This was a frustrating week. You can blame the weather, the numerous teams on bye, or Marvin Lewis. In fact it’s always fun to blame Marvin Lewis. This week marks the sort of halfway point to the season. The trade deadline is approaching Tuesday so settle in and hear me out.
Sell Will Fuller
A couple weeks back I mentioned that Fuller and some of the other Texans should be sold because the schedule got tougher. For the most part, the schedule has gotten tougher, but the Texans don’t really give a damn and they keep playing great football. I’m even one of those people that touted his “unsustainable touchdown” rate aaaaaand here we are, he’s sustaining it. As of right now he has seven touchdowns on 13 catches. The yards per catch is impressive, but possibly his most impressive game came in his weakest matchup to date (on the road in Seattle). Can Fuller keep this up? Yeah it’s very possible. And if you’ve started him then that’s awesome and you deserve all the praise in the world. He gets one more solid matchup next week at home against the Colts. Indianapolis is one of the worst defenses in the league against the passing game. They surrender just under 300 passing yards per game and they lost rookie Malik Hooker last week for the rest of the season. Fuller should easily put up solid numbers again next week, at which point you should start shopping him around to other owners in your league. He’s arguably putting up WR1 numbers and you can get a decent haul for him.
The reasoning for selling Fuller is simple: the fantasy playoff schedule for Fuller isn’t great. And that’s what people said about this matchup against the Seahawks too! Hopefully you can sell Fuller to a team trying to make the playoffs, but in Weeks 15 and 16 the Texans are on the road in Jacksonville and then home to Pittsburgh. That means he’s facing arguably the two best secondaries in the NFL in the most crucial time of year for fantasy players. Hang on to him in Week 9 if you need him. The matchup is great against the Colts. Hopefully he has another great outing to drive his price tag up and you can get a good haul for him.
Still NOT Quitting on the Raiders
And I very well might be alone here. Look I was a fan of the Bills, Eagles, and Patriots DST’s in my DST coach piece. West coast teams simply don’t travel well playing on the East coast. It’s that whole body clock thing and blah blah blah. This was almost like a 10:00 a.m. game for the Raiders. Sure they had a longer break to prepare for this game, but it’s still difficult making that adjustment. Was Sunday’s performance disappointing? You bet’cha! And they play down in Miami next week too. But the team isn’t travelling back to Oakland to just travel back to South Beach next week. Instead they’re staying on the East coast and will continue to prep for next week’s game in Bradenton, Florida.
As far as this week goes, Derek Carr managed to throw for over 300 yards, but he did have two picks. The running game was non-existant without Marshawn Lynch as the Raiders’ RB’s collected 54 rushing yards on 14 carries. Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper both saw ten targets and will both contribute going forward and they’ll be fine. This was just a bad performance for Oakland. After their Bye week they play the Patriots in Mexico City, which isn’t necessarily a true home game, but New England still gives up a lot of passing yards and the fantasy playoff schedule for the Raiders passing attack is still looking good. They face the Chiefs, Cowboys, and Eagles and neither of those teams have elite secondaries right now. Don’t. Jump. Ship.
Has the Joe Mixon “Breakout Game” Already Happened?
Yeah and it honestly might have been today as uneventful as it was. Out of 56 snaps here’s how they broke down for the Bengals backfield on Sunday:
Joe Mixon: 34
Giovani Bernard: 15
Jeremy Hill: 8
So he’s getting on the field and he had 14 total touches for 109 all-purpose yards. By all accounts he’s a RB2/Flex option. Hill and Bernard totaled six carries for 15 yards. So for what it’s worth the Bengals are putting forth the effort to get Mixon more involved. Unfortunately the bigger numbers aren’t surfacing. Mixon did also fumble and that deducted two points from his total, but the workload is there. Unfortunately he has just one touchdown on the year. Next week Mixon draws the Jaguars in Jacksonville. They’ll be fresh off their Bye week and they just acquired Marcell Dareus. Dareus could contribute some sacks, but more importantly he’ll plug the holes up the middle to prevent the run. Mixon is still a viable fantasy option. He’s getting the workload especially in the passing game, but he’ll need to fall into the end zone a little more to please fantasy owners. Unfortunately he might average about 11-13 points per week, which is fine. But it’s certainly no breakout.
Stash/Still Buy Low on Martavis Bryant
Last week I mentioned buying insanely low on Martavis Bryant. Hopefully you did or claimed him off waivers in some form or fashion. The thing with Bryant is that he was suspended by the team prior to Sunday night’s game after making some comments on social media comparing himself to another player on his team (Juju Smith-Schuster). They weren’t damning comments by any means, Bryant was just defending his own talent. But it’s not something the team was keen on seeing. So they’re apparently sitting him for tonight’s game.
All reports indicate the Steelers won’t trade Bryant. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t listening. The Patriots apparently inquired about Bryant during the draft this past April, but the Steelers weren’t budging. Nor should they. I’m still optimistic about Bryant. If the Steelers trade him hopefully it’s to an offense that uses him more. If they don’t trade him hopefully they come out of their Bye week with renewed faith and get him more involved starting Week 10 after sitting him down, talking it out, getting on the same page, etc. The Steelers are still in contention in the AFC. Why trade a healthy Bryant away to an opponent? Bryant is a big deep threat for them and he’s a piece that defenses still account for. They’ve struggled getting him the ball, but there’s still plenty of season left for Bryant and Big Ben to get on the same page.
Pick Up Some Seahawks for Week 9
The Seahawks and Texans played the “Game of the Year” surpassing the Rams/49ers game on Thursday Night Football a few weeks back. One thing we can take away is adding a couple guys available on waivers: Tyler Lockett and Paul Richardson. In his last two games Richardson has three touchdowns on nine targets for 166 receiving yards. Likewise Lockett has ten catches on 15 targets over his last two games for 150 receiving yards. Both guys are under 25% owned and can be grabbed off waivers especially if you need help next week. Next week there are plenty of teams on Bye and plenty of pass catchers like Keenan Allen, Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs, Kyle Rudolph, Rob Gronkowski, Danny Amendola, Chris Hogan, Brandin Cooks, Antonio Brown, Martavis Bryant (HAHA), etc. will all be on Bye. Next week Seattle faces Washington and both guys could continue their recent hot streaks.
Do You Start Kirk Cousins Next Week?
It’s not entirely his fault though. Washington is dealing with an insane amount of injuries to their O-Line. Trent Williams, one of the best offensive tackles in the league, was declared inactive before the game. Spencer Long, Ty Nsekhe, Morgan Moses, and Brandon Scherff are all dealing with injuries as well. The weakness at O-Line was very present today. Cousins was sacked four times and hit an additional eight times. The running game struggled as they totaled just 49 yards on 15 carries. Jordan Reed got hurt again and Terrelle Pryor Sr. remains ineffective in this offense. As mentioned in the last section, Washington travels West next week for a date with the Seahawks. Deshaun Watson and the Texans explosive offense managed to go out and get over 500 yards of offense, but the Redskins aren’t as healthy as Houston right now. Cousins has been a top ten QB this year, but with these offensive line woes Cousins could certainly struggle the next couple weeks. Given how many teams are on Bye next week you still might have to start Cousins, but it won’t be pretty.