• DeAndre Hopkins makes his mark on the Kansas City Chiefs: The veteran wide receiver tallied multiple receiving touchdowns for the 14th time in his Hall-of-Fame career.
• The Tampa Bay Buccaneers rely on undrafted wide receivers: The Buccaneers’ top four wide receivers were dealing with injuries, so their top two wideouts in snaps were free agents they signed after the 2023 NFL Draft.
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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.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Kansas City Chiefs
- DeAndre Hopkins: 7 receptions, 71 yards, 2 touchdowns
- Travis Kelce: 14 receptions, 100 yards
Buccaneers adjust while down several wide receivers: The Buccaneers were down their top three wide receivers, and their next best option was questionable for this game.
Chris Godwin is out for the season with a dislocated ankle. Mike Evans has missed the past two games with a hamstring injury and could miss another one or two games. Jalen McMillan appeared on the injury report Saturday with a hamstring injury and was questionable for this game before ultimately being inactive. Sterling Shepard was also dealing with a hamstring injury, which kept him out of practice Thursday and Friday and limited him Saturday. He was also listed as questionable.
Trey Palmer started the season as the team’s fourth wide receiver. Once Evans went down with his injury, Palmer served as the primary X receiver. Last week, Rakim Jarrett was activated off injured reserve and began rotating with Palmer. Jarrett was the team’s most productive receiver in Week 8, gaining 58 receiving yards on three receptions. This earned him the lead X role for this game, replacing Palmer. He should remain in this role until Evans returns from his injury.
Shepard had taken over Godwin’s role in the slot, but he couldn’t start this week due to his injury. Ryan Miller, who was signed off the practice squad once Godwin landed on injured reserve, started instead. He was the primary backup to both Shepard and McMillan last week. Miller was the primary slot receiver for most of this game, but as the Buccaneers needed to make plays in the last two minutes, Shepard almost surpassed Miller in snaps. This role will return to Shepard once he’s closer to 100%.
This left Palmer primarily playing as the Z receiver, the role he was competing with McMillan for during training camp. Both Shepard and Miller, at times, played in the Z role in Palmer’s place, with the other playing in the slot on those plays. Once McMillan is healthy again, he will return to this role.
This leaves Jarrett as an odd man out once everyone is healthy. He was more experienced in the Z role last season, so he could take some time from McMillan there later in the season, in which case McMillan could take some time from Shepard in the slot. McMillan has the most upside of the Buccaneers' young wide receivers, and more snaps from the slot could help his fantasy value.
DeAndre Hopkins shines in second game: Hopkins was on the field much more often this week than in his first game with the Chiefs.
The Chiefs traded for Hopkins before Week 8, and he played 23 of a possible 72 snaps and ran 14 routes out of 44 pass plays in his debut. He largely split time with Mecole Hardman. This week, his playing time increased significantly. The Chiefs rotated their wide receivers a lot less often than usual until they were running with the ball to maintain a lead in the fourth quarter. Because they rarely had a lead, they stuck with 11 personnel for a lot of the game but mixed in some 12 personnel, particularly early.
Hopkins was rotated out for a decent number of passing plays, but given his age and how much he’s been rotated out in recent seasons, this is probably as good of route participation as we can expect. He was Patrick Mahomes’ clear favorite target outside of Travis Kelce. He can safely be put in fantasy starting lineups going forward, although there will likely be a few weeks where he doesn’t have much production because other Chiefs are scoring and the team can stick with the run.
Hopkins has historically been an X receiver, but Mahomes traditionally doesn’t throw to X receivers very often. Hopkins had six receptions while lined up out wide on the line of scrimmage. This was the first time in Mahomes’ career that a receiver had six or more receptions while lined up out wide on the line. It seems like Mahomes and the Chiefs are comfortable adjusting their strategy to play to Hopkins’ strengths.
The big question now is how the Chiefs will distribute snaps once JuJu Smith-Schuster is back. While Hopkins has been primarily an outside wide receiver in his career, he played roughly one-third of his snaps in the slot and two-thirds on the outside. This was also true for Xavier Worthy and Justin Watson. None of Kansas City’s wide receivers were effective out of the slot, outside of a 35-yard reception for Hopkins. Chances are that Smith-Schuster will be the Chiefs' primary slot receiver once he’s back, which would lead to a decrease in snaps for Worthy, Watson or both.
Miscellaneous Notes
- Patrick Mahomes suffered an ankle injury in the second half. He returned to the game on the following drive but still didn’t seem comfortable at times. It will be worth monitoring this week, just in case his injury is more severe than initially thought.
- The Buccaneers called up Marquez Callaway from the practice squad to serve as their fifth wide receiver. He has been on the team for only two and a half weeks. He didn’t play in the first half but took a few snaps from Rakim Jarrett in the second half.
- Sean Tucker has largely been phased out of the offense, as his playing time has decreased significantly each week. He didn’t play on offense in the first half, and his snaps in the second half came after a 46-yard kickoff return by Bucky Irving. He can be dropped in most leagues.
- In the past two weeks, Chiefs backup tight ends Jody Fortson and Jared Wiley were placed on injured reserve. This led the team to sign Peyton Hendershot to the active roster. The Chiefs traded for Hendershot in August, released him in September and have had him on the practice squad ever since.
- While Clyde Edwards-Helaire has been eligible to play for Kansas City for a few weeks, he has consistently been a healthy inactive.
- Mecole Hardman was the fourth wide receiver for Kansas City in this game, but he missed most of the first half after suffering an injury on his first punt return.
- The Chiefs elevated Justyn Ross from the practice squad for the first time this season. He was their fifth wide receiver.
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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