Welcome to my look at Week 6 of the NFL season. Below we’ll discuss some interesting usage and injury fallout from this last week of football.
The injury bug continued to bite fantasy players again this week, as Travis Etienne, Jerome Ford, Chris Olave, Marvin Harrison, Dontayvion Wicks, and Dallas Goedert all were forced from games this weekend. While top players to miss Week 6 entirely are too numerous to name!
Thankfully there are still a few healthy players left in the league who can put up fantasy points. Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting news and usage from Week 6 below.
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J.K. Dobbins usage continues to rise
With a matchup against the Denver Broncos stout defense, I wasn’t too high on Dobbins coming into the week. The Chargers were coming off a bye though, and they had just sent backup Gus Edwards to I.R. But, we were also going to see rookie Kimani Vidal get his shot to play.
Thankfully for Dobbins and his fantasy managers, he saw a huge workload with 73% of the snaps, 68% of the rushing attempts, and 47% of routes run, per PFF. Vidal did start off hot with a 30+ yard receiving touchdown, but Dobbins was the man throughout. He ended up rushing 25 times for 96 yards and a touchdown, and caught two targets for six more yards. Those 25 attempts were the highest in his career. This is the usage you want to see from your starting running back in a run-first offense.
Rachaad White slips into the twilight as Irving and Tucker dominate
This was a crazy game between the Buccaneers and Saints. Baker Mayfield was all over the place, but the run game was on point with nominal starter Rachaad White out with an injury. Bucky Irving took over and played well and Sean Tucker backed him up and put up even bigger numbers, although he was aided by garbage time, as the Bucs won 51-27.
The question is, what will White’s role be when he returns? White missed Week 6 with a foot injury, which appeared to happen in practice, as he was downgraded during the week. Tampa Bay doesn’t play until Monday night and they face a tough Ravens run defense, so these are extremely murky waters to be paddling around in, but there’s little doubt that White’s usage isn’t going to be great when he returns. Finding touches for all of these backs is going to be tough, but Irving is my pick out of the group for the rest of the season.
Bigsby flops in blowout, but remains a pickup with Etienne injury
Travis Etienne came into their Week 6 game in London against the Bears with a shoulder injury, but left it early with a hamstring injury. That sounds like Tank Bigsby’s music, but unfortunately, the Jaguars got behind quickly and instead of Bigsby, we had D’Ernest Johnson in the game on passing downs, which were most of the downs for the Jags in this one.
Bigsby finished with 17 snaps to Johnson’s 35. Johnson did very little offensively with his snaps as the Jaguars continued to lose ground with him in there. Bigsby has shown this season that he needs the ball, as he is one of the best backs at breaking tackles so far this year. Next week they get a Patriots team who shouldn’t get up big on them, which is great news for Bigsby’s role. Maybe Etienne ends up okay for Week 7, but hamstring injuries usually take a player out a game or two.
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Justin Fields finishes Top 8 with worst passing day of season
Fields was off target more often than not against the Raiders in Week 6. On one series he overthrew a receiver on each down, which seems hard to do. Still, he had a strong game due to two rushing touchdowns.
This is why Fields needs to be on your fantasy teams and why he should remain the starter despite his poor passing. I do wish they’d design more runs for him, but he’s been the go-to man near the goal line, which is exactly want we want for fantasy. He now has 10 touchdowns to one interception, with five of those touchdowns of the rushing variety, which are much more valuable in fantasy.
Drake Maye mops up in garbage time
The Patriots came into Week 6 with two passing touchdowns to their name. Rookie quarterback Drake Maye turned that number on its head, as he tossed three touchdowns against a good Texans defense.
Yes, he threw two picks and got a lot of his fantasy points after the team got down 27-7 late in the third quarter, but all fantasy points count the same!
This was a tough defense for Maye to take on in his first NFL start, and he did an admirable job. There were mistakes, but you could see a player willing and able to play with the big boys. And next week he gets the Jaguars. Yes, those Jaguars.
Bub Means? What does he mean?
Well, Bub Means’ usage after Chris Olave got hurt means he is a pickup in many fantasy leagues this week. After Olave went out with a brain injury, Means took over the X receiver role and caught five passes for 45 yards and a touchdown.
He tied for the team lead in targets with eight from rookie Spencer Rattler and was the only wide receiver he had a good connection with, as Rashid Shaheed saw seven targets, but only caught one for 11 yards.
With the Saints going into a Thursday night game against the Broncos, Olave won’t have time to be cleared, so Means should get the start. This is an awful matchup on paper, but the good news for the Saints is that Broncos corner Patrick Surtain also suffered a brain injury and will miss this TNF game. His absence doesn’t turn the Broncos into a bad defense, but it should help their receivers, including Means.
Don’t start running backs vs. the Ravens
So far the Ravens have allowed 2.9 yards per carry to running backs, while no back has topped 46 yards rushing. This really is a Lamar Jackson stat in many ways, as he’s playing so well. The Ravens offense is just too good to give teams a lot of time to establish the run, so they need to find success quickly, which they never do, at least so far this year.
Teams are now averaging just 15.7 rushing attempts per game against them, while the Panthers have allowed 29.2 rushing attempts per game. It really is just simple math at this point.
Keep chasing Brown onto your fantasy teams
Chase Brown and Zack Moss were both available and didn’t suffer in-game injuries this week against the Giants and Chase Brown took over the backfield lead. He’s slowly gone up and up in usage:
Chase Brown running back rush shares by week:
Week 1: 25.0%
Week 2: 25.0%
Week 3: 36.8%
Week 4: 50.0%
Week 5: 57.1%
Week 6: 62.5%Brown has a 51% success rate, per Next Gen Stats, versus Zack Moss’ 31%.
— JJ Zachariason (@LateRoundQB) October 14, 2024
He’s just better than Zack Moss and continues to show it. This week was pretty stark, as Moss had six carries for 13 yards and one receptions for two yards, while Brown had 10 carries for 53 yards and a game-sealing touchdown, adding two receptions for 11 yards. He is now the the Bengals lead back, with Moss as his backup and only injury should change that moving forward.
Don’t look if you roster Calvin Ridley
Did you accidentally drink something poisonous and need to vomit it up quickly? Consider watching all 8 of Calvin Ridley’s “targets” in yesterday’s game. This is not football. pic.twitter.com/bKbFyxJOWm
— Andy Holloway (@andyholloway) October 14, 2024
Sure, Ridley is getting up there in age and he’s not an elite receiver at this point, but Will Levis is just throwing dead ducks around. Mason Rudolph is likely better for the Titans fantasy players at this point.
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