Top 8 Fantasy Football Takeaways from Week 4 Usage

What Week 4 Usage Really Told Us

Box scores lie. Usage tells the truth.

We dug into the playing time, routes, carries, and targets behind the fantasy points to identify the biggest buy-low opportunities, sell-high candidates, and rankings movers.

Here are the 8 biggest fantasy takeaways from Week 4 usage.

1. Did Kyren Williams Just Take Over the Rams' Backfield?

Williams played a workhorse role in the Week 4 win over the Eagles, racking up 26 touches for 147 total yards and 2 TDs. His 83.3% snap rate was his highest since Week 5 of last season. That came before Corum emerged as a significant part of the offense.

So was this the start of a trend, or a one-game blip? The answer, as usual, likely lies somewhere in between.

The Rams were trailing for much of the Eagles game, a script that favors Williams. He has continued to work well ahead of Corum in passing situations this year. Against Philadelphia, he played 56 of the Rams’ final 61 snaps, per Pro Football Focus.

But Williams also handily out-snapped (71% to 29%) and out-touched (21 to 8) Corum in Week 3.

Corum has played well this season, but Williams is beating him in virtually every meaningful rushing metric:

Williams ranks top-14 in all four metrics among 51 RBs league-wide with 20+ carries. So he’s earned the extra work.

But the passing-game usage is what’s really fueling the big fantasy production. Williams is averaging 6.3 targets per game, third among RBs and 2.3 more than his previous career high. His route rate lines up with his career average, but he’s drawn a target on 26% of his routes. That rate was 14% over the previous three seasons.

I’m not expecting this target volume to hold, at least as long as WRs Puka Nacua and Davante Adams are healthy. But Williams could certainly continue seeing more targets than he did the previous three years. He’s been excellent in the passing game, averaging 1.77 yards per route, sixth-best among 29 qualifying RBs.

2. Michael Wilson Proving 2025 Wasn’t A Fluke

It was easy to write off Wilson’s big 2025 second half as a product of Marvin Harrison Jr.’s injury and absurd passing volume in Arizona. But he’s taken his game to another level in 2026 as a focal point of the offense.

Wilson ranks top-12 among WRs in route rate, targets, target share, and air-yards share. He also sits seventh with a 35.7% first-read target share, per Fantasy Points Data, confirmation that the Cardinals are building the passing game around Wilson.

His fantasy production has lagged behind the usage so far. Wilson ranks WR7 in expected PPR points per game but just WR20 in actual points per game. The biggest culprit: a 78.0% catchable target rate that ranks 52nd among 103 qualifying WRs.

QB Jacoby Brissett hasn’t played particularly well so far, and we’ll still likely see rookie QB Carson Beck at some point this year. So Wilson might continue to underachieve vs. his usage, but WR20 still feels close to his floor going forward.

3. What’s Up with George Pickens?

Pickens was off to a frustrating fantasy start … and then Week 4 happened.

While CeeDee Lamb was going nuclear, Pickens finished with an empty 2-75-0 line. Targets: 21 for Lamb, 3 for Pickens.

Through four games, Pickens ranks just 39th among WRs with 10.1 PPR points per game. A huge drop from his 17.2 points per game and WR6 finish last year.

Where is Pickens struggling? It’s a combination of a few things: 

1. His target share is down by 3 percentage points. That’s not a huge deal on a small sample. Give Pickens just 5 more targets and he’s at last year’s share. What’s a bit more worrisome is that his first-read target share (per Fantasy Points Data) is down from 27.2% to 20.2%. That means Dallas has called fewer pass plays designed to get Pickens the ball.
2. His yards after catch per reception have sunk from 5.2 to 2.2. That’s a difference of 54 yards on Pickens’ 18 catches so far this season, or 13.5 yards per game. He averaged 4.4 yards after catch per reception across his first three NFL seasons, so I’d expect improvement.
3. His TD chances have plummeted. This is the biggest reason Pickens has disappointed so far. After scoring nine times in 17 games last year, he has yet to find the end zone this season. That’s partly bad luck but also partly usage-based. After drawing 1.4 red-zone targets and 1.1 end-zone targets per game last year, Pickens has seen just 0.5 red-zone targets and 0.25 end-zone targets per game this season. Lamb, TE Jake Ferguson, and WR Ryan Flournoy have seen more looks in both areas.

4. Passing-Game Work Boosting Quinshon Judkins

I had two big concerns with Judkins heading into this season:

1. The Browns looked like one of the worst teams in the league.
2. Judkins didn’t project to be a big contributor as a receiver.

Neither looks like as big of an issue now.

Cleveland’s offense has been competent through four games, ranking 23rd in total yards and 22nd in points.

More importantly, Judkins is playing a big role in the passing game. He ranks top 10 among RBs in targets, catches, and receiving yards.

I don’t expect that pace to continue. Judkins is still losing obvious passing-down work to RB Raheim Sanders, ranking 25th among RBs in total pass routes and 33rd in route rate. His 0.32 targets per route ranks third among RBs with 10+ routes, behind only RJ Harvey and Alvin Kamara.

Cleveland has clearly made it a point to get Judkins the ball in the passing game, and he’s responded by delivering 1.92 yards per route, ninth-best among 75 qualifying RBs.

5. Bhayshul Tuten Trending Up?

Tuten set season highs in snap rate, route rate, carry share, and target share in the Week 4 win over the Bengals. 

RB Chris Rodriguez’s usage didn’t materially change. The difference was reduced work for RBs Ameer Abdullah and LeQuint Allen. Those two combined for a 19.9% snap rate, 3.3 carries per game, and 2.0 targets per game over the first three weeks. In Week 4, they played 16.7% of Jacksonville’s offensive snaps and had no touches.

Tuten scored a solid 11.1 PPR points against Cincinnati, but it was nearly a massive game. He had 44- and 3-yard TDs called back by holding penalties. Rodriguez also scored a 25-yard TD after Tuten had carried on four of the previous six plays.

6. Go Back to Braelon Allen In Week 5

Allen got every single RB touch for the Jets last week … but finished with just 67 yards on 16 touches.

What went wrong? New York ran 32 offensive plays in the loss to the Bears, the fourth-fewest by a team in NFL history.

Allen's Week 4 looks more encouraging with that in mind. Not only did he handle every RB touch, but he carried or was targeted on 50% of the team’s offensive plays. Give the Jets a more normal 60 plays, and that rate would produce 30 opportunities.

Don’t expect that much work in Week 5. Davis figures to mix in a bit more assuming the Jets run more plays. But it’s clear that Allen will dominate backfield work in what should be a competitive game against the Browns.

7. Is Michael Mayer a Fantasy Starter, Too?

Bowers has returned as the alpha of Vegas’ passing game, racking up 25 targets on a 29.4% share over the past two weeks. But that hasn’t prevented Mayer from remaining a factor.

In fact, his 77% route rate ranks 10th among TEs over the last two weeks. His 15.3% target share ranks 18th, and his 10.7 expected PPR points per game rank 16th.

The Raiders, with a pair of quality TEs and a weak WR corps, have had 2+ TEs on the field for 92% of their dropbacks over their last two games. And QB Kirk Cousins continues to play well. He has Vegas sitting:

• 14th in yards per game
• eighth in points per game
• ninth in passing yards per game

8. The Problem with Bucky Irving's Role

I highlighted Irving’s strong usage after Week 2. Since then, he has registered his two lowest snap and route rates of the season.

Week 4 was most concerning. Irving’s 51.6% carry share was his lowest since the opener. And we saw the return of goal-line vulture Sean Tucker.

Tucker played just three snaps against the Packers, but one came on Tampa Bay’s only play inside the 5-yard line, and he scored a 2-yard TD on it.

The Bucs ran three plays from inside the Green Bay 10-yard line. Snaps on those plays:

• Kenneth Gainwell: 2
• Sean Tucker: 1
• Bucky Irving: 0

Irving has played just one of eight snaps inside the opponent’s 10-yard line this season, a continuation of what we saw last year, when he played just 17% of snaps inside the 10.

Tough to score TDs with that usage. And don’t expect it to change. OC Zac Robinson praised Tucker’s performance in short-yardage situations after the Packers game.