• Ja’Marr Chase: 7 receptions, 132 yards, two touchdowns
• Joe Mixon: 8 carries, 45 yards; 4 receptions, 23 receiving yards, one receiving touchdown
PFF's fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2022.
Cincinnati Bengals @ New Orleans Saints
Add Hayden Hurst: The Bengals tight end was held to three catches for 21 yards, but that shouldn’t top fantasy managers from adding or starting him.
- Only six Bengals skill players touched the ball or were targeted on offense, which is the ideal situation for fantasy managers.
- As of the completion of the 1 p.m. games, Hurst was second in the league in routes run among tight ends this season.
- He will be somewhat touchdown dependent. However, the Bengals offense has been improving, giving Hurst a higher chance of scoring than most tight ends each week.
Don’t worry about Tee Higgins: Higgins' ankle injury meant he barely practiced all week, but that didn’t stop him from leading the team in targets.
- He was eased in during the first quarter, playing 16-of-21 snaps.
- He played 34-of-36 snaps the rest of the way, which is a higher percentage of snaps than he usually plays.
- It wouldn’t hurt to try and buy him at a decreased cost, as he gained only 47 receiving yards today.
Monitor the health of the Saints receivers: Due to various injuries, all three of the Saints' starting receivers were inactive, while Deonte Harty landed on injured reserve earlier in the week. This led New Orleans to use several backups.
- Marquez Callaway and Tre’Quan Smith were at the top of the depth chart, which was no surprise, given that both have played significantly this season as backups and started at points last season.
- Keith Kirkwood emerged as the third wide receiver, although he was limited to one target.
- Undrafted rookie Rashid Shaheed ran for a 44-yard touchdown in the second quarter, but that didn’t buy him much more playing time. He remained fifth on the depth chart today and likely remains ninth on the depth chart when everyone is healthy.
- All of these receivers should be avoided, as none tallied over 45 offensive yards.
Monitor the Saints' quarterback situation: There were reports Andy Dalton could keep the Saints' starting job if he played well.
- Jameis Winston was the starter at the beginning of the season, but he has missed time with back and ankle injuries.
- He was limited in practice all week and was active as the backup against the Bengals.
- Dalton completed 17-of-32 passes for 162 yards and a touchdown — pretty good, considering the lack of depth at wide receiver.
- He’s graded notably better than Winston this season, although part of Winston’s poor play could have been due to injury.
- Dalton could be worth a waiver wire target in deep leagues. Assuming he keeps the job, his stats should improve once the wide receivers are healthy.
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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