Fantasy Football: The Things I Learned – Week 4, 2016

By Chet Gresham – @ChetGresham
Follow @walterfootball for updates.

Below, check out my fantasy-centered recaps of key players from this week’s contests. For instance, did a player come back to earth after an aberrant breakout, or were they simply affected by something like game flow?

Julio Jones is pretty good at this football game. I didn’t learn much in his 12-catch, 300-yard and one-touchdown game other than to re-affirm how good he really is. The biggest piece of knowledge gleaned from this game was just how bad the Panthers’ secondary can be this season. Besides the 300 yards to Jones, Matt Ryan threw for 203 more yards to eight other players to finish with 503 total yards and four touchdowns. He completed a healthy 76 percent of his passes on one of the best defenses of 2015. Josh Norman isn’t walking through that door.

Cam Newton left the game against the Falcons after taking an extremely stupid hit on a two-point conversion in which he could have dived in safely, but instead stayed upright and jogged into a hit that took him out of the game. And then Derek Anderson came in and just about brought the team back from a huge deficit. All in all, it wasn’t a good day for Newton or the Panthers, but as long as he can suit up, he’s the quarterback for the Panthers and he’s going to get you fantasy points.

Rob Gronkowski only saw two targets and one 11-yard reception in the Patriots’ loss to the Bills, but with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback, the Patriots didn’t have any offense against Buffalo. The good news is that Gronkowski played almost every down and he gets Tom Brady back next week. If anyone wants to give you Gronkowski, grab him.

Steve Smith is inhuman and continues to make his case for Canton. Against the Raiders, he caught 8-of-11 targets for 111 yards and a touchdown, and he continues to show that he’s back and ready to rumble.

Le’Veon Bell rushed 18 times for 144 yards and caught 5-of-6 targets for 34 yards as Pittsburgh routed Kansas City. He looked great in his return, not missing a step. Bell didn’t get into the end zone as Ben Roethlisberger threw for five touchdowns, but those touchdowns will come soon enough.

Kevin White left the game against the Lions with an ankle injury. Up to that point, he had led the team with nine targets. Eddie Royal had already been useful, but his targets went up after White was hurt, so if White misses any time, Royal is your guy.

Dwayne Washington injured his ankle during this game. We’ll need to see the severity, but it’s a tough blow for a player who was set to get more work as a runner moving forward. Zach Zenner came in for him, so he will get more work if Washington misses any time.

Josh Ferguson caught 7-of-10 targets for just 33 yards. He dropped one of those passes, costing his team a first down. He was unable to do much with his seven receptions as well, but I don’t see the Colts giving Gore more work, so Robert Turbin would be the next man up if they didn’t like what they saw from Ferguson. But maybe they prefer Ferguson’s drops and four-yard receptions.

T.J. Yeldon finally put together some yardage this week, as he rushed 14 times for 71 yards and caught 4-of-5 targets for 46 yards. He lost goal-line work to Chris Ivory, but looked good and appears to making strides this year. The Jaguars’ offensive line has not been kind to Yeldon though.

Andrew Luck may continue to get grief for his recent play, but he was constantly under pressure on Sunday with three rookie linemen blocking for him, plus his receivers dropped way too many passes.

Bears rookie running back Jordan Howard saw the bulk of the touches with Jeremy Langford and Ka’Deem Carey out, and Howard put up good yardage with 23 rushing attempts for 111 yards and three receptions for 21 yards. He didn’t get the touchdown to make his day huge for fantasy, but he gets the Colts next week.

Jordan Reed finally broke out this week, catching 9-of-10 targets for 73 yards and two touchdowns. He’s looked good all season, but had yet to find the end zone. He’s the next closest thing to Rob Gronkowski in the league.

James White caught all five of his targets for 50 yards against the Bills. It was an okay PPR game, but with Tom Brady returning next week, I sure don’t see the Patriots riding LeGarrette Blount’s up-the-gut offense when they have Brady throwing the ball. See if you can acquire White.

Michael Crabtree continues to outscore Amari Cooper this season, and it has to do with how much Derek Carr has glommed onto Crabtree in the red zone. Crabtree caught three touchdowns today, from 23, 13 and five yards out. That red zone usage will continue to help him, but Carr should start to balance the books in Amari Cooper’s favor soon enough, so don’t get too down on Coop.

Golden Tate ran the wrong route, which in turn caused an interception, and he was benched in turn. He did get back in the game, but Tate has not been himself to start the season and it has to be worrisome for anyone who has him on their team. I could see dropping him now for the latest flavor if you are off to a bad start, but we’ve seen how good he can be, and with Eric Ebron and Marvin Jones opening things up underneath, I expect Tate to get back into the groove at some point.

Isaiah Crowell has stepped his game up this season with the help of running back guru Hue Jackson. Against Washington, Crowell ran 15 times for 112 yards and a touchdown, plus caught three passes for another 22 yards. Even in a committee backfield, with the very good Duke Johnson, Crowell continues to put up starting numbers despite averaging just 15 carries per game.

Eddie Royal had a big game, catching all seven of his targets for 111 yards and a touchdown. He’s now firmly in the deep-PPR-league pickups, but if Kevin White is out for any games, Royal should be picked up in most 12-team leagues.

Marcus Mariota did not play well against the Texans on Sunday. He completed just 12-of-28 passes for 192 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. He’s been awful for the most part this season, and the Titans are a worthy team to target D/STs.

Trevor Siemian left the game against the Bucs with a non-throwing shoulder injury, and Paxton Lynch came in and played well in relief. It will be interesting to see what the Broncos do, but if Siemian is hurting at all, I expect Lynch to get the start next week against a bad Chargers defense.

Alshon Jeffery only saw five targets against the Lions, while Kevin White had nine before he left with an injury. Brian Hoyer is a quarterback who usually doesn’t have any qualms forcing it to the No. 1 receiver, so it seems odd. A lot depends on Jay Cutler’s injury and if Kevin White’s injury is anything of concern, but it would behoove the Bears to force a few to Jeffery, who is one of the best receivers in the game at making contested catches.

DeAndre Hopkins isn’t putting up the numbers we’ve grown to love, and Sunday against the Titans, he put up the numbers we already hate. Both of Brock Osweiler’s interceptions came when he tried to force the ball to Hopkins, so I doubt that will make it more likely he would force it to him in the future. But Nuk is too good to hold down for long. Buy low and buy often.

Oakland’s backfield remains impossible to read, and if you could read it, I’m not sure you’d like what you saw. There is talent back there, but it’s getting spread out and Latavius Murray appears to be just another back in the group. He has seen his touches drop from 15 in Week 1 to just 10 this week. Touchdowns were holding up his fantasy status, but when they don’t come, like this week, he’s a dud.

Terrance West got the start, while Justin Forsett was a healthy scratch, and West showed the coaches that they made the right decision as he rushed 21 times for 113 yards and a touchdown. Kenneth Dixon should be back next week, but West has likely won himself the starting job as long as he’s producing.

Matt Forte rushed 14 times for just 27 yards and caught 2-of-3 passes for 16 yards, while Bilal Powell rushed four times for 26 yards and caught 6-of-9 targets for 54 yards. Forte has seen a sharp decline since his big Week 1 game, and Bilal Powell has looked like he’s had more juice of late. Grab Powell off the wire if he’s there.

After a nice Week 1, Mohamed Sanu has hit gone downhill in his last three, including on Sunday when he only accounted for two receptions for 22 yards out of the 503 yards that Matt Ryan threw for. With the running backs and tight ends getting the ball spread around to them as well as the receivers, Sanu’s just not going to see enough work on a regular basis to be fantasy worthy.

C.J. Spiller looked good in limited work, getting four touches and turning them into 17 yards and a touchdown. He’ll need to see more work than that to be fantasy worthy, but he’s back on the radar.

Jimmy Graham has now put together back-to-back big weeks, and it’s looking like the Seahawks would be dumb to not keep feeding him. He caught 6-of-8 targets for 113 yards, but didn’t get into the end zone this time. His back did flare up a bit in this game, so the Week 5 bye should do him some good.

Tyler Lockett is hurting and not getting targets with Jimmy Graham back in the fold. Lockett’s droppable.

Carson Palmer had to leave the game due to a concussion, and Drew Stanton came in and looked very much like Drew Stanton. Palmer was better than last week, but now will have a tough time getting cleared for Week 5 when the Cardinals play San Francisco on Thursday night. If Drew Stanton plays, downgrade all the Cardinals players, except David Johnson because that guy is unstoppable.

John Brown led the league in targets with 16, catching 10 for 144 yards. It was good to see him break out after an extremely lackluster first couple weeks. He was targeted nine more times than any other Arizona receiver, which won’t happen again probably, but there’s no doubt he’s a big part of their offense.

Dontrelle Inman led the Chargers this week by catching 7-of-11 targets for 120 yards and a touchdown. The Saints played zone early on, and Inman found holes all over the field. Tyrell Williams and Travis Benjamin are probably still ahead of Inman in the pecking order, but this team doesn’t seem to have a true No. 1 receiver right now, so I’d expect Inman to remain involved enough to be worth an add in deeper leagues.

Hunter Henry caught 4-of-7 targets for 61 yards and a touchdown, and has looked better than old man Antonio Gates did to start the season. I expect Henry is an upgrade over Gates at this point, but they will probably defer to him when he is healthy.

John Kuhn is a bad person.

For more thoughts, check out Walt’s updated NFL Power Rankings, which will be posted Tuesday morning.

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