5 NFL Red Zone Trends to Monitor for Week 10

Play-Calling Trends

With the NFL landscape changing so much on a week-by-week basis, there can be value in placing a premium on recent numbers, even if it means dealing with some small sample sizes.

Season-long red zone play-calling trends are still worth considering, but it's also important to take note of teams who seem to be altering their course drastically.

We don't see a lot of variance this week in our list of five most pass-heavy red zone teams for the season (Packers, Giants, Vikings, Jaguars, Lions) or in our five most run-heavy (Bills, Rams, Panthers, Jets, Washington).

But some notable names pop up if we look at the difference from games in the last four weeks compared to season-long marks.

The biggest shift in either direction has been the Jags, who have passed on 86.7% of their red zone snaps over the last four weeks, a jump of 20.6% from their season-long mark. The Cardinals, as I touched on for Fitzgerald, see the next biggest jump in that direction at 11.7%. The two other teams above 8% are Washington (9.8%) and the Miami Dolphins (9.1%).

In the other direction, the biggest shift towards the run belongs to the Indianapolis Colts, shifting over 15% from passing on 63.1% of their red zone snaps on the season but only 47.5% over the last four weeks.

Three other teams moved at least 10% in that direction, including the New Orleans Saints (10.9%), San Francisco 49ers (10.0%) and Oakland Raiders (10.0%).

In the last four weeks no team has been more run-heavy in the red zone than the 49ers, while no team has passed at a higher rate than the Jaguars.