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Fantasy Football: 5 Things We Learned in Week 10

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Kerryon Johnson is Getting the Lion's Share of Opportunities in Detroit

Week 9 was a little concerning for Kerryon Johnson. While he had been crushing it in both phases of the previous two weeks, his opportunity share seemed to take a major hit when Theo Riddick returned from his knee injury to face the Minnesota Vikings. In a very negative game script in that loss, Johnson and Riddick played the exact same amount of snaps, and Riddick dominated the receiving game opportunity. In the previous weeks it looked like Johnson was becoming a bell cow back, but Week 9 presented a disappointing alternative.

Week 10 was a different story altogether. Week 10 was the Kerryon Johnson show. The Lions were again losing throughout the match -- this seems to be becoming a trend -- but he still managed to stake out a 71% snap share and tied Riddick with a solid 7 targets. The Lions seemed committed to getting him the ball despite the negative game script, and even targeted him three times to Riddick's one target in the final two-minute drill of the game. Passing game skill is critical for fantasy running backs, and Johnson's showing us he's got it.

LeGarrette Blount has been standing slightly in Johnson's path on his way to earning a truly elite workload, but that may be shifting soon. Blount's primary usage is on short-yardage situations. In this week's match, Blount failed to punch the ball in twice from the one yard line before Johnson replaced him, scoring on a neat dive. Blount's usage has been frustrating and has limited Johnson's fantasy value, but it may be coming to an end. There was a reason Johnson's alma mater ran wild cat snaps with him under center in the red zone in 2017: his 18 rushing touchdowns in his final year at Auburn prove he's a great goal-line back.

In just one week Kerryon Johnson proved to fantasy gamers that he can still carve out work in the passing game despite playing alongside a healthy Theo Riddick, and that it shouldn't be too long before he completely takes over LeGarrette Blount's role in the red zone.