Week 4 in fantasy football is already off to a rousing start.
Thursday night’s matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Los Angeles Rams was an exciting game that featured two of the top teams in the NFC and had a lot of fantasy football ramifications.
If you had Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins, Cooper Kupp, or Stefon Diggs in your starting lineup, you likely have a huge lead in your respective matchup heading into Sunday.
Out of the four players mentioned, Goff has been a fantasy football superstar this season and is looking like an early candidate for NFL MVP. The third-year quarterback completed 78.8 percent of his passes for a career-high 465 yards and five touchdowns against a reeling Minnesota defense.
In terms of fantasy football, Goff produced 39.3 points. It was the first time that the former first overall pick scored over 30 fantasy points in a regular season game.
For a guy, who was not a top-tier QB1 selection heading into this season, he is proving to be a must-start every week. Next week, Goff will be taking on the Seattle Seahawks, whose defense is surrendering 14.1 fantasy points to quarterbacks per FantasyPros.com.
It is not an appealing matchup, but with how explosive the Rams’ offense is, you have to ride the hot hand.
There is also another interesting fantasy football play this week that not many are considering, but could be FLEX worthy. Who am I talking about? None of other than Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Mike Williams.
Williams missed the first half of last season, recovering from a lower back injury, but came on late to finish with 11 receptions for 95 yards. The former Clemson wideout did not do much last season as the Chargers were loaded at wide receiver and had an outstanding tight end in Hunter Henry.
However, Los Angeles lost Henry to a torn ACL before the season started, while wide receivers Tyrell Williams and Travis Benjamin have not produced.
With these factors, it has opened up a door for Williams to be a viable weapon in the Chargers’ offense.
The 6-foot-4 wide receiver has racked up 11 receptions (15 targets) for 189 yards and three touchdowns through the first three weeks of the season. Last week against the Rams, Williams put up another 81 receiving yard performance and scored two touchdowns.
Those two touchdowns helped him produce 20.1 fantasy points, which is a career-high. The previous two weeks, he scored 8.1 and 8.7 fantasy points.
That being said, should Williams be in play this week against the San Francisco 49ers? Definitely! He is going up against a Niners’ defense that is allowing 287.7 passing yards per game.
Not to mention, San Francisco’s defense is giving up 29.4 fantasy points to wide receivers this season.
In last week’s game against the Kansas City Chiefs, San Fran did a great job of keeping wideout Tyreek Hill out of the end zone, but could not stop Sammy Watkins and Chris Conley.
This was also the same story against the Lions in Week 2. They kept No.1 wide receiver Golden Tate III from scoring, but Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones found the end zone.
If you are in a pinch at the FLEX spot, give a hard look at Williams.
Mailbag questions
After dropping some fantasy football gems last week, I am back again with another edition of mailbag questions. This week’s questions are focusing on the offensive side of the ball, specifically at quarterback and tight end.
If you have any questions for future stories, you can hit me up on Twitter @Jovan10 or email at jovan.alford@metro.us.
What’s the best value at the TE position after the top tier? After Kelce, Gronk and maybe one or two others it seems like a significant drop.
— Dave Mullen (@dmullen37) September 27, 2018
This is a great question to start with because some people believe if you do not have a Travis Kelce or Rob Gronkowski at the tight end spot then all is lost.
You can still find value with players such as Dallas Goedert, Trey Burton, and George Kittle. While everybody likely picked up Zach Ertz, Goedert still might be available in your respective leagues.
The Eagles’ No. 2 tight end had a great game against the Indianapolis Colts last Sunday, grabbing seven receptions for 73 yards and a touchdown.
Goedert had 13.3 fantasy points and could be due for similar production in the near future. With Philly lacking depth at wide receiver, head coach Doug Pederson has used a lot of two and three tight end sets.
Nevertheless, I would recommend not playing Goedert this week against a Titans’ defense that is giving up 2.3 points to tight ends. But I will say that he is a nice potential waiver wire add.
When is Deshaun Watson going to have a big game?
— Matt Burke (@Burke_Metro) September 27, 2018
I am not going to lie, I thought this was going to be a breakout year for Watson. However, that has not been the case as the Texans are now 0-3 and desperately need a win.
Last week against the Giants, he completed 60 percent of his passes for 385 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. It was a solid outing from Watson who scored 25.5 fantasy points.
When you look at his 2017 fantasy stats, the former Clemson signal caller had three games of 30 plus points against the Chiefs, Titans, and Seahawks.
So when will he have a big game? I think it could happen against the Colts on Sunday. It is a division game and a must-win for Houston. They cannot afford to go 0-4 and 0-2 in the AFC South.
Supringsly, this will be the first time that Watson is facing the Colts as he missed both matchups last season due to injury. When Watson steps on the field Sunday, he will be going up against an Indy defense that has allowed opposing quarterbacks to score 13.6 fantasy points.
It is a tough matchup for the young quarterback, but if there is any silver lining for Watson it is that Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz had some success last week.
Wentz scored only 11.6 fantasy points with not many offensive weapons. Imagine what Watson can do with wide receivers DeAndre Hopkins and Will Fuller at his disposal.
