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
The season-ending injury to Mike Williams gives immediate fantasy relevance to Chargers WRs Joshua Palmer and Quentin Johnston. Through three games, Palmer has a 60.0% snap share, Johnston a 22.3% snap share. With Palmer to become a fixture in two-receiver sets, his snap share should approach 90% this week, and Johnston should have a snap share north of 50% as a regular in three-receiver sets. I think Palmer is the better play this week, and I have him ranked as a midrange WR4 in a favorable matchup against the Raiders. I don’t think Palmer is much more than a replacement-level receiver, however, and I think Johnston is the better long-term play. A first-round draft pick from TCU, Johnston has pretty much everything you’d want from an NFL receiver except for reliable hands. If he can overcome his drop issues, QJ could become a star. For this week, however, he’s just a midrange WR5.
Elijah Moore is on pace for 85 receptions, but his production thus far has been little more than empty PPR calories. He has 15 catches for 128 yards and no touchdowns. Moore is averaging 8.5 yards per catch and 5.1 yards per target. His average depth of target is 7.8 yards, which is almost four yards shorter than his career average. This week, Moore faces the Ravens in a game that sets up as a classic, low-scoring AFC North rock fight. I’m ranking Moore as a lower-end WR4.
Speaking of low average depths of target, Seattle rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba has an aDOT of 2.7 yards. JSN is a wildly talented young receiver, but when your targets are coming that close to the line of scrimmage, it’s going to be hard to pop unless you’re getting peppered with targets. That hasn’t been the case, with Smith-Njigba averaging 4.7 targets per game. I’m still sneaking JSN into my top 50 at the position because I think he’s a future star, but his usage suggests that caution is warranted in any lineup decisions that involve the former Ohio State star.
-Pat Fitzmaurice
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