Fantasy Football Week 3 Market Share Report: Joe Mixon Emerges

Rushing Market Shares

1. Joe Mixon Benefits From Change

Clearly, Mixon's the headliner here. And it's for good reason.

Check out his game-by-game usage numbers through the first three contests. When that spike in usage aligns with a change in the coaching staff, it's much easier to buy into its sustainability.

It's pretty obvious that Mixon is now the top back on this team, and that means our valuation of him needs to change drastically. That doesn't come without some caveats.

First, the offensive line is still a wreck, meaning there's no guarantee that he'll have space to operate at all times. That limits Mixon's floor a bit.

Second, Bernard will still be a factor, which could hurt Mixon in the games in which the Bengals fall behind. His three targets seem to indicate he's not entirely game-flow dependent, but it would still seem as if negative game scripts would lend themselves to higher usage for Bernard.

Finally, Jeremy Hill is still lurking. The team had two rushes inside the 10-yard line on Sunday, and Hill and Mixon split them. It's not horrible, but it does put Mixon at risk of getting vultured while Hill's on the team.

These limitations may not be permanent. As we saw last week, Mixon's role is still fluid and could change at any second. But for right now, we should view him as a player the Bengals want to feature, with his ceiling is still a bit capped. That's enough to put him in play at $5,600 on FanDuel in their upcoming game with the Cleveland Browns.

2. The Eagles' Backfield Is Muddy Without Darren Sproles

Darren Sproles has been one of the most fun players to watch throughout the NFL for a long time now. Sometimes, football sucks.

Well. Yuck.

Sproles was easily the lead back in Week 2, playing 69.4% of the team's snaps. That's going to open up a big opportunity for someone else within the offense. It's just not abundantly clear who will fill it.

The most obvious choice is Wendell Smallwood, who led the team with a 57% snap rate. LeGarrette Blount was at 29%, and both players had 12 carries. But it was Corey Clement who scored the game-tying touchdown with 5:40 left. So how are we supposed to handle this?

It would seem as if the obvious choice is the correct one here. Although Clement scored the touchdown, Smallwood still led the team in carries over their final three drives with three rushes. Clement and Blount each had one.

The Philadelphia Eagles face the Los Angeles Chargers on the road next week, and Smallwood is just $5,300 on FanDuel. He'll be a risky choice with Blount waiting to swipe goal-line carries, but it does seem as if this is now Smallwood's backfield to lose.

3. Jamaal Charles Creeps up on C.J. Anderson

Through the first two weeks, C.J. Anderson was a volume boss. He had 45 total carries and 6 targets while playing more than 70% of the snaps for the Denver Broncos. That's golden.

Sunday, he got out-carried by a guy in his age-31 season who has as many knee operations as touchdowns the past two years. Goldenness gone.

Obviously, Jamaal Charles ain't your normal creaky-legged senior, and Anderson still played 70.0% of the snaps, so it's not all doom and gloom. But you can bet it's a concern.

It also doesn't help that Charles looked spry in the attempts that he did get. He scored from 12 yards out and racked up 56 yards on 9 carries. His injury concerns should keep his snaps low, but he'll get run on those snaps that he does play.

This is a big blow to both Anderson's upside and floor. He's going to be viable in positive game scripts -- as he has shown the past two weeks -- but Charles' effectiveness means the two should continue to split work. There was plenty of reason for optimism around Anderson heading into Week 3, but we'll have to scale back expectations going forward based on Charles' seemingly increasing role.