• Javonte Williams and Samaje Perine still lead the Denver Broncos: While some thought the two were fighting for the same roster spot, at the moment, they remain the lead early- and third-down running backs.
• Adonai Mitchell plays with the starters: Mitchell played both in the slot and out wide over the Indianapolis Colts‘ first three drives.
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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.
Denver Broncos @ Indianapolis Colts
A familiar Broncos backfield: The Broncos running back rotation was similar to their three-man committee from last season.
Javonte Williams started the game for Denver and played all of the snaps on the first two drives outside of clear passing situations, when Samaje Perine took over. This is the role both players had last season. On the Broncos’ third drive, they kept most starters in but switched to Bo Nix with Jaleel McLaughlin taking over for Williams. Audric Estime joined for the fourth drive while McLaughlin still rotated in at times and Perine still played on passing downs.
Perine’s job on the team appears safe. If the Broncos were considering letting him go, then someone else would have taken any of the third-and-medium to long snaps in the first half. Perine also took their only snap in a two-minute drill. Williams is at the top of the depth chart followed by McLaughlin and Estime, but they weren’t rotating running backs when Williams was in, so we don’t know what that rotation will look like in season. It’s possible but unlikely Williams will take all of those snaps.
There is still plenty of time for this backfield to change, but at the moment, it appears all four running backs will make the roster.
The Broncos wide receiver room is a little clearer: The Broncos spent most of the first-team offense with a clear wide receiver pecking order and one glaring exception.
Courtland Sutton was the Broncos' top wide receiver, which should surprise no one. Tim Patrick took every snap on the first two drives outside of one play in 22 personnel, so he appears to be the clear second wide receiver on the team. Josh Reynolds spent most of the first two drives playing in 11 personnel, and on the third drive, he took over for Patrick as an every-down player.
Marvin Mims Jr. took the first snap of the game and then didn’t play again until the fourth drive. Lil’Jordan Humphrey and seventh-round rookie Devaughn Vele both played before Mims returned to the game. Mims continued to play late into the third quarter with players much further down the depth chart. This suggests Mims isn’t high on the depth chart, but his presence on the first play makes the situation mysterious and one to monitor. It’s also worth noting that fourth-round rookie Troy Franklin is reportedly even further down the depth chart. He played late in the second quarter after six other wide receivers.
The biggest takeaway here is Patrick, who missed the last two seasons due to injury, should see significant playing time this season, and is worth a late-round dart throw.
Greg Dulcich returns to the Broncos: The Broncos’ receiving tight end missed most of last season.
Adam Trautman started this game for Denver, but Dulcich rotated in and out. There was a general tendency for Dulcich to play in passing situations and Trautman on early downs, but those trends weren’t as strong as last season. Lucas Krull also received one snap on the first two drives and joined the rotation more on the third drive while both Dulcich and Trautman kept playing.
The situation seems fluid enough that Dulcich could still emerge as a fantasy sleeper if he starts taking more playing time from Tratuman, but if his playing time is anywhere close to what it was today, it’s a situation to avoid.
Adonai Mitchell is playing with the starters: Mitchell was the slot receiver for most of the first-team snaps.
Mitchell began training camp in a competition for the outside receiver spot with Alec Pierce. Earlier in the week, slot receiver Josh Downs suffered a high ankle sprain, likely costing him the start of the regular season. The Colts moved Mitchell to the slot, where he oddly played on first and second downs, while fellow rookie Anthony Gould played on third downs.
On the Colts’ third drive, they took Michael Pittman Jr. and all other starters out except for Mitchell and Pierce. The two played on the outside that drive with Gould in the slot. The Colts moved further down the depth chart at wide receiver for the fourth drive.
This doesn’t give us a great indication of how a Pierce and Mitchell rotation might work during the season, but it at least made it clear Mitchell will be part of the Colts’ offensive plans early in the season.
Miscellaneous Notes
- Jonathan Taylor played all of the snaps with the starters while Trey Sermon was the initial backup before suffering a hamstring injury, so Tyler Goodson quickly replaced him. If the Sermon injury ends up being serious, the Colts may be in the market for a new backup.
- Mo Alie-Cox and Kylen Granson remained the primary tight ends, with Andrew Ogletree also taking snaps with the starters and Jelani Woods not joining until the first drive with the backups. Granson was the best fantasy tight end last season at TE33. Even if Woods emerges to play more, we can expect a rotation where no one plays more than 65% of Indianapolis' offensive snaps. Avoid them all in fantasy football.
Dallas Cowboys @ Los Angeles Rams
Don’t overreact to Rico Dowdle playing: Dowdle is competing for the starting job and had to play while Elliott didn’t, but that shouldn’t be a big deal.
The Cowboys' other primary backups are Royce Freeman and Deuce Vaughn, who are both dealing with injuries. This left the team with limited options at the position for this game.
Dowdle also only played one drive with six total snaps, which was reminiscent of the Cowboys' first preseason game three years ago when Garrett Gilbert started at quarterback and Tony Pollard played the first six snaps before calling it a day. Pollard finished RB28 that season. This game didn’t give any indication of how snaps will be split between Elliott and Dowdle.
Rams compete for backup tight end spot: The Rams rested their starters and most top backups like they do every season, but there is an interesting competition at tight end.
Rams longtime starting tight end Tyler Higbee remains on the physically unable-to-perform list. He tore his ACL in the playoffs. There hasn’t been much recent talk about when he’ll return. The general speculation is that he will return mid-to-late season.
Los Angeles acquired Hunter Long in the Jalen Ramsey trade a year ago, but he spent the start of his season on injured reserve. In Week 12, he started cutting into Higbee’s playing time, taking 20-35% of the Rams' offensive snaps. He landed back on injured reserve after three games. Fifth-round rookie Davis Allen then started to take 25-35% of his snaps.
The Rams spent $22 million over three years on free agent Colby Parkinson, who was among the starters resting for this game. Allen started, but Long rotated in on the first drive, and the two continued rotating. Presumably, one will be Parkinson's primary backup.
Miscellaneous Notes
- Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb was placed on the did not report list as he’s looking for a new contract.
- The Cowboys also rested quarterback Dak Prescott, running back Ezekiel Elliott, wide receivers Brandin Cooks and Jalen Tolbert, and tight end Jake Ferguson.
- The Rams rested quarterback Matthew Stafford, running backs Kyren Williams and Blake Corum, wide receivers Puka Nacua, Cooper Kupp, Demarcus Robinson and Tutu Atwell, and tight end Colby Parkinson.
- While the Rams wide receivers who played in this game aren’t big names, Nacua and Robinson both started in the first preseason game last year. Nacua ended up not playing the rest of the preseason, so if we see the same thing out of someone like sixth-round rookie Jordan Whittington next week, that’s worth monitoring.
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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