Fantasy Football Player Notes

Last week was an example of why we try to play high-volume receivers even in bad matchups. Kirk was facing an uphill battle against the tough Steelers secondary while Murray struggled, yet he still wound-up with eight catches for 95 yards. He's now seen at least seven targets in each of the last four games, racking up at least six receptions in three of them. The Browns have Denzel Ward and Greedy Williams monitoring the perimeter, and they've been a good duo, allowing just under a 50 percent catch-rate, 6.77 yards per target, and two touchdowns in their coverage. The slot is where most teams go to move the ball against them, an area that Kirk has run just 15 percent of his routes from over the last four games. He remains on the WR3 radar with his volume, but unless Kingsbury moves him to the slot more often, he's got another tough matchup.

With Chase Edmonds back in the fold last week, the snap count was Drake 38, Johnson 21, Edmonds 11. The touch count went Drake 14, Johnson 5, Edmonds 1. While it's still Drake leading the way, the timeshare is a real thing. Against the Browns, there hasn't been a whole lot of running back touches to go around, as the average has been 26.3 per game. Those touches have been pretty profitable, as they've allowed 4.71 yards per carry and 6.99 yards per target, both of which are in the bottom-10 in the league. The 144.2 total yards per game they've allowed to running backs ranks as the 11th-most, though they've only allowed 10 total touchdowns through 13 games, or one every 34.2 touches. If we knew this timeshare would persist as it were in Week 14, Drake would be able to be played as a high-end RB3 who'd likely wind-up with 16 touches, but we've now seen Johnson's role grow as he gets healthier, going from just eight snaps in Week 11, to 15 snaps in Week 13, to 21 snaps in Week 14. It feels like a situation that's going to only get messier, making Drake a mid-to-low-end RB3 who's likely to wind-up in the 12-15 touch range.

Is this the quietest 90-target season ever? He ranks 25th among receivers, but Fitzgerald hasn't topped 71 yards since way back in Week 2 and has failed to top 38 yards in five of his last seven games. The Browns weakness in the secondary is in the slot, which is where Fitzgerald lives at this stage of his career. The Browns have allowed 17 receivers to hit double-digit PPR days against them, and six of them have been slot-heavy receivers, including Tyler Boyd's five-catch, 75-yard performance last week on just six targets. The good news is that the Browns run a very zone-heavy scheme, which is the scheme Fitzgerald averages 10.9 yards per target against, while averaging just 5.9 yards per target against man coverage. At this point in Fitzgerald's career, relying on him for anything more than WR4 production would be a mistake, though his 27 targets over the last four games provides a safer floor than most in that range.

Do what I am doing and forget that David Johnson scored a touchdown last week. Yes, it hurts to see him on your bench, but he is just not getting the workload and he is doing little to earn snaps and work away from Kenyan Drake.