849: 10 Trends for Week 15

JJ Zachariason (0:02)

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Dawson Knox returned to action in Week 14 He likely didn't play the kind of snaps he's going to play rest of season, and there were reports that he would be eased back in. But with that being said, I think it was a good week overall for Dalton Kincaid. He actually had his best route participation since Week 10, and he still had a 22% target share. The bigger problem was that, according to Fantasy Life's utilization report, his average depth of target was the lowest that it's been in weeks. But I'd expect something like that to fluctuate. Even though Kincaid didn't perform, I'm not overly concerned about his rest of season outlook.

Zay Flowers has now played three full games without Mark Andrews this season. Andrews missed Week 1, Week 12, and then Week 14 In those games, Flowers scored 17.7, 23.2, and 20 PPR points.

His target shares in those games, 48%, 27%, and 25%. His route participation over his last two has been 100%. He's run a route on all of Baltimore's drop packs. And his usage isn't like what we saw back in Week 1 If you remember during his big breakout to start the year, Flowers hadn't averaged at the target of just 2.6 yards in that game. Over his last two, it's been 6 and 12 yards. He's in a very good spot for the fantasy playoffs.

There was a rap sheet report before Week 14 stating that Austin Eckler's usage was gonna change, that the Chargers were gonna use their other running backs and have more of a rotation. And that kind of happened, but it also kind of didn't happen. Eckler did see his running back rush share drop to 52.6% in that game. That was his lowest mark since Week 1 But his route participation was over 70%, that gave him his second highest participation of the season. And he played 72% of their snaps. That was more than the majority of his games this year. So the Chargers may have tried to do more to get their other backs involved, but GameScript and Eckler's pass catching ability, it kept him on the field. All Chargers players obviously get a downgrade with Justin Herbert now out. But that should also mean more negative GameScripts, and that will at least mean more Austin Eckler, more than likely.

Evan Ingram went off against the Browns this past week, and I wasn't ready for it at all. Ingram posted an 11-catch, 95-yard, 2-touchdown line against Cleveland. He scored 32.5 PPR points. That's impressive enough, but it's even more impressive when you consider Ingram became just a second tight end this season to score more than 8 PPR points against Cleveland. They've been absolutely dominant against tight ends this year. Ingram's target share, it's up a little bit without Christian Kirk. It was about 22.4% per game to start the season, but then across his last two games, it's been closer to 24%. So there's a little bit of a bump. The real difference, though, is that his touchdown regression has hit. He's now scored three times over his last two.

He has a tough tight end schedule in the fantasy playoffs, but it probably doesn't matter much for him. He's locked in right now.

After Jaylen Warren's first game without Matt Canada, I thought people were being a little bit over the top about his usage. He scored just seven PPR points, but his usage, it was basically the same as what it's been throughout the season. So why not buy into him a little bit, given the overall sentiment? Well, things haven't really gotten better without Canada. Warren has now scored no more than eight PPR points in his three games without Matt Canada as offensive coordinator. His running back rush share is actually shrinking. During his four games before the Canada firing, his running back rush share was 43% per game. Over his last two, that's been closer to 36%. I do think better days are ahead versus what we've been seeing, but it doesn't look like the Steelers are going to make a dramatic change with Jalen Warren versus Najee Harris. I don't know if that was the expectation per se, but it was always a possibility without Matt Canada.