Whether you are playing real football or fantasy football, one of the biggest things that one needs to avoid is turning the ball over. Every great quarterback has thrown an interception and every great running back, wide receiver or tight end has fumbled the ball. What makes someone great is that they can contain any damage that a turnover causes and ultimately nullify the adverse effects that the mistake causes. Throwing a bunch of touchdown passes or getting into the endzone in general is a great way to erase a mistake, particularly if that player is on your fantasy roster. If not, their mistakes become a very large anchor on a fantasy football week that should have been a lot better. This week’s “Heroes and Villains” explores just such a phenomenon and lets you all know what players were able to overcome and what player now sleeps with the fishes.
(As always, all scores discussed in this article use a ½ PPR scoring structure)
Heroes:
His Performance was Simply Tevin-ly!!
When Tevin Coleman signed a free agent contract with the San Francisco 49’ers, the thought was that he would be the starter from day one, a spot that eluded him in Atlanta having backed up Devonta Freeman for the last four years. After sustaining a high ankle sprain the first week of the season, Coleman had to sit for a couple weeks as Matt Breida and Raheem Mostart put up some impressive stats. However, since Coleman has come back, he has been spending a lot of time splitting carries, which has depressed his yardage output a bit. However, Coleman has been dependable in that he has scored in three of the four games since his return from injury. That came to a head this past Sunday vs. the Carolina Panthers, a reliably good defensive team, who just ran into a 49’ers juggernaut that pounded that Panthers defense. In this game, Coleman would make the most out of his carries, as he would only run the ball 11 times, but he put up 105 yards, while getting into the endzone four times, including a receiving TD. His 37 points ranked him second among all running backs in the NFL last week, behind only Aaron Jones and his ridiculous game against the Chiefs. While Head Coach Kyle Shannahan will use his offensive genius to make sure that not only Coleman, but Matt Breida and Raheem Mostart get their share of carries, look for Coleman to ultimately be the primary beneficiary of an increasingly heavy workload for an improving 49’ers offense.
The Saints Have a Good Running Back Problem
With Alvin Kamara missing a few games with ankle and knee injury and along with the injury to Drew Brees, one would have been hard pressed to find anyone that would have thought the combination of Teddy Bridgewater at QB and Latavius Murray at running back would produce the offensive explosion that it ended up being. After a down year in 2018 in Minnesota, Murray signed a four-year contract with the Saints to back up Alvin Kamara on the same day that previous Saints RB Mark Ingram left to sign his own three-year contract with the Baltimore Ravens. In the two games since Kamara’s injury, Murray has rushed for a combined 221 yards and scored 3 touchdowns while also catching one TD pass. His 62 combined fantasy points in those two weeks lead the NFL for running backs. With Kamara due back after the bye week, Murray won’t come near the 83% of the offensive snaps that he has seen in the last couple weeks, but he also most likely won’t go back to the mid 30% that he was seeing up until Week Seven. Look for an increased workload and potentially dual running back sets for the rest of the season in New Orleans.
Happy Golladay’s to the Receiver in Detroit
On last week’s Fantasy In Frames Fantasy Football Podcast, I made a comment where I said that Kenny Golladay was not having the greatest season, I am not sure what exactly was going through my mind at that moment, but after a better review of Golladay’s fantasy statistics, I have to say that not only has Golladay had a really good fantasy football season (save for two clunkers against Philadelphia and Minnesota) but his point totals thus far rank him as WR13, ahead of All-Pros Adam Thielen, TY Hilton, JuJu Smith Schuster and Odell Beckham Jr. His best game of the season came last week against the woeful New York Giants, where Golladay was targeted eight times, catching six passes for 123 yards and two touchdowns. His six touchdowns on the season ties him for NFL lead. Golladay has been consistent per game in the number of targets he receives, 8 per game, he is Matthew Stafford’s number one target and with the Raiders up this week, Golladay will look to have another big game against the 30th ranked pass defense in the NFL.
This Logan is Not Just a Ball Hawk, He’s a Ball Wolverine!!
Logan Ryan is the third highest scoring fantasy football IDP in the NFL. He is the highest scoring defensive back and one of the most reliable IDP’s on a week-to-week basis. He gets his fair share of tackles for a cornerback, as well as 4 sacks He also has shown that he has a nose for the ball and will take it from an opponent bay any means necessary. Through the Titans first eight games, he has forced 3 fumbles (all in the last three weeks) and 3 interceptions. Last week’s win over Tampa Bay may have been his best game of the season as he had 8 tackles, 1 sack, a forced fumble and interception. His 14 fantasy point per game average ranks him third in the NFL among defensive backs and he faces the Carolina Panthers and their 25th rated passing offense.
Honorable Heroes:
Drew Brees (QB) – New Orleans Saints – 34/43 373 yards, 3 TDs, 1 Interception, 24.9 Fantasy Points
Daniel Jones (QB) – New York Giants – 28/41 322 yards, 4 TDs, 28.2 Fantasy Points
Aaron Jones (RB) – Green Bay Packers – 13 carries 67 yards, 7 receptions 159 yards, 2 TDs, 38.1 Fantasy Points
Mike Evans (WR) – Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 11 receptions 198 yards, 2 TD, 37.3 Fantasy Points
Cooper Kupp (WR) – Los Angeles Rams – 10 targets, 7 receptions 220 yards, 1 TD, 31.5 Fantasy Points
Jaime Collins Sr. (LB) – New England Patriots – 13 total tackles, 2 sacks, 24.8 Fantasy Points
Eric Reid (S) – Carolina Panthers – 8 tackles, 1 sack, 19.3 Fantasy Points
Villains:
Brissett Can Get Desperate If He Keeps Up Week 8’s Performance
Jacoby Brissett has not been consistently great this year, he has not been consistently bad either. While he came into this season under enormous scrutiny after the sudden retirement of Andrew Luck, he has been alright, and you can point to a positive performance thus far by the fact that the Colts are currently in first place in the AFC South with a 5-2 record. In the regular football world, that would make him a successful quarterback. Unfortunately, we live in a fantasy football world, and in that world when you throw for only 202 yards in a game, you better be chasing it with a few touchdowns. Unfortunately for Brissett, he might have used up some of those TDs the week before when he had a “Heroic” game against the Texans, throwing for 326 yards and four touchdowns. This week against Denver, Brissett could only muster up 11 fantasy points en route to one of his worst games of the season. (Colts won the game so remember real world results vs. fantasy football world results) However, a ray of sunshine in this otherwise villainous week is that Brissett has thrown for two or more touchdowns in five of the Colts seven games and the last time he had no touchdowns in a game he followed that up with the aforementioned four TD performance, so look out Steelers!!
Ain’t Noone Ringin’ Any Bells in the Meadowlands
Its always an odd thing when a star player works his way off a very successful team, ultimately signing a big money contract with a team that is vastly inferior. While there was not a point where Le’Veon Bell used the old trope that its not about the money, it is very hard to believe that someone of his skill would leave a perennially successful franchise like the Pittsburgh Steelers to sign with one of the league’s afterthoughts in the New York Jets. But here we are eight weeks in, and the Jets are one of the worst teams in the NFL and Bell is not nearly producing the monstrous fantasy stats that made him a top five fantasy draft pick in previous seasons. Week 8 was a prime example of how ineffective Bell has been this season; he only got 12 touches and once again could not find the endzone. His five points was his worst output of the season and his 11.7 average points per game ranks him as RB20. While Bell has a very favorable matchup this week against the awful Miami Dolphins, it will be interesting to see whether Jets Head Coach Adam Gase finds a way to get Bell the ball more and allow him to show off the skills that made him a three time Pro Bowler and one of the most deadly dual threat running backs in the NFL.
Chubb Was A Very Heroic Villain Last Week
In one of the most insanely schizophrenic fantasy stat line of the season, Nick Chubb turned what, for most running backs, should be a great game into a terribly villainous performance. Why do I say this? Because this could be the only time you will ever see a guy rush for 131 yards in a game and still appear on the Villains List. Why is he here? Well, first off it was surprising to see Chubb rush for that many yards against a Patriots defense that is eight weeks into what may be an all-time historically great season. The Pats defense has been so good that it is getting favorably compared to other historically great defenses like the ’85 Chicago Bears and the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. So, seeing Chubb amass that many yards against this team is simply amazing, however, one of the key reasons why the Patriots defense has been so amazing is that they are on a record pace to shatter all the turnover records. With that in mind we get back to Chubb, who along with rushing for the 131 yards, he also fumbled twice and never was able to get into the endzone. His 10 fantasy points could have been so much worse had it not been for the yards, (so much better had it not been for the fumbles) but either way that will not save him from making this list.
Jacobs Ladder Went Down This Week
Josh Jacobs is having an above average rookie season so far in 2019. He has been prone to a bit of inconsistent play, whereby he can have games where he looks like the next great young running back (Week Five against the Bears) and games where he is completely ineffective (Week Three against Minnesota). However, coming into his Week Eight matchup with the Houston Texans, Jacobs looked like he was busting through that rookie wall and starting to really find his stride in the NFL. In his previous two games against Chicago and Green Bay, Jacobs would rush for a combined 247 yards on 47 carries, a 5.2 yards per carry clip, while also scoring twice against a very good Bears defense and combining for 42 fantasy points. However, it just never happened for him against the Texans as he would rush only 15 times for 66 yards with no touchdowns. Now can you have a respectable score without getting into the endzone? The answer is yes, but you are going to have to turn in a performance much like Jacobs did the week before against the Packers, where he rushed for 124 yards and no touchdowns, he also caught three passes which aligned him with his weekly projection of 15 points. Last week, though, only saw a mediocre stat line which produced a mediocre fantasy score.
Dishonorable Villains
Philip Rivers (QB) – Los Angeles Chargers – 19/29 201 yards, 1 TD, 1 Int, 10 Fantasy Points
Kyler Murray (QB) – Arizona Cardinals – 19/33 220 yards, 2 rushes 13 yards, 10.1 Fantasy Points
TY Hilton (WR) – Indianapolis Colts – 6 targets, 2 receptions 54 yards, 6.4 Fantasy Points
Frank Gore (RB) – Buffalo Bills – 9 carries 34 yards, 3.4 Fantasy Points
Ken Sonnenberg – Writer, Podcast Co-Host – Fantasy In Frames – Stupidly saying that Kenny Golladay was not having a good season. Should have shown a lot more respect to a fellow Kenny!!