Michael Wilson and Kendrick Bourne Without Marvin Harrison Jr., Jaylen Warren, Baker Mayfield

Let's first look at some utilization data points because an instructive one here is what was life before and what was life after.

So if we look at the first four games of the season, Michael Wilson was dynamic.

He was averaging 14 points per game, looking like a very solid wide receiver too in fantasy.

And of course, Marvin Harrison Jr. looked disinterested.

He was the sacrificial X, if you will, and out there barely getting any targets, barely getting anything.

any run or production at all.

And then you had ancillary wide receiver three, Kendrick Bourne, and then distantly fourth and barely there, Jalen Brooks mixing in.

Now, over the previous two weeks, and again, Marvin Harrison Jr. was one that obviously looking for him to get a new opportunity as it was looking clear that he was not in the Cardinals' plans.

Well, in the two weeks since, we've seen Kendrick Bourne decline overall.

Excuse me, we've seen Michael Wilson decline overall, not getting the same number of targets, and frankly... not getting as many optimal looks, a lot more double coverage, and we've seen the biggest riser, Kendrick Bourne, from the wide receiver three spot to wide receiver two, and then another big rise is Jalen Brooks, going from who? You know, the former Dallas wide receiver and moving over here to Arizona, but having a second life and now being viable.

There's more of a three-headed committee, if you will, in this wide receiver core than the thought that Michael Wilson was going to go ham, and then Kendrick Bourne, Jalen Brooks fighting for scraps.

It's a lot more even in that capacity.

So I wanted to look at a couple different things.

So Kendrick Bourne, these past couple of weeks, he has been right there running more routes, but also more optimal looks.

In these two games, he's averaged right around two yards per route run, which is a figure that will have you essentially as an auto start player if you run enough routes.

And he's right around 30 routes per game over the past couple of weeks.

That includes a really easy matchup where he went five for 70 against the Lions, and then a much more difficult matchup where he went five for 47 in week six.

So looking at that, Kendrick Bourne, one of the bigger risers when we look at the past couple of weeks, not so much the more overt Michael Wilson.

Again, Michael Wilson was already running a full route workload.

And other than saying, well, he's going to get featured even more, sometimes that comes with greater defensive attention.

And it can actually be a bad thing because, you know, you can be efficient.

You can be like, oh, I only get the ball when I'm wide open.

I only get the ball when everything is perfect for me to have a target.

So a lot of times, These running back two, three types, they can look great because when they're in the game, no one thinks they're getting the ball.

So they're going to average more yards per touch.