Off the top, I would like to give an immediate thank you to Nathan Jahnke of Pro Football Focus. He puts together a bonkers-useful Sunday snaps and touches breakdown every week, and it’s completely necessary for this to exist. That said, three questions piqued my interest on Sunday (there was a fourth, but I saved everyone from my slobbering over my San Francisco 49ers). Let’s dive into the week eleven absurdity check!
Is it Time to Stash Luther Burden?
The Chicago Bears took hyper-athletic and dynamic wide receiver Luther Burden in the second round of the 2025 NFL Draft. Unfortunately for everyone who bought into the Burden fantasy football potential in his rookie season (me included), he played under 30% of snaps in every game for the first eight weeks of the season, then the Bears went on Bye.
Last week, Burden played 48.5% of snaps, doubling his season average, and he finished with three catches for 51 yards on three touches. He ran a route on 56% of dropbacks in week ten. Then, in week eleven, the Bears expanded his role. Burdan played fewer snaps (a byproduct of running more 12 personnel), but ran a route on 61% of Caleb Williams’ dropbacks, as he solidified himself as the team’s WR3. Burden only finished with three catches for 27 yards, on five targets, but he was a clear part of the offense, and his role as Ben Johnson’s slot receiver could evolve into something special.
However, he does have a tough series of games coming up. The Steelers’ next week is a neutral matchup, but the extremely tough Eagles, Packers (twice), and Browns are on the docket. While he could evolve into something good, he’s hitting his stride at the wrong part of the season. You can snag him as a speculative flier, but don’t expect him to hit right away.
Has Sean Tucker Earned the RB2 Role?
Sean Tucker absolutely dominated the Buffalo Bills this week, racking up 19 carries for 106 yards and two scores, catching two passes for 34 yards and a score. In comparison, his backfield mate, Rachaad White, finished with ten carries for 51 yards and two catches for eleven yards; he did not score. White dominated snaps (43-31) and routes (22-9), but Tucker far outproduced White.
The question is, however: will he take over for Rachaad White when Bucky Irving inevitably returns? The unfortunate answer, at least to me, is no. While Tucker is a better runner than White, we already knew that. Pick any given stat, and even before this game, Sean Tucker already cleared Rachaad White this season. Going into week eleven, Sean Tucker’s explosive run rate was six times better than Whites, his yards per carry topped White, as did his juke rate, and his yards after contact per attempt. In all real ways, we already knew that White was a worse runner than Tucker. Unfortunately, however, that’s the major problem: Bucky Irving is a better runner than Tucker, and Tucker is a worse pass catcher and pass blocker than Tucker.
So, where does that leave us? Nowhere good, at least long-term. As soon as Bucky Irving comes back (he’s back at practice), the Buccaneers likely shunt Tucker back into his far-third-in-the-pecking-order role, behind Bucky as the lead back and White as the passing downs back. For fantasy football purposes, I’m putting in a low-priority claim on Tucker just in case Bucky doesn’t come back. Because if Bucky suffers a setback, I’m all-in on Sean Tucker. Unfortunately, if Bucky comes back, the Buccaneers don’t have room for him to matter in any serious way.
R.J. Harvey Won’t Struggle Like This, Will He?
Going into the season, there was a particular corner of the fantasy football community that found itself overhyped on rookie running back R.J. Harvey. The thought process, it went, was that the Broncos drafted him high and that he could catch passes, so he would be Alvin Kamara. This is not (too much) hyperbole; it is what they believed. Things haven’t quite worked out for Harvey, as despite a three-touchdown game, he has been mostly MIA this season. A J.K. Dobbins injury opened the door for Harvey to dominate… or so we hoped.
He finished this week, his first week as the RB1 in Denver, with eleven carries for 30 yards, and three catches for 20 yards (on three targets). All told, he had an okay game from a PPR perspective, but fourteen touches for 50 yards isn’t what you are going for. The thing is, though, that’s what we’ve already seen from R.J. Havery this year. There hasn’t been some hidden talent that the Broncos have been keeping under wraps. He’s exceptionally league average from a production standpoint, averaging 4.3 yards per carry and six yards per target on the season.
This wasn’t a great matchup to go up against, but this is what we should expect from R.J. Harvey. The Chiefs are bottom-seven in allowing fantasy points to running backs, so he wasn’t going into a good matchup, but they held him to his normal production. He has enough juice to produce in good matchups, but we aren’t going to see him dominate the backfield like we had hoped. I anticipate a very Woody Marks-like season from him going forward, where he floats around RB24—very useful, but ultimately not league-winning—with some big runs sprinkled in here and there.
