The fantasy football season is a quarter of the way completed. Week 4 is the latest data point in a growing sample. And since it’s the NFL, there were plenty of surprises, good and bad. Here is a full recap of some of the most noteworthy surprises and disappointments from Week 4. And below we dive into a few notable players.
- Waiver Wire Advice
- Weekly Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football Start/Sit Advice
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
Fantasy Football Outlook
Disappointments
The Bengals are Broken
Joe Burrow wasn’t listed on the injury report this week, providing some hope his calf was in better shape. Then, the Bengals embarrassed themselves offensively. Adding injury to insult, Tee Higgins suffered fractured ribs. Gamers have to bench Burrow for the time being. Furthermore, the ceilings are lowered for Ja’Marr Chase and Joe Mixon while the offense is scuffling.
Preseason QB Performances Don’t Matter
Kenny Pickett was a preseason superstar and has played dreadfully this year. Sadly, he suffered a knee injury this week. Still, mid-round rookie quarterbacks who were preseason darlings also played poorly in their NFL debuts in Week 4. Dorian Thompson-Robinson faceplanted against the Ravens, taking four sacks and throwing three interceptions, and Aidan O’Connell took seven sacks, threw one interception and lost two fumbles against the Chargers.
The speed of NFL regular season contests and facing non-vanilla defenses is a different animal for quarterbacks than playing in the preseason. This was a perfect reminder for those who needed it.
Denver’s Defense is Historically Inept
The Dolphins hung 70 points on the Broncos in Week 3, which might be less embarrassing than coughing up 28 points to Justin Fields and the Bears in Week 4. Chicago scored 20 points in Week 1, slipped to 17 in Week 2 and bottomed out at 10 points in Week 3 before lighting up Denver’s defense.
The Broncos’ defensive ineptitude in Week 4 was the latest failure in a season filled with faceplanting. In fact, according to Aaron Schatz, Denver’s defense has the worst defense Defense-Adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA) through four games since DVOA has been tracked.
Steve Palazzolo from PFF also shared an eye-catching example of Denver’s defense’s comical failure.
Facing Denver is a magic elixir for struggling offenses and a chance for talented offenses to pad stats.
Atlanta Needs to Make a Change
The Falcons must pull the plug on Desmond Ridder. The second-year quarterback passed for only 191 yards on 31 attempts against the Jaguars. Yet, Ridder’s two interceptions and four sacks were more alarming. Ridder was mentioned in this section last week for his sack-taking issue, and he sprinkled two interceptions on for good measure.
Taylor Heinicke is lurking and would represent an upgrade at the position. Drake London salvaged his line in Week 4 by reaching paydirt. However, a change to Heinicke could substantially increase London’s fantasy value.
When Heinicke started from Week 7 through Week 16 for the Commanders last season, Terry McLaurin was the WR16 in half-PPR scoring points per game among wide receivers who played at least three games. It might be worth putting out feelers to find out the asking price for London before the Falcons bench Ridder.
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Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.