• Braelon Allen leads the New York Jets in rushing yards: For the second straight week, the rookie running back from Wisconsin played significant snaps and looked impressive.
• Jets spread the ball around: Eight different Jets still players caught multiple passes for double-digit yards.
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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2024.
New England Patriots @ New York Jets
- Breece Hall: 16 carries, 54 yards, 1 touchdown, 4 receptions, 29 receiving yards
- Tyler Conklin: 5 receptions, 93 yards
Braelon Allen continues to mix in: Allen set a new career high in touches by the middle of the third quarter.
Allen surprised several people last week with his seven carries for 33 yards and a touchdown while catching two passes for 23 yards and another touchdown. Last week, he was used specifically in the middle of the game. Hall played all 12 snaps in the first three drives. The two split snaps over the next five drives at 18 each, which included four plays with both players on the field. Then Hall closed out the game with 11 of the last 13 snaps.
This week, Allen mixed in more throughout the game. He started the second drive and consistently played some snaps every drive outside of the first one. Allen touched the ball nearly half the time when he was on the field in Week 2, and instead of regressing, that increased this week. At the end of the third quarter, fellow rookie Isaiah Davis made his offensive debut, joining the rotation in the blowout.
Allen is starting to look like he could have standalone value in games where the Jets are clear favorites. It wouldn’t be surprising if Breece Hall would dominate snaps in a more competitive game. Allen's emergence has put a ceiling on Hall’s fantasy potential. Ideally, in a game like this, Hall would have had 20 or more carries for over 100 yards to accompany his receiving, but that didn’t happen with the rookie running backs playing more. Hall will still be a clear must-start player every week, even if his ceiling is slightly lower.
Mike Williams snaps take a step back: Williams was in a rotation for the third wide receiver spot after having a strong hold on that job in Week 2.
Williams only played nine offensive snaps in Week 1, which wasn’t too concerning considering he was returning from an ACL tear. He was listed on the injury report heading into Weeks 1 and 2 with the knee injury.
In Week 2, that jumped up to 37 snaps, while Xavier Gipson only played six. Williams played 29 of a possible 34 snaps in three-receiver sets and eight-of-21 in two-receiver sets. He wasn’t listed on the injury report this week, so it seemed he was good to go.
Instead, he was rotated with Gipson in three-receiver sets. While he lost a lot of playing time in three-receiver sets, he started to break even with Allen Lazard in two-receiver sets. He caught three passes for 34 yards and was the target on two end zone passes that both ended incomplete, including one that ultimately was called back by penalty, so it doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.
It’s certainly possible that a short week explains why Williams was limited, or the Jets simply want Gipson to have more opportunities on offense. Williams' end-zone targets are encouraging, but he’s still not in a place where we can consider starting him.
Antonio Gibson shined in garbage time: Gibson largely disappeared until the end of the game
Gibson only played seven offensive snaps in the first 50 minutes of the game. All of his work came on the third drive or when the team was down by three touchdowns in the last 10 minutes. A lot of this had to do with the game script. Most of the time when Gibson was on the field last week, the Patriots had a longer drive.
Rhamondre Stevenson played in 53 of a possible 63 snaps on the first three plays of drives in the first two weeks. The biggest difference this week is most of the Patriots' drives didn’t last for more than three plays. Gibson was consistently given the ball in the last few minutes of the game, which resulted in Gibson leading the team in rushing yards and catching the third-most passes. This all means Stevenson remains the Patriots' clear lead running back. That’s been true in all three games, and Gibson’s strong performance last week didn’t change anything.
It’s still OK to hold on to Gibson as a handcuff to Stevenson, but it remains unlikely Gibson will have any standalone value this season unless the Patriots offense starts playing a lot better.
Miscellaneous Notes
- While Tyler Conklin had his best game of the season, his role in the offense didn’t change. He is similar to Hunter Henry, who had a huge game last week and barely did anything this week. They are both tight ends who run a lot of routes and will have a few good weeks throughout the season, but they aren’t targeted enough to trust them in fantasy starting lineups. They are fine bye-week fill-ins.
- The Patriots kept six wide receivers active for this game after keeping five in the first two games. That means both Javon Baker and Kayshon Boutte were active.
- New England’s wide receiver rotation was very similar to last week. Ja’Lynn Polk, K.J. Osborn and Tyquan Thornton rotated on the outside while DeMario Douglas joined for three-receiver sets.
- The Patriots’ snap counts will look skewed because their longest drive was their final drive which mostly included backups in the game. Kayshon Boutte received most of his work on that 16-play drive, and Thornton didn’t play at all, which is why Thornton’s snaps were so much lower than the other Patriots receivers. Similarly, Austin Hooper ran more routes than Henry on that drive.
- Jets fourth-string running back, Israel Abanikanda, has been inactive every week.
- The Jets ran more plays out of three tight end sets in the first half than they did in the first two games combined.
- New York’s third-round rookie wide receiver Malachi Corley played one offensive snap in each of the first two games and didn’t play a snap on offense in this game despite the blowout victory.
Table Notes
- Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.
- Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.
- Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.
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