• Chase Brown gets elite usage in his first game without Zack Moss: With Moss on the sidelines with what has turned out to be a long-term neck injury, Brown put up a career-high 157 scrimmage yards on 32 touches in Week 9.
• Joe Mixon is a ball hog: Since Week 7, Mixon has led the NFL with 74 rushing attempts and has made up 56% of the Texans' scrimmage touches, which is by far the highest team touch rate by any player in the NFL during that span.
• Unlock your edge with a PFF+ subscription: Get full access to all our in-season fantasy tools, including weekly rankings, WR/CB matchup charts, weekly projections, the Start-Sit Optimizer and more. Sign up now!
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
With so many running backs splitting their backfield in today’s NFL, it is more important than ever to figure out which players are receiving the most valuable snaps and touches on their team and who is slowly losing their workload to teammates who are outproducing them.
Here are the top running back takeaways over the first nine weeks of the 2024 season that could greatly impact fantasy points in Week 10 and beyond.
Bengals RB Chase Brown gets 32 touches in Week 9 with Zack Moss sidelined
With his backfield counterpart Zack Moss on the sidelines due to a neck injury last weekend, Chase Brown recorded a career-high 32 touches in the game, consisting of 27 carries and five receptions.
It marked the first time in his career with more than 15 carries, and he delivered—racking up 120 yards on the ground along with 37 receiving yards and a touchdown. Brown played nearly 80% of the offensive snaps, and no other Bengals running back recorded a touch.
With Moss now placed on IR, Brown is expected to continue as a workhorse back. The Bengals did acquire Khalil Herbert from the Bears before the trade deadline, but that move appears to be more for depth, given the lack of a viable backup if something were to happen to Brown.
While Brown’s Week 9 performance was impressive, it came against the struggling Raiders defense. His upcoming schedule is more challenging, with matchups against the Ravens, Chargers, and Steelers — all top-eight run defenses this season. However, his role in the passing game should keep him a safe fantasy start, even in tougher matchups.
Upcoming matchups: at Ravens, at Chargers, bye, vs. Steelers
Titans RB Tony Pollard recorded a career-high 28 carries in Week 9
In Week 9 against the Patriots, Tony Pollard set a career-high with 28 carries, rushing for 128 yards and totaling 154 scrimmage yards — his most in a game as a Titan and the second-most of his career.
Pollard has now recorded season-high scrimmage yards in back-to-back games, with 117 yards in Week 8. Recently, the Titans have leaned heavily on Pollard, who has played over 80% of offensive snaps in each of the last three weeks. However, there are reasons to be cautious about his fantasy outlook.
Running back Tyjae Spears, sidelined since Week 6 with a hamstring injury, could return soon, potentially cutting into Pollard’s workload. Additionally, scoring opportunities have been scarce for Pollard, as the Titans’ offense rarely puts him in a position to find the end zone.
He hasn’t scored a touchdown in three weeks and hasn’t had a carry inside the five-yard line since Week 4. To make matters tougher, the Titans’ upcoming schedule includes matchups against the Chargers, Texans, and Vikings—each a top-seven defense in limiting fantasy points to running backs this season.
If you can, trade Tony Pollard in your fantasy leagues now.
Upcoming matchups: at Chargers, vs. Vikings, at Texans
Rico Dowdle plays 71% of Cowboys‘ offensive snaps with Ezekiel Elliott inactive
Elliott's benching allowed Dowdle to prove himself as the Cowboys' best option to lead their backfield for the rest of the season. Playing a career-high 54 snaps in Week 9, Dowdle rushed for 75 yards on 12 carries and added 32 yards and a touchdown through the air. He’s now surpassed 100 scrimmage yards in two of his last three games, scoring 19+ fantasy points in both.
If the Cowboys’ coaching staff is looking to the future, they’ll likely keep Elliott on the bench to give Dowdle an extended look, especially with the team’s playoff hopes dwindling. Elliott, who isn’t part of the team’s long-term plans, has underperformed this season, averaging just 3.1 yards per carry—ranking 63rd out of 66 players with 40+ carries—compared to Dowdle’s 4.5 yards per carry.
Dowdle faces challenging matchups over the next two weeks against the Eagles and Texans, but his schedule opens up significantly from Weeks 12-15 with games against the Commanders, Giants, Bengals and Panthers — four teams that have struggled to stop the run. Dowdle could be a late-season fantasy league-winner.
Upcoming matchups: vs. Eagles, vs. Texans, at Commanders
Joe Mixon‘s 56% team touch rate since Week 7 leads all players in the NFL
In a shocking turn of events, the Texans have become a very heavy rushing offense this season with Joe Mixon thriving in his new offense. Mixon is averaging 21 carries and 23 touches per game, both second most in the NFL to only Kareem Hun … it is like we rewound the clocks to 2017. Mixon’s work is only ramping up as the season progresses. Over the last three weeks, Mixon leads the NFL with 74 rushing attempts and 80 total scrimmage touches. During that span, Mixon has made up 56% of the Texans scrimmage touches— no other player has had more than 49% of their team’s touches since Week 7.
Despite missing three games with an ankle injury earlier this season, Mixon has the fifth most red zone carries (28) in the NFL and has been the ball carrier on each of the Texans‘ seven goal-line carries in 2024. It is safe to say that Mixon has been one of the best picks in fantasy drafts this season as he has finished as a top-five fantasy running back in four of the six weeks he has played in 2024. No running back has more top-five fantasy finishes than Mixon this season.
Upcoming matchups: vs Lions, at Cowboys, vs. Titans
© 2024 PFF - all rights reserved.