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After three weeks of the season, what have we learned? Sure, we know who has all the touchdowns but what do the rest of the metrics tell us?
I used the data from the Yards Per Fantasy Team Profiles to pull out some key learnings for each team, this is the NFC.
→AFC Edition
NFC East
Dallas Cowboys
Game plan has been all over the map with total plays and pass/run splits. The 76-percent pass ratio in week 1 equalled their 2020 high and the 39-percent pass ratio in week 3 was lower than their 2020 low.
As a result, there’s been no consistency across pass-catching stats or rushing shares, except that Elliott’s total opportunities are more than good enough no matter what work Tony Pollard has been getting.
Philadelphia Eagles
There’s nothing too exciting to pick out in Philadelphia. Smith was looking good out the gate but it’s evened out with Reagor and the Tight Ends (who also get those valuable redzone targets).
Washington Football Team
Washington have already had as many games with less than 50 offensive plays (2) as they did all last season.
McLaurin’s WOPR (Weighted Opportunity) of 0.7 is exactly what we want to see from a top 12 Wide Receiver but Gibson’s declining rush share is not what we wanted from a top 12 Running Back.
New York Giants
Daniel Jones is firmly one of those QBs who will take a 30% rush share each week but Saquon Barkley’s opportunity share is clearly increasing, a good sign with a potential for more opportunity from injuries to his teammates.
NFC North
Green Bay Packers
We don’t really need to talk about Davante Adams do we?!
It’s Aaron Jones’ usage that I was most interested to see coming in to the season, with Jamaal Williams leaving and AJ Dillon potentially taking more touches. In the receiving game, Jones’ target share has actually gone down in 2 out of 3 games but his rush attempts have stayed exactly where they were last season (excluding that strange week one).
Minnesota Vikings
What’s interesting here is that Adam Thielen’s aDOT (average depth of target) has come down compared to last season. He’s now operating in the area of the field that Kyle Rudolph and Irv Smith were, while KJ Osborn is trotting a bit further afield instead.
And my goodness you just play whoever the lead back is and don’t worry about it!
Chicago Bears
Those catch percentages are not good from Justin Fields debut. Lets hope he manages to get on the same page as his receivers next time he gets out there.
Montgomery is still getting workhorse numbers and got plenty of opportunity share both with and without Justin Fields under center.
Detroit Lions
TJ Hockenson got the lowest target share of his NFL career to date in week 3 as Swift again took the Lion’s share (sorry, not sorry). He’s doing it all after the catch though, look at that aDOT!
Meanwhile, on the ground it’s a very real split with Jamaal Williams.
NFC South
Carolina Panthers
A definite shift from last season’s target spread to DJ Moore taking a more dominant share, along with a much less anti-social aDOT as Robby Anderson takes over as the deep threat.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Good luck guessing where the ball’s going to go when all these pass-catchers are available!
One thing is for sure, they don’t like running the ball and Ronald Jones just isn’t on the field anywhere near enough to be useful.
New Orleans Saints
The Saints passed less than 23 times just once last season, and that was the Kendall Hinton game. They haven’t hit that mark yet so far in 2021.
Alvin Kamara’s role has been much more of a traditional workhorse running back so far, with two games over 20 carries having only previously done that twice in his career before now.
Atlanta Falcons
Ridley is still getting a solid target share but the aDOT has come right down. Outside of that, far too many targets to Cordarrelle Patterson with a less than stellar aDOT is pulling down the whole offense.
The ground game is clearly missing and dare I say it, bring back Todd Gurley?! No?!
NFC West
Los Angeles Rams
We know this is the Cooper Kupp show so far this season but what else do we know? Well firstly Tyler Higbee’s target depth is really low and he’s definitely not getting enough volume to be able to sustain that lower target depth.
Arizona Cardinals
Another evenly distributed passing attack, this could be that non-alpha Hopkins season that many were expecting last season.
James Conner is getting more of the rushing opportunity than Edmonds managers hoped, especially close to the goal line.
San Francisco 49ers
I’m not sure we know much about this team yet. After apparently being out of favour to start the season, Aiyuk has worked his way back to 50% of the redzone targets in week 3 and 100% of targets inside the 10 yard line.
And Trey Sermon is clearly not the guy. When a 49ers running back is next man up he often gets most of the carries, but they were keen to use more Kyle Jusczyk when it was just down to Sermon.
Seattle Seahawks
It’s pretty simple. It’s DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, and it’s Chris Carson on the ground.
2020 saw only one week with less rush attempts than the Seahawks have had each of the last two weeks. But it’s the overall volume that’s driving it. When you’re as efficient as Russell Wilson, you only get through 50 plays per game apparently!
Check out the Team Profiles pages to see all these stats and more updated for each team every single week.
