Fantasy Football Outlook: Tyjae Spears, Rachaad White, RJ Harvey

The NFL Preseason is often an unsightly mess, but it always yields a handful of actionable nuggets that fantasy football managers should process when setting their fantasy football rankings and crafting a draft strategy.

The keyword here is actionable. Travis Hunter played with the first-team offense in the Jaguars’ debut and took some snaps on defense, too. I’m not sure how actionable any of that is. It was interesting that Hunter played some slot snaps, but I’m not sure anything we saw with Hunter’s usage should change his average draft position (ADP), which is typically somewhere in the WR3 range.

Let’s stick to the stuff that moves the needle for fantasy football. Here we go.

Fantasy Football Takeaways: NFL Preseason Week 1

Spears Goes Down

The biggest development from the first week of the preseason was the high-ankle sprain sustained by Titans running back Tyjae Spears.

Titans head coach Brian Callahan had been talking about Spears taking on a bigger role. But high-ankle sprains are typically four- to six-week injuries, and players often return from them at something less than 100%.

Tennessee is thin at running back behind Spears and starter Tony Pollard, so Pollard could get a massive workload in the early weeks of the season while Spears recovers.

The Titans’ offense could be sneaky-good this year. Tennessee’s offensive line was plagued by injuries last year. It’s a healthier unit now, and the Titans also added guard Kevin Zeitler and tackle Dan Moore in free agency.

If rookie quarterback Cam Ward can make some plays and limit mistakes, the Titans’ offense could surprise, and Pollard could be a valuable fantasy asset, at least until Spears is back to full capacity.

Spears, meanwhile, should probably go in the late rounds of drafts rather than the middle rounds.

Bucs Lose a Back

In other injury news, Buccaneers running back Rachaad White left with a groin injury. Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles says White is day to day, but if White misses significant time, Bucky Irving could smash early in the season, and Sean Tucker could become rosterable.

There were seven games last season in which Irving played more than half of the Buccaneers’ offensive snaps, including their one playoff game. Irving averaged 127.3 yards from scrimmage and scored six touchdowns in those seven games.

Tucker got significant playing time against the Saints in Week 6 last season and had 14-136-1 rushing and 3-56-1 receiving.

Harvey Shreds Denver Depth Chart

Days after designating rookie RJ Harvey as the fifth-string running back on their depth chart, the Broncos started Harvey in their first preseason game. He out-snapped J.K. Dobbins 12-7 when starting quarterback Bo Nix was on the field.

Harvey was the primary early-down running back for Denver early in the game, while Dobbins played mostly on passing downs.

Don’t be spooked by what the depth chart says; Harvey is going to be a useful fantasy asset and should probably be drafted as a mid-range to low-end RB2.