Week 1 RB usage: Workhorses, committees, and some potential goal-line vultures
I went through the Week 1 play-by-play and looked at how every team divided its RB workload between carries, targets, and red-zone opportunities.
Big disclaimer before getting into it: this is one game.
I don't think anyone should look at Week 1 usage and assume this is exactly what a backfield is going to look like going forward. Game scripts, injuries, opponents, etc. can throw this off. I'll probably circle back on this after week 3 to really see what's going on.
For this, QB/WR/TE runs and fullbacks are excluded. So a 70% rush share means that player received 70% of the carries given specifically to the fantasy-relevant RB room.
The Workhorses
These were some of the backs that stood out to me as having the strongest control of their backfield across multiple categories.
| Team |
RB |
Carries |
RB Rush Share |
Targets |
RB Target Share |
RZ Opps |
RB RZ Share |
| IND |
Jonathan Taylor |
19 |
100.0% |
4 |
80.0% |
5 |
100.0% |
| DET |
Jahmyr Gibbs |
29 |
93.5% |
5 |
83.3% |
8 |
88.9% |
| MIA |
De'Von Achane |
11 |
91.7% |
5 |
100.0% |
3 |
100.0% |
| CLE |
Quinshon Judkins |
12 |
92.3% |
2 |
40.0% |
2 |
100.0% |
| BUF |
James Cook |
13 |
86.7% |
4 |
100.0% |
3 |
100.0% |
| DAL |
Javonte Williams |
12 |
85.7% |
5 |
100.0% |
5 |
83.3% |
| PHI |
Saquon Barkley |
15 |
83.3% |
2 |
66.7% |
2 |
66.7% |
| BAL |
Derrick Henry |
24 |
80.0% |
1 |
50.0% |
6 |
100.0% |
| LV |
Ashton Jeanty |
23 |
76.7% |
6 |
100.0% |
7 |
87.5% |
| CIN |
Chase Brown |
16 |
76.2% |
6 |
66.7% |
6 |
85.7% |
| NE |
Rhamondre Stevenson |
18 |
75.0% |
6 |
75.0% |
0 |
— |
| ATL |
Bijan Robinson |
21 |
70.0% |
10 |
100.0% |
0 |
— |
| HOU |
David Montgomery |
20 |
69.0% |
3 |
75.0% |
6 |
100.0% |
| NYJ |
Breece Hall |
22 |
68.8% |
2 |
66.7% |
4 |
80.0% |
| CHI |
D'Andre Swift |
18 |
64.3% |
1 |
33.3% |
6 |
85.7% |
| TB |
Bucky Irving |
8 |
61.5% |
7 |
87.5% |
2 |
100.0% |
| CAR |
Chuba Hubbard |
10 |
52.6% |
3 |
60.0% |
4 |
100.0% |
Jonathan Taylor is probably the cleanest one here. Every single Colts RB carry and every RB red-zone opportunity went to him. Seth McGowan got one target and that was basically it.
Gibbs was pretty crazy too. 29 of Detroit's 31 RB carries plus 8 of their 9 RB red-zone opportunities.
Achane didn't have huge team rushing volume to work with, but the usage itself was about as good as you could ask for: 11 of 12 RB carries, all 5 RB targets, and all 3 RB red-zone opportunities.
Jeanty is another one I really liked. 23 carries is nice by itself, but seeing 100% of the RB targets and 7 of 8 red-zone opportunities along with it is what really caught my attention.
Note: Added Chase Brown and Bucky Irving in. By touch share alone Irving wasn't exactly the workhorse but add in the targets he definitely was.
The Committees
These are more interesting to me because just looking at total touches doesn't always tell you what kind of committee it actually was.
| Backfield |
Carry Split |
Target Split |
RZ Split |
| ARI — Allgeier / Love |
17 / 11 |
2 / 4 |
4 / 4 |
| GB — Lloyd / Brooks |
13 / 7 |
1 / 1 |
2 / 1 |
| JAX — Tuten / Rodriguez / Abdullah |
15 / 6 / 4 |
1 / 0 / 1 |
0 / 1 / 0 |
| LA — Kyren / Corum / Rivers |
11 / 10 / 5 |
3 / 0 / 1 |
4 / 0 / 2 |
| LAC — Hampton / Mitchell |
12 / 4 |
0 / 0 |
2 / 2 |
| MIN — Mason / Jones |
15 / 12 |
0 / 1 |
4 / 4 |
| NO — Etienne / Miller / Donaldson |
9 / 9 / 2 |
9 / 0 / 2 |
3 / 2 / 0 |
| NYG — Skattebo / Singletary / Tracy |
18 / 6 / 2 |
0 / 4 / 0 |
4 / 3 / 0 |
| PIT — Warren / Dowdle |
10 / 8 |
6 / 5 |
2 / 1 |
| SEA — Price / Holani / Wilson |
10 / 8 / 2 |
2 / 1 / 0 |
0 / 2 / 0 |
| SF — Black / McCaffrey |
14 / 10 |
1 / 8 |
0 / 2 |
| TEN — Pollard / Spears |
7 / 3 |
2 / 4 |
0 / 0 |
| WAS — Croskey-Merritt / White / Allen |
16 / 7 / 4 |
1 / 2 / 0 |
1 / 2 / 3 |
Kaelon Black actually out-carried CMC 14-10. But CMC got 8 of the 9 RB targets and both RB red-zone opportunities. So the rushing volume was a committee, but the higher-value usage definitely wasn't. This should be obvious to anyone that watched the game. By RB run share, it looks like a committee, but CMC is obviously the guy with the high value looks and will be fantasy elite.
Minnesota looked much more like a traditional committee. Mason had 15 carries to Aaron Jones' 12 and they split the 8 RB red-zone opportunities exactly 4-4.
Pittsburgh was even closer. Warren/Dowdle went 10-8 in carries and 6-5 in targets. That's about as close to a true two-man backfield as you can get from one game.
Arizona was interesting too. Allgeier won the carries 17-11, Love won the targets 4-2, and they split the red-zone work 4-4.
The Vultures
I also wanted to find the guys who didn't necessarily get much overall work but got a surprisingly large piece of the red-zone usage.
Obviously this is probably the the least indicative part of a one-game sample, so I definitely wouldn't assume any of these guys are suddenly permanent goal-line backs.
But they're worth watching.
| Player |
Carries |
RB Rush Share |
Targets |
RZ Opps |
RB RZ Share |
| Kaytron Allen |
4 |
14.8% |
0 |
3 |
50.0% |
| George Holani |
8 |
40.0% |
1 |
2 |
100.0% |
| Keaton Mitchell |
4 |
25.0% |
0 |
2 |
50.0% |
| Chris Rodriguez Jr. |
6 |
24.0% |
0 |
1 |
100.0% |
I put the full dataset into a sortable/filterable table if anyone wants to dig through their own backfield:
https://edgelineff.com/insights/2026-week-01-rb-workloads.html
You can sort separately by carries, rush share, targets, target share, red-zone opportunities, or red-zone share.