Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. In this edition. Detroit's Johnson & Johnson backfield. Are the Rams ready to shuffle the deck at running back? Odell Beckham against New England's lock-down defense. And can Sam Darnold turn things around?
Question 1
The update didn't account for Kerryon going to IR. Ty Johnson a hot commodity. Where would you rank him rest of the way?
Andrew Beach (Toronto, ON)
I don’t know that Ty Johnson (pictured) is anything too special, but he’s playing against the Giants this week, and that should get everyone’s attention. Chase Edmonds put up 150 yards against them on Sunday. That included 3 touchdowns of about 20 yards, and he was hardly touched on any of them. I think Johnson will be involved as a pass catcher; he caught all 4 of the balls thrown his way last week. After this game, however, the schedule gets a lot less favorable. Of their next seven games, I see only one that looks pretty favorable – at Washington in Week 12 (and will he even still be in the lineup at that point?) Next six other games: at Oakland (better against the run than you might think), at Chicago, Dallas, Chicago, at Minnesota and Tampa Bay.
Question 2
How long do you hold onto Malcolm Brown? Seems to me the Rams are using Henderson more and Gurley won’t go away . I know FI is high on Brown but time running out.
Thomas Surina (Sanford, FL)
Brown has been their No. 2 back for most of the year. Now he’s got an ankle injury. He didn’t play against the Falcons, and I don’t think there’s any chance he’ll play in London. He didn’t practice yesterday. I’m sure they’ll hold him out, giving him the opportunity to come back healthy following the Week 9 bye. So this is the opportunity for Darrell Henderson to emerge, and he’s an intriguing guy. I thought Henderson looked better than Todd Gurley in the Atlanta game, running with more juice, as they say. First time he got the ball in his hands, he was met in the backfield but was able to wiggle away and turn a 3-yard loss into a 2-yard gain. Not that Henderson looked like the next Marshall Faulk, but he seems to have a lot more ability to make people miss. With Gurley, he looks like just a guy to me – just getting what’s blocked and nothing more. Gurley was one of the great backs in the 2017-18 seasons, but that’s gone now. He’s not that back anymore. Rams play Cincinnati on Sunday, and as luck would have it, that’s one of the all-time worst run defenses in the history of pro football. The Bengals have allowed over 200 rushing yards four games in a row. I don’t know when that last happened. It’s been over 15 years. So while Henderson won’t start on Sunday, I think there’s some chance he’s able to post top-20 running back numbers in a part-time role.
Question 3
My partner and I currently have 3 QBs on our 13-player PPR roster. Too many and a team just dropped Sam Darnold after his horrendous play last week. We have Jimmy G, Kyler Murray, and Mason Rudolph, whom we plan to play this week. If this were your team, would you consider picking up Darnold and who would you drop? We would only like to keep 2 QBs the rest of the season.
Jim Furry (Myrtle Beach, SC)
Kyler Murray is your starter. You go with him most weeks. He’s averaging 253 passing yards and 38 rushing yards; he just needs to do a better job of putting the ball in the end zone. I would cut Garoppolo and Rudolph loose. As poorly as Darnold played on Monday night, I expect he’ll be a lot better than those guys when the Jets hit the soft underbelly of their schedule starting next week. Miami, Giants, Washington, Oakland, Cincinnati, Miami. That’s the easy six-week stretch any quarterback is going to hit this season. I’m confident enough that Darnold is your No. 2 that I wouldn’t even bother keeping Garoppolo around as an insurance policy (I would prefer to use that roster spot on another position).
Question 4
How worried should we be about Odell Beckham Jr. this week against the Patriots and moving forward? How about Melvin Gordon? Can we have any faith in him against the Bears and the rest of the year?
Brian Greene (Freeport, IL)
I wouldn’t be excited about using Beckham against New England. The Browns have been unable to get much going, while the Patriots have been remarkably good. Robby Anderson caught only 1 of the 8 passes thrown his way against this defense on Monday night. Beckham has talent, so he can still be considered a borderline Week 8 starter for many fantasy franchises. But he’s not one of the top 30 receivers on my board this week. I would rather use a lesser player in a more favorable situation. Olabisi Johnson, Keke Coutee and DK Metcalf, for example, would be more likely than Beckham to start for me this week. As for Gordon, I think he needs to sit until there’s some evidence of the Chargers getting their running game in order. As a team, they’ve run for fewer than 40 yards in three straight games.
Question 5
Wouldn't have thought at the start of the season that I'd be asking this, but is Josh Gordon droppable? My WR corps consists of Gordon, Golladay, John Brown, Davante Adams, Odell Beckham, and Robby Anderson. Gordon just seems to be the least startable of the bunch.
kevin tschetter (Draper, UT)
A report yesterday indicates that the Patriots will release Gordon. I imagine he’ll wind up somewhere, but I can’t think of a landing spot where he would be likely to grade out higher than any of your other wide receivers.
Question 6
Half-PPR league. Been thrilled with Godwin and how he’s performed so far this season. However I was just offered Kamara and Evans for Fournette and Godwin. Based on the redrafter this would be an upgrade at RB.
Rich Wiegard (Frisco, TX)
We’ll see what (if anything) Kamara does in practice today. I’m not expecting him to play this week, then they’ve got their bye. Looking at Week 10 on, he should be a top-5 running back. With Fournette, I’m not crazy about him in any of the next six weeks. He’s going to see a string of good run defenses – Jets, Houston (in England), bye week, at Indianapolis, at Tennessee and Tampa Bay. With the Bucs, I prefer Godwin in formats awarding credit for receptions. It’s how they use those receivers. He’s running more shorter, controlled routes, and those are easier to connect on. Evans is tending to run more vertical downfield routes, and those are harder to complete. After six games, they’ve got seen 55 targets, but Godwin has caught 16 more passes. Looks like a fair, reasonable trade offer. My projections indicate the Evans/Kamara combo will be a little better.
Question 7
Someone wrote an article just prior to the season regarding DST and stats that showed this year’s projected opponents sacks, fumbles, interceptions etc. I drafted New England based on those findings. I’m would like to know who came up with the information, and will it be done next year. It was fabulous information and very helpful to my decisions on DST.
Stephen Burch (Liverpool, NY)
Schedules might affect defenses more than other players. You get certain quarterbacks, and it’s just tough for anyone to get many sacks and interceptions off them. Jacksonville comes to mind as a defense that benefitted from an easy schedule in 2017, then tailed off in part because of matchups. Chicago had a difference-making defense last year, but it hasn’t had as many juicy matchups this season. That potential could have been seen before the season started. (in the same article you mentioned). As we reach the halfway point of the season, now is a good time to circle back to schedules. We can now all see which offenses are tending to be far more likely at serving up sacks and interceptions. We can look at the second half schedules for each team and make a pretty good guess at which defenses will tend to do a lot better (or worse) because of scheduling. I post a strength-of-schedule chart once per week. Usually on Tuesday mornings. I will be sure to include defenses next timea round.
Question 8
Thanks very much to you, Andy and the rest of the team for the high quality insights all these years. Question: I need to decide on which RB to start on week 10 in a 12-team PPR league. I have Kareem Hunt and Chase Edmonds as options. I could drop Edmonds for Ty Johnson. My other RB week 10 is McCaffrey. Lindsay is on bye. What do you suggest?
Frank Sui (New York, NY)
I’m not a big Kareem Hunt fan (and I’m not talking about off-field stuff – I’m looking at just Hunt the running back on the field). I didn’t see Hunt doing anything of note in his limited preseason action; he carried 7 times for 17 yards. The way Nick Chubb is playing right now, I don’t expect Hunt will have much of a role in the second half of the season. Unless Chubb gets hurt, I think Hunt will see only nominal work as a change-of-pace and third-down option. The idea of putting Hunt above guys like Edmonds and Johnson, to me, is ridiculous. To me, Edmonds is the clear No. 1 back in that group. David Johnson is trying to work through some kind of ankle issue. It’s serious enough that they signed two running backs this week (Alfred Morris and Zach Zenner). If Johnson misses additional games (and I think he will) Edmonds should be very good as a fill-in. Ty Johnson also comes in well ahead of Hunt, I think. Johnson should be a very nice plug-in back in Week 8. Matchups in additional weeks are as good, but at least he’s a starter.
Question 9
6 point passing TD league, I've got Goff and Cousins. I've started the wrong one pretty much every week. Weekly isn't out yet - who do you start and why?
Scott Anderson (Lakewood, CO)
With both quarterbacks, you have to hope their offenses don’t simply rely heavily on the run. With Dalvin Cook, the Vikings can do that against most defenses. With the Rams, they haven’t run it as often or as effectively this year, but they’re playing against the worst run defense in recent NFL history. The Bengals have allowed over 200 rushing yards in four straight games. Cousins has been playing a lot better recently. Two games in a row he’s gone for 330-plus yards and 4 TDs, and that’s hard to sit down.
Question 10
In a dynasty league would you trade JuJu Smith-Schuster for LeVeon Bell? Without going through my whole team. It seems easier to find a top receiver than a "Bell Cow" running back.
Damon Duhon (Baton Rouge, LA)
My gut tells me JuJu. He’s 22 years old. He’s going to be a good receiver for a lot of years. With Bell, is he even still a starter in 2021? The shelf life for running backs isn’t long. The way his contract is structured, the Jets could move on to younger and cheaper things after 2020. Bell is only 27, so maybe he’s got 3-4 good years left, but who knows? He’s been suspended by the league in the past for failed drug tests. When he’s next up for a new contract, probably no team will be interested in throwing too much money at him. Now that Bell is on the back half of his career and has some money in the bank, is he going to be interested in working hard and running hungry is he’s making only about $3 million per year? So we’re getting into weighing the career of one player versus just a few seasons for the other. But your point about running back being the harder-to-fill position is well taken. Bell’s value in the short term should rise. After Sunday, five of his next six games are against defenses ranking no higher than 27th against the run: Dolphins (twice), Bengals, Giants and Washington.
Question 11
I just want to say year after year you give me a gem that consistently puts my teams over the competition. This year's nominee is Austin Hooper. I hate to bring it up but I have to ask. You've been doing this a long time. Any talks internally about retirement? Love your content and it would probably result in three less wins a year without the Index at my side. Seriously. Keep up the good work and may you do this as long as the passion burns inside. Appreciate the help all these years!
Cody Hager (Portland, OR)
Thanks for the kind words. I’m only 55 and like what I’m doing, so don’t look for me to go away anytime soon.
Question 12
In one of my leagues, I've been offered a trade of Alvin Kamara for Aaron Jones. I don't have Latavius Murray and am unlikely to be able to trade to get him. Obviously Kamara is out for two weeks at a minimum. My team is 4-3 and on the bubble. I need to win now. Is this a trade I need to make?
Andrew Napoli (Alexandria, VA)
Jones has scored a healthy 9 touchdowns. They’ve been using running plays around the goal line more than in the past. But there’s a big talent level difference here. Jones has run for more than 50 yards in only two games. I would not give up Kamara for Jones.