Fantasy Football Player Notes

Pollard will revisit his workhorse status this week with Tyjae Spears out. In Weeks 7-9, with Spears out, Pollard played at least 82% of the snaps weekly while averaging 24 touches and 112 total yards. Pollard should see similar usage this week. Among 53 qualifying backs, Pollard ranks 23rd in explosive run rate and sixth in yards after contact per attempt. Pollard could surprise people this week. Houston's run defense hasn't been a shutdown unit. Since Week 7, Houston has allowed the third-highest explosive run rate, the highest yards after contact per attempt, the third-highest yards per carry to gap runs, and the eighth-highest success rate to gap runs (Pollard 57.5% gap).

Since Week 8, Ridley has been the WR11 in fantasy points per game, ranking 34th in separation and 24th in route win rate (among 94 qualifying wide receivers). Across his last four games, he has had a 30.4% target share, a 51.7% air-yard share, 2.69 YPRR, and a 39.1% first-read share. He has also seen two end-zone targets. Houston has two weeks this season where they have heavily deployed two high, but for most of the season, they have been based around single high coverage. In Weeks 2-10, they have utilized single-high with 61.4% of their defensive snaps. Since Week 8, against single-high, Ridley has had a 38.7% target share, 3.95 YPRR, and a 46.8% first-read share. He should crush this week if Levis can feed him catchable targets. Since Week 7, Houston has allowed the 13th-most fantasy points per game to perimeter wide receivers.

Westbrook-Ikhine has been on a touchdown heater with five scores in his last six games, but this isn't the week to chase that flukey touchdown production. Houston has two weeks this season where they have heavily deployed two high, but for most of the season, they have been based around single high coverage. In Weeks 2-10, they have utilized single-high with 61.4% of their defensive snaps. Since Week 8, against single-high, Westbrook-Ikhine has had an 11.3% target share, 0.79 YPRR, and an 8.5% first-read share. Keep Westbrook-Ikhine on the bench this week.