Some of these might be obvious as we come out of a week with no teams on byes. Some big performances are noteworthy and garner the title of “Trending Up.” And some concerning trends have a few big names moving downward as we head into Week 9.
Three Up
RB Gus Edwards, Baltimore Ravens
With four touchdowns in the last two weeks, Gus Edwards is clearly trending up. But his usage is what is especially exciting. He's eclipsed 50% of the offensive snaps in four of the last five games. In the previous two weeks, his 36 opportunities are more than double the rest of the backfield combined (16). He's seen 9-of-11 backfield red-zone touches over the last two weeks. He is pulling away with the lion's share of the work in an outstanding offense. After a season-ending injury to J.K. Dobbins, there was concern that the Ravens would rely on a frustrating committee. Justice Hill is the only other guy seeing consistent work, and it's hardly enough to impede Edwards' fantasy value. Going forward, Edwards is a plug-and-play RB2 with a safe floor.
WR DeAndre Hopkins, Tennessee Titans
Like Edwards, DeAndre Hopkins is coming off a three-touchdown performance, making him another obvious player trending up. And while his season-long output has been a massive disappointment so far, rookie quarterback Will Levis injected life into this putrid Titans offense. Levis outpaced Tannehill's completion percentage, yards per game, yards per attempt, and touchdown rate in his first career start. But his willingness to push the ball deep is what was especially exciting. Tannehill's average target depth of 9.9 wasn't conservative by any means, coming in as one of the league's highest. But Levis averaged 12.3 yards of average depth on his pass attempts. And that translated into big plays that this Titans' passing game has not seen much of this year. Hopkins likely peaked with his Week 8 performance, but it's great to see that the 31-year-old wideout can still take over games when the situation arises. Expect to see him get back on track as long as Levis starts.