Achane, Charbonnet, and Rising Rookie Running Backs

All season long, I’ll be looking back at the week to see how we can best leverage what took place on the field at the running back position to our advantage. This weekly article will hone in on weekly snap shares and highlight a few players who could benefit from their team putting them on the field more in the coming weeks.

You won’t be surprised to know I am legally obligated to talk about De’Von Achane and his 242-yard, four-touchdown day against the Broncos or risk being locked out of Rotoworld HQ forever. But other running backs, including some rookies, began taking on bigger roles with their offenses in Week 3.

As required, I will give the readers some information on Achane, but I refuse to stop there.

Below are some players whose performances and situations stood out this past week, and at the end of the article is a table of every player to see 30 percent or more of their team’s snaps in Week 3.

NOTE: Snaps and route data courtesy of FantasyPoints.com and PFF.com.

Zach Charbonnet (SEA)

We’ll get to Achane in a bit, but Zach Charbonnet and his Week 3 usage will likely fly under the radar this waiver wire cycle.

The rookie second-round pick who plays second-fiddle to Kenneth Walker managed just 5.5 PPR points in Sunday’s win over the Panthers, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved in the offense. Charbonnet rushed for a season-high 46 yards on nine carries (also a season-high) and was in on 43.7 percent of the Seahawks’ offensive snaps (another season-high). His snap share was on the heels of Walker’s 49.3 percent share, but Charbonnet also played on 23.1 percent of third downs, was on the field for 20-of-38 passing plays, and ran 12 routes — leading all Seahawks running backs in both categories.

If you’re in the business of being ahead of your teammates to add players before they blow up on one random Sunday, Charbonnet is a player to consider rostering. He’s still available in roughly 41 percent of Yahoo! leagues and looks like the Seahawks running back to have if Walker were ever to miss time.

Fantasy managers grew quite fond of Charbonnet throughout the predraft process. He rushed for over 2,500 yards and 27 touchdowns in his last two seasons at UCLA after transferring there for the 2021 season, and his 3.82 YCO/ATT over that span was equally as impressive. His pass-catching prowess over his final two years (60 receptions for 501 yards) was also on display and hinted at a future three-down role should the opportunity ever present itself.

Tyler Allgeier (ATL)

Bijan Robinson has been knocking at the door of Tyler Allgeier’s opportunities since the moment the Falcons drafted him No. 8 overall this offseason.

Despite knowing this, a promising Week 1 snap share of 54.2 percent for Allgeier, which included 15 carries for 75 yards and two touchdowns, was enough to give fantasy managers hope of a somewhat stable role for Allgeier. As long as Robinson is healthy, Allgeier was never going to have top-24 upside, even in a run-heavy offense like the Falcons’, but some RB3/FLEX appeal still felt possible…or at least we thought.

Over the last two weeks, Allgeier’s snap share has steadily declined as Robinson eats more into his snaps and overall opportunities.

Robinson’s 80 percent snap share in Week 3 was well ahead of the 30.8 percent snap share Allgeier saw, and Robinson has also received 40 opportunities to Allgeier’s 26 since Week 2.

Allgeier is averaging 13 opportunities per game since Week 1, ranking 33rd amongst all backs over that span, but has been highly inefficient with his touches at just 3.1 YPT. He remains a high-upside stash, but the dreams of rolling him out as a high-volume backup behind Robinson appear dead.

He could have more upside in games that project as having positive game scripts or against a bottom-of-the-barrel run defense, but he’s probably best left as a bench stash for now.

De’Von Achane (MIA)

I’m still trying to process what we saw on Sunday: rookie running back De’Von Achane and Raheem Mostert combined for 285 rush yards and five touchdowns on the ground. We also can’t forget the 4-30-2 line Achane posted through the air.

The rookie third-round pick made the most of every snap and every opportunity he saw in Week 3’s beatdown of the Broncos. Some would say no player has ever made more of their opportunities. Achane, who possesses legitimate Olympic-caliber speed, not only totaled 233 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns, but he did so in a highly efficient manner. His 10.6 yards per touch were truly a sight to behold, as Broncos defenders struggled to bring him down all afternoon.

Per Pro Football Focus, Broncos defenders missed 24 tackles in the 70-30 defeat, with Achane forcing nine of those missed tackles. Not to be outdone by Mostert, who forced 11 missed tackles in his own right.

It seems unlikely (although I won’t rule anything out at this point) that the Dolphins will continue to post 70-point outings. Still, it took one outing for Achane to prove he’s the player we hoped for when he opted to leave Texas A&M. A dual-threat both on the ground and through the air, the explosive rookie adds yet another element of speed to a Dolphins team that appears just as talented as it does fast.

Per NFL Next Gen Stats, the five fastest players we’ve seen in the league through three weeks all belong to Dolphins players. Achane has signed off on two of them.

In what I would consider his first “real” NFL game (not Week 2, where he played 5-of-61 snaps), Achane earned a 42.3 percent snap share and saw the ball come his way on 22-of-30 snaps. The Dolphins may be tipping their hand by giving Achane the ball on 73.3 percent of his snaps, but we’ll see how quickly teams adjust to this and find a way to stop him. It’s also possible the team works him in on more downs where he isn’t getting the ball to keep defenses guessing.

If you don’t have your league’s No. 1 waiver priority this week, you can probably forget about getting Achane. However, if he’s on your roster come Week 4, he could be a potential smash in a matchup against the Bills that will feature plenty of scoring.

Kendre Miller (NO)

The fantasy community waited for two weeks to see Kendre Miller make his NFL debut. Drafted all season as “the back to have” while Alvin Kamara served a three-game suspension, Miller was sidelined by injuries to start the season but finally made it back in Week 3 against the Packers.

The former TCU Horned Frog had a forgettable fantasy day, totaling 4.4 fantasy points on 10 touches, but he didn’t do anything to suggest he couldn’t earn more opportunities down the line. The return of Alvin Kamara in Week 4 is going to make Miller and backup Tony Jones hard to trust this week — although it’s unlikely you were eyeing to play either of them — but how things shake out for Miller over the next three weeks while Jamaal Williams (hamstring) is on injured reserve will be worth monitoring.

The Saints used a third-round pick on Miller and this year’s draft and should be wanting to get him on the field early. They already know what they have in journeyman UDFA Tony Jones, who is now on his second stint with the Saints and has bounced around four teams in four years. He’s also averaged 2.8 yards per carry for his career and opened the season on the practice squad.

Jones out-snapped Miller 29-21 on the day and saw 12 opportunities to Miller’s 10, but you have to wonder how things may have shaped up had this not been Miller’s first game.

Kamara is the unquestioned leader of the Saints’ backfield when he returns, but Miller has a chance to cut into RB2 duties on a Saints team that is in need of a second back while Williams is sidelined. It’s easy to assume Jones, the veteran, will be first in line for that job, but Miller’s draft capital and Week 2 usage suggest that could be short-lived.

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A.J. Dillon (GB)

I could feel my heart racing as I put Derrick Henry Lite into my lineup ahead of the Packers’ Week 2 matchup against the Falcons. After months of drafting A.J. Dillon as the high-end backup to Aaron Jones, I was about to see the fruit of my labor pay off (at least temporarily) in just one week.

Or so I thought.

Jones is expected to return in Week 4 for Thursday night’s matchup against the Lions, but Dillon’s Week 2 and 3 performances left me and many fantasy managers with much to be desired.

Operating as the Packers’ lead back, Dillon led the team with 27 opportunities but turned them into just 97 yards and no touchdowns. His 3.6 yards per touch and 3.4 yards per carry weren’t getting it done for the Packers, as his usage dwindled in Week 3, and Patrick Taylor handled all six of the team’s green zone (inside the opponent’s 10-yard line) snaps. Dillon’s 52.1 percent snap rate still led the team in their win over the Saints, but Taylor out-snapped Dillon 22-19 in the second half as they mounted their comeback.

I’m not ready to say Dillon is droppable, but he certainly isn’t startable heading into Week 4 against the Lions — especially if Jones returns as expected.

Matt Breida (NYG)

It’s hard to know where Saquon Barkley (ankle) is at with his injury, especially after the Giants tried to act like there was a chance he could play last week against the 49ers on a short week.

Barkley was diagnosed with a high-ankle sprain in Week 2’s win over the Cardinals but is reportedly “in the day-to-day category,” according to head coach Brian Daboll.

We’ll see if Barkley gives it a go in Week 4 when the Giants face the Seahawks on Monday night, but if he doesn’t, Matt Breida would once again step in to lead the Giant’s backfield.

Breida’s 80.4 percent snap rate in Week 3 was good for the fifth-highest among all running backs, but he saw only seven opportunities on the day. It was a low-volume day for Giants running backs overall, as backup Gary Brightwell also earned seven opportunities but out-gained Breida 36-18 in total yards.

Neither back was particularly impressive in the Week 3 loss, as reflected by the team’s 16th-ranked EPA per rush (-0.093) and 24th-ranked rushing success rate (30.0 percent) on the week. Breida and the Giants face a stout Seahawks run defense that ranks 10th in EPA per rush (-0.156) on the season but have allowed an average of 24.8 points per game to running backs and surrendered five rushing touchdowns.

If Breida draws the start in Week 4, I’m tempering expectations after a low-volume day last week. While some of that may have been due to game script, I would have expected more than three targets from a player who has proven to be a capable pass-catcher for much of his career.

Week 3 Snap Shares