Fantasy Football: What To Watch For In Week 6
Hey there #Footclan, and welcome back to the weekly series, “What To Watch For“. Each week we take a look at the schedule and the matchups and point out some interesting things that we all should pay attention to. These can be something simple, or those ongoing burning questions we have in the back of our minds. Let’s take a look at Week 6.
Can the Chiefs stay undefeated?
Here we are in a brand new week, yet we continue to hold our breath as the only undefeated team, the Chiefs, are playing at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Alex Smith continues to surge, playing the best football he has played in his career. It seems that instead of paranoia and distrust with the draft pick to bring in the Chiefs future playmaker in Patrick Mahomes, it has a lit a fire under Smith and his play has brought the entire team together with a goal of a long playoff run. The Chiefs are getting it done with the smart playmaking of Mr. Smith with a QB Rating of 68.1, which is ahead of the likes of Tom Brady and Matt Ryan. Add in rookie RB sensation, “Krispy” Kareem Hunt, who has at least 13.1 fantasy points in all 5 weeks of the season so far in Half PPR.
The Steelers, also boast a great backfield led by stud Le’Veon Bell and can brag with one of the best wideouts in the NFL in Antonio Brown. The Chiefs offense has scored 30.2 points per game (best in NFL) but The Steelers defense has allowed just 14.8 points per game to opposing offenses (best in NFL). We get to see it unfold in the Sunday evening slate.
Jacoby Brissett: QB Streamer for Week 6
As Indianapolis’ franchise quarterback Andrew Luck continues to sit and heal completely from his off-season shoulder surgery, Jacoby Brissett has taken the helm. He has actually proven in recent weeks that if the matchup is polite to him, he is very capable of producing fantasy points for owners that are in a pinch.In plus matchups against Cleveland and the 49ers, Brissett put up in 29.4 and 17.4 points in 6-point per passing TD leagues. In both of those matchups he eclipsed over 250 passing yards, and with Brissett being more of a mobile QB compared to Luck, he had 8 rushing attempts his 3rd rushing touchdown of the season last week. This week Jacoby has another fair matchup against the Tennessee Titans, who can be passed on easily because of a weak secondary. After seeing Deshaun Watson burn them for 5 touchdowns just this past week, we can expect Brissett to have his way through the
In plus matchups against Cleveland and the 49ers, Brissett put up in 29.4 and 17.4 points in 6-point per passing TD leagues. In both of those matchups he eclipsed over 250 passing yards, and with Brissett being more of a mobile QB compared to Luck, he had 8 rushing attempts his 3rd rushing touchdown of the season last week. This week Jacoby has another fair matchup against the Tennessee Titans, who can be passed on easily because of a weak secondary. After seeing Deshaun Watson burn them for 5 touchdowns just this past week, we can expect Brissett to have his way through the air, and can add those additional rushing yards for a nice stat line this weekend. We will have to wait for the primetime spot on Monday Night Football to watch it unfold.
C.J. Anderson vs New York Giants
C.J. Anderson is in one of the absolute best spots to put up huge fantasy numbers against a New York Giants’ defense that just last week was demolished by Melvin Gordon. They’re allowing the fourth most rush yards per game (139) so far this season. Needless to say, this isn’t the same New York defense we saw last year against the run.
Anderson has had over 20 touches in three of his four games played, and is running behind a much improved Denver offensive line that’s generating 143 rush yards per game. Anderson is averaging 82.5 rush yards per game and 4 yards per carry. He only struggled against the Buffalo Bills who have one of the best run-stopping units in the league along with the Denver Broncos who now call their run defense “Ground Control”.
With a scary and absurd amount of injuries to the Giants offense, it’s difficult to remotely imagine they’ll be able to keep any time of possession against Denver, and score more than a few field goals at best. This means it leaves the New York defense on the field for very long periods of time. That should wear them down quickly even before halftime, and leaving Anderson multiple opportunities and volume. I expect to see C.J. as one of the top producing fantasy RBs this week overall.
The Clemson Tiger Connection: Deshaun Watson to DeAndre Hopkins
In what seems to be the hottest pairing of QB and WR of the year, ever since Deshaun Watson started officially for the Houston Texans, he has peppered fellow Clemson alumni DeAndre Hopkins for a ridiculous amount of receptions, 35 to be exact, and already has 5 touchdowns for the season ( 3 just last week) and has 363 yards receiving, averaging 72.6 yards per game according to Rotoworld.com.
In what seems to be the hottest QB/WR pairing of the year, ever since Deshaun Watson took over as the starter for Texans, he has peppered fellow Clemson alumni DeAndre Hopkins with targets. Hopkins has 35 receptions, 363 receiving yards, and 5 touchdowns on the season.
In DFS, we call this a “stack” and thrown out weekly in order to win some cash games, but this same strategy can be used in normal fantasy football as well. Hopefully, you were able to get Watson off of waivers or traded for earlier in the season when he only had just one of his rushing touchdowns. In order to obtain “Nuk,” if you don’t have him already, a good strategy is to pair a WR with a stronger RB together in an offer to go get him. Of course, if the owner’s roster shows holes in other positions like QB or TE, don’t ignore them if you can afford to send one away or have one on your bench clogging it up that you could stream instead on bye weeks if need be. Just don’t be afraid to go after a guy if the pattern continues and the flames stay hot.
Yes eventually there will be tougher matchups, but if this team is having to play from behind, then Watson has proven he can be the new “Garbage Time King” and his favorite place to dump those passes are to his favorite receiver in DeAndre Hopkins.