• D’Andre Swift leads the Eagles to victory: The Eagles rotated their running backs quarterly, but two quarters were enough for Swift to post his second consecutive 130-yard rushing performance.
• Trey Palmer finally takes over the slot role: Palmer rotated around the third receiving spot, and now the job is his.
• The Los Angeles Rams And Cincinnati Bengals both started slowly: Both offenses feature many of the weapons they have previously produced, but both teams went without a touchdown in the first half, disappointing several fantasy managers.
PFF’s fantasy football roundup focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the key information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2023.
Philadelphia Eagles @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
D’Andre Swift Starts for the Eagles: Kenneth Gainwell returned after missing Week 2 but did not regain his starting job.
- Swift started the game and the Eagles then switched quarters.
- Swift took the clear majority of snaps in the first and third quarters. Gainwell played the clear majority of snaps in the second and fourth quarters.
- Gainwell played fairly well, but Swift was dominant whenever he touched the football.
- Unfortunately, neither defender was present in the passing game, and Jalen Hurts will still take advantage of all the 1-yard touchdown opportunities, so neither defender had a touchdown.
- Boston Scott would normally be the third running back, but he was inactive after suffering a concussion last week.
- Rashaad Penny was active as the third running back but did not play an offensive snap.
- Swift can remain in the fantasy starting lineup going forward. In the worst case scenario, he will keep this role. In the best case scenario, it will expand significantly.
- Gainwell should at least stay in the squad. He’s the handcuff for a running back with an injury history and he would be a fantasy starter if something happened to Swift.
- Penny can be dropped in leagues with easier benches.
Trey Palmer takes the third recipient position: Palmer split time with Deven Thompkins in the third receiver role.
- Palmer had played 58 offensive snaps in the first two weeks, compared to Deven Thompkins’ 50. That included Palmer holding a 51-43 lead with 11 players.
- This week, Palmer played as many offensive snaps as Mike Evans and Chris Godwin on 11 teams, with Thompkins only playing when one of those players needed a break.
- That didn’t translate into increased receiving performance this week, as Palmer caught his only target from 8 yards.
- Thompkins strangely received more targets despite his smaller role in the offense.
- It’s still unlikely that Palmer sees much fantasy value behind Evans and Godwin, but that makes it more likely that Palmer could be a waiver-wire target if one of the top receivers suffers an injury.
Various notes
- Quez Watkins suffered a hamstring injury early in last week’s game, which also kept him out this week. Olamide Zaccheaus took over as the third wide receiver last week, which continued into this game and resulted in Zaccheaus scoring a touchdown.
- Buccaneers backup running back Chase Edmonds landed on injured reserve. Sean Tucker became the primary backup like he did last week, but Rachaad White dominated the offensive snaps as usual.
Los Angeles Rams @ Cincinnati Bengals
- Ja’Marr Chase: 12 receptions, 141 receiving yards
- Joe Mixon: 19 carries, 65 yards, 1 touchdown; 1 reception, 5 reception courtyards
Kyren Williams Dominates the offensive snaps for the second year in a row: Williams played every offensive snap for Los Angeles after playing 76 offensive snaps the week before.
- Cam Akers was traded to the Minnesota Vikings earlier this week, making it clear that no one on the roster will be pushing Williams for playing time any time soon.
- Williams managed 38 rushing yards on 10 attempts and two receptions for 27 yards.
- The LA offense didn’t perform as well as it did in Week 1 and Week 2. That meant several inaccurate passes to Williams that couldn’t be intercepted, and also that the team was never able to score a touchdown.
- Williams needs to be in the fantasy starting lineup unless the Rams add someone to the roster.
- It wouldn’t be too surprising if the Rams traded for a running back at some point in the next month or two.
The Bengals use a substitution rotation Irv Smith Jr.: The former Minnesota Viking missed that game with a hamstring injury.
- Drew Sample, Mitchell Wilcox and Tanner Hudson all received significant playing time, with Hudson generally playing in passing situations while Wilcox and Sample were used in running situations.
- Wilcox and Sample were the primary tight ends when on the 12th team, while Hudson was the primary tight end on third downs.
- Cincinnati also used 02 personnel and 01 personnel, with Sample lining up in the backfield to help in pass protection instead of having a running back on some third-and-longs.
- The Bengals used a similar strategy from Sample in the backfield in pass protection against the Dallas Cowboys pass rush in Week 2 of 2022.
- It’s been a while since the Bengals have had a reliable fantasy tight end. All of these players should be ignored in fantasy leagues while Smith is out.
Various notes
- The Bengals and Rams are the only two teams that have used 11 personnel in over 80% of their offensive snaps since the start of 2022. The league average during this period is 62%.
- Tee Higgins missed some time late in the third quarter as he headed to the locker room. He was reportedly being treated for convulsions. This shouldn’t be a problem in the long run, but it caused him to miss a few seasons.
Table notes
• Snaps include plays that are called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.
• Targets may vary from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be a clearly thrown away pass, where the NFL might pass the target to the closest receiver, whereas this data does not.
• Carries only occur on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles do not count toward the total number of carries in the game.