Featured Articles

Well, it took a few weeks, but D’Andre Swift arrived in a big way in Week 6. In the tilt against the Jaguars, Swift saw the field on 37.1-percent of the snaps, touching the ball a total of 17 times. He turned this into 123 total yards and a pair of touchdowns. With four targets, he was once again the RB target leader for the Lions. While Adrian Peterson may cap the rookie’s ceiling in the short-term, Swift looks the part of a cornerstone piece of dynasty teams for years to come.

The days of Zach Ertz being a locked-in set-it-and-forget-it TE1 have abruptly come to an end. To make matters worse, he’s now sidelined with a high-ankle sprain. Ertz is without a contract extension, and despite a lack of competition in the passing game, his performance on the season has underwhelmed. For fantasy purposes, an output of 8.0 (No. 25 among qualified tight ends) Fantasy Points per Game is not what managers expected from a player ranked on the edge of the elite TE tier.

This week, Justin Herbert draws a Jacksonville passing defense that we’ve been targeted this year. He’ll have all day to throw, allowing him to continue to increase that Money Throw total and deliver fantasy points in bunches. Last we saw Keenan Allen, he left early in Week five with a back injury after scoring a touchdown. Using the bye week to get healthy, he is poised to step right back into his target magnet role as he lines up against burnable corners.

Julio Jones costs less than teammate Calvin Ridley this week. At $7100, Jones is outside the top 5 WRs. He suffered no reported setbacks last week in an absolutely dominant return. Matt Ryan, for his own part, has everything we look for when it comes to passing metrics for a QB. Some of it is Game Script-driven, but it’s not like that will be changing anytime soon. The issue has been efficiency, but we expect that to bounce back to historic norms with Julio back in the lineup against the Lions.

Chase Claypool’s rapid rise among a stacked 2020 receiving class includes eye-popping production and advanced metrics. At 6-4, 238-pounds with 4.42 speed and a 131.9 (92nd-percentile among qualified wide receivers) Burst Score, he’s a threat to score on any given play. Following another solid outing in Week 6 with 4-74-0 receiving and 2-7-1 rushing, he ranked No. 1 in the PPI for the allotted time period.

Derrick Henry remains the king of stiff arms and 90-plus yard TD runs. Contending dynasty squads should try to take advantage of his age (26.8) and ranking outside the top-12 dynasty RBs to try and acquire him. With Tennessee running the ball at the third-highest clip in the league, Henry is locked in as an every-week start in all seasonal formats. With the Titans facing the Steelers in Week 7, keep an eye on his DFS rostership for a potential leverage spot.

Boston Scott is walking into at least one week of pseudo-starter responsibilities. Scott is the next man up, and a short week against the New York Giants ensures that Miles Sanders will sit and that scoring opportunity will be abundant. Doug Pederson has a history of using a committee when no true workhorse is available to carry the load. Still, one week RB2 upside makes Scott a worthy Flex play for those looking to fill bye weeks.

J.D. McKissic has forced himself onto the fantasy radar with at least six receptions in each game since Dwayne Haskins was relinquished to the bench. Kyle Allen is a checkdown machine that helped fuel Christian McCaffrey’s historic 2019 run. McKissic is AFC James White with PPR flex value completely supported by targets. He’s a high-floor PPR Flex option perfect for bye week fill-ins.

The Falcons responded in a big way after axing their head coach and general manager this week. Both moves were long overdue for a team stuck in a years-long Super Bowl hangover. In interim HC Raheem Morris’ first day in charge, Atlanta leaned on what’s been the strength of the team for years: Matt Ryan and Julio Jones soul-reaving opposing defenses. Only this time, they even have top-12 talent Calvin Ridley on the other side.

The Colts are top 10 in rushing plays per game and Jonathan Taylor had seen 19 (No. 9 among qualified running backs) Red Zone Touches heading into this game, converting three of them for scores. We’ve got to keep betting on this athletic phenom and hope the Colts eventually realize they’ve got a blue chip asset on their hands and use him accordingly.

The injury to Dak Prescott is devastating on many levels, but this won’t kill the fantasy value of the skill players. Is backup Andy Dalton some sort of Cowboy savior? Unlikely, but he has proven in the past that when he has weapons (and boy does he have them in Dallas), that he can provide very good quarterback play. Ezekiel Elliott may be a bigger part of the game plan going forward with Dalton, but there should be little drop off with the receivers.

Drew Lock has a good chance to start; he will be missing some weapons, however. With Noah Fant, Melvin Gordon and K.J. Hamler all out for this week, Lock will have to rely on Phillip Lindsay, Tim Patrick and rookie Jerry Jeudy. Being down weapons against a Bill Belichick-led defense isn’t exactly ideal, particularly for a second-year quarterback coming off of an injury. Lock is better off returning next week.

Mark Ingram is a 30-year old running back with a 16.7-percent (No. 39 among qualified running backs) Juke Rate, and Gus Edwards is limited to a specialized role as an early down grinder. Meanwhile, J.K. Dobbins has a 32.0-percent Juke Rate and has run 57 (No. 36) routes, more than Ingram and Edwards have combined. What makes Dobbins’ outlook in particular so promising is that he, unlike most running backs stuck in a committee, does not necessarily need an injury to earn a workhorse role.

Anthony McFarland ran a 4.40 (91st-percentile) 40-Yard Dash at 208-pounds, sported an elite 3.99 College Yards per Team Attempt, and jumped out as a later-round steal in Graham Barfield’s College Yards Created analysis for the 2020 class. On 10 NFL touches, McFarland’s Juke Rate is a gaudy 40.0-percent. In case you aren’t intrigued enough, Pittsburgh ranks No. 9 in offensive EPA/play as of Week 5.

David Montgomery is a prime free square RB in a great spot against the Carolina Panthers. His passing down role has been incredible since Tarik Cohen’s season-ending injury. In two games post-Cohen, he’s run 66 routes and seen 14 targets from Nick Foles. He is primed for the most efficient game of his season and is playing on all three downs. Montgomery projects as one of the best values on a per-dollar basis this week.

Darnell Mooney has officially supplanted Anthony Miller as the WR2 on the Bears in two-receiver sets. Miller still maintains his coveted slot role, but Mooney is starting opposite Allen Robinson on the perimeter. He hasn’t had a signature blow-up game this season, but he has a shot against this weak Carolina defense. For those looking to afford the premium QBs and RBs this week, he’s the key to making it happen.

A familiar face tops the list as this week’s Air Yards ultimate value. We’ve discussed Adam Thielen twice before in this series. He remains the passing game in Minnesota despite the Justin Jefferson’s emergence. Thielen has cleared 100 Air Yards each week this season, finishing with over 25 fantasy points in each of the past two weeks. Facing the Falcons in Week 6, Thielen has a great matchup to exploit and has the opportunity to finish as the WR1 on the week.

With D.J. Chark trending towards being out, Chris Conley will look to take over as the field-stretching target for the Jaguars in Week 6. The last time Chark missed time, Conley saw over 160 Air Yards. However, he failed to realize any of the opportunity, posting only 6.4 (No. 66) fantasy points in Week 3 against the Dolphins. In a potential shootout with the Lions in Week 6, Conley has a chance to be on the lucky side of variance and finally realize some Air Yards.

Jonathan Taylor has 19 Red Zone touches in five games, good for No. 9 among qualified running backs. Taylor has turned those 19 opportunities into three (No. 15) touchdowns. Indianapolis plays a depleted Bengals defense that lost defensive line starters Sam Hubbard and D.J. Reader last week. The Bengals are No. 31 against the run in 2020, and without their top run defender in Reader, expect Taylor to melt this game away on the ground.

In Week 2, rookie Chase Claypool burst onto the scene with an 85-yard touchdown reception. Since then, his Snap Share has doubled from 36.5-percent up to 72.7-percent. In Week 5, with Darius Slay as his main defender, Claypool took the Eagles for a crazy 7-110-3 stat line in the air. With Diontae Johnson hobbled, Ben Roethlisberger will rely on Claypool and JuJu Smith-Schuster, who has a 73.4-percent (No. 13) Slot Rate and 120.5 (No. 13) Yards After Catch.