The Utilization Report is the preeminent source for player utilization data for fantasy football and betting purposes. It tracks basically everything you need to know about how a player is being used on a weekly basis. This data allows you to make more informed decisions in your fantasy football leagues and in the player prop market.
At the heart of the Utilization Report is the Game Log. It tracks each player at the four main fantasy positions – quarterback, running back, wide receiver, and tight end – and highlights their performance across a variety of categories. It does so on a weekly basis, so you can see how a player’s role might be adjusting throughout the course of the year.
Let’s dive into everything you need to know to get the most out of the Game Log.
This shows the percentage of snaps that a quarterback is playing each week. Quarterback is one of the few positions where snaps aren’t all that important. Most QBs are going to see 100% of the snaps in a given week unless they suffer an injury. However, if you have a quarterback that leaves the field in Wildcat packages – like Derek Carr in New Orleans – or have a quarterback that gets benched, it will be reflected in the data.
This is the number of dropbacks that a quarterback has in a given week. Dropbacks are slightly different than pass attempts because they include plays where a quarterback scrambles. That technically counts as a rushing attempt, but the QB still had the opportunity to throw a pass before choosing to run.
This is the number of pass attempts that a quarterback has each week.
ADOT stands for “Average Depth of Target,” and it measures how deep the quarterback is throwing the ball down the field. An ADOT of zero would mean that the throws are traveling exactly to the line of scrimmage, while an ADOT of 10.0 means the quarterback is throwing the ball 10 yards past the line of scrimmage. It does not include what happens after the catch; it’s purely measuring how many air yards the ball travels on each pass.
Typically, a higher ADOT is going to lead to a lower completion percentage. That said, it should result in more bountiful completions.
This stands for completion percentage, which measures the percentage of passes that are being caught by receivers. A high completion percentage is a good thing, but it’s not necessarily essential for fantasy production.
YPA stands for yards per attempt, and it is pretty easy to calculate. You simply take the number of yards that a quarterback passes for each week and divide it by his total number of passing attempts.
Yards per attempt is handy because it merges ADOT and completion percentage into a single stat. You need to complete a high percentage of your passes and push the ball down the field to succeed in YPA. The top QBs in YPA in 2023 were Brock Purdy, Tua Tagovailoa, and C.J. Stroud, who were all solid fantasy producers despite contributing minimal value with their legs.
Speaking of legs, designed rush attempts highlights the percentage of plays that were designed quarterback runs. Rushing production is extremely valuable for fantasy football. The QB sneak is the prototypical “designed quarterback run,” but with more and more athletes entering the league at the position, teams are drawing up more plays to keep the ball in their hands.
Josh Allen – the No. 1 QB in fantasy points per game – had a 14% designed rush rate this season, while Jalen Hurts (No. 2) was at 23%. Targeting QBs who get involved in the run game is one of the easiest ways to find fantasy value at the position.
This is the percentage of plays where the quarterback scrambles. In other words, these are the non-designed rushing attempts. It accounts for the percentage of the time when a pass play was called but the quarterback ended up tucking and running.
Scrambling is another feature of successful fantasy quarterbacks. It’s easier to rack up fantasy points with your legs than your arm, so QBs who are willing to tuck it and run are typically valuable.
Sacks represent the percentage of pass plays where the quarterback was brought down behind the line of scrimmage. Getting sacked isn’t ideal because it kills drives, but it’s not a particularly useful stat for fantasy.
That said, it can be worth considering in the prop market. You can bet on player sack over/unders on certain sportsbooks, so it’s something to consider when facing a QB with a high sack rate.
This is a money stat regardless of position. For quarterbacks, it represents the share of rushing attempts that they get inside the five-yard line. The easiest way to score fantasy points is to punch in touchdowns, and getting a carry from inside the five-yard line is the easiest way to do it.
This stat is exactly why Hurts has become one of the best QBs in fantasy. He had 47% of his team’s rushing attempts from inside the five in 2023, which he converted into 15 rushing touchdowns. It’s simply hard for QBs who don’t produce with their legs to keep up with that level of production.
This is the number of PPR points that each player scored in a given week.
This is where each player finished among their position group in a given week. For example, a 2 means that they were the second-highest scoring QB of the week, while a 10 would make them the 10th-highest.
Unlike quarterbacks, almost no running back is going to be on the field for 100% of his team’s snaps. Some lead backs will hover in the 80% range, while other committee RB1s could be at 50% or lower. You obviously can’t score fantasy points when you’re not on the field, so we ideally want to be targeting players with high snap shares.
This is the percentage of rushing attempts that a player commands each week. For example, if Christian McCaffrey has 20 of the 49ers’ 25 carries, his rushing attempt share would be 80%.
Route participation – or route share – is the number of times that a running back runs a route in a passing play. This can be a vital stat for running back production.
Not all passing plays are treated the same for running backs. Sometimes, they’ll be asked to stay in and block. Other times, they’ll release into the pattern late. They also might have a designed route from the beginning.
Route participation allows you to see how often each player is getting into the pattern. Running backs with lots of routes tend to catch a lot of passes, which is ideal for PPR formats.
Target share represents the percentage of targets that each running back earns. This can be correlated with route participation, but not always. The best pass-catching backs in the league – guys like McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara, and Breece Hall – will have high route shares and target shares. However, other pass-catching specialists can fare well in this department even if they’re not on the field a ton.
TPRR stands for Targets Per Route Run, and it reflects a player’s ability to “earn targets.” Essentially, it measures how often you’re being targeted when you are an option in the passing attack.
This can be an especially useful tool for pass-catching running backs. Someone like Samaje Perine might not command a large raw target share each week, but he’s being targeted quite frequently when in the pattern. That gives him a solid pass-catching floor and upside if he ever earns a bigger role.
SDD stands for Short Down and Distance, and it measures how often a running back is being used in those scenarios. They include goal-line situations, but they also include plays like third-and-1 or fourth-and-1. The best players in this department will be on the field nearly 100% of the time, giving them plenty of touchdown-scoring upside.
This functions the same way for running backs that it does for quarterbacks. If you’re handling a large percentage of inside-the-five touches, you’re a good bet to score touchdowns. Someone like Gus Edwards is the perfect example. He may not get 20+ carries every week, but he’s very active when the team gets near the goal line. That’s why he had as many touchdowns this season (13) as the previous five years combined.
LDD snaps – or long down and distance – is the opposite of SDD. It measures how often a running back is on the field in obvious passing situations. Players that can combine a strong LDD share with a high TPRR are typically some of the best receiving backs in football. Add in the goal line work, and you’ve got the makings of an elite fantasy running back.
Two-minute snaps function pretty similarly to LDD snaps; they measure which running backs are on the field in obvious passing situations.
This functions exactly the same for RBs as it does for QBs. It shows how many PPR points each player accumulates in a given week.
This also functions the same as it does for quarterbacks, highlighting where each player ranks in fantasy scoring for the week in their position group.
This functions the same for receivers and tight ends as it does for running backs. It shows the percentage of passing plays where the given player had a route in the pattern. For receivers that are on the field often, this number can approach 100%. Other receivers can have low snap shares but high route participation, so even though they may not be on the field all that often, they’re on the field when it counts. That makes route share arguably the more important stat.
TPRR is more important for pass catchers than it is for running backs. If a player has a high TPRR – aka, they’re “earning targets” when on the field – it can be a strong predictor of a potential breakout.
Take Christian Watson during his rookie season. He was sparingly used during the early part of the year, but when he was on the field, he was a frequent target for Aaron Rodgers. When his role expanded over the second half of the year, he was a WR1 for fantasy purposes.
Targets for receivers and tight ends function the same way as it does for running backs. It is the percentage of the team’s targets that a given player garners each week. Pass-catchers obviously can’t earn fantasy points unless the ball is coming their way, so this is arguably the most important stat for receivers and tight ends.
The best receivers in the league can earn upwards of 30% of their team’s targets. 25% would be considered an excellent mark in this department, while 20% is still solid. During the 2023-24 regular season, 28 players earned a target share of at least 20%, while another 18 were between 17 and 19.9%. Those players make up the majority of startable pass-catchers in fantasy leagues.
This is the percentage of targets for each player that were deemed catchable in a given week. This stat is more of a reflection of quarterback play, but it can highlight players who were unlucky. If someone received a handful of targets but only a small percentage of catchable targets, they could be a potential buy-low target.
ADOT for receivers functions the same way that it does for quarterbacks: it mentions how far each pass-catcher's average target is coming down the field. Players with low ADOTs are catching their passes closer to the line of scrimmage, giving them the same floors for PPR leagues. Players with higher ADOTs can be more volatile, but they offer more upside in terms of yards and big plays.
Air yards share measures the percentage of air yards that each pass-catcher accounts for on their team in a given week. Air yards work in conjunction with ADOT, since both stats measure how far the ball is traveling to a pass-catcher. Like ADOT, players with high air yards share tend to offer more upside than those with lower ones, even if they’re commanding the same volume from a target perspective.
Additionally, players with lots of air yards and minimal production are often strong buy-low targets. “Unrealized air yards” means that the quarterback was looking for them down the field but was unable to complete the pass. If those unrealized air yards become completions in the future, it can lead to big performances.
This measures the percentage of each team’s endzone targets that each player accounts for. This is another extremely important stat for fantasy purposes, and it can highlight strong values in the anytime touchdown market for betting. Touchdowns are the quickest way to rack up fantasy points, and the easiest way to score touchdowns is by getting targeted in the paint.
This stat measures the percentage of targets that each player commands for his team on third and fourth down. These are considered “money downs” in the NFL; if you don’t complete the pass, your offense is coming off the field. If a player is garnering looks in these situations, it indicates that they have the trust of their quarterback and playcaller.
This measures the percentage of a team’s play-action targets that each player receives. Play-action passes can provide more value than traditional dropbacks, so this is another stat that can highlight players who might be undervalued.
This functions the same for pass-catchers as for RBs and QBs. It’s the number of PPR points scored by each player each week.
This shows where each player finishes the week among their position group.