Analyze Samaje Perine's matchup for week 11
Perine is playing fewer than 30% of snaps while Chase Brown dominates 70-plus%, leaving Perine with unpredictable, low-volume work; even a negative game-script versus Pittsburgh won’t create enough touches to make him startable.
Cincinnati travels to Pittsburgh as 5.5-point underdogs in a game the Bengals will likely throw 40-plus times, but Brown has absorbed both rushing and receiving duties, so Perine’s only path to volume is a Brown injury. The Steelers’ league-average run defense won’t matter—opportunity, not matchup, is the problem.
Snap share has fallen from the 40s to the 25-31% range over the last month; zero double-digit-touch games and only sporadic passing-down usage as Brown handles 75% of backfield snaps and targets.
Perine’s fantasy utility disappeared once the Bengals committed to Chase Brown as a true every-down back. Over the last four weeks Brown has played 71-75% of offensive snaps while Perine has been stuck in the 25-31% range, turning the veteran into a pure handcuff who needs an injury to matter. Even negative game scripts haven’t helped: when Cincinnati fell behind by multiple scores to Baltimore and Philadelphia, it was Brown, not Perine, who stayed on the field for hurry-up and passing downs. Offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher has also shifted to a pass-heavy attack under Joe Flacco—Cincinnati has averaged 45 drop-backs per game since Week 8—yet those extra backfield targets have gone to Brown, who out-targeted Perine 15-4 during that span. The Steelers’ middling run defense (4.4 YPC allowed) is irrelevant when the player in question can’t get on the field; Perine’s seasonal touch rate sits at 6.1 per game and has declined in each successive month. With no goal-line role, no two-minute offense work, and a team that views him as the clear RB2, Perine’s floor is zero and his ceiling is a handful of touches even if the script flips. In Week 11 there are simply too many higher-upside bench backs—guys like Tyler Allgeier, Blake Corum, or even rookie Tahj Brooks who is already ahead of Perine on the Cincinnati depth chart—to waste a lineup spot on a part-time player whose best realistic outcome is 20-30 scrimmage yards.