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Estimated reading time: 20 minutes

PFF’s fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2024.

Jacksonville Jaguars @ Chicago Bears

• Cole Kmet: 5 receptions, 70 yards, 2 touchdowns
• Gabe Davis: 5 receptions, 45 yards, 2 touchdowns

Monitor Travis Etienne Jr.’s health: Etienne suffered a hamstring injury and didn’t return.

Etienne was limited in practice for the last two weeks due to a shoulder injury. He played around 70% of offensive snaps each of the first three weeks, dropping to 52% in Week 4 and 38% in Week 5. Over the first five weeks, his primary backup Tank Bigsby had the third-highest PFF grade for a running back, making it hard to tell how much a shift in playing time and touches has to do with Etienne not being 100% compared to Bigsby just playing better than Eteinne has when he’s 100%.

It was clear from the start of the game that Etienne would get substituted out more than usual. Bigsby had just as many snaps and carries on the first drive as he did on the first drives of the first five games combined.

Etienne played 50% of snaps on the first drive and continued to play roughly 50% over the first three drives. He didn’t play on the final drive of the first half and only played one snap in the second half before his day was done.

In the second half, we saw more D’Ernest Johnson than Tank Bigsby, largely due to the game script. Over the last two seasons, Bigbsy has been more of an early-down back, and Johnson has been more of a receiving back. If Etienne misses time, Bigbsy would be the player to start in fantasy leagues. Even if Etienne doesn’t miss time, Bigsby could still lead the team in carries over the rest of the season.

Evan Engram returns: The Jaguars lead tight end missed the last four games due to a hamstring injury.

Engram played fewer snaps during both the preseason and Week 1 than last season. He typically played around 80% of Jacksonville’s offensive snaps last season and 68% in Week 1.

The Jaguars started the game a little more conservative with Engram. He played 56% of their offensive snaps in the first half, losing snaps to Luke Farrell in more rushing situations like he was in Week 1 but also losing some time to Brenton Strange.

Engram was still targeted when he was on the field and those plays went well, so Engram went back to playing around 70% of Jacksonville’s offensive snaps in the second half. He caught 10 passes for 102 yards. We can’t expect Engram to see this high of a target rate every game, but this is still enough to safely put Engram back in fantasy starting lineups for anyone who wants to be conservative.

Chicago Bears fully embrace 11 personnel: Shane Waldron’s offense has evolved over the first six weeks to keep his best players on the field.

During the last three seasons with the Seattle Seahawks, Waldron’s offenses had used 11 personnel on 55% of first-half plays outside of two-minute drills. This led plenty of fantasy managers to be concerned about Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze‘s playing time. The Seahawks also consistently rotated players at tight end, leading to concern about Cole Kmet.

Over the first three weeks of the season, the Bears offense largely resembled the Seahawks. The Bears used 11 personnel on 60% of their first-half snaps outside of two-minute drills. The offense started to evolve in Week 4. The Bears used 11 personnel on 69% of their snaps during Weeks 4-5, ranking ninth-most among offenses. 

In this game, their 11 personnel rate shot up to 88% of their snaps in the first half. Personnel usage always evolves in the second half, depending on the game script, and they went away from 11 personnel, but that’s largely because they were winning. The Bears’ increased use of 11 personnel has helped Caleb Williams and will also help Allen, Odunze and Kmet going forward. Both D.J. Moore and Odunze could be considered buy-low candidates after this game based on how good the offense has been looking.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Gabe Davis has been limited in practice for the last three weeks due to a shoulder injury followed by a knee injury. He was playing around 95% of his team’s offensive snaps the first two weeks, but that dropped to 76-79% of snaps from Weeks 3-5. This week, his snap rate declined even further. He scored the two touchdowns today, but ideally, he sees more playing time before he is strongly considered for fantasy starting lineups.
• The Bears running back rotation of D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson has been stable over the past three weeks.

Washington Commanders @ Baltimore Ravens

Coming soon!

Arizona Cardinals @ Green Bay Packers

Coming soon!

Houston Texans @ New England Patriots

Coming soon!

Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ New Orleans Saints

Coming soon!

Cleveland Browns @ Philadelphia Eagles

Coming soon!

Indianapolis Colts @ Tennessee Titans

Coming soon!

Los Angeles Chargers @ Denver Broncos

Coming soon!

Pittsburgh Steelers @ Las Vegas Raiders

Coming soon!

Atlanta Falcons @ Carolina Panthers

Coming soon!

Detroit Lions @ Dallas Cowboys

Coming soon!

Cincinnati Bengals @ New York Giants

Coming soon!

Table Notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.
• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.
• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.