• Carolina Panthers play their starters for one drive: The Panthers played their starters for the first time this preseason, giving us a sense of their running back and wide receiver rotation.
• Pat Freiermuth continues to rotate: The Pittsburgh Steelers tight end is seeing far from ideal utilization throughout the preseason.
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Estimated Reading Time: 12 minutes
Nathan Jahnke’s fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2024. Here, we touch on only relevant players in fantasy football leagues.
These are my 10 biggest reactions to the games from the NFL preseason Week 3 slate. To get a more in-depth breakdown, check out my full recap.
Tony Pollard starts for the Tennessee Titans
Pollard played every snap on the Titans' first drive.
Tyjae Spears entered the game for the second drive. Pollard returned for a fourth-and-1 passing play out of an unbalanced formation. Spears also played the first three plays with the backups before exiting the game.
All this means is Pollard is the starter, but this could remain a 50/50 split, or something close to that. In the first preseason game, Pollard played eight snaps with the starters to Spears' six. In that game, the two rotated more often. It’s possible the Titans just wanted to give them a chance to play a longer stretch in this game. Most teams play one running back for one drive and then put in another running back for another drive, regardless of what the rotation will be like in the season.
Pollard should be ranked ahead of Spears in most fantasy rankings, but this game shouldn’t move either player up or down.
Chuba Hubbard leads the Carolina Panthers‘ running back rotation
Hubbard played in 10 snaps in all situations with the starters.
Jonathon Brooks remains out due to injury, allowing Hubbard to remain the Panthers' starter. The Panthers have a new coaching staff, so we weren’t sure if Hubbard would continue having the feature role he saw at the end of the season.
Hubbard played the first eight snaps on the first drive. He took two plays off for Miles Sanders and then returned for two plays to close out the drive. This included Hubbard playing in third-and-long situations. It’s possible that if the drive was shorter, Hubbard would have just played 100% of the team's snaps on the first drive before exiting the game. Sanders continued to play into the second and third drives while Mike Boone mixed in.
It’s certainly possible the Panthers will use more of a rotation once the regular season hits, but we at least have confirmation the coaching staff views Hubbard as the starter over Sanders. Until Brooks is healthy again, Hubbard is a borderline fantasy starter who can be drafted much later in drafts than most fantasy starters.
Jerome Ford starts for the Cleveland Browns
Ford played the Browns' first 10 offensive snaps.
The Browns didn’t have Nick Chubb, Pierre Strong Jr. or Nyheim Hines, but they did have Ford who played every snap on the first drive as well as the first two snaps on the second drive. D’Onta Foreman took his place and continued playing for the rest of the first quarter. Foreman then went to the medical tent early in the second quarter with a rib injury before leaving for the locker room.
This didn’t tell us much about how the Browns might rotate running backs early in the season until Chubb is back, but it’s possible there might not be much of a rotation with all of the injuries the Browns have at running back. If the injuries to both Strong and Foreman are serious, it would not be surprising if Kareem Hunt made yet another comeback to the Browns. Regardless, Ford was ahead of Strong on the depth chart last season and ahead of Foreman Saturday night. He should be a borderline fantasy starter until Chubb returns.
First look at the Carolina Panthers‘ wide receiver rotation
The Panthers followed a predictable rotation for their wide receivers.
Carolina traded for Diontae Johnson, who played all 12 snaps on the first drive. Adam Thielen played 11-of-12 snaps, including all nine snaps in 11 personnel and two-of-three snaps in 12 personnel. This included being the team's primary slot receiver.
Jonathan Mingo was the primary wide receiver in three-receiver sets. He took one snap from Thielen in 12 personnel but lost two to rookie Xavier Legette in 11 personnel. The two continued playing beyond the first drive, sharing the field in both 11 and 12 personnel groupings.
This is pretty much exactly how most people expected the wide receiver rotation to shape out at this point of the season, but it’s reassuring to know we shouldn’t expect many surprises in the rotation during Week 1 of the season.
New England Patriots are unsettled at wide receiver
The Patriots sat some starters while others only played one drive. The wide receivers kept rotating throughout the first three drives.
The Patriots started Tyquan Thornton and K.J. Osborn as they’ve done in the first two preseason games. In the first two games, there was a clear switch between when the starting wide receivers were playing and when they switched to backups. That didn’t happen in this game.
Rookie Ja’Lynn Polk started rotating in for Osborn on the second drive, but later, Osborn returned to the game. The two continued to rotate through three drives. Polk kept the Z-receiver spot after that. Thornton kept playing in the second drive, but rookie Javon Baker played four snaps in his place and also started the two-minute drill. By the middle of the second quarter, Jalen Reagor started playing. DeMario Douglas was the slot receiver throughout the first three drives while Osborn played in the slot in the fourth and fifth and Polk took the slot to start the two-minute drill, with Osborn returning out wide.
We can be confident that Douglas won’t see much, or any, playing time in two-receiver sets. He’s constantly only played in 11 personnel throughout the preseason. That puts a ceiling on his fantasy upside.
Sunday night is also bad news for Reagor, as he was rotating with Thornton in the first two games, and now he’s fallen on the depth chart. Reagor has been the primary returner in the preseason, but Marcus Jones is listed as the starter on the depth chart. Jones was one of the best kick and punt returners in 2022, but he only played in this game and didn’t return kicks. Reagor’s chances of making the roster depend on when Kendrick Bourne is back and healthy.
Elijah Moore starts and plays mostly on the outside for the Cleveland Browns
Moore played 45% of his snaps from the slot last season.
Moore was the Browns' primary slot receiver last season, playing nearly double the number of snaps from the slot compared to Cedric Tillman, who played the second-most snaps there. The Browns traded for Jerry Jeudy in the offseason, and Jeudy primarily plays from the slot, which meant Moore had to make a change or get benched. Moore has 1.5 career yards per route run from out wide compared to 0.79 from the slot, so a move to the outside should help Moore.
There was speculation Cedric Tillman would be the third wide receiver this season. Moore and Tillman both played in this game. Both were primarily on the outside while rookie Jamari Thrash primarily played in the slot. All three played at least a few snaps all over the place. Moore only played on the first two drives, while Tillman continued playing in the third drive with the backups, suggesting Moore is currently ahead of Tillman on the depth chart.
Tillman had the better game, catching four passes for 52 yards in the first half while Moore had a seven-yard catch and a one-yard run. This may end up being a rotation in three-receiver sets. It’s probably best to avoid both players in fantasy considering they will be the fourth option on any given pass play, but it’s at least possible this move could help revitalize Moore’s career.
Adonai Mitchell‘s promising usage usage
Mitchell played multiple snaps in 12 personnel, suggesting he could be a full-time starter sooner rather than later.
Mitchell started training camp in a competition with Alec Pierce for the outside wide receiver spot opposite Michael Pittman Jr.. Josh Downs went down in training camp before the preseason game, which has moved Mitchell to the slot. This means we haven’t gotten a great indication of how snaps between Mitchell and Pierce might be distributed because, for the most part, they’ve both played at the same time.
In the first week of the preseason, the Indianapolis Colts played their starters for two drives, but they were in 11 personnel the entire time. Mitchell and Pierce played one more drive and shared both 12 personnel snaps, which suggests the Colts were willing to use Mitchell in that personnel grouping. The Colts rested their starters in the second game, which included Mitchell. That was another promising sign.
In Thursday night's game, the Colts used 12 personnel on four plays. Mitchell took three of them and Pierce took one. The one caveat is Pierce took the first one. This is a pretty small sample size and the fact that Pierce got the first shot needs to be factored in. It’s another promising sign that Mitchell can continue to play significant snaps even when Downs returns. He’s a rookie worth a late-round draft pick in deeper leagues. If he ends up as just an average rookie, he won’t be worth starting, but any rookie wide receiver has a chance to break out, and he will see the snaps to have an opportunity to break out.
Malachi Corley continues to only play in 11 personnel for the New York Jets
Corley doesn’t seem likely to play significant snaps early for the Jets.
Corley played in the first half of the first two preseason games and played all 33 snaps the Jets ran out of 11 personnel, but none of the 21 snaps they played out of 12 personnel. The Jets rested even more players in their final preseason game compared to the first two, and they still only used Corley in 11 personnel.
It’s also worth noting that the Jets drafted four players on offense, and the other three were high enough on the depth chart to not play in this game. That included first-round tackle Olu Fashanu in addition to backup running backs Braelon Allen and Isaiah Davis. This suggests the Jets aren’t currently as high on Corley as their other rookies. It’s certainly possible Corley can become the full-time third wide receiver at some point this season, but for now, it appears his playing time will be very limited.
His ADP is already very low at WR77, but if you’re in a league that deep, there are plenty of wide receivers who should be more involved this season, including guys like the Denver Broncos‘ Tim Patrick and the Las Vegas Raiders‘ Tre Tucker, who have much lower ADPs but assured spots in three-receiver sets.
Pat Freiermuth continues to rotate
Freiermuth only played in six of a possible 12 snaps over the first two drives.
Arthur Smith is the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ new offensive coordinator, and throughout the preseason, we’ve seen a heavy rotation of tight ends. In this game, Freiermuth continued to rotate in on the second drive at a time when Najee Harris and George Pickens were both done playing for the day.
Over the entire preseason, Freiermuth played three drives in the first game, six drives in the second and two drives in the third. During that time, he played in 31-of-53 offensive snaps, or 58% of Pittsburgh's offensive snaps. That included running a route on 61% of Pittsburgh's passing plays. He’s been on the field for 63% of Pittsburgh's snaps in 11 personnel, 27% in 12 personnel, 100% in 13 personnel, and 50% in 21 personnel.
None of that is close to ideal for a fantasy starting tight end. Kyle Pitts was in a similar situation last season, and Pitts couldn’t finish among the top-12 fantasy tight ends. Freiermuth still probably ranks in the top-20 fantasy tight ends due to his talent alone, but he’s going to consistently see some of the worst utilization for a lead-receiving tight end. His ADP is TE14, at 11.01, but it should be a bit lower than that.
Evan Engram’s interesting utilization
The Jacksonville Jaguars tight end scored twice against the Atlanta Falcons‘ backups but also exited the field a little more than usual.
In the Jaguars’ first preseason game, Engram played in six of a possible nine snaps with the starters. His median snap share last season was 79%, playing at least 70% in 15-of-17 games. It was a small sample size so just one more snap would have made his usage that week perfectly normal. Engram and the rest of the Jaguars starters rested last week.
In this game, he played 15 of a possible 23 snaps (65%). He mostly leaves the field in run situations, but if this usage keeps up throughout the regular season, it will force him to run fewer routes each week, leading to fewer opportunities to accumulate receiving stats. Engram turns 30 years old before the season and just spent a second-round pick on a tight end last season in Brenton Strange, so it’s understandable why they might restrict his playing time a little more this season.
He shined, but the offense didn’t have Christian Kirk. It’s worth noting Engram’s fantasy value exploded last season without Kirk in the lineup. It’s also worth noting he lined up in the backfield on four plays, which wasn’t usual for him last season. The Jaguars may be trying new ways to get him involved.
While this is all a slight negative toward Engram, if he can remain the clear red zone target for Jacksonville despite Gabe Davis and Brian Thomas Jr.’s track record of scoring touchdowns, then this won’t matter and Engram fantasy managers will be just fine.
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