• Ja’Marr Chase leads the Cincinnati Bengals offense: Chase set a career-high with 16 receptions, which was also the most for a Bengals player in franchise history. He is one of seven players with 22-plus targets in a game in PFF history.
• The Pittsburgh Steelers tight ends get a hat trick: Jonnu Smith, Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington all scored touchdowns for Pittsburgh.
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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

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.

Roman Wilson sees an uptick in snaps: Calvin Austin III didn’t practice all week and missed back-to-back games due to a shoulder injury.

D.K. Metcalf has been the Steelers’ top wide receiver all season, and Austin has been the No. 2 option whenever healthy. The Steelers haven’t used Wilson, Ben Skowronek and Scotty Miller consistently. Wilson and Skowronek split the third-receiver duties in Week 1. Wilson took the lead in Weeks 2 and 3, and Skowronek took the job back in Week 4. When Austin went down due to his injury, Miller stepped up.

Last week, Miller played two-thirds of the Steelers’ snaps in two-receiver sets to Wilson’s one-third. Miller took all of the snaps in three-receiver sets, while Wilson and Skowronek split the third spot. This week, the Steelers made Austin the clear second receiver in two-wide receiver sets. The Steelers also used 12 personnel on a much higher percentage of their snaps. This was their base offense, including in two-minute drills. During the rare plays when they used three-receiver sets, Skowronek and Miller were on the field.

Wilson caught two passes for 17 yards. He had two receptions for 19 yards in his career prior to this game. The Steelers are rumored to be looking for another wide receiver, and this game could accelerate their search.

The Bengals’ run game finds success: Chase Brown set a season-high in rushing yards in a game before halftime.

The Bengals have one of the most straightforward running back rotations in the league. Chase Brown played over 80% of Cincinnati’s offensive snaps on early downs over the first six weeks, while Samaje Perine has played over 70% on third downs and during two-minute drills. Brown leads the way in short-yardage and goal-line situations. Their third running back, Tahj Brooks, has only played on offense in one game when Perine was injured.

This week, the Bengals made a subtle change, which led Perine to get more involved. Brown had played 78% of offensive snaps on second-and-8-plus, outside of two-minute drills, over the first six weeks. This week, Perine was typically on the field in these situations. This is when Perine received three of his carries, and several of these occurred early in the game before Brown started stringing together long runs.

It’s possible that Perine’s increased usage was due to Brown’s previous subpar play. It’s also possible the Bengals rotated more because it was a short week. Regardless, Brown had his best game of the season. It will be interesting to see if the Bengals continue to play Perine a little more often on second-and-long, which would slightly hurt his upside. However, if Brown continues to play better, that will outweigh losing a few snaps and a carry or two per game.

Bengals adjust while down two tight ends: Their top two receiving tight ends weren’t able to play in this game, leading to minimal production from their tight ends.

The Bengals placed tight end Mike Gesicki on injured reserve due to a pectoral injury on Wednesday. When Gesicki left the game last week, Tanner Hudson took over on third downs, but Hudson was ruled out this week due to a concussion. Luckily, the Bengals were the only team with five tight ends on their 53-man roster prior to Gesicki landing on injured reserve. Cam Grandy was active this week after back-to-back healthy scratches, joining Noah Fant and Drew Sample.

The Bengals ranked fourth in 11 personnel usage prior to this week at a 74.2% rate, but they turned to 11 personnel even more frequently this week, despite Sample and Fant being their more frequent two-tight-end combination over the first six weeks. This meant there were fewer tight-end snaps to go around. Fant was the only tight end who played notably more snaps. Along with splitting 11-personnel snaps on early downs and two-tight-end sets, he was also the tight end on third downs.

Fant wasn’t much of a factor in the passing game until the fourth quarter, where he scored a touchdown and had a 25-yard reception. Ideally, Hudson will be ready to return from his concussion in Week 8. He will likely take the third-down snaps, as he did last week. This means it’s best to continue to ignore this tight end room in the vast majority of fantasy leagues due to the three-man rotation.

Miscellaneous Notes

• Steelers third-round rookie running back Kaleb Johnson played four offensive snaps over the first three games, and then he played 11 offensive snaps in each of the last two. This week, he didn’t play on offense. He can be dropped in most 10- and 12-team leagues, particularly with more teams on bye weeks these next few weeks.
• The split between Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell was similar to other weeks when both Warren and Gainwell were healthy, as both players played more snaps without Johnson getting involved.
• Darnell Washington remained the Steelers’ main tight end in single-tight-end sets, as he has been the last two weeks. However, Washington played notably fewer snaps in two-tight-end sets, while Pat Freiermuth was more involved this week. This led the snap count between the top three tight ends to be much more even this week than the last two.
• The Bengals rotated Mitch Tinsley in for Andrei Iosivas in 11 personnel more in this game than in any other game this season. Iosivas dropped three passes last week, which could have contributed to Tinsley playing more. It also could have been the short week, or the Bengals using more 11 personnel than usual due to the tight end injuries, and therefore, Iosivas needed to be rotated out more often.
• Cincinnati wide receiver and kick returner Charlie Jones didn’t practice on Monday and Tuesday due to a rib injury, was limited on Wednesday and was questionable, but he was active Thursday night.

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.