We’re talking snap share stock market this week; which players saw their snap share rise, which fell and what do we make of these trends? If you just want to get to that, by all means, see below. But after that data, readers will be treated to me getting a random football thought out into the digital atmosphere.
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If I was appointed football czar for the day, one of the rules I’d enact would be a controversial one: Banning the quarterback slide.
But first, to our regularly scheduled programming — let me hit y’all with some snap share trends.
Devin Singletary, Stock Up
Singletary played 55% of the snaps this past week versus San Francisco, actually outpacing Tyrone Tracy Jr.’s 45% share. Singletary ended the game with more carries, more routes run and more yards while also being much more efficient, averaging 5.1 yards per touch against Tracy’s 4.6 average.
I want to love Tracy, I really do. He’s the more explosive athlete and I really liked what I saw from him last year. But that being said, he started the season slow, averaging just 3.1 ypc over the first three weeks, failing to crack even 30 yards rushing in any game.
Since returning from injury, Tracy’s efficiency has still been an issue as he’s averaging just 3.9 ypc since Week 6.
I still believe that Tracy can pull himself out of this slump but remember, Singletary is a long-time Daboll guy, having played for him back in Buffalo.
Christian Watson, Stock Up
Watson saw his snap share increase from 56% to 65% last week. The Matthew Golden shoulder injury had something to do with it but it’s far from a 1:1 scenario here.
Watson played about 60% of snaps lined up as outside receiver, whereas Golden played about 55% of his snaps as an inside pass catcher. The point here is that Watson could stick as a preferred weapon in two-receiver sets because lord knows Romeo Doubs ain’t sitting.
With the injury and the emergence of Watson, it’s a huge stock down week for Golden. You can safely drop him in most leagues. He’ll have moments but good luck predicting which games those are going to be.
TreVeyon Henderson, Stock Up
You guys, TreVeyon actually got playing time!!! Playing 75% of the snaps, Henderson far outpaced Terrell Jennings, who played just 25% of the snaps.
It was nice to see Henderson give you 12+ ppr points with dominant RB1-type usage. OK, that being said, while it’s certainly a stock up sitch for Hendo, I don’t want people to get over their skis here.
Jennings recorded the touchdown, meaning, despite the heavy usage, the coaching staff is comfortable in using Jennings in goal-to-go situations.
Also, the lack of tackle breaking continues to be a problem. Henderson had literally zero plays of 10+ yards across 18 touches. He ultimately averaged a very below-average 3.9 yards per carry.
Kyle Williams, Stock Up
More Patriots updates: Williams played 45.6% of the snaps last week, up from 22.1% in the week prior and his 17.8% season-long average.
Williams ended up running 16 routes in total, with literally ALL of those as an outside wide receiver. With Kayshon Boutte getting hurt, look for Williams to see a huge snap increase as Boutte played a whopping 88% of his snaps outside as well.
I know DeMario Douglas popped off with his first career 100-yard game, but he only played 23.5% of the snaps and he’s been below 30% for six straight games. Considering he’s played about 70% of his snaps as an inside receiver, I’m not expecting him to have a huge increase in playtime.
Alvin Kamara, Stock Down
Kamara played just 57% of the snaps with Devin Neal taking home 40%.
After averaging about 78% snap share over his first three weeks, Kamara is averaging just 62% snap share over his last five games. He’s scored single-digit PPR points in four of his last five games.
The offense was cheeks as it was; it’s worse now without Rashid Shaheed and starting OL Trevor Penning.
It’s possible Kamara ends up seeing more check downs but I doubt it. Saquon Barkley only saw 43 targets in 16 games last year for the Kellen Moore-coached Eagles offense.
Kamara is on pace for 64 targets this year. If that holds, that would be a career low. He’s averaging 3.8 targets per game, a shockingly low number given his 6.15 targets per game average over his career.
He’s not a drop, but he’s a bench until further notice.
Kaleb Johnson, Stock Down
After playing a very quiet 20.8% of his snaps in Week 4, the underutilized rookie played 18.6% of the snaps in Week 6 before playing just 8.1% of the snaps this past week.
Johnson made a critical special teams error early in the season and was then subsequently banished to the shadow realm. Why they are stuffing a talented rookie in the dog house for a special teams gaffe is beyond me, but sadly, this is just business as usual for Arthur Smith.
Other notable snap share movement:
RJ Harvey played 31.7%, up from 24.7% in Week 7 and 27% in Week 8. He ran 16 routes versus J.K. Dobbin’s five. In 12-team or deeper leagues, Harvey is a worthwhile flex play or bye-week fill-in with upside for way more should the injury-prone J.K. Dobbins end up missing time.
With Isiah Pacheco hurt, Kareem Hunt played 79% of the snaps, Brashard Smith just 19%.
Ray-Ray McCloud played 91% snaps for the Giants, almost exclusively as an outside receiver.
Atlanta, in desperate need of a second receiver, saw David Sills record 69% of the snaps with 56% of those coming lined up in the slot.
Hollywood Brown’s 41% snap share was actually a slight increase from the 33.3% and 37.7% snap share he saw in his two previous games but overall, he continues to see deflated snap share numbers with the return of Rashee Rice.
James Cook saw a season high 75.8% snap share. He’s been up and down with his usage this year but generally speaking, in closer games, Cook will see a heavy snap share. Keep in mind, he played less than 50% of the snaps last year!
A case for banning the quarterback slide
I know what you’re thinking: “So you must really hate player safety!” Far from it, in fact I’m going to make the case that quarterback slides do the exact opposite of what they are intended to do, which is to protect quarterbacks.
Search up the C.J. Stroud slide and you’re immediately confronted with heated arguments on both sides. There are obvious parallels between the Stroud concussion and the Trevor Lawrence slide almost exactly 11 months apart. There’s no shortage of slow-motion video and still frames attempting to make the other side seem dumb.
But this isn’t anything new. Search up the Kiko Alonso hit on Joe Flacco back in 2017. Same situation; Flacco is scrambling, he slides, Alonso throws his body and Flacco is knocked out cold. We were having the EXACT SAME debate back then about whether Alonso’s hit was dirty.
But to me, it’s not about who’s right and who’s wrong; the conversation should be about what to do about it. Regardless of all these CTE enthusiasts crying about how “soft” the game has become, we should all agree that these young men should not be subject to brutal hits that could alter their trajectory as athletes and humans.
Here’s where my “No Slide” rule comes into play.
When a player slides, a bunch of things are happening, none of them good. One, because he’s giving himself up, they relax just a bit, thinking the play is over.
Should defenders ease up? Well, yeah, sure, in a perfect world, all defenders can make perfectly rational, split-second decisions and we just move on to the next play. Shocker: This isn’t always possible and thus, instead of the quarterback balling up tightly and bracing for impact, we end up with big, brutal hits on a player not totally prepared for it.
Even if they are tensed up, when a quarterback slides, he literally cannot protect himself in any meaningful way. The slide takes his legs out of the equation, so when a defender comes in, all you’re left with is a player essentially sitting upright who can’t use his legs to shift himself away from the oncoming blow.
If you’ve ever trained or watched any combat sport, you know a TON of defense relies on your feet. Simply shifting away from a punch or kick takes a lot of steam off the blow. When sliding, not only can you NOT do that, but generally, you are heading in towards the contact, creating an even bigger impact.
Compounding that issue is the fact that quarterbacks are taught to protect the ball. So, with both hands wrapped around the football, they can’t even break their fall or push off defenders to lessen the impact.
And since the quarterback is facing forward on a slide, all this culminates in a super-storm of concussive force driving the back of the head into the turf.
We could get more punitive with defenders by ejecting a player for even attempting to tackle a sliding quarterback but that gives more power to officials (a huge no-no for this football czar). And it’s still asking players to make difficult split-second decisions while also not even remotely addressing the impact concerns laid out above.
My solution: Ban the quarterback slide. If quarterbacks are looking to give themselves up, make them dive headfirst. This allows them to better angle themselves away from oncoming traffic while simultaneously hitting the ground faster. And the big one for me: The back of their heads won’t be slamming into the ground.
And if a tackler is looking to dole out punishment, you’re forcing him to spear himself literally headfirst towards the ground, a technique many defenders will likely avoid since a miss will potentially result in their own injury.
Maybe I’m insane, and I know many of you will disagree, but what I know with 100% certainty is this: The current system isn’t doing a great job protecting quarterbacks from devastating, potentially career/life-altering hits. Something needs to change so that we’re not having this exact same stupid argument 10 years from now.