Analyze Tyjae Spears's matchup for week 9
After a season-best 14.2 PPR points in Week 8 and coaches pledging a more even split with Pollard, Spears draws a neutral Chargers run defense and projects as a high-floor, high-ceiling flex who has topped 6.6 YPC in consecutive weeks.
The Chargers’ 17th-ranked run defense (112.4 yds/gm) rarely gets gashed but concedes chunk gains to shifty backs, and their coverage-heavy scheme should leave room underneath for Spears’ 5.3 targets per game over the last month. With 59-degree calm weather in Nashville, game script and game plan both favor a balanced Titans attack, giving the ascending second-year back a realistic 10–12 touch floor plus passing-game juice.
Spears has logged 4→5→5→9 carries since returning from a high-ankle sprain, pairing increased volume with 6.2 and 6.6 YPC the last two weeks while playing a season-high 50 % of snaps in Week 8.
The most telling indicator isn’t just the climbing touch count but the coaching rhetoric that accompanied it: HC Brian Callahan explicitly vowed to lighten Tony Pollard’s load and create a “more evenly” split backfield, while OC Nick Holz teased that the Week 8 TD was “a sign of more things to come.” That organizational commitment locks in a 9–12 carry, 3–5 target weekly baseline for Spears, whose 6.6 YPC over the last two games dwarfs Pollard’s 3.9 over the same span. Against a Chargers front that has allowed the NFL’s 10th-most receiving yards to RBs and ranks just 22nd in missed-tackle rate, Spears’ lateral quickness translates to a safe 8-point PPR floor with legitimate 20-point ceiling if one of his screen or gap runs houses. Conservative projections still list him around 7–8 points, yet he has exceeded expectations in three of four post-injury outings, signaling market lag that fantasy managers can exploit. Plug him in as a high-end flex across all formats; in full PPR he creeps into low-end RB2 territory thanks to touch security and game-script independence.