In fantasy football, one way to gain an edge over opponents is to look beyond the box score and examine player snap counts. While a quick scan of player stats can tell us who actually performed and produced, snap count data can give us an indicator of guys who are seeing the field on a consistent -- or inconsistent -- basis.

After all, opportunities breed fantasy points, and snap counts are one of the more predictive metrics for fantasy football performance. This makes sense, intuitively, as the more a player is on the field, the more opportunities he'll have to touch the ball, and the more opportunities he'll have to score fantasy points.

In each of these weekly articles, I'll evaluate each position by looking at snap count, opportunity, and efficiency trends. All data, unless otherwise noted, comes from Lineups.

Running Backs

- In the first Sunday Night Football game of the season, Malcolm Brown came out strong, commanding the majority of snaps (44) and carries (18) for the Los Angeles Rams backfield. Rookie running back Cam Akers wasn't far behind in overall usage, but his -0.22 Rushing Net Expected Points (NEP) per carry (46th among backs with at least five carries) does not inspire a ton of confidence. Darrell Henderson also had little impact and appears to be a tertiary part of the backfield rotation, leaving Brown and Akers to be the Rams' primary 1-2 punch.

- Last year, I wrote numberFire's Running Back By Committee report, so I'm keenly aware of how frustrating it is to try to project the Tampa Bay Buccaneers backfield usage. After signing Leonard Fournette shortly before the start of the season, we all wondered what impact that would have on the prospects of one Ronald Jones. As it stands, Jones is the lead back, but that could change on a dime, depending which side of the bed Bruce Arians wakes up on next week. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention LeSean McCoy, too, who was second on the team in running back snaps. He only got one target, but he could see increased usage as the team's primary passing-downs back if the Bucs are in more negative game scripts like they were on Sunday.

- The Washington Football Team played in a weird game to kick off the season, coming back from down 17 points against the Philadelphia Eagles to win by double-digits. Unfortunately for Antonio Gibson fans, both J.D. McKissic (31) and Peyton Barber (29) garnered more snaps than Gibson (18) in Week 1. That said, Gibson's 61 percent utilization rate was much higher than both McKissic (26 percent) and Barber (58 percent). Keep in mind that this was Gibson's first NFL game, so as he builds more confidence with the coaching staff, he will see more playing time.

Wide Receivers

- D.J. Chark is clearly the alpha receiver for the Jacksonville Jaguars, but who's going to pick up the slack behind him? Fantasy football heartthrob Laviska Shenault made a case for being the number two option along with fourth-year receiver Keelan Cole. Cole saw more targets and snaps than Shenault, though they each scored a touchdown on opening weekend. However, Shenault's versatility makes him that much more valuable - according to PFF, Shenault lined up in the backfield as a rusher or as the quarterback on just under 10 percent of his snaps.

- On the other side of the game in Jacksonville was a less-than-stellar performance from Philip Rivers in his first start with the Indianapolis Colts. The lone bright spot of this passing attack was Parris Campbell's breakout game, hauling in 6 receptions for 71 yards on a team-high 9 targets. He also got the team's most snaps at the wide receiver position, out-snapping veteran T.Y. Hilton. Behind those two, it was a mix of Zach Pascal and rookie Michael Pittman Jr. -- each of them saw over 50 percent of the teams' snaps but garnered a combined five targets between them. In a game that figured to give Indianapolis a heavily-positive game script, the Colts were actually forced to throw the ball quite a bit and couldn't run the ball as much as they would've liked. I'll be keeping an eye on this wide receiver corps in the weeks to come to see if one of Pascal or Pittman can separate himself as the Colts WR3.

- With Kenny Golladay missing Week 1, many eyes were locked in on who would take over in his absence. Marvin Jones was the obvious answer, but it was actually rookie wide receiver Quintez Cephus who made a name for himself, hogging 24 percent of the team's targets! Jones led all Lions' wide receivers in snaps (71), with Cephus not far behind (62). Danny Amendola maintained his role as the WR3 option, so it'll be worth tracking who sees a dip in playing time between him and Cephus when Golladay returns to the field.

Tight Ends

- New year, same Eagles scheme. Philadelphia picked up right where they left off, using 12 personnel (one running back, two wide receivers, and two tight ends) on an NFL-high 56.7 percent of their snaps this week. Amidst a contract dispute with Zach Ertz, I was curious to see how the Eagles would use him in their first game of the season. The dismay between the two had little impact on Ertz' usage as he was in on an astounding 85 percent of the team's plays. Dallas Goedert wasn't far behind, though, at a 79 percent snap rate. In fact, Goedert heavily outscored Ertz in fantasy football, recording his first-ever game with over 100 receiving yards. This could be one of the few "tight ends by committee" in which the two trade off production each week.

- Those hoping for an Irv Smith Jr. breakout may have to wait a couple weeks, as the Minnesota Vikings put those plans on hold for now. Despite playing in a negative game script for the entirety of the second half, Smith only saw one target the entire game. Both he and Kyle Rudolph got a nearly identical snap share at about 60 percent, but neither was heavily used outside of that. Hopefully, better days are ahead for Smith, but if this trend continues, he could be a quick drop to the waiver wire.