Fantasy Football Week 11 value watch: Gabe Davis among risers, plus fallers to know based on key usage metrics
Get updated on everything you need to know about Week 11 from one of the nation's top Fantasy experts
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We learn new information on a weekly basis 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.
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 examine whose stock is rising or falling after the weekend's action. This week, that includes Bills wide receiver Gabe Davis.
"Don't look now, but Gabe Davis has finally begun to demand targets with consistency." Gibbs says. "He accounted for 28% of Buffalo's targets and 50% of the air yardage in Week 11. Over the past month, Davis has a target share of 24% or higher in 3 of his past four games. Prior to that stretch, Davis hit that rate in just 1 of 37 games."
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.
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:
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:
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 11 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 11? ... Join SportsLine here to see Jacob Gibbs' Usage Report, all from one of the nation's most accurate experts as graded by FantasyPros!
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