Fantasy Football Outlook: Dalton Schultz, Logan Thomas, Adam Trautman (Week 6)

Hello and welcome to the Week 6 edition of Hoppen to Conclusions! This is where I, Sam Hoppen, will share some of my favorite charts, which are designed to give you an overview of the NFL landscape. These charts, along with the commentary that I provide, aim to help you make start or sit, DFS lineup construction, betting picks, or any other fantasy football decisions. There can be a lot of noise in fantasy football analysis, but these charts have been carefully selected to give you some of the most relevant and useful decision points. Here are all of my takeaways ahead of Week 6. Below we dive into a few notable players.

Fantasy Football Outlook

Tight End Usage

The main storyline from last week’s Thursday Night Football game was the Justin Fields to DJ Moore connect, but I want to focus elsewhere. The other week I noted that the Washington Commanders receivers were struggling because of the lack of target share they’ve commanded, but one of the primary beneficiaries of Sam Howell‘s target distribution has been Logan Thomas. Thomas has now run a route on more than 75% of Washington’s dropbacks in three of the four games he’s played (and the one game he didn’t get there was when he left early due to a concussion). In two of those games, Thomas has earned eight and (on Thursday) 11 targets. I’m not sure if this influence is led by Eric Beienemy’s playcalling or more matchup-driven, but Washington loves to throw the ball (their 9% PROE ranks first on the season), so this level of volume should continue. He’s a TE1 in every format right now.
- Action: buy Logan Thomas
This past week, Adam Trautman found himself among the top 12 tight ends in fantasy scoring thanks to his four-catch, 26-yard, and one-touchdown performance (the position really is bleak). While this is only the second game this year he’s caught a pass, it’s not for lack of targets as he’s had at least one in every game this season. That said, his route participation has been steadily growing from a 67% routes run rate in the first two weeks to an 85% rate over the last three games. Still, an abysmal 0.1 targets per route run and a lowly 4.6-yard aDOT aren’t enough to get me to buy in.
- Action: fade Adam Trautman
Dalton Schultz could be a viable tight end streaming option if Tank Dell misses time. Schultz was targeted 10 times on Sunday (a season-high for him) and saw his routes rate bounce back after dropping down to 45% in Week 4.