at RB), opportunities have always been and WILL continue to reign supreme as the driving fantasy commodity.
There's something so pure about playing time analysis. The same coordinators, coaches, and owners who spend the week lying through their teeth get left with no choice but to show their cards via player deployment once the whistle blows -- and that's where we come in. Every week, I'll be right here at RotoBaller, breaking down the weekend's most impactful changes in utilization and what it means to fantasy gamers going forward.
Outside of James Conner, the RB position has stayed incredibly healthy again so far in 2025. Even the majority of clear backups aren't widely available, pressing supply to the point of speculation. It's killing me at times, but there's no replacing due diligence, digging through whatever granular snap, route, target, and touch data I can find. Last week, we landed on Cam Skattebo, so let's stay hot!
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Usage Bumps I'm Buying
Ollie Gordon II, RB - Miami Dolphins
Sometimes, fantasy is as much about the defense behind our players as anything in the offensive box score. Luckily for Ollie Gordon II and everybody on the Dolphins, they'll all remain viable in weekly formats for the second-half garbage time alone.
The list of stats Miami's ranking 30th or worse in stretches across all phases and frankly is too long to list -- but includes all the classics like points allowed (32.3), yards per play (6.1), and success rate (43.4%). Sheesh. Even with a lead, Mike McDaniel knows they need to press the pace.
Few players look better than starter De'Von Achane out of the gate, so I'm not predicting a flipping in South Florida or anything. That said, Achane plus Gordon account for 95%+ of all the Dolphins' RB touches in 2025, and the rookie just eclipsed one-third of team snaps for the first time in Week 3. Good fantasy advice: take immediate action anytime you can secure half an exclusive duopoly.
Sitting at just 7.0 air yards per target and leading the league in RB targets tells me Tua Tagovailoa may very well be hearing footsteps, seeing ghosts, or both ... who knows? What we can say is Miami is playing right at the line of scrimmage, and there's tons of PPR goodness in the backfield. It's a perfect situation where being a week early rather than a day late could change the course of a season.
Ollie Gordon II gets the Dolphins on the board first! 👀
Anyone have him to score the first TD +3300 at @FanDuelCanada? 🤑#PhinsUp pic.twitter.com/C0Hv202xEM
— TSN EDGE (@TSN_Edge) September 19, 2025
Tahj Brooks, RB - Cincinnati Bengals
As a Chase Brown backer starting early last summer, the pendulum sure reversed with full force to knock me right on my backside. If you told me this August that Brown would be leading the NFL in team rush share (77%) through three games, I'd probably be doing my best "River Dance" impersonation before you were done. Spoiler alert, there's zero happiness on this end of the dance floor.
How bad is the run game in Cincy, you ask? As much as it pains me to type out, Brown has played inexplicably bad, boasting the league's worst yards per carry (2.0) by over 50 percent! Brown also leads the NFL in negative rush rate (29.8%) and is yet to break off a single explosive carry with nearly 50 on the ledger so far. Yikes. Someone call a doctor.
Joe Burrow to rookie Tahj Brooks on the sideline. The sixth-round pick is having a solid training camp so far. Bengals might have found a potential surprise contributor way down in the draft. pic.twitter.com/ZOMb4Zhz6N
— John Breech (@johnbreech) August 5, 2025
Tahj Brooks finally got the call, earning 27 snaps with just five touches in his pro debut. However, while the volume and production underwhelmed (5-17-0; 0-0-0), the initial playing time signal could prove to be more than noise over time. Remember, we especially love his skills in the passing game if the Bengals plan on giving up 30+ PPG all season (see below).
Noteworthy Usage Downturns
RJ Harvey, RB - Denver Broncos
Injuries breathed life into parts of a quickly deteriorating rookie RB1 narrative, but unfortunately, the RJ Harvey drafters still find no relief. The most frustrating part has probably been the fact that Denver's rookie looks explosive, toting the rock with forced missed tackle ability plus competence in the pass game. Sometimes you get stuck behind the boring vet, and it is what it is.
I'm not dropping Harvey anywhere, but let's be honest -- especially for those teams off to a 0-3 start, how can you not entertain offers to help win right now? And if you're 1-2, for example, where's your confidence level in starting a running back coming off season-lows in snaps (18), snap share (27.1%), and most importantly, touches (five)?
Projecting Harvey for anything more than a handful of fantasy points right now borders on malpractice.
At the end of the day, it boils down to this. If and when Bo Nix hits his stride to elevate this entire offense, it will serve as the determining factor for whether Harvey returns value in 2025.
Seeing the talent and subsequent ceiling makes it difficult to admit, but we could easily see this exact scenario last longer than our fantasy squads can in the standings. Maybe back-to-back losses spark a change, but it feels like wishcasting to me.
Dont'e Thornton Jr., WR - Las Vegas Raiders
Rookie Dont'e Thornton Jr.'s stock continues to nosedive after a third straight game failing to haul in three receptions. I'll admit to the whiff; my bullish antennae shot up after what can only be described as an elite 86% route participation rate in Week 2. Well, that's why nuance matters at a granular level, because it's not looking good under the hood.
Thornton's usage works in direct accordance with the Raiders' 11 personnel packages, except he's not even soaking up all of Vegas' slot targets -- those go to Jakobi Meyers.
So not only will Thornton not sniff the field in two-WR sets (he has just a single route run from 12 or 21 personnel), when the Raiders do use a third wideout, he gets bumped to the outside. With Tre Tucker breaking out and Jack Bech increasing snap share, I'd bail on Thornton outright in all formats.
Since I can't get to every player and know for certain there's at least some deep leaguers out there, here's the full list of names that popped in either direction when scouring the latest utilization logs.
Honorable Mentions - Usage Risers
- Parker Washington, WR - JAX
- Bhayshul Tuten, RB - JAX
- Chris Rodriguez Jr., RB - WAS
- KaVontae Turpin, WR - DAL
- Zavier Scott, RB - MIN
- Dontayvion Wicks, WR - GB
- Blake Corum, RB - LAR
- Adonai Mitchell, WR - IND
- Justice Hill, RB - BAL
- Kendre Miller, RB - NO
- Isaiah Bond, WR - CLE
- Devin Singletary, RB - NYG
- Jahan Dotson, WR - PHI
- Chris Moore, WR - WAS
Honorable Mentions - Usage Fallers
- Isiah Pacheco, RB - KC
- Travis Hunter, WR - JAX
- Hunter Renfrow, WR - CAR
- Jaylin Noel, WR - HOU
- Josh Palmer, WR - BUF
- Tyler Johnson, WR - NYJ
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