Let’s plunge into Week 4. As always, feel free to use these tiered rankings as a tiebreaker for your difficult lineup decisions. Beneath the tiers, I’ll offer a few brief thoughts on some of the borderline start/sit guys and some other interesting cases. Here are my full fantasy football rankings and tiers for Week 4. Below we’ll dive into a few notable players.
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Fitz’s Fantasy Football Week 4 Outlook
Colts rookie Anthony Richardson is averaging 0.46 fantasy points per snap. Here’s how that compares to the three highest-drafted QBs so far: Patrick Mahomes 0.36, Josh Allen 0.29, Jalen Hurt 0.27. Granted, 87 snaps amount to a raindrop-sized sample, but it’s still a good reminder that Richardson has already earned must-start status. If you gave Joe Burrow investors a shot of sodium pentothal, nearly all of them would trade Burrow for Richardson straight-up.
The prospect of starting Daniel Jones is frightening after his 5-point performance against the 49ers in Week 3, but a much easier matchup against the Seahawks this week puts Jones in low-end QB1/high-end QB2 territory. The Giants will be at home facing a Seattle defense allowing 328 passing yards per game. The Giants’ offensive line can’t possibly turn in another performance as dreadful as the one they turned in against San Francisco a week ago. The Seahawks have the third-lowest pressure rate in the league (16.7%), so Jones should have time to operate.
To those fretting about the possibility that the 49ers will build a huge early lead and potentially curb Brock Purdy’s fantasy numbers by setting up an ultra-run-friendly game script … relax. Sure, that could happen, but don’t make it the reason you bench Purdy this week. If the 49ers build a big early lead against the Cardinals, Purdy will probably be contributing to that. Look at what happened last week: The 49ers were double-digit home favorites against the Giants, kept the Giants at arm’s length throughout the game and won by 18 points, and Purdy still finished with 310 passing yards and two touchdowns. Making assumptions about game scripts is unwise. Don’t let a stroll down Narrative Street turn into a midnight trip into a dark alley.
As dismal as the start of the season has been for the 0-3 Broncos, Russell Wilson isn’t to blame for Denver’s ills. Wilson is completing 65.4% of his throws, and he’s averaging 7.6 yards per attempt and 263.7 passing yards per game. A QB14 ranking may be too conservative for Wilson against the struggling Bears, who have a feeble pass rush and major injury problems in their secondary.
-Pat Fitzmaurice
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