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. This piece will recap some of the most noteworthy surprises and disappointments from Week 4.

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Surprises

Gang Green’s Offense Has Life

Zach Wilson had a career-best performance against the Chiefs on Sunday night. He completed 71.8% of 39 pass attempts for 245 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions. In addition, the third-year quarterback was sacked just twice.

Wilson wisely peppered Garrett Wilson with a team-high 14 targets and spread the ball around behind him, targeting nine other players, but Tyler Conklin (six targets) was the only other player targeted at least five times. The young quarterback doesn’t have to match his Week 4 performance to give his stud second-year wideout and Breece Hall a chance to settle in as reliable fantasy assets. Wilson merely has to avoid being a trainwreck.

The Chiefs Have a Workhorse Running Back

Isiah Pacheco is the guy in Kansas City’s backfield. According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), Pacheco played 42 snaps and ran 16 routes, followed by 22 and 11 for Jerick McKinnon and six and three for Clyde Edwards-Helaire in Week 4.

The second-year running back also handled 76.9% of the backfield’s 26 rush attempts. Pacheco steamrolled Gang Green’s top-shelf defense for 115 yards and a touchdown on the ground and secured three receptions for 43 yards on three targets. Pacheco is a high-end RB2 and can creep into the RB1 discussion if his Week 4 usage is a sign of things to come.

Drew Petzing Has Something Cooking in the Desert

The Cardinals moved the ball against San Francisco’s vaunted defense after doing the same against Dallas’s hyped-up defense in Week 3. Joshua Dobbs is justifiably getting credit for playing well, but offensive coordinator Drew Petzing also deserves credit for concocting a productive offense.

Petzing is a relatively young (36 years old) coach and a first-time offensive coordinator. Interestingly, he was Cleveland’s quarterbacks coach in 2022, and Jacoby Brissett had a career year for the Browns. Arizona’s offense is a legitimate source of fantasy goodness, namely James Conner, Marquise Brown and rookie Michael Wilson. Gamers should no longer view them as a plucky underdog. Finally, gamers who need a quarterback in 12-team leagues or larger with medium-sized or deeper benches should consider stashing Kyler Murray — and he’s a no-brainer addition in leagues with an IR spot if it’s not in use.

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.

The Denver Broncos now have the worst defense ever tracked by DVOA through 4 games.

(Higher defensive DVOA = more scoring = worse) pic.twitter.com/VgCW32DORs

– Aaron Schatz ? (@ASchatzNFL) October 2, 2023

Steve Palazzolo from PFF also shared an eye-catching example of Denver’s defense’s comical failure.

Broncos haven’t forced a non-Hail Mary incompletion in the first half since Week 2 https://t.co/l343O2zv7F

– Steve Palazzolo (@PFF_Steve) October 2, 2023

Facing Denver is a magic elixir for struggling offenses and a chance for talented offenses to pad stats.

Miscellaneous Note

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.

Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.