Pierce the Veil: 2022 Week 4 Sunday Fantasy Football Recap

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Actual transcript from Razzball Twitter Chat: 

CoolwhipRB: “Dameon Pierce! [eyes emoji] Free title: Pierce the Veil!” 

EverywhereBlair: “But I don’t listen to metalcore, I’m more a progressive djent guy. Can I name it Pier-riphery? Also, now I have to write about Dameon Pierce.” 

If you’ve been around fantasy football a while, you know there are weeks like these where all the projections fail and the contrarians run amok. Did you have Geno Smith vs the Lions backups going for nearly 100 overall points? Leading rusher Rashaad Penny — who out-rushed Derrick Henry and Jonathan Taylor combined? 60-yard field goals (and nearly 2 of them in the same game!)? Something called Bailey Zappe helming the esteemed New England Patriots? It’s OK, these weeks happen. Sometimes there’s a crack in the world that you can peer through to see what it really is — backups all the way down. 

If you’re ready for Monday mayhem with the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers, or you just hate me as a writer and want to listen to some Jersey accents cover the games check out the Fantasy Besties as they recap Week 4 and get you set for ready for Monday Night Football? Razzball YouTube, Monday Night, 7:15 PM Eastern. 

Week 4 News and Notes

Justin Jefferson: Notched 147 yards receiving and added a rushing TD on an end-around after a controversial pass interference call that the TV referee would have preferred to be a “no call.” I mean, I’m happy that my home team Minnesota Vikings managed to land the Over in London, but of course, it came on the back of 5 MN field goals, a 60-yard Will Lutz field goal — and literally inches from a 61-yard field goal — an Alexander Mattison receiving TD, and rushing TDs from Latavius Murray and Taysom Hill. Everybody predicted those stat lines, right? The line on Jefferson was a bit low (84 yards) because most oddsmakers assumed that the Vikings would blow out the Saints, who were missing their starting QB (Jameis Winston), top RB (Alvin Kamara), and top WR (Michael Thomas). Yet, the Replacements Saints stayed in the game and forced the Vikings to the air to play catch up. If there’s one thing Kirk Cousins knows how to do, it’s how to air-out the ball in the 4th quarter. If Cousins could just play in the 4th quarter every week, he’d be your top fantasy QB. Whatever. Vikes eeked out a win and you got a big game from Justin Jefferson — win / win, right? 

Dameon Pierce: 131 yards on the ground with a touchdown and 6(!) catches for [checks notes] 8 yards. All right, we’ll work on that second thing. So, 75 of those yards came on one play. If we subtract that big run, Pierce averaged a respectable 4.3 yards per carry. Every week, Pierce is getting better, and he’s seen 44 touches in the past two weeks. That is a lot of workload. This will be the second week in a row that Pierce has finished as a top 10 fantasy RB, which is great because the first two weeks of the year he finished completely off the fantasy radar. So, 50/50 chance — what do we think the trend will be next week? Place your bets wisely! 

Geno Smith: Of course the Seahawks knew they had Lamar Jackson 2.0 sitting on their bench the whole time, right? Russell Wilson to the Broncos for show, Geno Smith to the end zone for dough, amirite? For those of you who follow the Razzball Premium Fantasy Football Tools, you probably gasped when you saw Geno Smith ranked as QB9 for the week, ahead of Kyler Murray and Aaron Rogers. Has Rudy lost his mind? Well, the original Rudy dumped his brain contents into the Pigskinonator and now we all have to deal with CyberRudy’s puns 24/7. The horrifying truth is that Rudy’s brain in a vat is really good at picking players. ENYWHEY. The Seahawks/Lions game — which Vegas oddsmakers had at 48 combined points — ended up going 48-45 with over a thousand yards of offense. Hope you had the Jared Goff/T.J. Hockenson/Josh Reynolds stack! ENYWHEY, part 2 — this is a blurb about Geno. 320 yards passing, 2 TDs, and 49 yards on the ground with another score. Over his past two games? Over 600 yards passing and 5 total TDs. So, here’s what you’re doing Monday night (after watching the Fantasy Besties, of course) — you’re getting a tub of ice cream — get the good stuff! — then you’re coming home and stuffing yourself while watching Hocus Pocus 2. You choose what you stuff yourself with — hopefully, it’s ice cream, but I won’t judge. When 3 AM comes around, you’re whipping out your ouija board, communing with the ancestors, and hoping to add Geno Smith to your team. Make sure to clean up after yourself, or the ancestors might get worried about how you’re spending your free time. Monday morning edit: Geno Smith was the QB for the DraftKings Milly Maker. The year is 2022 and Geno Smith made somebody a millionaire. [sigh]

Jonathan Taylor: When I said this week was the darkest timeline week, I didn’t want it to happen like this. Like, couldn’t we have the Nickelodeon slime cannons be real, or Chris Colinsworth become the commentator for every game, or…well, we got this. JT suffered a high ankle sprain. You saw what Mac Jones did last week? JT probably took it a bit more in stride in week 4. High ankle sprains are nasty things, and although there’s a lot of coach speak about “he’ll be ready soon,” we gotta temper expectations. So what do we do now…Nyheim Hines? What RBs are left on the waiver wire? Fingers crossed that JT comes back quickly. 

Kenny Pickett: Speaking of new QBs, everybody’s favorite fantasy last-rounder Kenny Pickett debuted this week when he replaced veteran tablet-holder Mitch Trubisky. As young QBs are wont to do, Pickett chucked nearly as many passes to the other team as he did his own, while running for a couple of TDs as well. Conceptually the Steelers offense is something to get excited about, but the Trubisky/Pickett dance could be a fantasy nightmare for a few weeks. It’s better to avoid Pickett unless you’re in something like the RazzBowl and need to secure a QB who could help you 10 weeks from now. Speaking of the RazzBowl, my team is held together by tape and glue — so many injuries, so much EWB crying. On the plus side for fantasy managers, George Pickens and Pat Freiermuth saw a total of 17 targets, so there are some waiver wire streamer considerations for week 5.   

James Robinson: So, uh, what happened? I scrolled the injury news. Nothing. I scrolled the game recaps. Nothing. I asked the ancestors. They told me to stop wasting my life playing Octopath Traveler. Screw you ancestors, I need to save the world somehow! Well, the day we knew was coming…came. Has come? Let’s rephrase that. Arrived. For the first few weeks of fantasy football 2022, I spilled megabytes of bandwidth on how the Jags tried to get rid of James Robinson, only to somehow unleash him in 2022. Somewhere in those 18,000 words, I wondered if James Robinson’s early season usage was just to help Travis Etienne acclimate to the NFL. I…might have been right? In week 4, Robinson and Etienne split carries, with neither of them being particularly fantasy relevant. However, we’re more concerned with the J-Rob downplay and the Etienne workload — will this be a committee backfield? Did Robinson just need a breather? Is it really supposed to be ETN SZN? Best of luck to fantasy managers going forward because this is the nightmare we wanted to avoid. 

J.K. Dobbins: Doubled his usage from last week, which is a good sign. Scored TDs from rushing and receiving, which is a great sign. Averaged 3.2 yards per carry, which is less than optimal. Reminder: he’s had all of 20 carries in the past 2 years, so we’re seeing the gears turning, the dawg waking up, all those metaphors that you see on inspirational posters. 

Bailey Zappe: I mean, if you think the Vikings look the fool after eeking out a win vs the Saints, think about the Packers fans who watched Patriots rookie fill-in QB Bailey Zappe take the lead in the third quarter and hold it through the fourth quarter. Mac Jones will likely be out for a while with a severe high ankle sprain, and backup Patriots QB Brian Hoyer left the week 4 game with a head injury. That left 4th round draft pick Bailey Zappe as last QB standing anywhere in the Patriots organization. The Packers were fresh off of getting the Bucs’ jumbotron guy fired and should have waltzed to a win but Zappe kept the game honest. With guys like DeVante Parker and Nelson Agholor in FLEX consideration, it seems like Zappe might keep them fantasy relevant while the Patriots heal up. 

Javonte Williams: Speaking of nightmare season, Williams left the game on Sunday with a knee injury. Stay tuned to the Fantasy Besties on Monday night to see if our teams are daggered or merely abysmal. 

Romeo Doubs: Caught Aaron Rodgers’ 500th career touchdown. Nearly caught his 501st touchdown too, but the field giveth, and the field taketh awayeth. Also, really surprised there’s not a charity with the handle give.eth — seems natural. Y’all can have that one for free. 

Russell Wilson: 237 yards in the air, 2 passing TDs, and 29 yards on the ground and a rushing TD while still losing to the Raiders. Great, Russ is sort of cooking again. As much as we want to celebrate a 237 yard passing game, if he did that every week, he’d finish as like QB19. Fingers crossed the Broncos are getting their mise en place in place before cooking for the rest of the season. 

D.J. Moore: In Razzchat, Keelin wondered if she should start DJ Moore or find a replacement. The best replacement on the wire was…Quintez Cephus. Rudy had Moore and Cephus ranked neck and neck for Week 4, and he wasn’t that far off. Moore caught 6 passes on 11 targets for a total of 50 yards. On the plus side — he actually got meaningful targets. On the down side: Baker Mayfield averaged less than 9 yards per completion. Imagine having D.J. Moore, Robby Anderson, and Christian McCaffrey on your team, completing 22 passes, and finishing with less than 200 yards. Moore remains a troubling asset for fantasy managers going forward, at least until Mayfield devotes as much time to his downfield routes as he does his Progressive commercials. 

How did Week 4 treat you? Jump down in the comments and let me know the horrors that popped up in your lineup.