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Week 4 Usage Report: Kadarius Toney among rookies with encouraging roles, plus full WR and TE target and snap data

Get downloaded on everything you need to know about wide receiver and tight end usage in Week 4 from one of the nation's top Fantasy experts

By@jagibbs_23Updated: Oct 06, 2021 4:17PM UTC . 7 min read

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

Below, you can find full team-by-team data on snap counts, target share, routes run, red-zone usage and more for every Fantasy relevant wide receiver and tight end. Check back later in the week for What We Learned, where Gibbs will break down all the takeaways you should have from Week 4, pulling largely from the information in this usage report.

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 4 Leaders

With Carlos Hyde sidelined, Robinson played nearly every snap for the Jaguars on Thursday.

Kenny Golladay was a bit banged-up heading into Week 3, and his snap rate was below 70 percent as a result. He logged a season-high snap rate in Week 4.

In his first game back from injury, Darrell Henderson immediately returned to a dominant snap share.

D'Andre Swift's snap rate had fallen from 68 percent in Week 1 to 63 percent in Week 2 and 56 percent in Week 3. So, it was good to see him put in a season-high snap rate in Week 4, even if the production wasn't there.

Rookies Kadarius Toney, Amon-Ra St. Brown, Terrace Marshall, Javonte Williams, and Michael Carter all logged a career-high snap rate in Week 4.

After exciting Week 3 usage, Brandon Aiyuk, Mecole Hardman, and Chuba Hubbard each took a step backward in Week 4.

Chris Carson has shown troubling usage signs in back-to-back weeks. I expect that he will have fallen outside of the top 15 at the RB position in my rest of season rankings, which will be published on Wednesday.

Cordarelle Patterson and Tony Pollard have gotten by on elite efficiency thus far, but it hasn't led to any additional opportunities. In fact, both players logged a season-low snap rate in Week 4.

Understanding route depths is an important part of contextualizing pass-catcher production. Extremely high average route depths often lead to fewer targets and a lower catch rate, but they also bring an expected increase in per-target efficiency. We've seen guys like Tyler Lockett and Brandon Aiyuk produce elite efficiency on downfield targets, so their increase in average route depth is exciting.

Lower average route depths typically result in a higher catch rate and sometimes coincide with an increase in targets per route run. JuJu Smith-Schuster exemplifies the worst of both worlds -- his average route depth has been continually shortened by the Steelers over the years, but it hasn't corresponded with any increase to his targets per route run rate. As a result, he's left as a touchdown-dependent and minimally Fantasy viable player.

These tight ends are being targeted at the highest rate when allowed to run routes, but that's only part of the equation when evaluating tight ends for Fantasy purposes. Understanding how often each tight end's offense allows them to actually run routes is another important piece of the puzzle.

Players like Hockenson, Andrews, and Pitts haven't needed a massive target per route run rate, because they are running so many routes. This type of route involvement provides exciting upside for those guys if their TPRR rate rises.

Target per route run rate is one of the most important stats available for evaluating pass-catchers in Fantasy. I wrote about it in more detail here, if you are unfamiliar with the stat.

Let's dig into the full data on Week 4 usage rates.

So which team is seeing an increase in air yards? And what do you need to know about how every receiver was used this past week? ... Join SportsLine here to see Jacob Gibbs' Wide Receiver and Tight End Usage Report, all from one of the nation's most accurate experts as graded by FantasyPros!

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