Isaiah Likely Has Huge Week 1; Mark Andrews Quiet

2024 Fantasy Football Impact

Likely was a buzzy player this summer, but no one could have seen this coming. He looked liked Baltimore's best pass-catcher on Thursday night and had the usage to match. Likely drew a big 29% target share. And, most importantly, he ran a route on 69% of pass plays. That's slightly lower than a typical top-12 fantasy TE -- but a huge improvement over Likely's playing time alongside TE Mark Andrews last year.

Baltimore deployed two TEs on 53% of their offensive snaps in Kansas City and lined Likely up all over the field:

• 27 snaps inline
• 21 slot
• 4 out wide
• 1 backfield

Likely certainly benefitted from trailing game script. QB Lamar Jackson threw 41 passes after averaging 28.6 per game last year. And it'll be tough for Likely to match this type of target share on this level of playing time.

But it's plenty possible that his playing time grows after such a strong performance. At minimum, he looks like a high-end TE2 going forward. And he might just work his way into the position's top 12.

Other Winners & Losers

Likely's big night came at the expense of TE Mark Andrews, who caught just two of two targets for 14 yards. His playing time remained fine, though: A 74% snap rate and 75% route rate. For comparison, he registered an 86% route rate in his nine healthy games last year.

Andrews definitely didn't look as dynamic as Likely in Kansas City, but it's also worth remembering that he missed over two weeks in August after being involved in a car accident. That might have been a factor.

Expect to see Andrews fall in next week's updated rest-of-season rankings. But he'll remain safely inside the top-10 and is still a better fantasy bet than Likely for now.