RB Travis Etienne scored in line with his ADP in Sunday's opener at Detroit, but he did so in a way he might not be able to sustain. Etienne's 14.8 PPR points against the Lions fell just 0.1 short of his 2025 scoring average in Jacksonville and places him15th among Week 1 RBs (heading into the Monday night game). But Etienne tied for just 34th at the position with 9 carries, and one of the guys he tied with was teammate Kendre Miller.
2026 Fantasy Football Impact: Workload Needs to Improve
Etienne played just 58% of New Orleans' offensive snaps and ran a route on 36% of QB Tyler Shough's dropbacks. Each mark was down slightly vs. his 2025 rates in Jacksonville:
- 60% snap share
- 40% route share
Etienne got there fantasy-wise because he drew 9 targets and caught seven of them.
Etienne did outgain Miller 46-30 on their matching 9 carries (5.1 yards per rush to 3.3), but he ceded the lone rushing TD to Miller and shared third-down work with practice-squad call-up C.J. Donaldson.
The 16% share of targets was nice. That would have tied Jahmyr Gibbs for fourth among RBs for the season in 2025. It would certainly help Etienne's value if he stays around there. But the rushing work has to increase. And if we apply the 16% target share to Shough's 2025 average of 32.8 pass attempts per game instead of Sunday's 56, we get 5.2 targets instead of 9.
That highlights how the rushing load needs to increase. And workload questions look more worrisome when they come from a game that found Alvin Kamara inactive and several other camp competitors on IR.
It's one game, but there's reason to consider whether you have two better options than Etienne to start against Baltimore at Week 2.
New Orleans gets better matchups at home with the Raiders and Falcons the following two weeks.
