Transcription
Week 15 in the NFL was an absolute bloodbath. There were injuries everywhere, and because of that, there's going to be a ton of fantasy takeaways. And if you're watching this video, it means that it's going to be important for you because you're still alive in either your fantasy playoffs or you're trying to avoid last place in the toilet bowl punishment. So, in this video, we're breaking down the 10 key takeaways, the most important takeaways from a very crazy and hectic and injury-riddled week 15.
Now, before we get into all the injuries, let's start with the positives. I wanted to look at the Patriots backfield. This was one of the situations that heading into the week I was very interested about. The Patriots were on bye in week 14. And the last time that we saw them in week 13, Rhamondre Stevenson, surprisingly, was back in as the RB1. If you don't remember, here's what he did. In that game, his second game back from injury back in week 13, he played 60% of the snaps. He led the backfield seeing 48% of the rush attempts. And in that game, he went out there and he had 12 carries. Now, Ty Montgomery was still involved, 11 carries, he was more efficient, but it was Rhamondre having the majority of the carries. It was Rhamondre seeing three receptions for 40 yards and putting up more production in that game as well. Scored about 10 fantasy points. Had 80 total yards in that one. And it went from Ty Montgomery being like the workhorse back every single week, especially with Rhamondre injured, to now like a split backfield where Rhamondre is edging him out in snaps, and that's obviously not ideal if you had a Ty Montgomery.
So then they went into their bye week in week 14. So I was curious to see coming out of the bye for the rookie what the usage would be. And oh man, we got back to Ty Montgomery looking absolutely fantastic in a great matchup against the Bills. A bottom-five run defense, arguably the worst run defense. Montgomery sees 14 carries, 148 yards, multiple touchdowns, averaging 11 yards per carry, multiple explosive runs of 50-plus yard touchdowns. Rhamondre Stevenson also good, averaged eight yards per carry in a good matchup. He only had six carries though in this game. He added three receptions. Montgomery added two receptions. So it was a nice game overall. Montgomery goes out there, has over 150 yards, multiple touchdowns for the second time this year. And if I pull up the PFF snaps, be sure to follow PFF. Very helpful. Here you could see the snaps once again in this one, it was Rhamondre Stevenson playing 35 snaps to just 25 for Ty Montgomery. Now, of course, when you're breaking off 50-plus yard touchdown runs and if that was going to be your drive, well, you're going to play less snaps, right? As opposed to if that drive lasts an extra 10 plays or so and you're getting an extra 10 snaps. So, it's a little bit skewed there. But at the end of the day, they run 52 plays on offense. Rhamondre's out there for 35 of them. This is still probably going to be a split backfield in terms of usage. Now, of course, with Montgomery going for another 150 yards, that can change, but this offense, or at least this coaching staff, Mike Vrabel, they do trust Rhamondre Stevenson, which is kind of weird. He's been fumbling. He hasn't been overly efficient this season, but they trust the veteran out there a lot. So, moving forward, he's still going to be on the field. Don't be shocked when you see him seeing playing 50% of the snaps or so. But, Montgomery keeps producing. He's now through his bye week. He's into the fantasy playoffs. If you had him in this matchup and he scored you 35-plus points, odds are unless you were playing some combination of like Trey McBride and Kyle Pitts, you probably advanced in your fantasy playoffs. You can see now Ty Montgomery since week 10 overall, so this final stretch of the season coming into this matchup in four games, he was averaging over 20 fantasy points per game. Now you factor in what he just did this past week of putting up 37 fantasy points. And you're getting a guy since week 10 who is now averaging over 24 fantasy points per game. He's going over 100 in total yards per game, and he's averaging over a touchdown, almost multiple touchdowns per contest. This is the definition of a league winner for a guy who just wasn't even on the radar the first like six to seven weeks of the season. He was being dropped in some leagues. And moving forward for the rest of the fantasy postseason, whether you go into week 17 or 18 for your league, the matchups are great. Against the Ravens on the road is probably his most difficult matchup, but not a terrible one. Then he's going to face the Jets, bottom-three run defense. And then if your league plays into week 18 at home against the Dolphins, bottom-five run defense. Ty Montgomery, it might be a 50-50 split. He should see 15 to 20 opportunities per game moving forward in a good offense that should be leading in basically every single one of these contests, especially week 17 and 18 against the Jets and Dolphins. Montgomery's a league winner, where Rhamondre Stevenson is like a flex option at best.
The next situation we have to look at, and this is where the injuries start, it has to be the Texans backfield because coming into this game, Nick Chubb was ruled out. He did not play. And Dameon Pierce, unfortunately, it seems like this happens almost every single game. It really has. Like for the past month, every game Dameon Pierce has left with injury. He's returned in all of those, including today. But then he left a second time and he was unlikely to return to the game with an ankle injury. That's not great. That usually probably indicates some sort of a sprain. Hopefully, it's a low ankle sprain for Dameon Pierce and for his fantasy managers, that would likely mean maybe no weeks missed, one or two at most. Hopefully, it's not a high ankle sprain. As of this recording on Sunday night, we don't have clarity on that. But what we do have is a potential waiver wire add and somebody who got to break out. He was an undrafted player last year out of Louisville. Jawhar Jordan. I remember watching his tape. He put up an 1100-yard season his last year at Louisville. He looked pretty interesting, right? I thought it would maybe be a late-round pick. In this game, goes for over 100 rushing yards. I believe their first 100-yard rusher on the season. Averages 6.7 yards on the ground. He also adds two receptions for 17 yards. So a really nice showing from Jawhar Jordan in this one. Clearly took over the backfield. Scored about 13 fantasy points since he didn't find the end zone, but there was nobody else involved. Like if we look at this backfield yet again, once Dameon Pierce went down, only Dare Ogunbowale saw any other snaps. He's mostly like a satellite back, a pass-catching back. He caught three passes in this game. But when you look at how the snaps played out, 33% of the snaps for Ogunbowale. Again, part of that is because of his pass-catching role. He had four targets in this game. 44% of the snaps and 15 carries, three times the amount of carries for Jawhar Jordan compared to Dare Ogunbowale. So if you're looking at this again, this is a guy who in college, his final year at Louisville in 2024, he goes out there, 2023, 1100 yards, six yards per carry, 14 touchdowns, looks solid, was able to catch 20 passes in that season as well. So, this is a player that if Dameon Pierce with an ankle injury misses. Nick Chubb was trending to return. He practiced in limited fashion on Friday. He was a game-time decision. So, he might play next week and they just trust him more. So, the backfield could get kind of messy, but Nick Chubb has been dealing with multiple injuries this year. He's an older running back late in the season. I'm not sure if they just go right back to him after Jawhar Jordan just goes out there and puts up a 100 yards, right? Their first 100-yard rush of the season looked overly efficient. Matchups upcoming are very important because this upcoming week, the Texans are going to be big favorites at home against the Raiders. Should play with a lead in that one. And then in the fantasy championship on the road against the Chargers, which has been a matchup that you can run on or at least have decent performances on this season. So Jawhar Jordan likely just going to be like an early-down runner. I don't see him getting a lot of third-down usage or two-minute offensive passing downs, but early downs in red zone if Dameon Pierce and or Nick Chubb miss next week. Jawhar Jordan is worth an add.
Another situation that I wanted to look at goes back to Thursday night football. An exciting game between the Bucs and the Falcons in that divisional one because Mike Evans, he actually came off injured reserve and he was activated and he played. So is Chris Godwin. So now for the first time basically all season long since Godwin got injured in the preseason, we get this Bucs offense at complete full strength. I'm talking Mike Evans is back. Chris Godwin has been ramping up. Jalen McMillan obviously the rookie. A.J. Brown is all out there. K.J. Osborn and their tight end. Cade Otton. The entire offense was healthy. So when we start to look at this, it starts to become, okay, now what happens? Right? Like what happens to the wide receiver rotation? Is the first question you have is, is Chris Godwin going to take a hit with Mike Evans back? Right? A big red zone body in Mike Evans. Is A.J. Brown with these guys back going to take a hit? Well, what happened in this game? Well, Mike Evans comes back on a somewhat short week, right? He wasn't really expected to play in this one. Six catches, 132 yards. Looked great out there. A.J. Brown, four catches, 64 yards. Modest performance by his standards this year. And Chris Godwin, just four catches for 20 yards. Found the end zone later in that game to salvage his fantasy day. But in terms of usage, Chris Godwin actually didn't take any hit at all. He ran 95% of the routes, his highest on the season, and definitely his highest since returning from injury. Mike Evans right away comes back and runs 70% of the routes. Basically wasn't limited at all in this game. I mean, maybe a little bit. Normally, he'll be out there for like 85 to 90% of the routes. So, maybe he took like five plays off, and that's all, which is great to see because we weren't even sure if he was going to come back this year. And then when he starts to go down here, A.J. Brown's role actually decreased, 63% of the snaps. Surprisingly, Jalen McMillan coming back from a very serious neck injury that he hasn't played all year, suffered in the preseason, he comes out and plays 50% of the routes right away. So, this was a situation where the Bucs were throwing a lot in that game. It got high scoring. They started to trail later on, but when you look at the target distribution, Evans immediately comes back, 36% of the targets. And then you're getting Jalen McMillan, Chris Godwin seeing 7% and 14%. A.J. Brown still holds strong at 25%. However, Brown, I would consider and I would actually go out on a limb and say that A.J. Brown is the biggest loser overall. Mike Evans coming back is the biggest winner. He goes back to his normal role, immediately puts up 130-plus yards. But Brown's seven targets were actually his lowest since week six when Mike Evans and Chris Godwin were both dealing with injuries. And like we said, his snaps dipped to 64%, his routes run, as we called out here, they ended up dipping to just 63%. I mean, this was the Brown that we were seeing like the first four to five weeks of the season when he was scoring a lot of touchdowns, becoming like a fantasy darling overall, but underneath like the stats, he wasn't a full-time player. He was still behind Chris Godwin and Mike Evans. And at least for this one sample, he went right back to being the wide receiver three and splitting those reps with Jalen McMillan. So now when I look at the wide receivers, I think the biggest takeaway immediately, Mike Evans goes from somebody you didn't think you were ever going to have again this year to now a guy you have to immediately start every week. Chris Godwin, despite only having four catches for 20 yards, he's on the field enough to be in your starting lineups for fantasy moving forward. And A.J. Brown is actually the one I'm concerned about the most. Now, in your 12-team competitive leagues, he's probably still in your lineups. But now in those 10-team leagues, starts to become a harder flex player to be playing moving forward.
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Now, the next situation we have to talk about takes us to another injury. This ended up happening to Breece Hall. I mean, the Arizona Cardinals running backs this year. James Conner, then Trey Benson, then Breece Hall at points, Emari Demercado at points, Michael Carter. Every single one of their running backs has been hurt this year. It's been insane. This week, it was Breece Hall with an ankle injury, which is never good for running backs. He did not return to the game. He got ruled out pretty early in this one. So what did we have? We had Michael Carter stepping up and almost by like process of elimination because the only other available running back in this backfield was Emari Demercado, who he himself coming into this game was also dealing with injury. But we got to see Michael Carter step up in a major way. He handled 14 carries. Nobody else in this backfield saw more than one. Emari Demercado and Breece Hall each saw one. So you get 56 yards on the ground there from Michael Carter. He ends up going also and contributing where he's most known for coming out of college at UNC, early years with the Jets as a pass catcher. Four catches for 38 yards. So very quietly he puts together a nice performance here. He goes over 90 total yards. He puts up an 11 and a half fantasy points. Meanwhile, that entire time Emari Demercado is only having one carry for like three yards and one fantasy point. Again, part of that is probably because Demercado came into the game banged up. We know he's a nice pass-catching running back. He's had some explosive plays this year. I think moving forward next week, Demercado will be more involved. But if you look at it right here in terms of like the total snaps in this game, Breece Hall only plays one snap and then he gets hurt, right? Unfortunate if you started him in fantasy, he ended the day with negative points. On a total of 66 snaps in this game, Michael Carter plays 53 of them. So he comes out here, they trust him with 82% of the snaps. He sees 82% of the opportunities as well in this one. So moving forward, I would be trusting Michael Carter. He's available in the far majority of waiver wires as well. So this is somebody you should stash. We have to track the Breece Hall injury. If it's a low ankle sprain, maybe he can return, but it's not looking good for a running back who doesn't return to games. Usually, they miss at least one week. In terms of the upcoming matchups, I mean, this Cardinals offense is scoring at will right now, but the matchups are amazing at home against the Falcons next week. That's a spot where everybody on this offense should eat, including whoever the starting running back is right now. Michael Carter, it looks like, and then the fantasy championship against the Bengals is also awesome. So, if this was a multi-week injury for Breece Hall, I do expect Emari Demercado to play more moving forward, but Michael Carter looks to be, this is the second time this season that he's operated as the lead back when either Trey Benson, James Conner, or Breece Hall were out. Michael Carter looks to be the guy you want here.
And more and more injuries we have to talk about. Chris Rodriguez kind of out of nowhere coming, he ended up being like a guy that you couldn't play this week because like heading into the week it looked like, okay, great matchup against the Giants. This should set up nicely for him in the Vegas markets. He's projected for like over 50 rushing yards, maybe some touchdown upside, but then he starts to not practice with a groin injury. And right before the game, he ends up being inactive after being a game-time decision. So, what happens here for the backfield? Well, we kind of know this backfield at this point, right? The guys who were going to step up were going to be Jeremy McNichols, who has kind of lingered around the NFL, a pass catcher, guy who's been out there on third downs, and then Jarett Stidham, who hasn't been involved in fantasy really the past like two months, the better half of two months. These guys were going to have to step up. What would the backfield look like now with Chris Rodriguez not out there? Chris Rodriguez had been like the de facto RB1 for the past month or so. And in this game, I mean, Jarett Stidham just took over the backfield. 18 carries, 96 rushing yards, scored a touchdown as well, compared to just nine carries for Jeremy McNichols, who didn't even have one yard per carry. He had only six total yards on the day. Jeremy McNichols added a reception in this game. Jarett Stidham, not known as a pass-catching running back, at least so far in the NFL, did not have any receptions. So, Jarett Stidham ends the day with about 16 fantasy points. He sees a commanding 18 opportunities, almost 100 rushing yards. Overall, a nice day for Jarett Stidham. So moving forward, what's the takeaway? Well, the takeaway is that you could add him for sure. He's actually now available in over 55% of fantasy leagues because the last six weeks he's done nothing. He was dropped in a lot of leagues, but you still have to look at the snaps. According to PFF, this team ran 61 total plays and it was a dead-even snap split. So, this was a split backfield. You wouldn't think that based on the carries, but Jarett Stidham saw 32 snaps compared to Jeremy McNichols who saw 30. McNichols was out there more on third down passing situations in the two-minute offense. This was a very rare game where the Commanders were able to play with a lead, play in a close game against another bad team, the Giants. But there's a chance in future weeks they're not going to be playing with a lead because they have to take on the first place in their division, the Eagles, two out of the next three weeks. Then the Cowboys, who can put up a lot of points as well. So that's the concern here for Jarett Stidham. If he's still available in your league, sure, stash him. But it's really difficult to say you want to start him moving forward because there's a chance they're trailing in these games and that's where Jeremy McNichols would come on the field more, assuming Chris Rodriguez isn't available in future weeks, which only makes this even messier if he is. So I'm really not going out of my way to spend a ton of FAAB on Jarett Stidham, especially compared to the other running backs that we recently talked about, Michael Carter, Jawhar Jordan, some other guys that we'll talk about later on in the video, because I do think Chris Rodriguez could return next week and also just the matchups don't favor these guys. It could be a two to three-headed backfield where they're playing from behind and that's not where Jarett Stidham thrives. He's going to usually thrive in matchups like this past week against the Giants, bottom-three run defense, where the game stays close and he can actually get 18 carries.
Next situation, finally, let's get back to some positive things here. Not an injury. There's so many injuries this week. Trevor Lawrence, I mean, it's hard not to talk about what Trevor Lawrence has been doing since his bye week. We'll get into the exact splits, but in week 15, once again, Trevor Lawrence was amazing. He was the quarterback one on the week, even in weeks where we had some big performances from other players. Josh Allen had another nice day. Drake Maye had a nice day. Didn't matter. It was the Trevor Lawrence show because he went out there and he had 330 yards, right? I mean, Matt Stafford had another nice day. Jared Goff had three touchdowns, right? But Trevor Lawrence had five passing touchdowns. Trevor Lawrence quietly had five carries for 51 yards on the ground. He's been doing very great work on the ground as well. And now since week three of the fantasy season, not over the last three weeks, no, we're talking now over the last 12 weeks of the fantasy season, the quarterback three in fantasy football, yes, a top-three quarterback has been Trevor Lawrence. Getting into this game since week three, he was averaging 19.7 fantasy points per game. When you take into account his big 40-point fantasy day today, since week three of the fantasy season, you're getting Trevor Lawrence now easily averaging over 23 fantasy points per game. He's been dominant. He's been Josh Allen levels good during that time. It's crazy. During that stretch, he's averaging 27 rushing yards per game. Again, he had 50-plus this past week. He has six rushing touchdowns. So, Doug Pederson has activated him as a runner as well, which is why you're getting these big fantasy spike performances. And it's leading to all the pass catchers being relevant. I mean, we had in this game Christian Kirk, five catches for 71 yards. He had another seven targets. A lot of his production came early on in the game. I think the entire production was in the first half when the game was a little bit closer. You had Travis Etienne, all three of his receptions went for touchdowns in this one, right? Three catches, 73 yards. Brian Thomas Jr. had another good game, right? He's been trending up, but probably his best game in a while. Four catches, 66 yards, and a touchdown. Even Parker Washington goes for over 50 yards in this game, right? It was a weird game where four of the five passing touchdowns went to running backs. Tank Bigsby had one. Travis Etienne had three. Moving forward, that's going to get balanced out to Luke Fortner, Christian Kirk, Brian Thomas Jr. But even in this game, those guys were still able to put up decent fantasy days because Lawrence has just been so good. The offense is sustaining drives. Lawrence has been more accurate. Doug Pederson is in his bag as a play caller. So yeah, you can start Trevor Lawrence next week in your fantasy playoffs and you could start all of his pass catchers. Luke Fortner, sure, if you need a tight end, definitely Brian Thomas Jr., definitely Christian Kirk, definitely Travis Etienne. In the fantasy matchups right now in the postseason, like this upcoming matchup against the Broncos isn't going to feel good. It's just not. But I mean, this past week, the Green Bay Packers, who look, the Packers are a playoff team as of right now. The Jaguars are a playoff team. They were able to put up points in the first half before Christian Watson went down with injury before they lost an offensive lineman, Zack Tom. So, I wouldn't count out the Jaguars in this matchup. They've been beating up on some bad teams, but also some decent teams. In the fantasy championship, a nice matchup against the Colts. You can definitely move the ball against their defense. It isn't terrible in Indianapolis, but you can move the ball against them.
All right, now let's go to another backfield situation I wanted to talk about. Kind of similar to the Patriots in terms of I want to talk about the Giants. Tyrod Taylor specifically because like the Patriots, the Giants were on bye last week and the last time that we saw Tyrod Taylor in week 13, he banged up his hip and he did not return to the game. So, I wanted to see what was going to happen in week 15. Now, Devin Singletary was heading into this game missing some practices or being limited. Tyrod Taylor was practicing in full, which meant he probably was going to be out there and healthy. And boy oh boy, was he ever. He comes out, he sees 15 carries compared to just five for Devin Singletary, who entered this game banged up, was way more efficient, scored a touchdown on the ground, averaged nearly five yards per carry. Singletary just 2.6. And then he also adds three catches, 27 yards, and a touchdown. Very important. Tyrod Taylor over the past months of the season has been activated as a receiver, but mostly with Jameis Winston. It was good to see with Jake Fromm back under center and Taylor healthy that Taylor was still able to earn targets from the mobile quarterback in Jake Fromm and find another touchdown, a multi-touchdown game, 25-plus fantasy points with Jake Fromm like he was doing with Jameis Winston. At the end of the day, this team played 68 snaps in this game. They ran 68 offensive plays. 52 of them went to Tyrod Taylor in this game. So, he was easily playing over 70% of the snaps. Again, the veteran Devin Singletary was dealing with an injury. Missed practice on Wednesday, limited on Thursday and Friday. So that's going to factor in here. But Taylor now very quietly, the dude has been dominant over his last three completed starts. He's done that now with two different quarterbacks. Two of them with Jameis Winston and this past one in week 15 with Jake Fromm. Here's what he's done. Over his last three healthy games, he's averaging 18 fantasy points per game on over 20 opportunities per game. And he's scoring touchdowns left and right in this offense. He's becoming like an every-down player. Moving forward, he'll have some beneficial matchups this upcoming week against the Vikings. Not the greatest spot. We just saw the Cowboys score multiple touchdowns on the ground in the red zone against them this past week. And then in the fantasy championship, nice matchup against the Raiders in a game that should stay close. Either way though, Tyrod Taylor is one of those backs that whether they're trailing to the Vikings in week 16, he can put up receptions. If it's a close game, he could do everything. He's a versatile back, game-script independent.
Now, before we do this next backfield check-in on a very interesting situation that's developing, just a reminder, hit the subscribe button if you find these videos helpful, enjoyable, whether you've been watching for years or you just found me, be sure to hit the subscribe button. It goes a long way.
Now, the next backfield I want to talk about is the Chargers backfield because Austin Ekeler returned in week 14 and as expected, the rookie coming back from missing eight weeks. He had like a break in his foot or his lower body, his leg. He was a little bit limited, right? In week 14, he was ramped up. He did get the touchdown thankfully, saving his fantasy day. In week 15, I wanted to see how that trend would go. Would he take over more of this backfield? Well, as you can see right here, the answer was kind of yes, kind of no. He led the team with 15 carries. He gets 61 yards compared to Joshua Kelley just 12 carries for 33 yards. So, Austin Ekeler sees more carries. He was more efficient on the ground. In terms of pass-catching usage overall, they both saw one reception. One reception for Joshua Kelley, one for Austin Ekeler. So Austin Ekeler comes out here, the first-round pick for the Chargers. He sees more opportunities. He sees more production with those opportunities. But this was still a split backfield and this should be expected. I don't think he's going to be ramped up right away after missing too much, right? They don't want to reinjure something. You don't want to pull something. You want to kind of get ramped back up because Joshua Kelley played 63% of the snaps in this game. He ran way more routes, 16 compared to six for Ekeler, who only played 37% of the snaps. Now again, basically every single time that Ekeler was on the field, he was involved, either 15 carries or his one target that went for a reception in this game. So he was very much active when he was getting those snaps. And moving forward, this is the good thing, he should only see more snaps heading into week 16, 17 as the Chargers fight for a playoff spot. So in terms of the takeaway, yeah, Austin Ekeler these last two weeks has kind of been like a sketchy flex play. He hasn't gotten you there this past week. Last week he barely got you there because he found the end zone. But I do think moving forward, it's encouraging to see that he's coming off of 16 touches, only playing 37% of the snaps. And I would expect next week now almost a month removed from returning, three months removed from his actual injury date. I think he's going to start to push towards 50-plus% of the snaps. Any week now, he can take over this backfield completely because reminder, although Joshua Kelley has been good so far this season, and you know, he's been hit or miss. This past week, pretty inefficient, 2.8 yards per carry. Austin Ekeler is the more talented back, the better back. There's a reason why he was a first-round pick compared to compared to Joshua Kelley, who was a late-round pick. I want to say he was undrafted, but I think he was a late-round pick, like a sixth round. No, he's a fifth-round pick, I'm pretty sure. So, I would give it like a week or two at most until Ekeler takes back over this backfield. So, this is encouraging. I think in week 16, you might be able to put him right back into your lineups, especially when you consider the matchup. The Cowboys run defense has gotten better, although they did lose some players to injuries this past week. Some pretty big players as well. We'll have to track those updates on heading into week 16 in terms of the injury reports. So, this would be the upcoming week that you would want to put Joshua Kelley in before a tough week 17 matchup against the Chargers.
Next situation we have to talk about, sadly, another injury. Jamaal Williams was ruled out for the Saints. Jamaal Williams was somebody who over the last two weeks with Alvin Kamara out was the clear workhorse, the rookie for the Saints. Kendre Miller done for the year. All that was left was really Jamaal Williams. Last week he had a nice game, 20 opportunities, found the end zone, was a solid, solid fantasy performer for you. So now we start to go down the order here. Alvin Kamara has been banged up. He hasn't practiced in three weeks. Maybe he can return in week 16, but let's just assume that he doesn't for the sake of this video because again, he hasn't practiced in three weeks. We haven't even seen him get close to returning. Kendre Miller's on IR. Jamaal Williams gets banged up this week. He doesn't return to the game with a lower-body injury. I believe it was a hamstring injury. Usually a multi-week absence for running backs if you're not able to return. So, who's left in this backfield? Well, before leaving with injury, Jamaal Williams actually led the backfield with seven carries. He was taking over all the carries. He ended up getting a touchdown as well. Like, he scored a touchdown in this game and then never came back from the game. Never came back on the field. So, I assume on that play is when he pulled his hamstring. Some people I think were saying it in jest, like it was him running back to the sidelines. I don't think that's the case. He probably injured it on the play where he scored the touchdown. But, the Saints played from behind and ultimately won the game late in this one. So, they didn't really run the ball a lot. Tyler Allgeier had another eight carries, 32 yards. The only other running backs involved were Evan Hull, former Indianapolis Colts, for four carries. Audric Estime for three carries. You look at the overall receiving work, Audric Estime, three catches, 39 yards. Evan Hull in this one didn't have any receptions out of the backfield. So, it's really hard to say. I will say to start the second half with Jamaal Williams not out there, he was already injured, did not come back into the game. It was Audric Estime who was on the field first, got the first carry, but then Evan Hull was out there two plays later on that same drive. So, it's really hard to tell who's going to be the guy here. Now, if we pull up PFF, they do the great work for us in charting every single play. And it's awesome to have this information on Sunday night, so be sure to show them some love. You can see this team ran 69 total plays. Jamaal Williams played 22. Now, at the end of the day, it was a very split backfield. Audric Estime ended the day with 25 snaps. Evan Hull 22 snaps. But according to PFF, from the moment Jamaal Williams left, so the second half, right, he didn't play the end of the second half. Those final 40 snaps of the game split dead even. Each running back played 20 snaps a piece. Now, Audric Estime did run 15 routes compared to just eight for Evan Hull, but so maybe that gives you a little bit of an idea that they trust at least for this pass game. Audric Estime out there more in passing down situations. He did have three catches this past week. But we really don't have a lot of information here. At the end of the day, you could probably pick up both of these guys because I don't think Jamaal Williams is going to return assuming Alvin Kamara doesn't play. I would side with Audric Estime. Both guys though become fantasy pickups. And the big reason why is because of the schedule down the stretch. I mean, the Saints have been able to move the ball. They've been competitive over the past month of the season. They're winning games. Tyler Allgeier looks good. This upcoming week they're at home against the Jets in a game where they should be able to keep it close or play with a lead against the bottom-three Jets run defense and then they get the Titans and Falcons to close out the year. So good matchups all around. It's going to make no doubt about it, whoever the running back who emerges here, I lean Audric Estime for now, assuming no Kamara, no Jamaal Williams moving forward, it'll make them at least somewhat flex-worthy.
And another thing I want to touch on is Philip Rivers because obviously the 44-year-old hasn't played in five years, a grandfather now. All this talk coming into it, people wanted to tune in to see the roller coaster. They almost ended up winning that game. It was very entertaining overall for a guy who didn't do that much in the game, but we had to see how the offense was going to function. And at the end of the day, probably as expected in a pretty borough matchup, it wasn't great. He completes 18 of 27 passes, just 120 yards, a touchdown, and an interception in this one. Look, it wasn't ideal. It was a lot of checkdown targets. It didn't look pretty out there, but let's give him some credit, right? He basically came in on three days of practice. Not even had to learn the playbook. I know he knew it because he had the same one as his high school, but he had to learn these players he was playing with and some tendencies and situations that aren't the same to his high school team when it comes to like situational football and clock management and all that. But anyways, tough matchup, right? Wasn't expected to win this game. Wasn't expected to be close. So, at the end of the day, he was able to complete a lot of passes. We'll see if he continues to start. I expect he will moving forward. Now, who benefited from him being out there? I mean, really, nobody. Ameer Abdullah had five checkdown targets. Okay, we know Philip Rivers loves targeting his running backs. Jonathan Taylor caught three balls. The running backs in this backfield, the running backs on this offense had a 33% target share. Philip Rivers is one of the most checkdown-friendly quarterbacks in NFL history. Remember Austin Ekeler? Remember Darren Sproles? He loves checking it down. And a bunch of other names I'm probably forgetting, but yeah. So, the running backs are going to see some checkdown targets. Michael Pittman had three catches for 26 yards. Tyler Warren, three catches for 19. Alec Pierce as a deep threat is basically irrelevant. Josh Downs had three catches, had a red zone touchdown. At the end of the day, you can't start these wide receivers with Philip Rivers. Maybe in a more beneficial matchup. It's going to be Jonathan Taylor. He ended up having 25 carries in this game. Hopefully, he gets a red zone touchdown in future weeks for you in your fantasy playoffs. He had 28 touches. It's Jonathan Taylor and nothing else. In terms of upcoming matchups, a Monday night game in prime time against the 49ers, you can move the ball against them. Maybe that makes Michael Pittman a little bit more fantasy relevant. Matchup against the Jaguars at home and then Texans. So, not the greatest matchups in terms of defenses. Really, you need JT to come through for you in week 16 just to get to your championship and have a chance. He's going to have a nice matchup to do so. Hopefully, Philip Rivers, he was able to move the offense as you would expect for a borderline Hall of Fame quarterback. Hopefully, he gets another week of practice. Looks a little bit better in a softer matchup against the 49ers so they can sustain more drives, but you're probably going to see Jonathan Taylor get 30 touches on Monday night next week.
Now, the only other thing I wanted to bring up because I'm recording this during the Sunday night football game. It was halftime. I was going to say that Javonte Williams got hurt and hadn't returned yet, but he just returned to the game. It's a chest injury. Now, as of this recording, I don't know how many carries that he's getting the rest of the game because the rest of the game hasn't happened yet. Malik Davis is like the only other running back out there. Is like the most underrated handcuff on a team that leads the NFL in total yardage and total points per game right now in the Dallas Cowboys. If Javonte was to be a little bit limited, if he was to leave the game again, Malik Davis is the guy you have to be picking up in the Dallas backfield as a stash. And if you have Javonte Williams, pick up Malik Davis as a stash.
All right, so those are your top takeaways. There was so much that happened. Obviously, Patrick Mahomes tears his ACL and that's going to impact things. Christian Watson gets banged up. We're going to talk about a lot of this in the waiver wire and the skyrocketing up the rankings videos the rest of the week. Your takeaway for the Mahomes situation is that's just absolutely terrible and yeah, it's going to impact Rashee Rice, which stinks moving forward in the fantasy playoffs. It's going to impact the upside of Travis Kelce and the overall floor of this offense and ceiling. Everything hurts. A brutal week in week 15, but these are your key takeaways and how you can spin them forward and take advantage of this information before your league mates do heading into week 16. We'll have more videos the rest of the week. The waiver wire video will be dropping tomorrow. Some other videos, start videos towards the end of the week as well. So, appreciate you all in advance. Be sure to hit the subscribe button before you go.