• Kareem Hunt led the Kansas City Chiefs’ backfield: Hunt ran the ball 20-plus times six times in 2017 with the Kansas City Chiefs, once in 2018 and once in his five-year career with the Cleveland Browns in 2020 before doing so on Monday Night Football against the Saints.
• JuJu Smith-Schuster leads the Chiefs’ wide receivers: Smith-Schuster had four 130-yard games in 2017 and 2018 and notched his fifth on Monday Night Football.
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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 Orleans Saints @ Kansas City Chiefs
- JuJu Smith-Schuster: 7 receptions, 130 yards
- Rashid Shaheed: 4 receptions, 86 yards, 1 touchdown
Kareem Hunt leads the Chiefs’ backfield: Hunt received double-digit carries in the first half in his first start back with Kansas City.
Isiah Pacheco landed on injured reserve in Week 2, which led the Chiefs to sign Hunt to their practice squad for Week 3. Carson Steele started in Weeks 3 and 4, but Hunt saw significant time in Week 4, leading him to take over in this game.
Hunt in the first half of this game didn’t see quite as much playing time as Pacheco early in the season, but the backfield split was reminiscent of the Chiefs’ 2023 rotation. Hunt had Pacheco’s 2023 role as the lead back, while Steele had Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s role as the early-down backup. Samaje Perine continued with his passing-down role. In the second half, the backfield was more reminiscent of early in the season, with Hunt dominating the early-down snaps.
This split has left Perine with no early-down work, so he can be dropped in most fantasy leagues. Jerick McKinnon had some value in that role last season because he played near the goal line and scored touchdowns. McKinnon took 53.8% of the offensive snaps when the Chiefs were within five yards of scoring last season in games McKinnon played, while Perine has taken 17.6%.
Steele can also be dropped in leagues with lighter benches. Clyde Edwards-Helaire returned to practice this past week and the Chiefs have their bye this upcoming week, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he is back for Week 7. He will likely initially take snaps from Steele, but he could take snaps from Hunt, as well. It should be relatively safe to start Hunt in Week 7 since Edwards-Helaire will be eased in, but Edwards-Helaire could be a problem for Hunt in the long-term.
Chiefs adjust without Rashee Rice: Rice is confirmed to be out for the season due to a knee injury.
Rice was injured early last week, leading the Chiefs to stick with Xavier Worthy, Justin Watson and JuJu Smith-Schuster as their top three wide receivers. They had a week to adjust that strategy, and they didn’t switch many things. Their frequency of using different personnel groupings didn’t change significantly, and if anything, they rotated their backup wide receivers less frequently.
Justin Watson has the third-lowest target rate among NFL wide receivers who have run at least 700 routes over the past three seasons. Most of Xavier Worthy’s targets come on deep throws and throws behind the line of scrimmage, which isn’t necessarily going to lead to many targets overall.
This leaves Travis Kelce and JuJu Smith-Schuster as the two Kansas City receivers who will see a lot of targets going forward, and that’s what happened in this game. Both tallied 70-plus receiving yards, while no one else had more than 35. There is still a chance the Chiefs will add a wide receiver, but as things stand, Smith-Schuster should be the biggest wide receiver waiver target this week after his seven-catch, 130-yard performance.
Juwan Johnson emerges as New Orleans’ top tight end: Johnson had been eased in early this season due to injury.
Johnson suffered a fractured foot in mid-June and returned to practice in late August. In each of the first three games, he played 50% of the offensive snaps or less, with Foster Moreau serving as the lead tight end. Last week was Johnson’s first time playing more than Moreau, and this week he was on the field for an even higher percentage of snaps and routes.
He caught five passes for 31 yards. Moreau was the one to score a touchdown, but Johnson is the clear tight end to target between the two, given his route volume and target share. Johnson’s target rate generally hasn’t been as high as last season. He will need a higher target rate to be considered in fantasy leagues, but getting the playing time again was the first step toward being a fantasy starter.
Miscellaneous Notes
• Derek Carr left the game late in the fourth quarter with a reported oblique injury.
• Kendre Miller returned to practice this week, but he was not activated to the 53-man roster for this game.
• Taysom Hill was inactive for this game due to a rib injury.
• Tight end Jody Fortson spent 2019 and 2020 on the Chiefs’ practice squad, spent 2021 and 2022 as the Chiefs’ third receiving tight end and spent 2023 on injured reserve. He signed this offseason with the Miami Dolphins, but he was cut in August and didn’t make his way to the Chiefs’ practice squad until Sept. 26. He was signed to the active roster on Friday and saw significant playing time in this game.
• With Fortson active, the Chiefs ran multiple plays with four tight ends on the field, joining the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks as the only teams this season to utilize four tight ends.
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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