6 Biggest Fantasy Football Takeaways From NFL Preseason Week 2

A lot of teams rested starters during Week 2 of the NFL preseason, limiting the amount of data we have to dig into.

That's the downside.

The upside? Some of the starters who did play gave us actionable takeaways for fantasy football.

Let's dig into the data and see whose stock is up and whose is down as we inch closer to the regular season.

Preseason Week 2 Winners and Losers

TreVeyon Henderson's Early-Season Role Could Underwhelm

Thanks to some sick runs (and returns?) in the preseason, TreVeyon Henderson's average draft position (ADP) has shot up to 56th overall in FantasyPros' data. By the end of the year, he's probably going to be the New England Patriots' lead back, so I understand it.

Just a word of warning: if you draft Henderson, try to keep expectations in check the first couple weeks.

In Week 1, Rhamondre Stevenson started and played 8 of 14 snaps alongside Drake Maye. Henderson played 7 snaps, including one with Stevenson.

In Week 2, Stevenson rested, and Antonio Gibson started over Henderson. Henderson still outsnapped Gibson while Maye was on the field -- 9 to 6, according to data from Anthony Reinhard's StatButler.com -- but it was a split.

Henderson should be ahead of Gibson in Week 1. That's not a concern.

But it's very clear that this will be a split backfield, at least to start. Given the New England Patriots' offense may not be a juggernaut just yet, that's an issue for fantasy.

With Henderson still going in the fifth round, we can tolerate that. Championships are won late in the year, and there's a good chance that Henderson has stolen the backfield crown by then. It'll just be important to weigh the likely early split when making start-sit decisions in the opening couple weeks.

Jaylen Warren Could Have a Juicy Early-Season Role

The point of this piece is to highlight winners and losers from the preseason. Given Jaylen Warren hasn't played, it may feel odd to view him as a winner.

But he's very much a winner because he hasn't played.

Warren is jockeying with Kaleb Johnson to be the Pittsburgh Steelers' lead back. In both preseason games, Johnson played a bunch, but it came after Kenneth Gainwell started, played a couple snaps, and rested the remainder of the game.

This doesn't mean Gainwell is definitively ahead of Johnson on the depth chart. But it ain't great for Johnson's early-season role projection.

Johnson does have a 47.4% rushing success rate and 6 Rushing Yards Over Expected (RYOE), according to Next Gen Stats, so the data on him in the preseason is better than his 3.7 yards per carry would imply. But it's very clear the team views Warren as the starter for now.

Warren played more than half the snaps in 7 of 16 games last year (including the playoffs), and it was 7 of 13 after he returned from an early-season injury. The team trusted him, giving him plentiful work in the passing game. If they view Gainwell and Johnson as downgrades from Najee Harris, it's logical Warren's workload should expand.

Warren's currently going 81st overall in half PPR drafts. Johnson should be the goal-line back, which mutes Warren's upside. But he should at least be a solid contributor at that cost, especially early in the season.

Tank Bigsby Draws Even With Travis Etienne

In our takeaways from preseason Week 1 piece, we noted that Travis Etienne played every snap with Trevor Lawrence, but we couldn't go too gaga, considering how much that deviated from training camp reports of the battle.

Week 2 looked a lot more in line with the reporting.

Tank Bigsby started and played most of the opening drive before Etienne got most of the second drive. The snaps with Lawrence favored Bigsby, 9 to 8.

Bhayshul Tuten came in after Lawrence and the starters had exited.

Tuten has had the best production with 4 RYOE compared to -2 for Etienne and -8 for Bigsby, meaning he will probably get his nose in the mix eventually.

Right now, Etienne (90th overall pick), Bigsby (114th), and Tuten (149th) all come at reasonable costs, and there's a chance one of the vets gets dealt to a running back-needy team. Thus, I don't mind taking swipes at anybody here as things stand.

It'd just be super messy early in the season if all three are still on the roster.

The Bears Played Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet Together Plenty

In Caleb Williams' 13 snaps Sunday night, the Chicago Bears had Colston Loveland and Cole Kmet on the field together 5 times. In all, both guys played 9 of 13 snaps with Williams.

There are a couple of takeaways from that.

First, Kmet is likely to still have a role in this offense. He actually played all but one snap on the opening drive, giving him a starter-level role. If you're a true sicko in two-tight end leagues (they exist, and they're glorious), that's very noteworthy.

Second, this is a tough look for Luther Burden III. Burden is currently behind Olamide Zaccheaus on the depth chart, and he's not beating out D.J. Moore and Rome Odunze in two-receiver sets. Burden needs to both dust Zaccheaus and then get the team to run more three-receiver sets to have a role. It doesn't look we'll have either from the jump, continuing what has been an underwhelming camp for the second-round rookie.

Xavier Hutchinson Is (Currently) Ahead of Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel

The Houston Texans played C.J. Stroud 14 snaps on Saturday. Here are the receiver snaps in that time, according to StatButler.com.

Xavier Hutchinson playing ahead of Jayden Higgins is a disappointment, given we know what Hutchinson is an an NFL player. Higgins, meanwhile, was the 34th overall pick and has a fun athletic profile. You'd hope he'd eventually win that job.

Luckily, with Higgins going at pick 141, we don't need him to be a starter from the jump. We can afford to slow-play it and have some patience as he works his way up the ladder.

Thus, Hutchinson's playing time doesn't mean we need to avoid Higgins in drafts; rather, it tells us we'll need to be willing to stash Higgins on our bench for a bit if we draft him, waiting for that playing time to increase.

Dont'e Thornton Continues to Play Nearly Every Snap for the Raiders

All throughout the preseason, the drumbeat that Dont'e Thornton would start for the Las Vegas Raiders has gotten louder and louder.

It's not a drumbeat anymore; it's a deafening siren.

Thornton played each of the opening 13 snaps with Geno Smith this week, out there with Jakobi Meyers and Tre Tucker. Because Tucker profiles as more a slot-only player, Thornton should play snaps even when the Raiders run two-tight end sets with Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer.

Thornton is likely to be used as a clear-out guy, which means these snaps aren't necessarily going to lead to a ton of targets. That's especially true, given how good Meyers and Bowers are at getting open. But we also don't know for sure that Thornton won't get targets, and Geno is willing to chuck that sucker down the field.

Thornton's someone worth snagging in the last round of your draft so you can see if all of these snaps eventually translate to a fantasy-viable role.

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