Backfield Breakdown: Week 12 Recap & Week 13 Sleepers

It was a rough week for injuries, to say the least, with three fantasy RB1s going down (D'Andre Swift, Dalvin Cook, Christian McCaffrey) and potentially taking some fantasy teams with them. Early reports suggest none of the three suffered a catastrophic injury, but all appear in danger of missing time, including McCaffrey who has a bye coming up in Week 13.

Lower down the ranks, Miles Sanders missed the fourth quarter of Philly's game with an undisclosed injury, while Kareem Hunt sat out the final drive of a close loss to the Ravens due to tightness in his leg. And if that's not enough, the Cowboys are thinking about resting Ezekiel Elliott for a week or two, rather than having him gut out a 17-game season while fighting through a knee injury that won't go away (FWIW, Zeke doesn't want to rest... but also doesn't sound totally closed off to the possibility).

With all those injuries in mind, we'll make sure to take a close look at how backfield work was divided between teammates after the aforementioned players were forced out of action Sunday. There's other stuff to look at too, of course, but the injury situations reign supreme this week. Let's get to it.

Usage Leaderboards

Week 12

Doesn't include MNF. GL Looks = Targets + Carries inside the 5-yard line

Full Season

Doesn't include MNF. GL Looks = Targets + Carries inside the 5-yard line

Week 12 Injury Report

Inactives

Alvin Kamara (knee) + Mark Ingram (knee)

Jordan Howard (knee)

Rashaad Penny (hamstring) + Travis Homer (calf)

Jeremy McNichols (concussion)

JaMycal Hasty (ankle)

Michael Carter (IR/ankle)

Chase Edmonds (IR/ankle)

Malcolm Brown (IR/quad)

In-Game Injuries

D'Andre Swift missed the second half with a shoulder sprain.

Christian McCaffrey missed the second half with a likely ankle sprain.

Dalvin Cook left with a shoulder injury late in the third quarter and didn't return.

Kareem Hunt missed the final drive with a "tight leg" in his first game back from IR (calf).

Trey Sermon injured his ankle on special teams and missed the second half.

Week 12 Red-Zone Report

Inside the 5-Yard Line

Red Zone Looks (carries + targets)

Week 13 Waivers & Sleepers

Picking from players rostered in half or less of Yahoo Leagues.

Waivers, Pt. 1 —Top Adds & Streamers

1. Chuba Hubbard - 39%
2. Jamaal Williams - 39%
3. D'Onta Foreman - 46%
4. Dontrell Hilliard - 29%
5. Boston Scott - 19%
6. Matt Breida - 23%
7. Tevin Coleman - 18%
8. Ameer Abdullah - 0%
9. Rex Burkhead - 7%
10. Jermar Jefferson - 0%
11. Ty Montgomery - 0%
12. Tony Jones - 24%
13. Austin Walter - 0%

*Note: Alexander Mattison is 51% rostered, slightly above our requirement. He'd be listed No. 1 if not for that. Also, I think Foreman's role is more secure than Hilliard's, and also more valuable if/when the Titans get healthier (or figure out how to stay more competitive without offensive firepower). Last but not least, I figure either Kamara or Ingram will be back for the Saints this week, but I put Montgomery/Jones at the bottom of this list just in case.

Waivers, Pt. 2 — Bench Stashes & Sleepers

1. Khalil Herbert - 19%
2. Ronald Jones - 19%
3. DeeJay Dallas - 11% (pre-MNF, so just a guess)
4. Sony Michel - 27%
5. Samaje Perine - 5%
6. Carlos Hyde - 10%
7. Devontae Booker - 35%
8. Kene Nwangwu - 0%
9. Phillip Lindsay - 12%
10. Kenneth Gainwell - 12%
11. Eno Benjamin - 3%
12. Jaret Patterson - 1%
13. Reggie Bonnafon (CAR practice squad) - 0%

Week 13 Drops & Benchings

Drop'em

Zack Moss

Salvon Ahmed

D'Ernest Johnson

Giovani Bernard

Bench'em

Damien Harris & Rhamondre Stevenson

Ty Johnson

David Johnson

Jeff Wilson

Kenyan Drake

Week 12 Game-by-Game Breakdowns

Bears (16) at Lions (14) 

• The Lions held Montgomery to 74 scoreless yards on 20 touches, his third straight game with less than 100 yards and no TD since returning from IR, even though he's played 85%, 95% and 84% of snaps.
  • Montgomery has seen at least 17 touches in each Andy Dalton start (Weeks 1-2, 12), averaging 20.0.
    • He's seen 12, 23, 15 and 15 in four Justin Fields starts, an average of 16.3 touches.

• Swift took six touches for nine yards, playing 10 snaps before exiting with a shoulder sprain in the second quarter.
• Williams played 50% of snaps in the first quarter and 67% thereafter, finishing with a season-high 15 carries as well as his most targets (five) and total yards (83) since Week 1.
  • He played 74% of snaps in the second quarter, 69% in the third quarter and 43% in the fourth.
    • The Lions had just one fourth-quarter drive (five plays), as Chicago's march toward a game-winning FG occupied the final 8:30 of game clock.
• Jefferson returned from a one-week absence due to an ankle injury and played 13% of snaps after the first quarter, but without any targets or touches.
  • Igwebuike got 10% of snaps after the first quarter and took his lone carry for 11 yards.
• Sounds like Swift could miss time. This, from Dan Campbell, on Monday...

Raiders (36) at Cowboys (33) — OT

• Richard returned after missing a week and took back the long-yardage/hurry-up work from Drake, who finished below 20% snap share for the second time this year.
• Jacobs had season highs for carries (22) and rushing yards (87), plus he punched in his lone goal-line chance for his sixth TD in nine games this year.
  • He's still at just 3.8 YPC and 46.7 rushing yards per game.

• Pollard got more carries than Elliott for the first time all year, though Elliott's snap share (63%) wasn't too far below his season mark (68%).
  • That said, there's an obvious downward trend, with Elliott playing less than 70% of snaps in four straight games (after hitting that mark in six of his first seven).
  • Elliott still got the lone goal-line look, giving him 16 to Pollard's one this season.
    • Zeke converted, scoring a one-yard TD right before halftime.
• Pollard is an easy RB1 if Zeke misses any games, with Corey Clement likely bumping up to the No. 2 role.
  • It's unclear if Clement would handle a significant role the way Pollard does, or simply be used to give Pollard a breather.
    • Clement has played 23 snaps on offense and 194 on special teams this year.
    • Elliott, Pollard and Clement were the only backs on Dallas' roster as of Monday, while JaQuan Hardy was the only one on the practice squad.

Bills (31) at Saints (6) 

• Zack Moss was a healthy scratch, leaving Singletary as the lead back and Breida behind him. (Taiwan Jones still only played special teams.)
  • Sean McDermott did (kind of) drop a hint Wednesday morning...

• Singletary took a season-high 15 carries but gained only 44 yards, 2.9 YPC.
  • He played 76% of snaps on first down, 57% on second down, 69% on third down.
• Breida also struggled to find room on the ground (9-26-0, 2.9 YPC). However, he caught both of his targets for 29 yards and a touchdown, scoring from 23 yards out midway through the fourth quarter to ice the game at 31-6.

• Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram both were inactive due to knee injuries, while Dwayne Washington strictly played special teams, per usual.
  • That left Jones and Montgomery to split RB snaps, with the latter even leading the team in targets four days after he missed a game with a finger injury.
• Per PFF, Montgomery took a season-high 25 snaps in the backfield, more than doubling his previous season total of 18.
  • He's really only been used as an RB three times. Week 7, when he still mostly played receiver snaps. Week 10, when he left in the first quarter with the finger injury. And now Week 12, working as the passing-down back in a timeshare with Jones.
  • Montgomery got 52% of snaps and six looks in the first half, followed by 47% and seven looks in the second. He finished with 6-14-0 rushing and 5-31-0 on seven targets.
• Jones took a carry on 16 of his 21 snaps, finishing with 27 scoreless yards and no targets. That's a far cry from the lead role Ingram handled over the previous two weeks (104 snaps, 15 targets), though the rushing volume was the same.
  • Jones actually got nine of his 16 carries after halftime, and with a higher snap share in the second half (43%) than the first (30%). The Saints did abandon the run at one point in the fourth quarter, but then they fell so far behind it didn't matter and they gave Jones five more carries on the final drive in deep garbage time.
• The Saints play another Thursday game Week 13, hosting the Cowboys at the Superdome.
  • Hard to say if Kamara and/or Ingram will be ready.

Steelers (10) at Bengals (41) 

• Harris played 82% of snaps through three quarters before sitting out most of the fourth. Nothing to see here, apart from some horrible QB and O-line play.

• Mixon played 86% of snaps through three quarters.
  • Perine took four of five snaps on 3rd-and-medium/long. Otherwise, Mixon got 46 of 50 (92%) before the fourth quarter..
• Mixon has three straight games with two TDs, and back-to-back weeks with 28+ carries for 123+ yards.
  • He's averaging only 2.5 catches for 17.5 yards per game, but does have two receiving TDs in addition to his 11 rushing scores.
• Evans got just two snaps before the fourth quarter, after getting some playing time on third downs the week before. Perine has seen most of the playing time in obvious passing situations this year, but it's not a sure thing any given week, with both Mixon and Evans also in the mix for those snaps.

Buccaneers (38) at Colts (31) 

• Fournette replaced Bernard as the passing-down back, in addition to his existing role as the lead back/ballcarrier.
  • Bernard played just one snap, after eight the week before. It is possible there's an injury at play, but it's also possible coach Bruce Arians simply prefers Fournette on third downs at this point.
• Fournette scored four of Tampa's five touchdowns, and got six of the seven goal-line looks (RoJo did score on the other).
  • Fournette put up 7-31-1 on eight targets, his third straight game with at least six targets and six catches.
  • He also ran for 17-100-3, improving his season line to 139-621-7 (4.5 YPC, 12.6 att/gm, 56.5 ypg).

• Hines took 16 of his 25 snaps in the second quarter, with Taylor otherwise handling 88% snap share.
  • To be more specific, Hines took 14 of 15 snaps in a two-minute drill before halftime, while Taylor played just two. Apart from the two-minute drill, Taylor played 47 of 54 snaps (87%), similar to the previous two games (84%, 83%).
• I don't really understand why you'd have entire drives of only pass plays and then entire drives of nearly all run plays. Maybe mix it up a little? I'm fine with Taylor getting fewer carries against a top run defense, but why give him none at all for such a long period of time?
  • This does depend on what looks a defense shows the QB, but you have to think it's coming from the coach, more or less, when a team starts the second half of a close game with 18 consecutive pass plays.

Eagles (7) at Giants (13) 

• Sanders got the start and the first carry, but he missed most of the second half with an undisclosed injury, and Scott finished as Philly's RB leader in carries, snaps and points.
• Scott has scored seven of his 11 career TDs against the Giants, with  37 percent of his scrimmage yards (504 of 1,364) against them.
  • He's faced the Giants five times, accounting for 12.2 percent of his NFL games.
  • And he had a TD called back on a penalty Sunday, on top of the one he did score (and he got three goal-line looks).
• Jordan Howard (knee) didn't play. Coach Nick Sirianni didn't sound too optimistic last week, so I'm guessing we don't see Howard again until after the Week 14 bye, even if Sanders misses time.
  • Scott, despite the late fumble, should be busy Week 13 (at the Jets) if both Sanders and Howard are out.
    • Gainwell could also be startable, at least in deeper leagues.

• Barkley returned to his usual role after playing only 62% of snaps the week before in his first game back from an ankle injury.
  • He finished with 13-40-0 and 4-13-0 on five targets, and is now at 3.6 YPC and 5.6 YPT for the season.
• Barkley has now handled his usual role (80+ percent of snaps) four times this year, in Weeks 2-4 and 11.
  • In those games, he's averaged 13.8 carries for 50.0 yards and 0.5 TDs, with 4.3 catches for 35.5 yards and 0.25 TDs. That's 17.3 PPR points per game... not bad, just disappointing.

Panthers (10) at Dolphins (33) 

• McCaffrey injured his ankle in the second quarter and played just one snap (without taking a touch) in the second half. He's since been placed on IR and is out for the season.
• In the second half, Abdullah got 62% of snaps but just two carries and one target.
  • Hubbard played 42%, with one carry and one target.
  • Here's the split from McCaffrey's last missed game, back in Week 8 (note that Freeman is with Houston now):

Week 8 Carolina RB Breakdown (No C-Mac, 19-13 win over Atlanta)

Week 7 Carolina RB Breakdown (No C-Mac, 25-3 loss to NYG)

• The former Bronco/Texan had a role in the first half (four snaps, two carries), but the blowout nature of the contest definitely pumped up Lindsay's final stat line.
  • Lindsay got two of Miami's 14 RB carries in the first half, five of 11 in the third quarter, and five of eight in the fourth quarter.
    • Though he never played more than 35% of snaps in any quarter.
• Gaskin took 59% of snaps in the first half, with 10 of the 14 RB carries and one of the two targets.
  • He played only 40% of snaps after halftime, with six of the 19 RB carries and the only target.
  • Gaskin scored a pair of three-yard rushing TDs, in the second and third quarters. Those were his second and rushing scores of the year, in addition to four receiving TDs.
    • But he does have more than twice as many rushing yards (482) as receiving yards (212).
    • And still has meager yardage averages... 3.5 YPC, 3.9 YPT.

Jets (21) at Texans (14) 

• Walter came up from the practice squad and made it a three-headed backfield with Michael Carter (IR/ankle) missing the first of at least three games.
  • Johnson had the fewest carries and touches of the trio, and got only half the snaps (five on 10) on third-and-longs. He should still see a few targets, or even a handful, most weeks, but this usage suggests no upside whatsoever for Johnson's rushing volume. Carter's role just went to Coleman and Walter.
• Coleman got the start and surprisingly the most targets, plus the most carries (16 of the 31 RB carries).
  • But Walter stole both goal-line looks, including a two-yard TD in the second quarter.
  • Walter had three straight carries, starting at Houston's 16-yard line, to punch it in for a TD.
    • The 5-8, 202-pound back won't necessarily get goal-line carries going forward. But he might? Who knows? I'd still guess it'd be Coleman from the 1/2-yard line most of the time while Carter is out, if/when the Jets get there again.
  • Coleman finished with 16-67-0 and 2-3-0 on three targets.

• Johnson got the start and took 70% of snaps and eight touches for 33 yards in the first quarter. After the first quarter, Johnson played only 22% of snaps and took four touches for 22 yards.
• Burkhead played 18 of 20 snaps in the second half.
  • But produced just four yards on six carries and one reception.
  • He was actually far more productive in the first half, when he played a much smaller share of snaps but Houston ran far more plays and actually (kind of) moved the ball. Burkhead took eight touches for 50 yards in the first half.
• Burkhead has 30 carries (for 67 scoreless yards) the past two games. Plus three catches for 27 yards.
• TBD if the Texans do anything with Royce Freeman. He played five snaps on special teams and none on offense in this one.

Falcons (21) at Jaguars (14) 

• Patterson returned from a one-week absence (ankle) and scored two TDs in the first half, ultimately finishing with 16-108-2 and 2-27-0 on three targets.
  • 19 looks (16 carries, 3 targets) on 29 snaps.
  • For the year, Patterson has 145 looks on 297 snaps. That's 49% of the time the ball goes to him when he's on the field. And he still has strong yardage averages (4.4 YPC, 9.6 YPT).
• Davis actually played one more snap than Patterson (and had one more target), but took 11 fewer carries.
• Gallman took five snaps and four carries.
  • Qadree Ollison (illness) wasn't able to play, after coming off the practice squad to lead the team with nine carries the week before. Gallman's role might've gone to Ollison had he been healthy.

• Robinson lost a fumble in the second quarter and was benched for the rest of the first half. He took 78% of snaps in the first quarter, and 58% in the second quarter.
  • Robinson has played 52-63% of snaps the past three weeks, with 12-17 carries and 3-5 targets. That's not quite his role from last year, but it's not bad either. The snaps he misses are largely plays where the ball doesn't go to the RB anyway.

Titans (13) at Patriots (36) 

• This was strange, to say the least, with the team that lost by 23 producing a pair of 100-yard rushers (both career backups, and both of whom lost fumbles).
• It was a two-man backfield between Hilliard and Foreman, with Jeremy McNichols (concussion) inactive and Adrian Peterson released last week.
• Hilliard got the start, but Foreman played 12 of 16 snaps in the first quarter, taking six carries for 20 yards.
  • Hilliard then put up 111 yards on eight touches and 82% of snaps in the second quarter, including a 68-yard TD run a couple minutes after his lost fumble led to a Patriots field goal. Busy quarter!
• In the second half, Hilliard had four carries for 23 yards on 40% of snaps, with Foreman taking 12 carries for 87 yards on 50% of snaps post-halftime.
  • The Titans continued running while trailing by multiple scores in the second half, and it nearly got them back into the game until they were stuffed on a fourth down at the goal line early in the fourth quarter.
  • Foreman did add four carries for 27 yards in garbage time on the final drive, before FB Khari Blasingame got the last three carries (and became the third Titans RB to lose a fumble!).
  • Oh right.... Foreman lost a fumble in the third quarter. Two drives later, he got four red-zone carries. Benching wasn't really an option with only two tailbacks active for Tennessee.

• Stevenson had five carries to Harris' two in the fourth quarter, but it was Harris who got the final two, which he took for 21 yards and a game-icing touchdown.
  • In other words, Stevenson was involved throughout for a second straight week, again looking like a major thorn in the side of Harris' fantasy managers.
    • This could be a frustrating situation where you can only rely on one of them if the other is injured. Both have played well, and the Patriots are having success mixing and matching (with Bolden handling passing situations).
• In the first half, Harris got 34% of snaps and five of eight RB carries, with Stevenson at 25% and taking the other three carries (Bolden played 41% of snaps pre-halftime, with each of his four looks being a target).
• In the second half, Stevenson got 43% and six of 12 RB carries, with Harris at 39% and taking the other six.
  • Pretty close to 50/50, huh?

Chargers (13) at Broncos (28) 

• I assume I pay more attention to this stuff than 99.9% of people, yet still have no clue how the Chargers determine their backup RBs each week. It seems close to random, with little correlation to performance or roles from the week before. It might even be based on who looks best in practice each week, which kind of sounds like a subpar high-school coach's idea of a genius motivational ploy. Not that it really matters, either way, with Ekeler dominating RB looks (73%) by a larger margin than he dominates snaps (66%).
  • This week, Kelley reemerged for the No. 2 role, after one touch Week 10 and a healthy scratch Week 11.
  • Bradwell was called up from the practice squad for the No. 3 role, while Justin Jackson only played special teams and Larry Rountree was inactive.
    • Rountree was the No. 2 back Weeks 10-11, and gave us one of the great TD celebrations of the season decade in that time. Bye, Larry!

• This was still 50/50, more or less, but it was also the second straight game in which Williams had a season high for snap share (he got 57% in Week 10 before Denver's Week 11 bye). Granted, he's played at least 41% in every game, so it's not like the recent uptick represents a huge difference in terms of workload projection.
  • Williams did make his case for a larger role, however, with the highlights being a nine-yard rushing TD and a 42-yard gain on a short pass.
  • The long gain set up Gordon for back-to-back carries inside the 5-yard line, which he wasn't able to convert. He now has a 7-6 edge over Williams for GLLs this year, and a 7-3 advantage in Tds.

Rams (28) at Packers (36) 

• Here's your reminder that Henderson is a true three-down back (or at least is being used as one). The Rams pull him before other starters when games start to get out of hand, but Henderson gets as much as he can handle in competitive situations, with Michel really only subbing in to give his backfield mate occasional breathers.
  • It's been a while (Week 7) since Henderson reached 80% snap share, largely because the Rams played three straight games where one team held a multi-score lead for most of the second half and all of the fourth quarter.

• Jones returned from a knee injury after missing one game and got the start, playing 65% of snaps in the first half and taking eight carries for 25 yards.
  • Dillon played only 35% (but with six carries and two targets for 20 yards).
• Dillon then played 68% of snaps in both the third and fourth quarters, getting 14 of the 16 RB carries post-halftime as well as all three of the RB targets (one of which he took for a touchdown).
  • The Packers were only up by three at the break, but Dillon's TD midway through the fourth pushed it to 10 points, and the margin later stretched to 19 before the Rams started a comeback effort.
  • Dillon took Green Bay's final eight carries.

Vikings (26) at 49ers (34) 

• Cook left with a shoulder injury late in the third quarter after coughing up a fumble in the backfield. He played 80% of Minnesota's offensive snaps through three quarters, with 10-39-0 rushing and 6-64-0 on seven targets.
• Mattison played 79% of snaps in the fourth quarter, taking four carries and two catches for 14 yards.
  • Nwangwu, who scored his second kick-return TD of the season, played two snaps in the fourth quarter (11%), with one carry for seven yards.
  • It was a close(ish) game, with San Francisco taking a 34-26 lead at the end of the third quarter and holding on by that same score in the end.
• I don't want to re-post speculative tweets, but it's definitely an interesting rabbit hole if you twitter-search "dalvin cook shoulder".
  • He's had multiple reported injuries, and also some instances where he appeared to pop a dislocation back into place and continue playing. The injuries have been to both shoulders, but it mostly seems to be the left one (which he hurt Sunday) that has problems.
  • It looks like this one will cost him multiple games....

• Mitchell returned from finger surgery after missing one game and ended up with season highs for snap share, carries, targets and fantasy points.
  • Mitchell is now averaging 86.6 rushing yards per game, fourth in the league behind only Derrick Henry (117.1), Jonathan Taylor (100.4) and Nick Chubb (96.3).
    • The only others over 68.0 per game are Dalvin Cook (85.9), Joe Mixon (84.0) and Lamar Jackson (70.7).
• Kyle Juszczyk was the third-down back, not Wilson. Juszczyk took 10 of 13 third-down snaps, while Mitchell got two and Wilson one.
• Mitchell took 47 of 57 snaps (83%) on first/second down, with Wilson getting 16%.
  • In other words, Wilson was just the backup for early downs.
• Trey Sermon injured his ankle on special teams. He didn't get any snaps on offense.

Browns (10) at Ravens (16) 

• Hunt returned from IR (calf) for his first game since Week 5. The snap share (38%) matched a season low, and the seven touches and eight looks were also season lows.
  • It didn't help that Baltimore dominated possession, plus Hunt missed the end of the game with leg tightness (possibly related to his calf?)
  • But even before the fourth quarter, Hunt played just 37% of snaps. He was getting more work in the fourth before his exit opened up some late work for Johnson.
    • Johnson played just one snap before the fourth quarter. As expected, he has no real role with Chubb and Hunt healthy.
• Prior to the fourth quarter, Chubb played 27 of 36 snaps (75%) on first and second downs.
  • Hunt got just 22% on first/second down, but he took nine of 10 on third down (90%, with Demetric Felton getting the one other).

• The Freeman/Murray split was similar to Week 11, when Freeman got 16 carries and six targets on 58 percent of snaps, while Murray got 10 and two on 44 percent.
  • The Ravens ran a few plays with no RB, and two others with no RB on the field. That dropped Freeman from 58% to 50% without Murray getting a larger snap share.
• Freeman lost his four-game streak with three or more targets and at least five PPR points through the air, but the 16 carries matched his season high from the week before.
  • It's certainly interesting that Freeman's two largest carry totals have come in the two games since Murray returned, but that's largely a product of Baltimore dominating play volume in both games and running the ball a bunch.
    • Freeman is definitely the Baltimore back to own still, and startable as an RB2. But a couple weeks back I thought he'd done well enough to take away more of Murray's role. Now I'm viewing Freeman as more of a low-end/undesirable RB2.