1. Matt Forte Maintains a Heavy Load
Matt Forte was our big winner from Week 1 when he dominated the New York Jets' backfield with 22 carries, and Week 2 was just more of the same.
Forte's 30 carries against the Buffalo Bills accounted for 83.3% of the team's total, the second-highest mark in the league behind DeAngelo Williams with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Forte played 81% of the snaps (up from 76% in Week 1) and saw 3 targets in the passing game, putting him up to 10 for the year. He's a workhorse in every sense of the term.
Because this is his age-31 season, Forte likely won't be able to maintain a pace like that for the entire year. But until we see fluctuations, we have no choice but to buy into what he's doing right now. Forte's the clear-cut top option for a decent offense, and there's immense value in that for fantasy.
2. Red Flags Around Latavius Murray
Although he was able to find the end zone for the second consecutive week, the warning sirens are going off for Latavius Murray. This may not be as positive as it appears at first glance.
Murray handled only 32.0% of the team's carries in Week 2, a far cry from the 58.3% mark he posted in Week 1. Jalen Richard snagged seven carries, and DeAndre Washington got six to put the biggest dents in Murray's stranglehold.
The one positive here for Murray is that he saw six targets in the passing game, only the fourth time he has exceeded five targets in a game in his career. However, the loss in rushing volume means we should be trying to sell Murray in season-long, and he'll likely become too touchdown dependent and volatile for serious investment in DFS.
3. Chris Johnson Is Still a Thing
At first, it would have been pretty easy to write off Chris Johnson's 55.2% carry market share as being a byproduct of a blowout in favor of the Arizona Cardinals. Then this stuff happens.
Arians not happy with David Johnson. Ran wrong routes twice. Made a couple big plays however. Some tough love
— Kent Somers (@kentsomers) September 19, 2016
Oh. Well.
At the end of the day, the more talented back in David Johnson is going to get his carries, and he'll always be involved in the passing game. However, the elder Johnson did snag a pair of red zone carries in the first half, and he handled all four of them in the second half. Those two first-half carries are the concern because they show that Chris Johnson is still a factor in this backfield. It's not an immediate concern because David Johnson is insanely talented, but it is something to monitor going forward.