Slate Stats › NFL › Injury impact

If John Bates is out, who gets his targets?

The Washington Commanders room absorbs +0.69 receptions, and Chig Okonkwo takes the largest single share at +0.23. The work stays overwhelmingly inside the tight end room.

Where the work goes

Change in projected receptions for every other player in the offense. The bars are small on purpose — a vacated role is shared out, and any tool showing one replacement absorbing a whole target load is telling you something the data does not support.

Receptions gained if John Bates sitsChig Okonkwo+0.2TE 56% snapsBen Sinnott+0.2TE 48% snapsColson Yankoff+0.2TE 26% snapschange in projected receptions

Every player in the room

PlayerCatches nowIf he sitsChange
Stefon Diggs WR · 58% snaps4.204.20+0.00
Terry McLaurin WR · 77% snaps3.703.70+0.00
Antonio Williams WR · 42% snaps2.802.80+0.00
Chig Okonkwo TE · 56% snaps2.702.93+0.23
Rachaad White RB · 45% snaps2.402.40+0.00
Dyami Brown WR · 46% snaps1.501.50+0.00
Jacory Croskey-Merritt RB · 48% snaps1.101.10+0.00
John Bates TE · 45% snaps1.10—OUT
Luke McCaffrey WR · 0% snaps1.001.00+0.00
Ben Sinnott TE · 48% snaps0.801.03+0.23
Colson Yankoff TE · 26% snaps0.801.03+0.23
Treylon Burks WR · 33% snaps0.700.70+0.00
Jaylin Lane WR · 16% snaps0.700.70+0.00

What the data says happens

Measured across every regular-season game from 2018 onward, each beneficiary compared against his own trailing four-game form and net of what the same players do in weeks the room’s number one actually plays.

RoomReceptions gainednt
Receivers+0.1072,1602.29
Tight ends+0.4921,0249.57
Backs-0.0451,259-0.92

The room total is predictable. Which player takes it is not. Every candidate predictor of who gains — pecking order, snap share, route depth, trailing targets — correlates at roughly r = 0.02. In any single week one player usually takes about 60% of what was vacated; it is simply not predictably the same one.

John Bates’s full stats and usageSnap share, target share, game log and this week’s projection

Cascade effects 2018–2026, paired within player, net of control · projections as-of-week with no lookahead · 2026 week 4