Fantasy Football Trends To Monitor: Kyren Williams Drop In Usage Highlights The Utilization Report Season Stats Page

One week later, and nothing has changed.

The Utilization Report still rocks.

We continue our series with a look at the season stats, which gives you a broad view of every player’s utilization throughout the league. You can sort it over the course of the entire season or a certain week range.

Let’s take a look at what stands out and how we can apply it to 2026.

Takeaways From The Utilization Report Season Stats Page

Jayden Daniels led qualified QBs with a 16% scramble rate

2025 was a frustrating season for Jayden Daniels. Multiple injuries had him miss time, return, miss time, return, creating a rollercoaster sophomore year for the former Rookie of the Year. He was limited to just 242 dropbacks last year, but when on the field, Daniels once again showcased serious fantasy upside.

It’s tough not to chase that ceiling.

Among qualified signal-callers, Daniels’ 16% scramble rate was the highest in football, which was actually higher than his rookie year rate of 12%. Daniels averaged 5.4 scrambles per game, with the next closest being Patrick Mahomes (3.8). Meanwhile, his 10% designed rush rate ranked sixth. As a result, Daniels leads all quarterbacks in both rush attempts (8.58) and rushing yards (48.7) per game since entering the NFL in 2024.

Admittedly, it’s a lot easier to design quarterback runs in a shotgun-heavy scheme. And over the past two seasons in Kliff Kingsbury’s system, Daniels leads the league in rush attempts out of shotgun (175), while 96% of his dropbacks during that span have come from the gun. Moving to more under-center formations will be a change for Daniels, but it could set up more play-action looks, which tend to rip off explosive, fantasy-friendly passes. Daniels is averaging just 7.0 play-action attempts per game over the past two seasons (28th).

David Blough’s offense does present some question marks. But one thing is for certain. The scrambling should continue.

Jonathan Taylor logged 85% of the two-minute snaps

When looking back at Jonathan Taylor’s 2025 campaign, most will recall the 20 total touchdowns. Or perhaps the near 1,600 rushing yards and 323 carries, all of which are awesome. But an overlooked aspect of Taylor’s monster year?

A career-best 55 targets.

Taylor has always been viewed as a workhorse running back who will dominate carries, but underwhelm in the passing game. During his first five seasons, Taylor averaged 28.2 receptions and 36.8 targets. His 2.75 targets per game during that span ranked 33rd among all running backs, but the Colts implemented a very intriguing strategy this past season.

They simply kept their best player on the field.

“It’s a bold strategy. Let’s see if it pays off for ‘em.” And while the Colts ultimately missed the playoffs, it sure paid off for fantasy rosters. Taylor logged 82% of the snaps (2nd), but the story here is the huge jump in obvious passing-down playing time. Taylor’s 85% two-minute snap share was easily the highest rate of his career, while ranking seventh in football. It was a very, very significant change of pace for Taylor:

Year	Long-Down-and-Dist. Snaps	Two-Minute Snaps
2020	48% (18th)	14% (33rd)
2021	58% (17th)	18% (44th)
2022	65% (11th)	40% (32nd)
2023	48% (30th)	56% (28th)
2024	53% (28th)	59% (29th)
2025	76% (10th)	85% (7th)

We know Taylor is going to contend for the league-lead in carries and rushing yards seemingly every season. But consistent pass game usage gives him an even higher floor/ceiling combination. And considering the lack of reliable options behind him on the Colts depth chart, it’s pretty easy to envision a scenario where Taylor rarely leaves the field once again.

Sure, there was a recent report suggesting the Colts want to lighten Taylor’s workload. And if the Colts had anyone behind him that warranted a fair share of touches, I might buy it. But we hear this with elite, workhorse running backs all the time, and when push comes to shove and the game is on the line, teams end up just feeding their best players every time.

And that’ll only continue if Taylor receives a contract extension this summer.

Kyren Williams’ rush share dropped to 56% following the Rams' Week 8 bye

In 2024, it was concern over punt returning duties. Last year? Worries about a potential Blake Corum emergence.

One of the two legitimately impacted Kyren Williams.

Last season started with what appeared to be another workhorse role for Williams. Through Weeks 1-7, he averaged 15.3 carries and 18.1 touches per game, while handling a healthy 67% of the Rams’ designed rush attempts (13th). During that stretch, Williams also accounted for a whopping 93% of the team’s short down and distance snaps, the highest rate in football, as well as 70% of the inside the five attempts. Williams was fantasy’s RB12, averaging 15.6 PPR PPG. Things were looking good.

Then the Rams went on a bye.

Teams often implement new things during their bye week. New plays, new schemes, role changes, you name it. For the Rams, it was focusing on more of a two-headed approach in the backfield. From Weeks 9-18, Williams saw his rush share fall to 56%, while his short down and distance snap rate dropped to 65%, a department he led the league in before the bye. The rest of the way, Williams and Corum both averaged 1.1 carries per game from inside the five-yard line.

Williams was still a productive fantasy contributor, averaging 15.3 PPR PPG, scoring eight rushing touchdowns during the second half (2nd). And he dominated the passing-down work, giving him a solid floor. But Corum is a good player who has clearly earned a sizable role. Expect a drive-by-drive rotation in 2026, with a potential split in goal line work.

Rome Odunze posted a 59% catchable target rate

It was the lowest rate among all wide receivers that averaged at least five targets per game a season ago. Rome Odunze was seeing a lot of the downfield usage, averaging over 100 air yards per game, but Williams completed just 39% of his deep passes. In fact, over the past two seasons, no receiver has more targets with an inaccurate pass being the reason for an incompletion than Odunze (48). I’d like to see more schemed usage for Odunze, which could happen following the departure of DJ Moore. But regardless, I’m still chasing the upside. Odunze scored 5 touchdowns during his first four games, and since 2024, his 27 end-zone targets rank seventh in all of football.

Who knows how healthy Odunze is, but here’s hoping he can recreate his early-season magic from a year ago. From Weeks 1-8, Odunze was dominant, sporting a 23% TPRR and 26% target share. During that span, Odunze averaged 15.5 PPR PPG, good for 10th among qualified wide receivers.

Brian Thomas Jr. saw a 15% target share from Week 10 on

This, of course, coincided with Jacksonville’s acquisition of veteran wideout Jakobi Meyers. From then on, Thomas’ once fantasy-friendly role became mostly a field-stretching one. During Weeks 10-19 (lone playoff game), over 35% of Thomas’ targets came 20-plus yards down the field. And during that stretch, he ran go routes a healthy 29.9% of the time, a top-10 rate in football. That was a noticeable jump from his 20% go route rate during the first nine weeks of the year. As a result, the fantasy production was very underwhelming. Once a top-24 fantasy selection, Thomas went on to average just 5.2 targets and 8.9 PPR PPG following both the addition of Meyers and the emergence of Parker Washington.

I mean, look. Thomas isn’t exactly surrounded by receiver archetypes that are rostered in many leagues, let alone started.

Yeah. Not ideal.

This boundary-heavy role resulted in Thomas ranking 11th in routes run when pressed after the snap (197). And considering he ranked just 33rd in yards per route run when pressed (1.75), while averaging just 0.34 fantasy points per route, that’s a problem. An early-season wrist injury clearly impacted BTJ’s ability to make plays over the middle of the field, so perhaps a fully healthy Thomas can see more usage there in 2026. But given the current construction of this receiver room, it seems unlikely. It is going to be much more difficult for Thomas to score fantasy points than Meyers and Washington this season.

Jacksonville WR usage (Week 10 on):