Fantasy football Week 3 RB Preview: Travis Etienne faces major workload concerns

Waiver wire runs are going to be very difficult in Week 3. Saquon Barkley left Week 2 with a stinger, and as of early Tuesday afternoon, we haven’t heard about his test results. J.K. Dobbins left Week 2 with a hamstring, but the team sounds optimistic that he could be okay for Week 3. Jadarian Price left Week 2 with a chest injury, but X-rays came back negative, and he could play in Week 3. That is a whole lot of coulds and maybes, which makes waiver wire decisions regarding Tank Bigsby, Jonah Coleman, and Emanuel Wilson extremely risky. I’ll break down how I am prioritizing those three in the waiver wire section below. 

Two guys who aren’t on the waiver wire, but could be big risers because of injury this week, are Jaylen Warren and Chuba Hubbard. I wrote about them in yesterday’s projections, risers and fallers. One guy I didn’t write about was Travis Etienne, who had perhaps the most troubling Week 2 of all.

In Alvin Kamara’s first game back, Kamara led the team with a 33% rush share. He also had an 18% target share, tripling Etienne’s workload. It was shocking after the contract they gave Etienne, and it has probably had everyone wondering if they can even flex Etienne. One reason I am not completely panicked yet is that Kamara’s 14 touches produced 22 yards. It is hard to imagine a less efficient outing. Also, Etienne led the Saints running backs in both snap share (53.1%) and route share (33.3%). 

Those last numbers could be both good news and bad news. On the plus side, Etienne is still the back on the field the most and the back in position to catch the ball the most. On the downside, there are few must-start running backs that are playing half of the snaps and running a third of the routes. For this week, view Etienne as an extremely borderline RB2. Hopefully, Kamara’s usage shrinks due to his ineffectiveness. If not, Etienne has few outs to avoid being a bust.

QB | RB | WR |TE

Now let’s get to the rest of the Week 3 RB Preview:

Week 3 RB Preview

• 476 — Kenneth Walker is on pace for 476 touches this season. The Chiefs are probably going to have to give Emmett Johnson a few more snaps.
• 78% — Emanuel Wilson played 78% of the offensive snaps after Jadarian Price left Week 2.
• 36.4% — Rhamondre Stevenson’s 36.4% snap share would have been his second-lowest snap share last year. Have the fumbles finally caught up with him?
• 39.3% — Bhayshul Tuten’s 39.3% avoided tackle rate is second only behind Kenneth Walker.
• 2.7 — David Montgomery is averaging 2.7 yards per carry. If he can’t get going against the Colts, we’ll have a real reason for concern.
• 4.05 — Blake Corum leads all running backs with 4.05 yards before contact per rush attempt. Kyren Williams is sixth at 2.13.
• 11 — Bucky Irving’s 11 receptions are tied with Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson for the lead amongst running backs. 
• 12.5 — Jeremiyah Love has averaged 12.5 touches per game so far. He’s not more than a flex until his role increases, but he’s also a good buy low because I expect he gets more touches soon.

My full set of Week 3 Fantasy football projections for every position is now available here. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don’t live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 3. Projected stats for all starting running backs will be updated throughout the week, so check back regularly.