Fantasy Football Week 10 value watch: Christian Watson among risers, plus fallers to know based on key usage metrics

Each week, we learn new information as the ever-changing Fantasy landscape reshapes itself. There are many specific usage stats that affect a player's Fantasy projection, and outside of a few players, we see those underlying usage metrics fluctuate throughout the course of a season. And the first few weeks of the season present us with a flood of new data to make sense of.

Each week, SportsLine's Fantasy expert Jacob Gibbs will examine all of this new information and provide a data-driven deep dive into Sunday's games to offer a better understanding of what we learned and how it will impact the Fantasy outlook of specific teams and players.

Here, we'll look at the leaderboards in several key metrics around player usage, then share our look at whose stock is rising or falling after this weekend's action. That includes Packers wide receiver Christian Watson.

"Watson was in as a route runner on 21 of 23 Aaron Rodgers dropbacks in his first extended opportunity since Week 1, and it resulted in an explosion for the massively talented rookie." Gibbs says. "Watson appears to be locked into a significant role with Romeo Doubs sidelined for the foreseeable future. Next up is a Titans defense that has been plenty susceptible to the deep ball -- Watson ranks as the WR22 in my early Week 11 rankings.."

If you have questions about any stats, players, or situations covered or not covered in this article, feel free to reach out to Gibbs on Twitter.

Week 10 Leaders -- Running Back

Snap rate

No stat correlates more closely with Fantasy scoring at the RB position than snap rate.

Route involvement rate

A player's route involvement rate simply represents the percentage of the team's total dropbacks on which that player ran a route. So, the running backs listed above ran a route on at least half of their team's dropbacks. Running routes is the first step towards drawing targets, which is key to unlocking Fantasy upside at the RB position.

Red zone usage

Another fun RB stat that I look at on a weekly basis is tackles avoided. Some backs are able to mitigate the damage while playing behind porous offensive lines by consistently making would-be tacklers miss and creating extra yards after contact. Here's who stands out:

And here's who stands out in terms of creating explosive plays:

Week 10 Leaders -- Wide Receiver

In addition to knowing which players drew massive air yardage totals, it is important to be familiar with air yardage shares. The rate version of this stat can help identify players who might break out if their offensive environment improves and produces more air yards in the future.

Speaking of rate stats, it's about time that we got to the oh-so-important target share leaderboard.

Those who produce well in both metrics get to be part of the highly exclusive 30-30 club.

Understanding which players are demanding the most volume is important, but it's also worth remembering that player volume starts at a team level. Darnell Mooney has hardly had an opportunity to accumulate receiving stats as a member of Chicago's anemic passing offense, for example.

So, which teams were intentional about pushing the ball down the field? And which teams were the least aggressive?

This brings us to our next stat: air yardage leaders. Tracking air yards, average route depths, and average depth of target is vital to understanding how each NFL offense operates and will interact with opposing defensive schemes on a week-to-week basis.

The following teams stand out as having provided the most or fewest air yards.

'Off-target' rates

These quarterbacks have been the NFL's least accurate. Displayed below are the most accurate QBs.

And these quarterbacks have been the least accurate on downfield throws.

And the most accurate downfield passers:

Week 10 Leaders -- Tight End

Route involvement rate -- the percentage of a team's routes on which a player runs a route.

To draw a target, a tight end must first be running a route. The players above ran a route on the highest percentage of their team's dropbacks.

Target per route run rate

Target share isn't the only stat that captures a player's ability to demand targets -- target per route run rate is another important metric. With more route-running opportunities, these players could be highly productive in Fantasy.

Let's dig into the full data on Week 10 usage rates.

Which RB saw promising usage rates despite disappointing Fantasy production? And which wide receiver is going to have a difficult time replicating their big Week 9? ... Join SportsLine here to see Jacob Gibbs' Usage Report, all from one of the nation's most accurate experts as graded by FantasyPros!