Fantasy Football Usage Report: Key metrics and trends about the utilization of NFL players to use in Week 5

Nothing is worse than sitting down for a Sunday, turning on an NFL game, and wondering whether the player on your fantasy team is even active for the game. When players aren't heavily utilized within their offense, it can create enormous frustration for fantasy managers.

No matter how talented we believe a player is, if they're playing a secondary role in the offense, they will have a hard time producing fantasy points. It sounds simple, but the players who are on the field and see more touches are set up to contribute to your fantasy team. Monitoring usage trends will keep you informed on which players are (or will be) in the best position to accumulate fantasy points.

For most NFL fans and fantasy players, reviewing the data on player usage is far too difficult and time-consuming. But there's no need to look any further. We've got you covered with the Sporting News Usage Report, where we'll take you through some of the most significant trends regarding player usage and discuss how it will impact players' fantasy values.

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Fantasy Football Week 4 Usage Report: Biggest running back utilization trends

Bijan Robinson, Atlanta Falcons

Bijan Robinson has been viewed as an elite running back in fantasy throughout the season despite RB2 levels of production. A key reason behind managers' hesitancies to devalue Robinson was his elite role within the offense. Well, his role is proving to be a bit shaky after Tyler Allgeier saw double-digit opportunities last week.

Allgeier actually saw more carries and finished with one fewer opportunity than Robinson. Their snap share also drew closer than fantasy managers would have liked. The most likely reason for this near 50-50 usage was that Atlanta's coaching staff was riding the "hot hand" of Allgeier. It's also worth noting that Robinson came into this game with a shoulder injury, something that could have caused the coaching staff to be conservative with Robinson, especially with Allgeier playing well.

This isn't anything to fully panic about just yet, but Robinson's fantasy value will take a massive hit if these splits carry over into future weeks.

Rachaad White and Bucky Irving, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Another week has passed and Bucky Irving has once again chipped away at Rachaad White's role in the Tampa Bay backfield. The rookie running back continues to play well, and it's getting harder for Todd Bowles to keep him off the field.

This week provided the most encouraging signs for the fantasy value of Irving's role. It's not that he saw a massive spike in his snap share or rush attempts share; Irving is getting access to the high-value touches. What are high-value touches? Targets and goal line work. White's route participation has steadily fallen throughout the season as Irving is asked to run more routes. But the big one here is that Irving saw every goal line rush attempt. If he's going to be getting regular goal line work with some targets sprinkled in, Irving can have standalone value in this offense.

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Kareem Hunt, Samaje Perine, Carson Steele, Kansas City Chiefs

On the first drive of the game, it seemed that the Chiefs' plans for their backfield were going to look almost the same as they did in Week 3. Carson Steele would handle the early downs, Samaje Perine would play in passing situations, and Kareem Hunt entered the fray to mix in here and there. Plans changed rather quickly after Steele coughed up a fumble on his first carry of the game.

Andy Reid put Steele in the doghouse shortly after the fumble, and he only saw one carry for the rest of the game. It was Hunt who went on to handle the rushing work and take on a healthy 43-percent snap share. It remains to be seen if this was a temporary "timeout" for Steele or if he will be phased out of the offense into fantasy irrelevancy. For the time being, Hunt appears to be the back to roster in Kansas City.

Chase Brown and Zack Moss, Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals' backfield has been a rollercoaster this season. The coaching staff spent the offseason explaining how both backs would be involved, only to rely on Zack Moss almost exclusively through three games. But Week 4 was far closer to the 1A/1B situation that fantasy managers had been expecting.

The only thing holding Brown back was a lack of playing time. His explosive play had been there; many people, including head coach Zac Taylor, have noted that Brown looks like he'd been shot out of a cannon when he runs. His league-leading 6.3 YPC (min. 25 carries) backs this up. Brown is now getting more opportunities and is even getting looks at the goal line. If this usage holds up, Brown could be in store for the breakout that many had been anticipating.

Fantasy Football Week 4 Usage Report: Biggest wide receiver and tight end utilization trends

Rashid Shaheed, New Orleans Saints

Rashid Shaheed has spent his NFL career as a deep threat whose value in fantasy football was driven by his ability to produce long touchdowns. Shaheed has entered a new phase of his career, a phase that involves regular targets that aren't 40 yards downfield.

Shaheed saw a career-high 11 targets on Sunday and led the team in both target and air yards share. He is a full-time player in Klint Kubiak's offense and is thriving. Shaheed isn't going to draw more targets than Chris Olave regularly, but this is the sort of usage that makes him an every-week Flex who also happens to have a sky-high ceiling.

Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens

Another week has passed, and Mark Andrews put up yet another goose egg in the box score. And it's not like fantasy managers can latch on to improved usage either. There is absolutely nothing encouraging about Andrews' fantasy outlook moving forward.

Week 4 was the second consecutive week where Andrews was below 40-percent route participation and failed to draw more than one target. Last week, John Harbaugh chalked this up to "heavy personnel usage" dictated by the game plan. Following a second consecutive week of this lowly usage, it's time to come to terms with the fact that Andrews may just be a rotational tight end. He can be stashed in leagues with deep rosters, but it's not ridiculous to drop him if you're in a roster squeeze.

Kyle Pitts, Atlanta Falcons

Kyle Pitts is another tight end who may just be done for. He also put up a stone-cold zero in Week 4. His utilization within Atlanta's offense was slightly more encouraging than Andrews', but not by a whole lot.

Fantasy managers rejoiced after Pitts played a full-time role in Week 1. Well, Pitts is now losing routes to "Charlie Woerner" and has seen his route participation drop all the way to 58 percent. This isn't something you can blame on coaching either. Pitts has simply looked bad on film. He's struggling to create separation and is not winning his routes. It doesn't help that head coach Raheem Morris doesn't care about Pitts' lack of involvement either. All things considered, it's shaping up to be another year of disappointment if you drafted Pitts.

Brian Thomas Jr., Jacksonville Jaguars

Doug Pederson and the Jacksonville coaching staff made it quite clear from the jump that they wanted Brian Thomas Jr. to be a significant part of this offense. Thomas has taken the opportunity and ran with it. The rookie is currently the WR14 through four games.

The preseason concern with Thomas was that he would be a big-play threat and not a consistent target earner. Thomas was targeted on 35 percent of his routes last week and has drawn a 20-percent target share across the full season. He's also acting as the first read in some red zone plays.

There is a very talented WR developing right in front of our eyes; let's just hope Trevor Lawrence can keep up with him.