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Injuries continue to be a major factor in the fantasy game this year, and we saw a few big performances from undrafted players in Week 6 because of it. We also saw more of the same stuff with the usual suspects dominating on the field and paying off their big draft day prices.
Before we look forward to Week 7, let's take another few minutes to look back at what happened in Week 6. There was no shortage of interesting happenings that will be reflected in the data dump below.
Follow me on the journey through the Week 6 data.
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Here is the team offensive plays breakdown data. The Cowboys led the way with 91 plays run in a wild overtime game in Foxborough. We see a huge disparity between their neutral rush rate and their actual rush rate there, which is very notable. They were just not in many neutral situations on Sunday. The data doesn't suggest that they'll suddenly get away from wanting to run the ball a bunch, it's just what they had to do this week. It is encouraging that they can have that much success when forced to the air; it was an encouraging week for CeeDee Lamb after a few duds recently. The Chargers were also forced into a game script where they had to take to the air, running pass plays 80% of the time to lead the slate.
Not many surprises at the top in terms of the teams that ran the ball. The Ravens maintained a lead and ran the ball 51% of the time, the Colts stayed on the ground against the horrible Texans team, and the Cardinals weren't given much of a reason to be aggressive by the Browns offense. The deep passing teams stayed similar, with the Bears, Raiders, and Eagles consistently showing up with high deep pass rates this year. Carson Wentz went deep a bit more often this week, and that may continue now with T.Y. Hilton back in action.
Snap Count Leaders for Fantasy Football
Another crown for a Washington tight end. Ricky Seals-Jones had a great fantasy day on Sunday but did most of his damage on one long touchdown catch. The leading wide receivers are usual suspects here as well, as we have seen DeVonta Smith and Adam Thielen on top of this list all year long. Emmanuel Sanders continues to play a ton of snaps and led the Bills in receiving on Monday night. He's proved to be a very valuable late-round (often undrafted) wide receiver. Jaylen Waddle popped off for a huge game and was on the field a ton in London, racking up a 93% snap share.
Some more disappointing names here: James Washington (11% despite the loss of JuJu Smith-Schuster), Alexander Mattison (14% with the return of Dalvin Cook), and Jerick McKinnon (28% ceding most of the RB duties to Darrel Williams).
Quarterbacks Data for Fantasy Football
Derek Carr and Carson Wentz were quite efficient, leading the week in yards per attempt despite both coming in under 30 attempts (and just 20 for Wentz). Joe Burrow looked sharp again with a strong 9.3 yards per attempt in a smash win, and his 29 attempts in the game where they won by so much is a bit encouraging for teams with Bengals pass catchers. Josh Allen threw the ball 47 times, so a monster fantasy game was inevitable there.
The most disappointing name here might be Geno Smith, whose 3.2 average depth of pass attempt was the worst on the week. It was a game against the tough Steelers defense, so things could get better, but it's certainly not what you want to see if you have DK Metcalf or Tyler Lockett on your squad. Check out the rest of the data to derive more insights.
Touches Data for Fantasy Football
Dalvin Cook is fully healthy and the Vikings let him rip, as he touched the ball 32 times and gave Mattison very little to do on Sunday. Najee Harris had another huge volume game with 24 carries and six catches, and the Leonard Fournette thing continues to happen. It seems like Lenny is a true workhorse RB right now. Darrel Williams had a really surprising 24 touches there, and the Chiefs weren't even ahead by a ton for most of this game, scoring a bunch of points late. That may prove to be Williams' best fantasy game of the year, but he definitely seems like a guy you want to start next week now.
Khalil Herbert took advantage of his big opportunity with Damien Williams out, rushing 19 times and averaging 5.1 yards per carry, all the while not being a zero in the passing game like some people feared he might be. Williams should be back next week though, so it will be interesting to see how the Bears proceed.
It's helpful here to search by a team abbreviation and see how each team distributed their touches. Note that I leave off players with less than five touches entirely for space's sake.
Receivers/Tight Ends Data for Fantasy Football
Adam Thielen was the Vikings receiver you wanted to start in Week 6, but Justin Jefferson took the target crown with a huge mark of 15 targets, catching up eight of them. Courtland Sutton, D.J. Moore, Emmanuel Sanders, Brandin Cooks, and Allen Robinson were the air yards leaders this week, all while being just okay for fantasy purposes. We don't really have to talk about Cooper Kupp much, but he posted another monster game with a 40% target share, hauling in nine of his 12 targets for 130 yards and two touchdowns. I'll leave the rest to you.
Targets Data for Fantasy Football
Here's the updated target share progression table. This is best used by searching for team abbreviations and seeing how things are shaking out.
A.J. Brown probably found himself on many fantasy benches this week after the disappointing start to the year and the late questionable designation on Sunday afternoon. He had a really encouraging week though, with a huge 39% target share in a fast-paced game against Buffalo. The Giants seem to be producing a really nice fantasy score at the wide receiver position every week, but it's always a different guy. This week was Sterling Shepard, who took advantage of the lack of other options due to injury, backing up a big receiving game on his 39% target share. Mark Andrews was Lamar Jackson's favorite target even with the debut of Rashod Bateman, getting himself a 35% target share and having a big fantasy game.
Jakobi Meyers continues to see big opportunities but just isn't able to post the big fantasy day, he had a huge 33% target share in this one and had a long touchdown called back due to a penalty. You should continue to start him.
That's it for this week's data dump, thanks for checking us out!
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