• The Dallas Cowboys‘ wide receivers shine despite missing the first drive: George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb didn’t play on the first drive for undisclosed disciplinary reasons, but they dominated once they started playing, combining for over 200 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

• The Las Vegas Raiders embrace multi-tight-end sets: The Raiders used more 13 personnel than 11 personnel in the first half, with Brock Bowers lining up in the slot and out wide more than usual.

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PFF’s fantasy football recap focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the vital information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2025.

Dallas Cowboys @ Las Vegas Raiders

The Raiders fully embrace multi-tight end sets: Las Vegas ran more plays with three tight ends than three wide receivers in the first half, even with a 10-play two-minute drill mixed in.

The Raiders have invested more draft capital in tight ends than any team in recent years, selecting Michael Mayer with the 35th pick in the 2023 draft and Brock Bowers with the 13th pick in 2024. Over the first three weeks, though, they used 12 personnel on just 23.6% of their snaps — below league average — and ran only four plays out of 13 personnel. During that stretch, Bowers played 70.9% of the snaps, a notable decline from the end of last season, with Mayer taking work from him in 11 personnel and Ian Thomas siphoning snaps in 12 personnel.

Mayer missed Week 4, while Bowers was out from Week 4 to Week 8. In Weeks 9 and 10, the Raiders leaned heavily into multi-tight-end sets, leading the league in 12 personnel usage at 54%, with no other team topping 44%. Bowers played 82.3% of the snaps in that stretch, with Mayer at 72.6%. The team also traded Jakobi Meyers between those games, thinning the wide receiver room. As a result, Bowers saw increased snaps in the slot and out wide, as the Raiders essentially used him more like a wide receiver.

This week, Las Vegas pushed that approach even further. The Raiders used 13 personnel 10 times in the first half alone. Before this, they had only one game all season with more than three snaps in 13 personnel, with seven being their previous high. They also ran 12 personnel on 18 snaps — including throughout their two-minute drill — and used 11 personnel on only nine plays. Even while trailing by multiple scores in the second half, the Raiders continued treating 12 personnel as their base offense.

Las Vegas also stopped rotating Bowers off the field in certain early-down 11 personnel snaps, something they had done throughout the first 10 weeks when he was active. As a result, Bowers logged a season-high offensive snap rate, marking the first time his usage resembled what we saw at the end of last year. His slot alignment rate also reached a season high, while his snaps from a traditional tight end position hit a season low. All of this should help his fantasy production moving forward.

With the increase in multi-tight end usage, fewer wide receivers saw the field. Tre Tucker continued as an every-down option, while Dont’e Thornton Jr. and Tyler Lockett rotated in the other wide receiver spot. That leaves Tucker as the only Las Vegas wideout worth considering for the remainder of the season.

CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens don’t start for the Cowboys: Both wide receivers were held out for the first three plays due to an undisclosed disciplinary reason.

Around the league, teams have taken similar approaches — the Bills made Keon Coleman inactive Sunday for missing a practice, and the Vikings kept Jordan Addison on the bench for the entire first quarter of Week 5 after he missed a walkthrough. In this case, Lamb and Pickens sat for three snaps on a three-and-out series. Ryan Flournoy and Jalen Tolbert opened the game, with KaVontae Turpin joining them in 11 personnel.

Lamb and Pickens returned to the field on the second drive, but both were rotated out slightly more often than usual for the rest of the game. The result was only a minor drop in routes run for each player.

The Cowboys made a more meaningful adjustment at the third wide receiver spot. In Week 9, Flournoy played 45 offensive snaps compared to 13 for Turpin and seven for Tolbert, clearly operating as the team’s No. 3 wideout. This week, the rotation tightened, with Turpin seeing more work in 11 personnel while Flournoy handled more snaps in one- and two-wide receiver sets, giving him the larger overall workload. It remains unlikely that any Cowboys receiver outside Lamb and Pickens will carry fantasy value this season, but if an injury strikes, Flournoy is the most plausible beneficiary.

Miscellaneous Notes

• The Cowboys waived running back Malik Davis on Tuesday, re-signed him to the practice squad on Friday and then elevated him from the practice squad for this game to be the primary backup. Jaydon Blue was a healthy inactive for a second straight game.
• Cowboys wide receiver Jonathan Mingo was a healthy scratch — his third straight inactive after starting the season injured. He has yet to play a game for Dallas this season.
• The Raiders had Geno Smith drop back to pass on over 90% of their first-half plays. This was only the second time in the last decade a team had a design run on less than 10% of their plays in the first half. The Raiders were behind by multiple scores at halftime, leaving Ashton Jeanty with minimal rushing fantasy production.
• Raiders wide receiver Tyler Lockett was limited in practice on Thursday with a knee injury, but was able to practice in full on Friday and Saturday.
• Las Vegas opted to keep four tight ends active and only four wide receivers, deviating from their usual approach of dressing three tight ends and five wideouts. As a result, tight end Carter Runyon was active while wide receiver Alex Bachman was inactive.

Table notes

• Snaps include plays called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. The other three stats have these plays removed.

• Targets may differ from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be from a clear thrown-away pass, where the NFL may give the target to the nearest receiver, while this data will not.

• Carries are only on designed plays. Quarterback scrambles won’t count for the total number of carries in the game.