Stefon Diggs did exactly what I expected he would accomplish when I placed him on my bench in favor of Dede Westbrook for my Week Six roster. My wife and I were in Palm Springs celebrating some ‘big’ birthdays with friends when I receive a text from the GM I am playing in Week Six. Text simply read “Diggs” with a couple emoticon faces to make it hurt just a little more. I knew from his tone, I blew it. I checked the box scores and low and behold, boom… bench explosion. My immediate text response was “Yup! Had to… Too Bad.” Funny thing is that I ended up winning that contest by 42.1 points and my opponent maxed out at 80.5 points. Why am a pointing out that I left Diggs on my bench? Exposing a flaw to my game? As a General Manager of a fantasy football team, you will make decisions that will ultimately be the wrong ones. Try not to beat yourself up too bad as that is fantasy sports in a nutshell as we unfortunately cannot predict game outcomes like Biff Tannen while using the Gray’s Sports Almanac from Back to the Future 2. That movie came out in 1989, I was in 9th grade, now are you understanding the ‘big’ birthday?

Diggs was only started in 44.8% of ESPN Leagues Sunday, his lowest start percentage number of 2019. Looks like many owners did the same as I did, but I wonder how many made it out with a “Dub”. Week in and week out the goal for me in fantasy is to score as many points as possible. That goes for every starting position, easy enough right. I was worried about Diggs under performing again as a starter, so I explored options available on my bench (as well as waivers). Sometimes you must take into effect what a player’s floor is compared to his name and weekly performances. As I set back and recollect, I still would have made the same maneuver every time. I simply thought Westbrook had a safer floor and I was willing to sacrifice at that spot. In the long run, bad coaching decision but still got the win. Hopefully you were able to come away with victory, but if not… don’t give up. Below are guys on my radar, dudes that can help your team. Dissly owners, I feel ya… time to go back to the drawing board. Hopefully these will help your search efforts for bye week fill ins.

Week Seven we have four teams on bye and they all include big names: Steelers, Browns, Panthers & Buccaneers.

Remember my waiver finds are for deeper leagues as that is what I play in. Guys listed below are owned in less than 40% of leagues. So if options like Latavius Murray and Jamison Crowder are available, of course you grab them before dudes below. Study up and as the famous Sir Mix-A-Lot would say “Get Busy!”

Quarterbacks

Sam Darnold (NYJ)
Ownership: 8% ESPN, 16% Yahoo

Week Six: 23/32, 338 yards passing, two touchdowns and one interception. Rushed five times for one yard.

Tough match coming up for the Jets at home against the Patriots. Darnold should need to throw to keep up but I wouldn’t expect stellar numbers. What is interesting is that the offense did look good with Darnold back under center against the Cowboys. Le’Veon Bell, Jamison Crowder and Robbie Anderson all were peppered with touches and that should continue into Week Seven. Something to take note of is Darnold’s pancake schedule that is coming up. Weeks 9-14 look like this: Week 9 at MIA, Week 10 Home against the Giants, Week 11 at Washington, Week 12 Home versus Oakland, Week 13 at Cincinnati and Week 14 Home against the Dolphins. Another tidbit, Jamison Crowder now has 28 targets with Darnold under center. He has caught 20 for 197 yards.

Teddy Bridgewater (NO)
Ownership: 29% ESPN, 20% Yahoo

Week Six: 24/36, 240 yards passing and one touchdown. Carried the ball three times for zero yards.

Teddy has now won seven of his last eight road starts. This week the Saints travel to Soldier Field to take on the Bears coming off of a bye. Sure Chicago is the 4th best defense in football, but their offense is still putrid at 30th. Enough playing time for Teddy to get a nice floor. Plus, if for some reason Drew Brees cannot return in Week Eight when the Cardinals come into the Superdome, Bridgewater would have a tasty match up. I like the odds of multiple receiving touchdowns when Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara are your weapons. Saints have covered the spread in fifteen straight October games.

Running Backs

Jamaal Williams (GB)
Ownership: 26% ESPN, 17% Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage: (Will update when stats are available)

Week Six: 14 carries for 104 yards, caught four of five targets for 32 yards and pay dirt.

Aaron Jones goes from the biggest stud in Week Five with four rushing touchdowns to banished to the doghouse for a lost fumble and a easy 30 yard touchdown reception that was blundered away. Enter Jamaal Williams back from concussion and was electric. Running hard every attempt and was handed the lead roll to victory. Gonna be difficult to read usage going forward, but Aaron Jones owners better prioritize Williams as others owners are gonna jump in the war to acquire him. Great showing on MNF and must late add entry to the wire options.

Mark Walton (MIA)
Ownership: 1% ESPN, 5% Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage: 42%

Week Six: Six carries for 32 yards and hauled in five of six targets good for 43 yards receiving.

I expect the Dolphins to give more looks to Mark Walton as what do they have to lose being 0-5 to start the year. In Week Six, Kalen Ballage saw only 4 snaps, Walton was second with 32 and Kenyan Drake saw 46. Drake touched the ball 16 times compared to Walton’s 11, but Walton was more productive on the ground and in the air. Flex consideration.

Alexander Mattison (MIN)
Ownership: 16% ESPN, 22% Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage: 30%

Week Six: 14 carries for 63 yards and no targets in the passing game.

Two fewer carries than Dalvin Cook in Week Six and out rushed him by 22 yards. If you own Cook, make sure you handcuff him with Mattison. If Cook was to go down, RB1 no doubt. Right now Minnesota is starting to ease back on the volume of Cook for the long haul. Closest free agent to consuming RB1 type volume.

Darrell Henderson (LAR)
Ownership: 21% ESPN, 28% Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage: 32%

Week Six: Six carries for 39 yards and hauled in a nine yard reception from two targets. Lost a fumble.

Not much work this past Sunday as the Rams were simply horrible on offense or the 49ers are just a force to be reckoned with. Henderson’s value hinges on Todd Gurley’s status and the ailing quad. Week seven the Rams travel to Atlanta and are at home to Cincinnati the following week. If Gurley is to sit, pretty confident you would get value out of Darrell. Lots of running backs will be out Week Seven due to byes: James Conner, Nick Chubb, Christian McCaffrey, Peyton Barber and Ronald Jones II. In Week Eight both Ezekiel Elliott and Mark Ingram have byes. We have no clear cut starting running backs this week on waivers, just fliers… Keep tabs on Gurley’s status through the week. Malcom Brown did nothing to warrant more volume (11 carries for 40 yards and no targets in the passing game but did get three Red Zone carries).

Benny Snell Jr. (PIT)
Ownership: 2% ESPN, 25 Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage: 48%

Week Six: 17 rushes for 75 yards and reeled in one catch for 14 yards.

James Conner was injured but luckily Steelers are heading into bye week. Must own for James Conner owners as a handcuff. Jaylen Samuels was the handcuff but he is injured and should be out a few more weeks. Handcuffs are now becoming very important. If the Steelers weren’t on a bye this week, Snell would be one of the top waiver adds.

Wide Receivers

Auden Tate (CIN)
Ownership:19% ESPN, 23% Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage: 90%

Week Six: Twelve targets and hauled in five for 91 yards receiving.

Led the team in targets (12) and if A.J. Green was to sit again, worthy of a flex spot if not more due to volume alone. Auden Tate received two Red Zone targets vs. Tyler Boyd’s one. Decent value until Green comes back as the Bengals are 0-6, time to make sure evaluations are on point for the future, Auden should be a piece. Six plus targets in last four games.

Demaryius Thomas (NYJ)
Ownership: 4% ESPN, 4% Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage: 81%

Week Six: Five targets and caught four for 62 yards.

Sam Darnold is back which could mean continued improvement in the passing game for the entire Jets offense. This week will be tough against the Patriots, but Thomas has been a part of the offense over the past two weeks. He has now has caught four balls in two straight. Jets have four fantasy friendly match ups in their upcoming schedule: two against Miami and Giants at home and travel to Cincinnati.

Darius Slayton (NYG)
Ownership: 5% ESPN, 3% Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage: 98%

Week Six: Saw eight targets, caught three of them for 32 yards.

Sterling Shepard still in concussion protocol, Engram still banged up. Slayton was second in targets behind Golden Tate (9) in Week Six. Monitor injury reports but could be a decent PPR fill in.

Tavon Austin (DAL)
Ownership: 0%
Week Six Snap Percentage: 93%

Week Six: Caught five of six targets good for 64 yards receiving.

Amari Cooper has a bruised thigh with no structural damage but was said to be in a lot of pain after the Week Six loss. Randall Cobb is also banged up and missed Week Six which opened up a spot for Tavon to be seen once again. Looked good in with his touches and if Cooper and Cobb sit, good flex consideration. Keep tabs on Devin Smith as he also has been out the last two weeks too. Dak has seen better days.

Jakobi Meyers (NE)
Ownership: 1% ESPN, 1% Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage:70%

Week Six: Saw four targets, caught them all for 54 yards receiving.

Someone has to be a target for Brady. If Phillip Dorsett is still on the shelf & Flash Gordon is out with his knee injury, Jakobi could see another week with lots of time on the playing field as him and Edelman would man the two receiver sets. I like having parts of NE, they always have huge ceiling potential. Ben Watson was resigned, but I can’t imagine them feeding him much. I see a great PPR Flex play with a decent floor, if the starting position is his for Week Seven.

Tight Ends

Darren Fells (HOU)
Ownership: 2% ESPN, 3% Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage: 87%

Week Six: Seven targets sent his way and snagged six for 69 yards.

If you lost Dissly, this is a great target due to volume. Last two weeks, Fells has finished in the top six in the TE position. Week Five scored 16 in PPR and Week Six scored 12.9 in points per reception formats (PPR). Led the team in receiving. Tight end is rough sledding.

Cameron Brate (TB)
Ownership: 1% ESPN, 1% Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage: 38%

Week Six: Caught two of four targets good for 47 yards and a touchdown.
We have seen in the past the Jameison Winston connection with Brate in the Red Zone and it looks to continue with a Red Zone TD in Week Six. He is extremely touchdown dependent, but many TE owners could be dart throwing. Remember, he does have a bye Week Seven, but does have Arizona and Atlanta before fantasy playoffs. Pour some out for OJ, geesh.

Ricky Seals-Jones (CLE)
Ownership: 2% ESPN, 3% Yahoo
Week Six Snap Percentage: 68%

Week Six: Three catches off of six targets for 47 yards and a touchdown.
Cleveland is also on a bye, but RSJ has had two nice fantasy games out of the last three. Week Four at Baltimore he caught all three targets for 82 yards and a TD. Week Six (See Above). Week Five was against SF, they are ridiculous. Defenses have to pay attention to OBJ and Chubb, which could make more open space for Ricky. Once again, dismal abyss we know as tight end.

Chris Herndon IV (NYJ)
Ownership: 25% ESPN, 27% Yahoo

Just activated from suspension list and why not take a flier on him with the position being so beat up. The pancake schedule coming up is also enticing (See Above). Do not feel you can pick him up and plug him in against New England and feel comfortable. But better opportunities lie ahead.

 

Separation time! We start to see who the beasts are compared to the struggling to survive. To those who get handed good match ups this week due to byes and injury, makes life easier. For those who are decimated and questioning their starters, I understand. This season has been nutso and I think it might just continue that way. Stay active is my motto. Check out other team’s rosters and see if you can help them and yourself at the same time with a trade. Remember, we all make mistakes when setting your lineups. Do you best to avoid goose eggs. Points are points. I want to tell you all, good luck! We are all counting on you. Now go wreak havoc on the wire.

Todd D Clark – Fantasy Bro

Follow me on Twitter @Lunchmade