Saturday, October 18, 2025

Gio-ing Deep: Notes from NFL Weeks 4-6 in 2025

It's hard to believe that Week 7 is already here! With another three weeks in the books since my last look at player usage, there is now a decent sample size for this NFL season so far. We now have a pretty solid idea of how teams are utilizing their players, so these are observations around that, including any recent changes.

As I said last time, I'm using fantasy data (PPR scoring) and standard stats from ESPN and Pro-Football-Reference.com while snaps, routes run, and positional alignment come from Pro Football Focus (PFF).


  • Jaxon Smith-Njigba is off to a scintillating start to the season with a league-leading 696 yards through six games, and the underlying numbers are even more impressive. I noted in Week 1 how absurd his 59.09% target share was, and this past week he saw over half of Seattle's looks again with a 54.17% mark. Overall on the season, he is averaging 21.45 points while playing 73.8% of the snaps, running a route on 89.2% of the drop backs, and seeing a 36.36% target share.

    With that incredible volume is also coming record-breaking efficiency as JSN is averaging 4.43 yards per route run. If he keeps that up for the whole season, it would eclipse Tyreek Hill's 3.72 mark in 2023 as the highest in PFF's history. To put things in perspective, Smith-Njigba has the aforementioned NFL lead in receiving yards despite the Seahawks ranking 31st in pass attempts per game with 27.3, barely ahead of the Ravens' 27.2 average at the bottom.
  • If I was writing this a week ago, Puka Nacua would probably be my opener since he had 588 yards through five games to JSN's 534, but the Rams star unfortunately got hurt near the end of the first half on Sunday and despite returning for some plays later, will miss the next game. Still, he's also been off to an amazing start with 3.42 YPRR and heavy usage. Nacua is averaging 23.13 points with a 75.98% snap rate, 81.08% route participation, and 31.71% target share, and before this down week those numbers were 26.80, 80%, 84.97%, and 34.64%.

    As usual, L.A.'s offense is highly condensed, and that's led to Davante Adams also seeing a 26.83% target share even with Nacua's dominance. That's only led to 13.93 points per game so far, but he could explode against the Jaguars' up and down secondary as the #1 target this week. He was already playing 84.33% of the snaps and running a route on 91.89% of the drop backs, but the target share could get even higher. 

  • Since Atlanta's coaching staff came from L.A., their offense is also pretty condensed, and Drake London and Bijan Robinson really showed that on Monday Night Football when they combined for nearly 400 yards by themselves. Staying at WR to start, London pulled a JSN and had a 51.61% target share in that game (he was the only Falcons WR to record a catch) and 31.8 points to bring his season averages to 17.34 points, 88.34% of the snaps, 93.30% route participation, and a 32.92% target share. It's worth noting that Darnell Mooney missed this game again, but this is no outlier for London after he finished last season with 16.88, 94.01%, 94.59%, and 30.10% rates.

    Even with all of Robinson's accolades so far, his season still might not be getting as much attention as it deserves. He's averaging 24.84 points while playing 74.64% of the snaps, running a route on 75.42% of the the drop backs, seeing 58.04% of the RB carries, and earning a 19.25% target share, huge for the position. Robinson is averaging 67.6 receiving yards per game on top of his 96.8 yards on the ground, putting him on pace to join Roger Craig, Marshall Faulk, and Christian McCaffrey as just the fourth player to have a 1,000-1,000 season.
  • Jonathan Taylor's receiving proficiency isn't at that level, but after it was the lone weakness early in his career, he's up to a 12.22% target share this season. That mark has been in the double-digits in five out of six games so far, for an average of 3.67 targets per game. Combine that with Taylor having an 82.43% snap rate, 76.26% route participation, and 82.73% of the RB carries, and it's no wonder that he's averaging 24.17 points. I honestly didn't expect the switch to Daniel Jones to raise this offense so much, but he really has been quite the improvement on what the Colts had previously.

  • Switching over to TE, Jones' former teammate Darren Waller is having a resurgence of his own with the Dolphins. After scoring twice in his Week 4 debut despite being eased in, he has found the end zone in each of the last two games, as well. This coincides with Tyreek Hill's unfortunate season-ending injury, but Waller has seen his snap rates and route participation increase from 27.59% to 58.18% to 67.80% and 35.71% to 67.50% and 78.38%.

    Ironically, his target shares have decreased each week, but at 6'6", he is by far the biggest red zone target on an offense more filled with speedsters. After seeing how effective Jonnu Smith was on this team down the stretch last year, I imagine that Waller will end up seeing his usage continue to rise.

  • Mason Taylor ended up with a dud along with the rest of the Jets offense last week, but prior to that he was showing impressive signs for a rookie TE. In Weeks 4 and 5 he averaged 14.6 points while playing 82.64% of the snaps, running a route on 79.78% of the drop backs, and earning a 26.76% target share. He's only averaging 6.78 points for the season overall, but the 82.41% snap rate, 77.83% route participation, and 17.68% target share is encouraging. With star WR Garrett Wilson expected to miss some time, Taylor could bounce back as the de facto #1 receiving option.
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