Week 1 Fantasy Football Usage Report: Marquise Brown, Ashton Jeanty and More

All experienced fantasy football managers know that usage is king. Aside from a few outliers, most players produce fantasy points relative to the number and type of touches they see. This means targets, carries, routes, and, since you have to be on the field to touch the ball, snaps are all very important stats to consider when predicting a player's fantasy outlook. 

We should also consider where these opportunities come — a target in the end zone is worth a lot more than a target at midfield. FantasySP puts all this info in one place with the Target/Touch/Red Zone Leaders Page. Today, we're using these numbers to identify potentially undervalued players who saw great usage but didn't have the results (or the other way around) in Week 1. Let's get started.

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WR Marquise Brown, Kansas City Chiefs

Immediately, Marquise “Hollywood” Brown jumps off the page as a usage monster from Week 1. He led all players with a whopping 16 targets, catching 10 for 99 yards. He also tied for the league lead with three red zone targets; he may not have scored a TD on Friday, but they will come as long as this usage continues. 

And this usage should continue for at least the next few weeks. With Rashee Rice already unavailable due to suspension, Xavier Worthy is now set to be sidelined with a dislocated shoulder. That leaves Brown as the undisputed WR1 and top target for Patrick Mahomes. He is a must-add if he is available in your league and a very startable option going forward. 

WR Drake London, Atlanta Falcons 

Second behind Brown with 15 targets is London, who also saw two red zone targets. That number gets even more impressive when we consider that he exited Week 1's contest early with a shoulder injury. 

We should note that London's target dominance came in the absence of Darnell Mooney, who is dealing with a shoulder injury of his own. But this is also a continuation of a trend from last year: In the three games started by Michael Penix Jr. in 2024, London saw eight, 13, and a massive 18 targets. Assuming he recovers from his injury and suits up in Week 2, London can be considered a weekly WR1 with this elite level of volume. 

WR Chris Olave, New Orleans Saints

Another NFC South receiver who underperformed their volume in Week 1 was Chris Olave. Although you wouldn't know it by his relatively mediocre 8.9 half-PPR points, Olave tied for third on the week with 13 targets. 

Of course, we can expect Olave's efficiency to remain less-than-ideal as long as Spencer Rattler is under center. But even with subpar QB play, the 4.2 yards per target Olave posted in Week 1 is bound to improve — he has been at or above 8.1 yards per target in every prior year of his career. Olave also saw a red zone look, so he should have some TD equity even in a bad Saints offense. 

TE Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints

Let's stay in New Orleans for a second, as the Week 1 leader in targets at the tight end position was Johnson. He was targeted 11 times, including twice in the red zone. He also played a whopping 74 snaps, good for a pristine 98.7% snap share. In his previous 67 career games, Johnson had never been above an 87% snap share — he was only above even 80% twice. 

Especially considering that over 70% of his routes came from either out wide or in the slot, this was absolutely elite usage for Johnson. Once again, Rattler and the Saints' overall offensive ineptitude might cap his ceiling. But he should still push for top-12 consideration, given how few TEs see usage anywhere near this good. 

WR Jayden Reed, Green Bay Packers

I've mostly been focusing on players with positive peripherals, but it's also important to look for players whose underlying numbers were less impressive than their final stat lines. Thanks to a 17-yard TD catch, Reed finished his 2025 debut with a solid 12 half-PPR points. But his usage in the Packers' crowded WR room left a lot to be desired.

For one, Reed saw just five targets. That's not massive, but it's also not too concerning. What's more concerning is that he played only 18 snaps for a 38% snap share. Reed has always been a dynamic playmaker with excellent per-route and per-snap metrics. But there's no such thing as a consistent fantasy receiver on less than a 50% snap share. If you can sell him high off his solid Week 1 outing, I would. 

TE Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo Bills

Kincaid is in a very similar position to Reed. As of right now, he is tied with Brock Bowers as the overall TE1 in half-PPR scoring. But nearly two-thirds of his points came on one 15-yard TD catch early in the game. Even in a very exciting offensive showdown where the Bills were playing from behind, that was just one of four targets he saw, as well as his only red zone target.

Kincaid also played just 43 snaps, a 51% snap rate. Fellow Buffalo TE Dawson Knox played five more snaps. I'm not saying to drop Kincaid for Knox, or that he will never have another big fantasy game. He still ran more routes than Knox, 32 on 53 Josh Allen dropbacks for a 60% participation rate — that's bad, but not terrible.

Especially on this elite Buffalo offense, Kincaid will score some more TDs, which will translate to some more solid fantasy outings. But he will likely be inconsistent, with mediocre results in games where he doesn't reach paydirt. 

RB D'Andre Swift, Chicago Bears

When we sort the running back opportunity chart by snaps, we have the usual suspects at the top: Bijan Robinson, Alvin Kamara, and Christian McCaffrey are the first three names. But tied for fourth after them is D'Andre Swift, who served as an absolute workhorse for the Bears on Monday Night Football. The former Eagle was the only Chicago RB to record a carry, with 17. He also saw five targets, a 14% share. 

Of course, this didn't result in a huge fantasy day for Swift: He finished with just eight half-PPR points. But, at running back more than any other position, volume will almost always win out. This was a tough matchup against an elite Vikings defense, and Chicago's offense struggled for most of the contest. In more favorable situations, this usage should lead to great things for Swift's fantasy value. 

RB Ashton Jeanty, Las Vegas Raiders

Remember when I said that Swift was tied for fourth among RBs with snaps? Well, the player he was tied with was Jeanty. There was no easing in for the rookie, as he was on the field for all but nine of the Raiders' offensive snaps.

The results weren't great: just 11 half-PPR points. But with 19 carries and two targets for a player this talented, good things are sure to come for Jeanty going forward. 

RB Tony Pollard, Tennessee Titans

There were a few candidates for this final spot highlighting an RB from Week 1: Bucky Irving and Tyrone Tracy in particular had larger shares of their respective backfields than most were projecting. But I can't ignore the absolute dominance Tony Pollard had for Tennessee against the Broncos.

With Tyjae Spears sidelined, Pollard played 89% of the Titans' snaps, the most of any running back. He handled 18 of their 20 RB carries and posted a very solid 50% route participation rate. In Cameron Ward's debut against a brutal Broncos defense, this didn't turn into much production for Pollard, but he should have bigger days to come with this bellcow workload.

RB Kenneth Walker III, Seattle Seahawks

This one wasn't exactly subtle, but it still bears mentioning. Walker was not a workhorse for the Seahawks on Sunday. He was closer to being the team's RB2 behind Zach Charbonnet than the clear RB1.

Walker played just 20 snaps, nine fewer than Charbonnet. And he handled 10 attempts, while Charbonnet saw 12. He did see three targets to his backfield-mate's zero, but Charbonnet actually ran one more route.

Walker was also inefficient, managing just 3.9 half-PPR points compared to 10.8 expected points. With that in mind, it's hard to see his usage improving much in the coming weeks.

If we're looking for optimism, Walker did deal with an injury in preseaon, and some of the difference in usage between him and Charbonnet is just that Charbonnet happened to be the lead back on Seattle's longest drives of the day. But this was a brutal debut in terms of usage for KW3, who is worth selling … if you can find any buyers. 

Ted Chmyz is a fantasy football contributor for FantasySP. Find him on Twitter and Bluesky @Tchmyz for more fantasy content or to ask questions.