Fantasy Football Rocked Again - Week 4

9 carries. 100 yards. A touchdown. 18.0 points. Eleven yards a carry, against a Minnesota defense that is actually good.

CeeDee Lamb WR · DAL — 21 targets. Seventeen catches, 189 yards, a touchdown. That's a Madden stat line, and it came against one of the better defenses in football. The cost: George Pickens saw three targets all day.

Javonte Williams RB · DAL — 19 carries, three touchdowns, five catches, 31 points on the road at NRG. His early-down share actually dipped to 65%, and it did not matter even slightly. The whole Dallas offense is gold right now except Pickens.

Puka Nacua WR · LAR — 27 points in his first game back, and he did almost all of it after halftime once Stafford started hunting him. Stafford threw it roughly 55 times. Don't worry about Davante Adams either — there's enough volume for everybody.

Kyren Williams RB · LAR — 13 targets, 10 catches, two rushing touchdowns, 36 points. He and Nacua combined for 65. He gets every valuable touch in that backfield and the Blake Corum argument keeps getting quieter.

Nico Collins WR · HOU — back from the hamstring and straight to two touchdowns and 30 points against Dallas. This is the Nico experience: you bake the missed weeks into the price, because when he plays he has as much ceiling as any receiver alive.

Drake Maye QB · NE — 37 attempts, three passing touchdowns, eight carries for 54 more yards, 26 points and the QB1 week. People had him cooked after three rough games. He isn't.

Romeo Doubs WR · NE — 23 points and two touchdowns, straight off the back of Maye figuring it out. With AJ Brown still out and Vegas, the Jets and Chicago coming, he's a live flex for the next few weeks.

Carnell Tate WR · TEN — a 43% target share, 12 targets, 145 yards and his first 20-point game. Fair warning, a lot of it was garbage time once Baltimore pulled away. Houston is next and that's ugly; Indianapolis the week after is not.

Malik Nabers WR · NYG — a touchdown and real efficiency on only seven targets, because Jameis Winston finally looked like Jameis Winston. Washington and New Orleans are next. He's a low-end WR2 rest of season, with weeks like this in him.

Quinshon Judkins RB · CLE — 22 points Thursday, and the part that matters is seven targets and six catches. If the receiving work sticks with Dylan Sampson out, that's a ceiling we didn't know he had.

T.J. Hockenson TE · MIN — 13 targets for 119 yards, and the best he's moved since 2024. A lot of that was Jefferson being out, but Kyler Murray has always fed his tight ends. Streamable the rest of the way.

Brock Bowers TE · LV — 11 targets and 20 points while fighting an illness, with Michael Mayer right behind him on 10 targets and 16. Kirk Cousins threw it 52 times. Enjoy the Mayer week, but the snap share came partly from Bowers being sick.

Tucker Kraft TE · GB — seven targets, six catches, 16.5 points and a touchdown he should have had twice. He's finally moving like himself coming off the ACL, and the end-zone looks are the encouraging part.

Michael Wilson WR · ARI — 13 targets, more than anyone on the field including Trey McBride, 95 yards, 16.5 points without a touchdown. Marvin Harrison Jr. had one catch for 12 yards. It isn't close anymore.

Brian Thomas Jr. WR · JAC — a pulse, finally: 38 snaps against 50 for Jakobi Meyers and 49 for Parker Washington. But that was a game script with more 11 personnel than Liam Coen usually runs, and Thomas is still the third option in it. Enough to not drop him. Not enough to start him.

Out, or close to it

Jadarian Price RB · SEA

Headed to IR, which settles the three-way rotation we've been complaining about for two weeks. Emanuel Wilson took 64% of the carries the moment it opened up and is the priority add of the week.

Rashee Rice WR · KC

A hamstring in the first quarter, one week after his best game of the season. He is almost certainly missing time, and this receiver room keeps getting thinner. Kenneth Walker gets leaned on harder — nobody left in that receiver group is worth chasing the vacated targets.

Tyquan Thornton WR · KC

One of the uglier injuries you'll see all season, and it came on the best day of his career — 28 fantasy points. He and Rice went down in the same game. That's the Kansas City receiver room gutted in an afternoon, and it's why this offense runs through Walker now.

Ja'Marr Chase WR · CIN

A concussion on a hit that looked like it took his head off. Expect him to miss at least a week. Tee Higgins is the obvious beneficiary, except he's hurt too — see below before you plug him in.

Left the game — waiting on word

Saquon Barkley RB · PHI

You could see him grab the hamstring. He tweaked this one last year and again earlier this season, and this time it looks worse. Tank Bigsby went down later in the same game and is expected to be out longer than Saquon. Will Shipley has that backfield to himself for a while — he's the add.

DJ Moore WR · BUF

The same shoulder he's been managing for a couple of weeks, and this time he didn't come back. Keon Coleman and Khalil Shakir both get a bump, but neither is a confident start — keep the bid small.

Ladd McConkey WR · LAC

It looks like the same foot that popped up on Thursday, re-aggravated. Our gut says a couple of games. That offense is bad enough that he wasn't a comfortable start anyway — don't spend to replace him, just move on.

Tee Higgins WR · CIN

An adductor. He played through it, which is admirable and also why he looked hobbled all afternoon. If Chase is out and Higgins is limited, this whole receiver room is a question mark rather than a windfall.

Jeremiyah Love RB · ARI

Never mentioned in the press conference, gave interviews afterward, but there's a clip of him hobbling on what looks like the same ankle. Probably minor. It may also explain the Tyler Allgeier usage, which is the part worth watching.

Still monitoring from last week

Justin Jefferson WR · MIN

Missed this one, and T.J. Hockenson turned into Kyler Murray's favorite target because of it. Minnesota is on bye in Week 6. If Jefferson sits again against New Orleans, Hockenson is a start, not a stream.

AJ Brown WR · NE

Still out, and the New England offense took a visible step forward without him. Romeo Doubs is the one to ride until Brown is back.

Dylan Sampson RB · CLE

Out, and Quinshon Judkins absorbed the receiving work that normally goes to him — seven targets, six catches. Judkins is a weekly RB1 while that's true, and the pass game role is what to watch when Sampson returns.

Rachaad White RB · WAS

Still banged up, which is how Austin Ekeler ended up with real snaps in London a week after barely being on the roster. Ekeler is a cheap flyer only if White misses more time; he's the third option once White is right.

Priority add

Emanuel Wilson RB · SEA

With Price on IR he took 64% of the carries — 21 for 81 and a touchdown, plus a receiving score, RB5 on the week. Zach Charbonnet coming back is the only thing keeping this under 50%. In a no-waiver league, empty the clip.

Will Shipley RB · PHI

Saquon's hamstring plus a longer absence for Tank Bigsby leaves Shipley alone in that backfield, and that's a real workload in a good offense. The one dart throw this week with a startable floor attached.

Keon Coleman WR · BUF

He had his one big week — 23 points — and the DJ Moore injury makes it more interesting than usual. We've run this rodeo before, though, and he's no more attractive than Khalil Shakir, who is a last-resort flex at best. People will overbid.

T.J. Hockenson TE · MIN

If you need a streaming tight end, he's the one. 13 targets and 119 yards, with the caveat that the volume dips when Jefferson is back. Borderline TE1 on a week-to-week basis.

Michael Mayer TE · LV

Ten targets and 16 points with Bowers on the field is not an accident — he's one of the more talented pass catchers on a roster short on receivers, and Cousins is throwing it 50 times a game.

Austin Ekeler RB · WAS

He got far more snaps in London than anyone expected from a guy who wasn't on the roster a minute ago. Only worth it if Rachaad White misses more time — he's the third option once White is healthy.

Roman Wilson WR · PIT

He's trending, and he's had 16 and 15 points the last two weeks on six targets in each of his four games. The problem is the snap share: 55%, 79%, 39%, 31%. He's not on the field enough to trust in a flex.