Volume is always a key component to a successful fantasy football season. In 2012, David Wilson averaged 5.0 ypc, 2.66 Yco/Att (yards after contact per attempt), and finished with six runs of 15 or more yards despite receiving just 71 carries. Volume was what kept Wilson back from being an elite fantasy contributor, and projected volume is what helped propel him into the second round of 2013 fantasy football drafts.
Projected volume and actual volume tend to differ on many occasions. Between offseason coach-speak, injuries, and concerns with pass protection, the reality is that projecting touches is a very futile exercise.
Instead of guessing, in this column every week we will take a look at snaps, touches in both the running and passing game, pass protection, and other interesting stats only available on Pro Football Focus. One game never tells the entire story, as game flow often dictates a player’s usage. However, we can gauge a lot from week one when accounting for factors like game flow and more.
Each backfield will be broken up based on overall usage, but I will only briefly touch on the backfields that haven’t changed much from the previous week. This column will focus more on timeshares and changing backfields. You can reference Week 1’s edition here, and any other previous weeks by clicking on my name under the title at the top of the page.
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Dan Schneier is a staff writer at PFF Fantasy and also writes about real football for FOX Sports. If you want to know any of his other evaluations on skill position players, continue the conversation, or yell at him for something he missed, you can find him on Twitter @DanSchneierNFL. You can also add him to your network on Google+ to find all of his past material.
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