Instant fantasy football takeaways from Broncos-Saints Thursday Night Football

• Javonte Williams leads the Denver Broncos to victory: Williams scored two touchdowns and was one of their best receivers and their most effective runner.

•New Orleans Saints decimated by injury: FFifteen players missed some practice sessions this week, seven of them missed this game, while left guard Nick Saldiveri and cornerbacks Marshon Lattimore and Paulson Adebo suffered game-winning injuries Thursday night.

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PFF's fantasy football roundup focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the key information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2024.

Denver Broncos @ New Orleans Saints

Saints rely on backups at wide receiver: Both typical starting wide receivers missed this game, leading the team to rely on rookies.

The Saints were down with their two best wide receivers. Rashid Shaheed was placed on injured reserve Thursday after undergoing surgery to repair his meniscus his season is over. Chris Olave suffered a concussion last week and ideally won't be out any longer.

Fifth round rookie Bub means and undrafted rookie Mason Tipton were the primary wide receivers while being veterans Cedrick Wilson mixed. Despite the blowout, the Saints stuck with many two tight end sets to keep their best players on the field. In the first 40 minutes of the game, the three wide receivers each had to make a catch for 10 or fewer yards. Most of their performance came when the team was three points behind.

Going forward, we can expect Tipton to be Shaheed's primary backup while Wilson also plays some snaps. Means was Olave's backup as both wide receivers spend over 60% of their snaps out of the formation and at the line of scrimmage, while Shaheed, Tipton and Wilson spend less than 40% of their snaps from that spot. From Weeks 1 to 4, Wilson and Tipton played a lot more than Means. Tipton is the receiver who should be used in deeper leagues.

Kendre Miller returns to the Saints lineup: Miller missed almost all of training camp and the first six weeks of the season due to a hamstring strain.

In the first five weeks of the season Alvin Kamara was the clear starter and played 73% of New Orleans' offensive snaps. Jamaal Williams the clear security was 21% and Jordan Mims was the third player and played fewer than two snaps per game. Last week, Mims played a total of 16 snaps while Williams had three of them, although nine of Mims' snaps came in the final two minutes of the game.

Mims was the only healthy inactive player for the Saints on Thursday, allowing Miller to make his debut. He played three of the Saints' four snaps on their second drive, but didn't see the field again until the third quarter. He led the team in rushing yards with 36 yards on six carries, thanks largely to four runs on their final drive, including a 16-yard carry, while they trailed by 30 points.

Miller could get a bigger role as time goes on, which could be particularly important late in the season when the Saints are out of playoff contention and want to see what they have as they prepare for 2025 and beyond.

Troy FranklinThe role expands: Franklin set a career-high in receiving yards, surpassing the 31-yard mark he set last week.

In the last two weeks since then Josh Reynolds The Broncos generally ended up on injured reserve Courtland SuttonFranklin and Devaughn Vele in the passing game, while Sutton and Lil' Jordan Humphrey are used in running games.

In those two weeks, Franklin led the team in targets (nine) and receptions (seven). On Thursday night, he caught five balls for 50 yards, leading the Broncos. Despite being constantly on the field, Sutton was not targeted at all in this game. Franklin was our sixth wide receiver big board between Brian Thomas Jr. And Ladd McConkey and now he plays as many snaps as it takes to be a fantasy starter. He is worth a waiver wire target because there is a chance he will lead the Broncos in targets later in the season.

Various notes

• Saints tight end Taysom Hill missed his third straight game due to a rib injury. After not practicing last week, he was limited in practice this week, so at least he's taking a step in the right direction toward playing.
• The Saints signed an undrafted rookie Jermaine Jackson to be included in the 53-man squad in the long term Rashid Shaheed's squad spot, while Equanimous St. Brown was a practice squad elevation for this game, but neither played well on offense. St. Brown didn't play his first snap until the end of the third quarter, while Jackson didn't play on offense.
• Broncos tight end Greg Dulcich was a healthy inactive for the third week in a row.
• The Broncos released running back Blake Watson to make room for other players returning from injured reserve. This meant that Denver had three running backs on the roster.
• Broncos wide receiver Marvin Mims set season highs in receptions (two) and receiving yards (18) while running back as a rookie Audric Estime Set career highs in carries (five) and rushing yards (29).

Table notes

• Snaps include plays that are called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.
• Targets may vary from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be a clearly thrown away pass, where the NFL might pass the target to the closest receiver, whereas this data does not.
• Carries only occur on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles do not count toward the total number of carries in the game.