Fantasy Football Week 6 Usage Report: Chase Brown, Travis Hunter and More

Whether you're 0-6 or 6-0, now is not the time of the fantasy football season to get complacent. We have solid sample sizes of usage for most players now, but the NFL is constantly changing.

We don't want to overreact to one-week samples, but every week is still a hugely important data point. With that in mind, here are some players with positive and negative usage trends, either in Week 6 specifically or over the whole season. 

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Positive Usage Players

TE Isaiah Likely, Baltimore Ravens

Likely returned to the field in Week 4 after suffering a broken foot in preseason. In his first two games, his usage was bad enough to make him a complete fantasy non-factor: a laughably terrible 2% target share on an also useless 46% route participation rate. Obviously, those numbers are nowhere near high enough for Likely to have fantasy relevance.

However, things changed in Week 6. Likely jumped up to an 80% route participation rate, actually leading Baltimore's offense. While he still only saw two targets for a 6% target share, this was a huge step in the right direction — being on the field is the first step to earning targets, which is the first step to actually scoring fantasy points.

What's particularly interesting about Likely's increased usage is that it didn't come at the expense of the Ravens' other tight end, Mark Andrews. In fact, Andrews also surpassed his own average route participation rate with a solid 70% in Week 6. How is this possible? Baltimore's offense drastically changed its personnel usage: in previous weeks, the Ravens had two or more TEs on the field for just 38% of their total dropbacks. In Week 6, that number was a whopping 78%.

Going forward, it will be interesting to see if this trend continues, especially when Lamar Jackson returns. There's a chance that this was only a temporary change, perhaps in order to make things easier for beleaguered backup Cooper Rush. But if the Ravens keep leaning this heavily on two-TE sets when the two-time MVP returns, we could be in for the ultra-rare scenario where two tight ends from the same team are fantasy-relevant. 

WR Travis Hunter, Jacksonville Jaguars

Hunter's NFL debut has been undeniably disappointing. Through six weeks, he is averaging just five half-PPR points per game, 80th among wide receivers. Despite his much-touted elite conditioning, he has played part-time roles on both defense and offense, often playing fewer total snaps than traditional one-way players.

However, Week 6 was a step in the right direction. The Heisman winner posted an 86% route participation rate. That wasn't just by far his highest mark of the season, it also led all Jacksonville players for that contest. On those routes, he saw seven targets for an at least respectable 17% target share. Meanwhile, he was also above his season average with a 40% defensive snap share. 

Of course, Hunter is still not someone you can plug into your fantasy football lineups. We need to see his role continue at this level (if not expand), and he also needs to straight-up play better. But I imagine many fantasy managers are tempted to drop the second-overall pick after his putrid start to the season. If that list includes you, this is your sign to give him at least one more week. If you're really bold (and believe in his talent), this might even be a chance to buy super low on Hunter in hopes of a second-half breakout.

WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seattle Seahawks

Where Likely and Hunter are both players trending in the right direction, Smith-Njigba has had truly elite usage since he stepped on the field for the 2025 season. He now leads all receivers in target share (34%) and air yards share (49%). His 4.43 yards per route run is incomprehensibly good.  

The only potential issue in JSN's profile is that Seattle's offense is the most run-heavy in the league, with just a 50.2% pass rate. That means that, despite nearly lapping the field in terms of his share of his team's offense, he is “only” tied for fourth in total targets per game.

If we are taking a glass-half-empty approach, this means JSN could be more of a backend WR1 than a WR1 overall candidate if his target share regresses toward the mean. But I prefer to take a glass-half-full approach: With Puka Nacua injured, Smith-Njigba is the current best fantasy receiver in the league despite playing on the most conservative offense … just think what could happen if Seattle throws the ball a bit more. 

Negative Usage Players

RB David Montgomery, Detroit Lions

For the past three years, the Lions' offense has been elite enough to pull off the rare feat of supporting two consistent fantasy running backs. After Jahmyr Gibbs settled into the NFL as a rookie in 2023, he and Montgomery have both thrived in a relatively even 50/50 split. Their “Sonic and Knuckles” nickname points to the idea that Gibbs is smaller and more explosive, while Montgomery is the bruising grinder, but they have both been used successfully in a variety of roles.

Prior to Sunday night, Montgomery had just barely maintained an edge over Gibbs in carries per game, 14.1 to 13.6. Gibbs' role has increased recently, but that sample also includes a few games where Montgomery left early due to injury. Really, the important part isn't who was ahead, but that their usage was relatively similar. As the Lions lost to the Chiefs on Sunday night, that changed: Montgomery saw just four carries to Gibbs' 17. 

There's a chance this was just a one-off blip. Dan Campbell did say after the game that he wants to increase Montgomery's usage going forward. Detroit also isn't likely to be in too many more negative game scripts. However, we have to acknowledge that, when the going got tough, the team leaned on the third-year back over the veteran. This means Montgomery's week-to-week floor is much lower, especially against stronger opponents — he may be more of a boom/bust flex play than a weekly RB2 going forward. 

RB Chase Brown, Cincinnati Bengals

Things just go from terrible to even terrible-r for Brown. Coming into the season, he was expected to be a bellcow back on one of the league's best offenses. Obviously, the elite offense part of that equation flew out of the window when Joe Burrow went down. But now Brown is also losing his elite workload in Cincinnati's offense.

In Week 6, Brown saw just nine carries, only three more than Samaje Perine. That's just a 60% RB rush share. His trend in this department is so alarming that it's worth listing all six of his weekly RB rush shares: 100%, 100%, 53%, 91%, 67%, 60%.

That 53% mark in Week 3 was heavily affected by garbage time, but the overall trend remains clear regardless. Brown has gone from arguably the best workload in the league to being the lead member of a committee. With how putrid Cincinnati's offense has been without Burrow, he's barely even startable as a flex option with this usage.

TE T.J. Hockenson, Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings' didn't even play in Week 6, so I do feel a little bad picking on Hockenson. But the veteran TE is still one of the top 10 most rostered and started options among fantasy tight ends, so I feel the need to point out that his usage is nowhere near good enough to deserve that distinction. Here are Hockenson's rankings among tight ends in relevant usage stats:

• Route Participation Rate — 9th (Not a bad start)

• Target Share — 15th (Getting worse)

• Red Zone Target Share — 19th (Even worse)

• Targets Per Game — 20th (Uh-oh)

• Air Yards Share — 27th (Yikes)

• Air Yards Per Game — 27th (Double yikes)

• Fantasy Points Per Game — 22nd (There it is)

Hockenson is on the field, but he's not seeing many targets. When he does see targets, they're usually underneath and not in the red zone. These numbers are bad enough on their own, and they get even worse when you consider that three of the five games in this sample came during Jordan Addison's suspension.

If anything, Hockenson's usage should trend down with the team's WR2 available for the rest of the season. If you've been relying on the Vikings' veteran as your TE1, it's well past time to look for another option.