1. Aaron Jones Separates From Ty Montgomery

The one semi-impactful bit of news for running backs this week was Aaron Jones' huge game for the Green Bay Packers. The passing game suffered in the first voyage without Aaron Rodgers, but Jones made sure at least part of the offense kept chugging.

Jones played 80.0% of the snaps compared to 12.7% for Ty Montgomery and out-carried Montgomery, 17-4. After Montgomery was involved early, it was the Aaron Jones show from then on.

The other positive for Jones is that he added five targets. The assumption before had been that even if Jones took over the early-down work, Montgomery would still get volume via the air attack. At least for Sunday, that wasn't the case.

That doesn't mean this thing is completely settled.

Montgomery is still less than a month removed from breaking multiple ribs on September 28th. He got in a full week of practice last week, and he was clearly good enough to play, but he's not at full health. With the bye coming in Week 8, why have him get banged up again in wet and sloppy conditions?

After the bye, Montgomery could very easily slide back into the fold, and we should almost proceed as if this will happen. However, Jones has made it very clear that he deserves to keep getting sizable volume. While it's safe to assume that Jones is the team's lead early-down back, we're not quite to the point where we can say that he's the lone dog in this backfield.

2. Latavius Murray Reminds Us He's Still Around

When a player is ineffective in the volume he gets, it's easy to forget that he's still around. Hollow work isn't doing much for you in fantasy. But we do still need to note these guys in the event that their production ticks upward, and that's what we saw with Latavius Murray in Week 7.

We've now had three weeks of the Minnesota Vikings' offense without Dalvin Cook. Here are how the carries have been divvied up between Murray and Jerick McKinnon in those games.

For those first two games, McKinnon was productive and got into the end zone while Murray struggled. Week 7 was different with Murray racking up 113 yards and a touchdown while McKinnon was held in check. We're going to perceive this as being a major shift in role while -- in actuality -- it's pretty much the status quo.

All along, we know that McKinnon would be the passing-down back, and that has held true with his 15 targets to Murray's 3 since Cook's injury. But we also knew that Murray would be involved as a rusher. That hasn't changed. It was just more apparent in Week 7.

So, what does this mean going forward? McKinnon's always going to have the higher floor because of his work in the passing game. And that's going to give him a decent ceiling, too, with his insane athleticism and ability to break a long play. But the game script this week just didn't need those tools as badly as it needed Murray's.

Murray will have games where he can also have fantasy viability, but it's almost exclusively in games where the Vikings are heavily favored. A rush-heavy script benefits both him and McKinnon. They could get that in Week 8 against the Cleveland Browns, meaning Murray is at least on the fantasy radar as they head over to London.

3. Doug Martin Carries the Load

Doug Martin has had some rough scheduling luck in his first three games off of suspension. He returned to a short-week game against the New England Patriots before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers headed on the road for a pair of games. Those aren't situations that set up well for a heavy rushing script, and the Buccaneers wound up losing all three. But even with that working against him, Martin has managed to get decent volume.

Here's a quick look at the usage he has seen in these three games. Carry market share is the percentage of running back carries in that game that went to Martin.

All three categories have increased the further he has gotten removed from the suspension. And this is while playing from behind most of the time. That would bode well for Martin in games where the Buccaneers are able to snag a lead.

The Bucs now head home for two of their next three games and face the New Orleans Saints in the Superdome for the other. They should be able to score some points in this stretch, priming Martin for a bit of an uptick going forward. He's just $6,500 on FanDuel for Week 8 at home against the Carolina Panthers. Even though the matchup isn't great, the workload has been there for Martin, potentially justifying some investment in tournaments.