The 2024 Fantasy Football season has been unexpected, to say the least. We thought it might be the year of the tight end, but we are struggling to figure out who the TE1 is, with a new name entering the fray seemingly every week. Injuries have been the key storyline, with several key blows to some of Fantasy’s top draft picks and one of the biggest breakouts — Rashee Rice. We won’t know the news on Rice for certain until the MRI, but the Chiefs fear a season-ending ACL injury. Injuries haven’t been the only factor in some of Fantasy Football’s biggest disappointments, so today we’ll break down two backfields — Jacksonville and Tampa — to try and get to the bottom of what to expect moving forward.
For a larger discussion on all of these players and more, be sure to check Fantasy Football Today and the Week 4 recap episode. We’ll take a look at a few different running back situations first:
Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby
It was an odd game for the Jaguars lead back. At first, we saw Etienne on the bench, having played just nine snaps, which would later be revealed due to a shoulder injury. However, Etienne played the vast majority of the second-half snaps for the Jaguars. Still, Bigsby not only outproduced Etienne on the ground for a second week (we saw this in Week 1), but he also saw more snaps inside the five-yard line. Neither Etienne nor Bigsby is playing for an offense that will be as high-scoring as we projected in the preseason, and the supposed involvement in the pass game (projected) for Etienne hasn’t been consistent. Bigsby finished with just a 29% snap rate but racked up 90 yards on seven carries — how much longer until that snap share rises into the 40% range? The time to trade Etienne could be nearing an end, and that’s my recommendation. Get what you can from a manager who will lean on last year’s role, production, and desperation at the running back position.
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Rachaad White and Bucky Irving
The split in Tampa gets closer and closer each week. White had a 22-yard catch on the first drive but only played two more snaps on third downs than Irving in this game. Irving got a goal-line carry, fell short of the end zone, got the next carry, and took it in the end zone. Moving forward, Irving seems likely to maintain the red zone role, but will it matter moving forward? Heath made an excellent point on the podcast when he mentioned the Buccaneers pass-run split — nearly two passes from every one run despite being up by multiple touchdowns in what should have been a run-heavy gamescript. This should’ve been a game where they leaned on both White and Irving in the second half, but instead, they each had just 10 carries a piece. Right now, the best option is to hold if you roster either player.
