Fantasy Football Week 4 - Murky RB Situations

Notes

• Tarik Cohen has at least 13 touches, 4 receptions and 66 total yards in all 3 games. He's played in only 8% less snaps than Jordan Howard has on the season. Cohen has one less rush attempt and 2 more catches than Christian McCaffrey in 2017. Cohen is currently leads all RBs in targets and receptions and is t-5th overall in the NFL in receptions with 25.
• On 39 carries, Crowell has avoided 1 tackle (PFF). On 6 carries Duke has avoided 2. Last season, Crowell caught 40 passes. In 2017, through 3 games, Crowell has 4 receptions (on pace for 21.3 receptions in 2017). Duke has 17 targets through 3 weeks (pace of 91 targets), had 68 last year. His 6 carries through three games puts him only at pace of 32 for the season. Last year he had 73 carries on the year. His aDOT was 1.9 in 2016, it's at 8.6 in 2017. In 2016, Crowell had 18 rushing attempts inside the 10-yard line. He has 1 in 2017. DeShone Kizer has 3 rushing attempts inside the opponent's 5-yard line 2017. Still, Crowell has out-touched 43-17, despite being out-produced 204-159.
• Abdullah has 17+ touches in all 3 games. Has just 32 less receiving yards than Theo Riddick on 11 less targets, but hasn’t scored a TD since Week 1 of 2016.
• NE backfield very shaky still. Despite Brady throwing for 378 yards and 5 TDs, not a single RB had more than 3.3 fantasy points. Mike Gillislee is yet to be targeted in 2017.
• No RB in Houston has a goal-line attempt or reception. Lamar Miller, over the last two weeks has been in on 70.3% of the Texans snaps while D’Onta Foreman is only at 23% and Tyler Ervin is in on 25%. Miller has more than double the amount (31) of PPR fantasy points than Foreman, but Foreman is producing more than double the amount of fantasy points per snap than Miller (0.43 vs. 0.21).
• Through 3 games, no RB on the Giants has surpassed 28 yards on the ground (Shane Vereen – Week 2 vs. Detroit). The team is tied for 4^th worst in the NFL, 3.1 yards per carry and are dead last rushing for 48.7 yards per game, the next closest Arizona is averaging 64 yards per game.
• Philadelphia ranks 13^th in the NFL with 80 rush attempts on the year. They rank 4^th in pass attempts (116) through 3 games. PHI RBs have seen 20/118 targets (just 17% of their attempts). Smallwood has 3 receptions on 5 targets for 11 yards, Blount has 2 catches on 2 targets for 1 yard.
• Mark Ingram has 46% of the Saints backfield touches in 2017 and 52% of their yardage production. In 2016, Ingram had 50.4% of their total touches and 53% of their RBs total yards. He scored 10 touchdowns last year, hasn’t scored yet. Leads team w/ rushes inside 5 with 3 through 3 games.
• McCaffrey has played on 66% of Carolina's snaps in 2017 compared to 42% for J. Stewart. Stewart has 62% of Carolina's RB carries, while CMac has 82% of RB targets and 25.5% of all CAR team targets.
• If you take away Buck Allen's 37-yard run in Week 2, he's averaging 2.67 yards per carry on 42 attempts. Among 26 RBs that have played on least 50% of their teams snaps, Allen ranks 23rd in yards per reception (4.8). Alex Collins has 124 rushing yards on 16 attempts (7.8 ypc) in 2017 and has a career ypc of 5.3 on 47 attempts. Collins just turned 23-years old. He ran for 1,577 yards (5.8 ypc) and 20 touchdowns at Arkansas in 2015.
• Samaje Perine has 116 rushing yards on 40 carries in 2017 (2.9 ypc). All other RBs on the team have combined for 254 yards on 42 carries (6.0 ypc), none of them (Kelley, M. Brown or Thompson average less than 4.5 yards per carry). Chris Thompson had 8 career touchdowns coming into 2017 from 2014-2016. He has 4 through 3 games on 27 touches (TD every 6.75 touches). Thompson doesn't have a single "tackle avoided" on 14 carries according to PFF and ranks 49th (of 57 qualified RBs > 10 carries) in yards after contact (1.9). 
• Week 3 was the Bengals' first game under new OC Bill Lazor. Gio leads the CIN backfield in snaps (40.9%), but has trails Mixon (42) and Hill (22) in touches (20). Gio leads CIN RBs in ypc (5.1), yac (3.4), ta/att (0.13), targets (8) and standard fantasy points.
• DeMarco Murray (5.2) and Derrick Henry (5.1) are both averaging over 5.0 yards per carry. Murray has played in 64.5% of the Titans snaps in 2017, Henry just 36%. Henry is averaging 3.2 (t-6th in NFL < 12 carries) yards after contact while Murray is averaging 1.8 (t-44th among 48). After Houston in Week 4, the Titans play Miami, Indianapolis and Cleveland. That being said though, after just three weeks, Miami (5th - 3.1), CLV (6th - 3.1) and Indy (8th - 3.3) all rank inside the top 8 in rush defense in 2016.
• Forte left Week 3 with a toe injury. He has played 47% of the teams snaps this year, while Powell has 41% and McGuire (14%), but when looking at Weeks 2 and 3, McGuire has played 21% of snaps, Powell 36% and Forte 40%. Over that span Powell's seen 38% of their RB touches, Forte 36% and McGuire 25%. McGuire fumbled the ball in the 4th quarter. The Jets next two games are against Jacksonville and Cleveland. Surprisingly, Jacksonville's allowed 4.8 yards per carry and over 135 rushing yards per game to opponents this year. Over the first 3 weeks of 2017, the Jets RB position has seen on average 25 touches. On 86 pass attempts, NYJ running backs have been targeted 17 times (19.7%) and Forte and Powell had a combined 4 drops on 15 targets. 
• Eddie Lacy nor Thomas Rawls registered a single touch in Week 3. Carson has played on 56% of Seattle's snaps. Prosise is the next closest on 29%. Among backs w/ more than 15 carries (that's just 5 carries per game), Carson ranks 10th in yards per carry (4.5), 5th in tackles avoided per attempt and has caught all 4 of his targets for 35 yards and a touchdown. Seattle plays the Colts at home in Week 4 as 13.5 point favorites, Carson is a must start RB2 in this matchup.