Breece Hall Fantasy Stock Drops While Braelon Allen Inches Up

Jets going with running-back-by-committee moving forward?

New York Jets running back Breece Hall / Brad Penner-Imagn Images

Breece Hall was a consensus first-round pick in all fantasy football leagues, but the Jets starting running back put up an absolute stinker in Week 4, leaving fantasy managers justifiably concerned.

After scoring just 3.8 points in PPR leagues against the Broncos on Sunday, it's becoming clear Hall is not the RB1 many considered him coming into the season. Worse still, Hall's backup, Braelon Allen, has looked more explosive the last three weeks and cut into Hall's touches.

That's led to speculation the Jets backfield is becoming a dreaded running-back-by-committee situation, with question marks about Hall's value the rest of the season.

While jumping to a conclusion like "should I start Hall" is egregiously premature, it's clear Hall's stock is down and Allen's is up heading into Week 5.

Hall had 10 carries for 4 yards and 2 catches for 14 yards in Week 4 while Allen had 8 carries for 34 yards and 1 catch for 12 yards. That continues a trend we saw in Week 3 when Allen got 13 touches to 20 for Hall. For context, Hall had 21 touches and Allen had just 2 in Week 1.

Hall also saw his lowest snap count percentage of the season, being on the field for only 69% of the Jets snaps yesterday after being on the field for 71% of the snaps the previous week. Allen moved up to 36% after 32% the previous week.

While that's not a full split of touches, it's trending in that direction. Throw in the fact that Allen has objectively looked more explosive with the ball and Jets coach Robert Salah said the team will consider giving Allen more touches in the red zone moving forward, and there's every reason to believe Hall has lost his grip as the everydown back in the Jets backfield.

This week, the Jets face a Vikings defense that is giving up just 3.8 yards per carry, fourth-best in the NFL, and 75 rushing yards per game, second-best. With rushing yards at a premium, the Jets could be forced to throw the ball more, especially with Aaron Rodgers facing a team he knows well from his NFC North days.

Looking long term and on the positive side for Hall, he's still seeing far more targets in the passing game (20 to 4 last two weeks), which is valuable in PPR leagues. On the flip side, he's averaging just 3.1 yards-per-carry, while Allen is averaging 4.8

Allen hasn't surpassed Hall in terms of ranking, and if you have both you should continue to start Hall. But this is trending in a bad direction for Hall and the fantasy managers who drafted him early.