Fantasy football stats to know for Week 10

Week 9 of the NFL season couldn’t have been real. I refuse to believe it.

The Buffalo Bills lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Dallas Cowboys were dismantled by the Denver Broncos, and seemingly no one on your fantasy football teams scored any points. It was one of the ugliest, most bizarre weeks I can remember, but let’s try to find some stats that stood out that we can apply going forward. 

Christian McCaffrey played 49% of the snaps in his first game back

After being out of the lineup since Week 3, Christian McCaffrey finally returned to action on Sunday. Reports were that he would be in a limited role and that was the case, as he logged just under 50% of the Panthers offensive snaps. However, the usage he saw during his playing time was great, as he handled 18 of the 27 running back touches. Obviously, the snap share will increase going forward, and given how bad Sam Darnold is playing right now, it wouldn’t shock me to see McCaffrey reach 30 touches multiple times before the season ends, pending his health. Carolina already wanted to lean on their running game when Chuba Hubbard was the lead back, so it is hard to imagine their offensive philosophy changing too much now that their best player is back in the lineup. 

Brandon Aiyuk has run a route on 94% of dropbacks over the last two weeks

It took a while, but it appears Brandon Aiyuk is finally starting to get it going. Last week, he led the 49ers in both snaps and routes among wideouts, and nothing changed in Week 9, as he led the way with a 93.2% snap share, while his 43 routes also led the team. Over the last two weeks, he has run a route on 94% of Jimmy Garoppolo’s dropbacks. During that span, Aiyuk has hauled in 10-of-15 targets for 134 yards, one touchdown and a two-point conversion. His Week 9 usage was even more encouraging when you consider that tight end George Kittle returned from IR Sunday and saw eight targets of his own. Aiyuk has been dropped in a ton of leagues lately and this time last week, I recommended adding him and stashing him on your bench because there is still plenty of upside. That remains the case but now we are getting closer to being able to trust him as a flex option in fantasy leagues. 

Josh Allen has been under pressure on 121 dropbacks this season

It is the second-highest mark among all quarterbacks and a huge reason why the Buffalo Bills offense shockingly struggled in Jacksonville over the weekend. The offensive line — particularly the interior — has struggled quite a bit this season and that continued on Sunday, as Josh Allen was under duress on nearly 40% of his dropbacks against the Jaguars. Allen was running for his life in this game, and while I don’t think we should drastically alter our view of him as a fantasy football quarterback, the Buffalo offense certainly hasn’t been the juggernaut we saw last year, especially over the last two weeks. Scoring six points against the Jaguars is awful, no matter the circumstances, and if the Bills can’t get it going in Week 10 against the Jets, it might be time to sound the alarms in Buffalo.

Courtland Sutton is sporting a 10.5% target share in three games alongside Jerry Jeudy

I have been trying to trade Courtland Sutton away in many of my leagues for this exact reason. All the way back in Week 1 before he got hurt, Jerry Jeudy clearly looked like Denver’s top receiver in terms of volume. And in the last two games since returning from his injury, Jeudy has been targeted 12 times to Sutton’s 6. In fact, in three games alongside Jeudy this season, Sutton has seen just nine total targets, sporting an overall target share of 10.5% during that span, while scoring under 15 total fantasy points. Granted, the Broncos only attempted 28 and 26 passes in two of those contests, but this is a run-first team that wants to rely on their defense and two very good running backs, so it isn’t as if we should expect Denver to have many high-volume passing games. And with Tim Patrick still very much a part of this offense, there really isn’t much left for Sutton. He’ll have some strong games because of his ability to make plays down the field (1st in the NFL with 20 deep targets) but Sutton should not be viewed as anything more than a WR3 in fantasy.