Just when you think you have the fantasy football season figured out, it throws you a curve ball. How many people benched Joe Mixon this week? If you did you are kicking yourself in the butt after he had 3 touchdowns and almost 200 total yards.
On the other end of the spectrum you had players like Deandre Hopkins and the Arizona Cardinals with a mouth-watering match up against the Carolina Panthers end up with only 41 receiving yards as his team lost the game.
That is the fun of fantasy football, it changes from week to week. Here is my fantasy football recap for week 4!
Stock Up
Quarterbacks
Dak Prescott – Dallas Cowboys
Yes, I realize the Cowboys lost yet again yesterday, bringing their record to 1-3 (and a crazy comeback against the Falcons to avoid 0-4).
For fantasy football purposes, however, Dak Prescott is on fire, throwing for over 450 yards in 3 consecutive games while trying to come back from big deficits each week.
In addition, he has had at least 3 touchdowns in each of those games. As long as the Dallas defense plays the way it is playing, Prescott and the Cowboys will be putting the ball in the air early and often, leading to some great fantasy football scores for the quarterback.
Tom Brady – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Father time has not taken down Brady just yet. After throwing yet another pick-6, his 4th in the last 6 games, Brady came back with 5 touchdowns for his own team on 369 yards passing.
This gives Brady 12 touchdowns in 4 games, but with short rest and a game against the Chicago Bears Thursday night you may want to give the old man a week off this week.
Teddy Bridgewater – Carolina Panthers
One of the surprises of the week was the play of Bridgewater and the Panthers. Teddy threw for 276 yards and 2 touchdowns, while adding another 32 yards on the ground with another touchdown.
Granted it was against the Arizona Cardinals, who have not shown that they can play consistently just yet, but keep an eye on Bridgewater moving forward as he starts to gel with his new team.
Also Looking Good
As long as Lamar Jackson is not playing the Kansas City Chiefs he is golden. He finished with 193 passing yards, 53 rushing yards and 3 total touchdowns against the Washington football team Sunday. Josh Allen continues to have a quietly amazing year, with at least 3 touchdowns in every game this year as he leads the Buffalo Bills to a 4-0 record at the quarter pole. Justin Herbert played well in a loss to Tampa Bay, throwing for 290 yards passing and 3 touchdowns in only his third game of his young career. There isn’t a lot of tough defenses ahead of him, so he should continue growing and putting up good numbers.
Running Backs
Joe Mixon – Cincinnati Bengals
As mentioned earlier, there were a lot of fantasy owners who had given up on the Bengals running back. To put into perspective, he had 164 yards rushing in the first three games combined.
Sunday? He had 151, while also scoring his first 3 touchdowns of the season as the Bengals got their first victory of the season.
Whether this game is the catalyst needed to get Mixon and the Bengals going remains to be seen, but for one day he reminded people why they drafted him with their first round pick this year – and hopefully they had him in to reap the benefits.
Melvin Gordon – Denver Broncos
Gordon finally hit 100 yards rushing in a game for the Broncos, finishing with 107 while getting two touchdowns. He is never really going to be a factor in the passing game, Gordon is a workhorse that will have solid games depending on the flow of the game.
Latavius Murray – New Orleans Saints
Normally when talking about a Saints running back you are talking about Alvin Kamara, but Latavius Murray got into the action Sunday with 64 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns from 3 and 4 yards.
With Michael Thomas out it makes sense for the Saints to focus on the running game more, and that puts Murray into an interesting flex position in most fantasy leagues.
Keep Watching
Mike Davis is a must start as long as Christian McCaffrey is out. He has his third straight double digit fantasy game Sunday against the Cardinals. Jerick McKinnon is another player taking advantage of more playing time due to injuries in front of him on the depth chart. Antonio Gipson looked to have a rough game against the Baltimore Ravens Sunday, but had his best game of the early season. Kareem Hunt will see more carries as Nick Chubb looks to be out for awhile.
Wide Receivers
Odell Beckham Jr. – Cleveland Browns
Beckham finally broke out in a big way against the Cowboys on Sunday, finishing with 5 catches and 81 yards for 2 touchdowns, adding 73 rushing yards and iced the game with a 51 yard touchdown run in the 4th quarter.
With running back Nick Chubb out for extended time, plus the fact that the offense just works better with Beckham getting touches early and often, this should be the start of a great season for the veteran wide receiver.
DJ Chark Jr. – Jacksonville Jaguars
Chark returned from injury to have his best game of the year, catching 8 of his 9 targets for 95 yards and two touchdowns, He caught more passes than he was targeted in his first two games of the season, so this is promising for the young receiver moving forward.
CeeDee Lamb – Dallas Cowboys
Lamb is another Cowboy that will benefit from what looks to be a long season from the defense. He finished with 5 catches and 79 yards with 2 receiving touchdowns, which were his first two of his career.
While there are a lot of weapons to utilize, with Dak Prescott throwing 500 yards in a game there is enough to go around.
Others to Keep and Eye On
Tim Patrick of the Broncos had a nice game on Thursday night, albeit against the New York Jets. It helped that tight end Noah Fant went out with an injury, but he could be somebody to stash on your bench in deeper leagues. Will Fuller went over 100 yards for the first time this season, and with head coach Bill O’Brien fired today he may see an increase in production moving forward. Tre’Quan Smith is taking advantage of Michael Thomas being out, scoring two touchdowns on 4 receptions Sunday.
Tight Ends
George Kittle – San Francisco 49ers
After missing two games with an injury, Kittle returned and showed why he is one of the best tight ends in the entire NFL.
He was targeted 15 times, and caught all 15 passes, for 183 yards and a touchdown. Obviously you are starting him every time he suits up.
Mark Andrews – Baltimore Ravens
Andrews has not quite had the season he had a year ago, but fortunately he is a big red zone target for Lamar Jackson, scoring 2 touchdowns on Sunday for the second time of the season.
Only getting three targets is concerning, but he still has the athletic ability and the targets will come.
Dalton Schultz – Dallas Cowboys
With the amount of passes thrown in Dallas, Schultz will be up there in the TE1 conversation even though he is not as talented as some of the other tight ends in this group.
He was targeted 8 times Sunday against the Browns, but only caught 4 of them for 72 yards, and did score a touchdown. If you are hurting at tight end Schultz should be on your radar.
Also had Good Games
Mo Alie-Cox had another touchdown for the Colts on Sunday, the teams only one of the game. So did the age-less Jason WItten, his first with the Las Vegas Raiders. TJ Hockenson had a quiet game but did score a touchdown and a two-point conversion to save his fantasy game.
Stock Down
Quarterbacks
Jared Goff – Los Angeles Rams
After two games with multiple touchdown passes and a game against the winless New York Giants, many thought that Goff and the Rams would have a good game fantasy wise.
Although they did get the win, Goff barely passed for 200 yards passing and only 1 touchdown pass on the day.
Drew Brees – New Orleans Saints
Brees had a decent game Sunday against the Detroit Lions, throwing for 246 yards and 2 touchdowns, but when compared to Drew Brees of recent years it is not quite up to the same level.
The Saints have a game against the Chargers before their bye week, so hopefully Brees can get his main target Michael Thomas back then and get back to his normal precision.
Baker Mayfield – Cleveland Browns
In a week when his team scored 49 points, Mayfield did not quite have the stats one would think he would have had. He finished with 165 passing yards and 2 touchdowns, but most of the damage was done on the ground, with the Browns getting more than 300 yards rushing.
Running Backs
Ezekiel Elliott – Dallas Cowboys
Yes, he ended up with over 100 yards in total production, 54 rushing on 12 carries and 71 yards receiving on 8 catches. He did not get a touchdown, as back up Tony Pollard vultured the only goal line opportunity the team had on the day.
But he definitely is not as involved as he has been in previous years, and you probably had to use a top-3 pick to get him in your fantasy draft. With the team falling behind so much so often early in the year, he has not quite had the impact many fantasy owners thought he would.
David Montgomery – Chicago Bears
In his second year with the Bears out of Iowa State, many thought Montgomery would take the next step, as was thought of the offense as a whole.
However, in another game with the Bears playing from behind for most of the contest, he only had 10 rushing attempts for a measly 27 yards, and 3 catches for 30 yards.
Unless the passing game gets better, defenses will continue to stack the box and overwhelm the offensive line, which has shown it cannot hold up to the challenge.
Kenyan Drake – Arizona Cardinals
Drake came into this season looking to have a break out year after finishing 2019 with 4 solid games after being traded from the Miami Dolphins.
With 13 carries for 35 yards, that looks like it might not be the case. In fact his fantasy production has decreased each week, making fantasy owners wonder why they used a first or second round pick on the young running back.
The Jets are up next, so hopefully Drake and the Cardinals can get back on track after a lackluster performance against the Carolina Panthers.
Not Living Up to their Potential
Josh Jacobs has not been as good after exploding into the season with a three touchdown performance in week 1. In fact, he has not scored since. Miles Sanders did have a tough match up against the 49ers on Sunday night football, but the Eagles are hoping he can have more of an impact on the offense going forward. Devonta Freeman did lead the Giants backfield in rushed in his second game, but still only had 33 yards on 11 rushes. He did add 35 yards on his 4 catches, and could be an interesting play in PPR leagues.
Wide Receivers
DeAndre Hopkins – Arizona Cardinals
Hopkins did not escape the poor performance bug that plagues the Cardinals on Sunday against the Panthers. He did have 9 targets, which he caught 7 of, but only finished with 41 yards and no touchdowns.
Robert Woods – Los Angeles Rams
Woods had easily his worst game of the season, catching 6 of his 7 targets for only 35 yards, and only had 1 rush for 2 yards.
The Rams offense as a whole struggled against the New York Giants, which should have been a good game for them. A match up against the Washington Football Team is up next.
Tyler Lockett – Seattle Seahawks
I mean, we knew he wasn’t going to have 3 touchdowns every week, but I really thought he would do better than 2 catches for 39 yards.
He did not have a single catch until 7 minutes left in the 4th quarter, as it looked like the Seahawks took the Miami Dolphins for granted. They still got the win, but did not look near as good as they have to go to 4-0/
Expected More Than That
Michael Gallup did not get much of Prescott’s 500 yards passing, finishing with 2 catches and 29 yards. AJ Green only caught 1 of his 5 targets for 3 yards, as the Bengals got their first win of the season. TY Hilton does not look like he and new quarterback Philip Rivers are on the same page, only catching 3 passes for 29 yards, and tied with tight end Trey Burton for second on the team in targets, behind Zach Pascal.
Tight Ends
Noah Fant – Denver Broncos
Adding insult to injury, literally, Fant sprained his ankle Thursday against the New York Jets, after only getting 5 catches on 6 targets for 35 yards.
He has already been ruled out for week 5 against the Patriots, but if the quarterback play does not get better then he will not ascend to the TE1 territory many thought he was headed to.
Zach Ertz – Philadelphia Eagles
Although the Eagles got their first win of the season Sunday night against the 49ers, it wasn’t because of perennial All-Pro Zach Ertz.
He did catch 4 passes, but for only 9 yards, but did get a two-point conversion. Turning 30 soon, he may just be past his prime, as Dallas Goedert takes over as the team’s top tight end.
Mike Gesicki – Miami Dolphins
Gesicki is the epitome of the reason why you don’t overreact to one amazing week in fantasy football. After catching 8 passes on 11 targets in week 2 for 130 yards, he has had back-to-back weeks of only 1 catch, and this week it was not for a touchdown like last week.
Unless he starts showing more consistency, you can’t start him with confidence.
Don’t Start Yet
Tyler Higbee is basically in the same position as Mike Gesicki, with only one game with more than 3 catches, and that was the only game he scored a touchdown as will (granted it was 3 touchdowns but still). Rob Gronkowski has not had the fantasy impact that many thought he would, even with other targets missing time like Chris Godwin. It looks like OJ Howard is out for the season, but until Gronk puts together games with more than a couple catches he is not safe to play. Hunter Henry is another tight end who has been struggling in recent weeks, this week only catching 2 of his 3 targets for 39 yards.
Conclusion
With two more games to go this week, it has already been a crazy week for fantasy football. And with Covid-19 starting to affect games, pushing the Tennessee – Pittsburgh game back to week 7 and the Kansas City – New England game to Monday night, who knows how much will change going forward.
How is your fantasy team looking? Are you still undefeated? Let me know in the comments below! Have a great week!
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