You likely haven’t heard this story before. It was kept under tight wraps by the request of San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. Back in his days as a graduate assistant at UCLA, Shanahan jumped on a plane to go see his dad Mike who was coaching the Pro Bowl out in Hawaii. But Kyle’s plane never made it to Hawaii, crashing mid-flight. As the lone survivor, Kyle Shanahan found himself living on a deserted island for four years with only a volley ball to keep him company. Shanahan named his volley-ball-companion, Jeff Wilson. True story. Cut to 13 years later and Shanahan nostalgically handed the non-volley ball version of Jeff Wilson 17 carries for 112 yards, 2 catches for 8 yards and his 2nd, 3rd and 4th touchdowns as he bulldozed the New England Patriots’ run defense. Even the great Pigskinonator didn’t see this coming! Unfortunately, Wilson left the game with an ugly looking ankle injury sustained on that 3rd TD run. Look for JaMycal Hasty (9 carries for 57 yards, 1 catch for 16 yards) and Jerick McKinnon (3 carries for -1 yard) to reform a committee until Raheem Mostert (ankle) returns. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday for fantasy football:
CLE at CIN
Kareem Hunt – 18 carries for 76 yards, 3 catches for 26 yards and his 7th touchdown. Hunt is an obvious start with Nick Chubb (knee) out, but expect the Chubb to see some play in the next three to four weeks; now might be a good time to shop Hunt if you can manage an RB1 level return.
Odell Beckham Jr. – 0 catches on 1 target. Left early in the first half with a knee injury and unfortunately sounds like a torn ACL. On the plus side, I can take a break from the bad poop jokes, no need to crap on the guy while he’s down. With OBJ off the poop-deck, Jarvis Landry (5 catches for 48 yards) suddenly creeps near WR2 territory and Rashard Higgins (6 catches for 110 yards) will be a hot waiver add this week.
Harrison Bryant – 4 catches for 56 yards and his 2nd and 3rd touchdowns. The rookie out of Florida Atlantic University just produced a better game than 44 million dollar man Austin Hooper (appendicitis) has had all season. Chief David Njoku (2 catches for 20 yards and his 2nd touchdown) came close too.
Joe Burrow – 35/47 for 406 yards, 6 carries for 34 yards, 3 passing touchdowns, 1 rushing touchdown and 1 interception—he now has 9 passing touchdowns and 3 rushing touchdowns on the year. The Bengals rode Joe Donkey to another narrow loss but fantasy owners will likely have a better ride. Burrow might be a solid QB1 moving forward. Â
Gio Bernard – 13 carries for 37 yards, 5 catches for 59 yards and his 2nd touchdown. The Stache was thrust into the limelight with Joe Mixon (foot) out. I don’t want to wish ill health on anyone, but I wouldn’t mind seeing more of that sweet stache.
Tyler Boyd – 11 catches for 101 yards and his 2nd touchdown. I requested more targets for Boyd last week and Burrow obliged with 13—he’s a longtime Razzball reader. A.J. Green (7 catches for 82 yards) also saw 13 targets, and with 24 targets over the last two weeks, Green should be picked up everywhere he was dropped.
Tee Higgins – 5 catches for 71 yards and his 3rd touchdown. Higgie Higgie Higgie can’t you see, sometimes your receiving just hypnotize me. Not sure if the hypnosis will continue with Green and Boyd each seeing double digit targets, but I’m here to find out.
DET at ATL
Kenny Golladay – 6 catches for 114 yards. He’s not Calvin Johnson, but he did stay at a Golladay Inn Express last night.
D’Andre Swift – 9 carries for 27 yards, 4 catches for 21 yards and his 4th touchdown. Do you really expect Belichick Jr. to make things easy on fantasy owners? Adrian Peterson (11 carries for 29 yards and 1 catch for 1 yard) isn’t going anywhere. Kerryon Johnson on the other hand got no Johnson touches.
T.J. Hockenson – 5 catches for 59 yards and his 3 touchdown. The yardage has been erratic, but that’s three straight games finding the endzone for Hock, even though it took until the literal last second of this game to find it.Â
Julio Jones – 8 catches for 97 yards. They said on the broadcast that Julio gets 3 hour massages. 3 hours? He must be seeing Robert Kraft’s people for these “massages.”
Calvin Ridley – 5 catches for 69 yards (nice) and his 6th touchdown and a two point conversion. Ridley is now on pace for 14 touchdowns which around a full career’s worth of touchdowns for Julio Jones.
Todd Gurley – 23 carries for 63 yards, 2 catches for 19 yards and his 6th and 7th touchdowns. The Toddfather is looking like a young Marlon Brando. It’s time to start considering him an RB1.Â
PIT at TEN
James Conner – 20 carries for 81 yards, 3 catches for 29 yards. Benny Snell (2 carries for 2 yards and his 2nd touchdown) vultured him for the 2nd straight week, but the threat to Conner’s workload from these other Steelers’ backs seems about the same as Andy Dalton’s threat to Dan Marino’s passing record.
Juju Smith-Schuster – 9 catches for 85 yards. Grab that carpet and help me roll the body up. Wait, he moved. JuJu’s alive!
Diontae Johnson – 9 catches for 80 yards and his 2nd and 3rd touchdowns. Chase Claypool‘s (1 catch for -2 yards) usage took a major hit as Johnson slide right back in. I’d be hesitant to start Claypool for now, but Johnson is thrust back into must-start territory. Note: Diontae left with an ankle injury but did return. Both Claypool and Johnson owners should monitor his status throughout the week.
Derrick Henry – 20 carries for 75 yards, 2 catches for -3 yards and his 7th touchdown. This stat line doesn’t look like anything special for the Predator, but the Steeler defense is tougher than my cousin Leroy who lives on a diet of nails, rocks and the occasional squirrel. Â
A.J. Brown – 6 catches for 153 yards and 1 touchdown. And that makes 4 touchdowns in the past three weeks since his return from injury as Brown creeps his way up toward elite WR1 territory.
Corey Davis – 6 catches for 35 yards and his 2nd touchdown. Davis was enjoying a bit of a breakout before his bout with COVID. Good to see him back out there and he even saw his season high of 10 targets. Add Davis back onto your desperation WR list, he might be more than that.Â
Jonnu Smith – 1 catch for 9 yards. The Steelers’ defense has been even tougher on tight ends than running backs which is something to think about if you’re a Mark Andrews owner in a must-win situation; the Ravens play the Steelers in week 8 and week 12. As for Prince Jonnu, I’d be willing to buy-low if he’s cheap, but I wouldn’t pay much for any TE not named Kelce, Kittle, Waller or Andrews.
CAR at NO
Mike Davis – 7 carries for 12 yards, 5 catches for 24 yards. When is Christian McCaffrey (ankle) back again? (maybe next week)
D.J. Moore – 4 catches for 93 yards and his 2nd and 3rd touchdowns. There’s only one thing to do when you can’t hear the music. More DJ!! Robby Anderson (6 catches for 74 yards) did out-target Moore 8 to 5 and could be worth a buy-low offer; the Anderson owner may be getting cold feet.
Alvin Kamara – 14 carries for 83 yards, 8 catches for 65 yards. Even when the Chipmunk doesn’t find the endzone he still posts huge stat lines. And wait til you see how many nuts he can fit in his cheeks. Â
Tre’Quan Smith – 4 catches for 54 yards. With both Michael Thomas (hamstring) and Emmanuel Sanders (COVID) out, Smith failed to show us the Quan. Undrafted rookie Marquez Callaway (8 catches for 75 yards) and return specialist Deonte Harris (4 catches for 46 yards and his 1st touchdown) could be interesting deep league streamers if Thomas and Sanders miss more time.
Jared Cook –Â 3 catches for 32 yards and his 3rd touchdown. Only 4 targets without Thomas and Sanders tells me to be weary of Cook’s food moving forward.
BUF at NYJ
Josh Allen – 30/43 for 307 yards, 11 carries for 61 yards with no touchdowns. So maybe Allen hasn’t quite yet reached elite QB1 territory if he’s going to play down to his competition like this. Still the rushing production brings such a high fantasy floor with it.
Devin Singletary – 8 carries for 29 yards, 2 catches for 18 yards. I had some bye and injury issues in my home league this week, so against the hapless Jets defense I decided to start both Singletary and Zack Moss (7 carries for 47 yards, 3 catches for 25 yards). Excuse me while I jump off the roof of my barn.
Stefon Diggs – 6 catches for 48 yards. This week I’ll take a break from mentioning how high I ranked Diggs this preseason. Ah, I messed that up! He’s still an no-brainer WR1—which works out well since I have no brains.Â
Frank Gore – 11 carries for 60 yards. It’s suddenly an equal split between Gore and rookie La’Mical Perine (11 catches for 39 yards, 2 catches for 16 yards and his 1st career touchdown) who was born back when Gore played for the 49ers. Don’t quote me on that, but it sounds right. Perine is the Jets’ back I want to own, if I have to.
Denzel Mims – 4 catches for 42 yards. This was the First Mimzy after Denzel started his career with his best Will Fuller impersonation, injuring both hamstrings. Mims has as much upside as any receiver in the 2020 class, unfortunately he’s on the Jets.
DAL at WAS
Andy Dalton – 9/19 for 75 yards, 3 carries for 16 yards, no touchdowns and 1 interception. Dallas quarterbacks aren’t having much luck this year as Dalton nearly had his head taken off on a dirty hit. Some dude named Ben DiNucci (2/3 for 39 yards) was recruited from the stands to fill in at quarterback. Maybe the Cowboys should start tanking for Trevor?
Ezekiel Elliott – 12 carries for 45 yards, 1 catch for 6 yards. The Cowboys had to implement some portion control after Zeke kept coughing up his food. It was Tony Pollard (8 carries for 16 yards, 1 catch for 6 yards) who gobbled up the leftovers. Take note, the Cowboys were missing four offensive linemen against a tough Washington Football Team defensive line. Consider sniffing around the Zeke buy-low window this week.
Amari Cooper – 7 catches for 80 yards. Amari was the only Cowboy to post a respectable line as both CeeDee Lamb and Michael Gallup went catchless. To answer your questions: yes I’d be very concerned as a Lamb owner and yes, you can drop Gallup.
Antonio Gibson – 20 carries for 128 yards and his 4th touchdown. Only a Gibson is Good Enough. Of course this was against the pathetic Cowboy’s defense, but still nice to see Gibson out-touch J.D. McKissic (5 carries for 35 yards, 2 catches for 16 yards) by a count of 20 to 7.Â
Terry McLaurin – 7 catches for 90 yards and his 2nd touchdown. Kyle Allen (15/25 for 194 yards, 4 carries for 11 yards and 2 touchdowns) took F1 for an oil change and tire rotation, now he back humming like a WR1.
GB at HOU
Jamaal Williams – 19 carries for 77 yards, 4 catches for 37 yards and his 1st touchdown. With Aaron Jones (calf) as a late scratch, it was Williams who picked up the Green Bay cheese and ran with it. I was hoping A.J. Dillon‘s (5 carries for 11 yards) tree trunk legs would see more work, but it was all Williams.
Davante Adams – 13 catches for 196 yards and his 3rd and 4th touchdowns. Aaron Rodgers (23/34 for 283 yards and 4 touchdowns—he now has 17 passing touchdowns) was all over the Adams’ Family Jewels in this game. Adams has overtaken the #1 overall WR slot until further notice.
David Johnson – 14 carries for 42 yards, 4 catches for 42 yards and his 4th touchdown. Go DJ, that’s my DJ! I’ve maintained the past few weeks that Johnson should be held or bought—maybe even squeezed and rubbed. Not sure why everyone wanted to see him low.Â
Will Fuller – 3 catches for 35 yards and his 5th touchdown. And 5th touchdown in as many weeks. The ham and strings holding his legs together continue to do the trick. At what point do we call Fuller a no doubt WR1?
KC at DEN
Patrick Mahomes – 15/23 for 200 yards and 1 touchdown—he now has 16 passing touchdowns. Not Mahomie’s best game, but he’ll still be eating steak with extra ketchup tonight.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire – 8 carries for 46 yards, 1 catch for 17 yards and his 2nd touchdown. I talked about there being a possible buy window for the Clydesdale on the Le’Veon Bell (6 carries for 39 yards) news. Bell may end up seeing close to half the carries, but the Chiefs offense is powerful enough for CEH to still post low-end RB1 numbers rest of season in PPR leagues.
Tyreek Hill – 6 catches for 55 yards and his 5th touchdown. After two scoreless games Reek is back on track. Told you he’d get his manhood back.
Travis Kelce – 3 catches for 31 yards. 31 yards and no touchdowns? Who are you and what did you do with Travis Kelce?! He’s still the #1 overall TE and I don’t think it’s all that close.Â
Melvin Gordon – 17 carries for 68 yards, 2 catches for 12 yards and his 5th touchdown. Back from strep throat and a little DUI breather, Gordon stumbled his way into a heavy workload after Phillip Lindsay (9 carries for 79 yards) left with a concussion. If Lindsay misses time in the protocol, Melly will have RB1 upside. But stay tuned for a timeline on the potential DUI suspension, I’ve seen speculation that it might not happen until next season.
Jerry Jeudy – 2 catches for 20 yards. There was some snowy weather in Denver on Sunday and Drew Lock (24/40 for 254 yards, 3 carries for 8 yards, no passing touchdowns, 1 rushing touchdown and 2 interceptions) did not handle it well. At least it doesn’t snow very often in Colorado.
SF at NE
Deebo Samuel – 5 catches for 65 yards. I only caught the highlights from this game (and there weren’t many non-Jeff Wilson highlights), but I’m guessing Stephon Gilmore was on Deebo most of the game, leaving rookie Brandon Aiyuk (6 catches for 115 yards) free to roam in the secondary.Â
George Kittle – 5 catches for 55 yards. There wasn’t much need for the 49ers pass game in this contest because, well, see below…
Cam Newton – 9/15 for 98 passing yards, 5 carries for 19 yards, no touchdowns and 3 interceptions before being benched. The Patriots might as well have started a Fig Newton at quarterback this week.
Damien Harris – 10 carries for 58 yards, 1 catch for 12 yards. I still have no interest in the Patriots’ backfield. I’ll just keep starting both Devin Singletary and Zack Moss, don’t worry about me.
Julian Edelman – 1 catch for 13 yards. Just a few weeks ago I remember being excited about Edelman’s career high receiving yardage game. Oh how the tables have Cam’d.
TB at LV
Tom Brady – 33/45 for 369 yards, 4 passing touchdowns and his 1st rushing touchdown—he now has 18 passing touchdowns. Was it Bill or Brady for all those years in New England? Right now you have to give the nod to Brady considering what he’s doing at age 43 in Tampa, and what’s happening up in New England. Also, the cheating helped.Â
Ronald Jones – 13 carries for 34 yards, 1 catch for 2 yards and his 4th touchdown. The RoJo party isn’t over yet, but it’s starting to wind down with Leonard Fournette (11 carries for 50 yards, 6 catches for 47 yards) finally healthy. Leo’s 7 targets in the pass game compared to Jones’s 2 targets is a big red flag, and I’m very interested to see what the snap count breakdown looks like.
Chris Godwin – 9 catches for 88 yards and his 2nd touchdown. What’s that beautiful shaft-like figure in the distance? It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s elite WR1 Godwiener!
Mike Evans – 2 catches for 37 yards. Evans only saw two targets. I was already concerned about the Evans target share even before the Antonio Brown signing. Scotty Miller (6 catches for 109 yards and his 2nd touchdown) had a huge game, but those 9 targets might end up funneling AB’s way, assuming he can find an acceptable helmet.
Rob Gronkowski – 5 catches for 62 yards and his 2nd touchdown. And 2nd touchdown in as many weeks. I’m getting ready for a delayed victory lap on Gronk. He was #4 sleeper on my 2020 fantasy football sleepers list and I never gave up faith even when the echo chamber got caught up on the blocking narrative.
Josh Jacobs – 10 carries for 17 yards, 3 catches for 14 yards. Ewwwww what’s that smell? Ah, it’s the pile Jacobs just dumped on his fantasy owner’s chest. To be fair, the Bucs defense is legit and the Raiders’ offensive line didn’t get much practice in this week with all the COVID drama.
Nelson Agholor – 5 catches for 107 yards and his 4th touchdown. I did a double take when I saw this was his 3rd touchdown in as many weeks. Is Agholor actually a useful fantasy asset? Henry Ruggs III (2 catches for 35 yards) still seems inevitable, but for now Agholor should be added in deeper formats.
Darren Waller – 6 catches for 50 yards and his 3rd touchdown. It’s that damn Waller! He’s so hot right now!
JAC at LAC
James Robinson – 22 carries for 119 yards, 4 catches for 18 yards and his 5th and 6th touchdowns. Here’s to you Mr. Robinson, Jesus loves you more than you will know, Whoa, whoa, whoa. JRob is carrying my RazzBowl team. The undrafted kid sure has the looks of a league winner.
D.J. Chark – 1 catch for 26 yards. It’s hard to imagine doing less with 7 targets from a quarterback not named Cam Newton. Charknado is starting to look like one of this year’s top busts.
Justin Herbert – 27/43 for 347 yards, 9 carries for 66 yards, 3 passing touchdowns and his 2nd rushing touchdown. This year’s QB class is looking like one for the ages and we’ll get to see Tua debut in week 8 as well. There’s a chance Hebert, Burrow and Tua all post QB1 numbers rest of season.
Joshua Kelley – 12 carries for 29 yards, 5 catches for 24 yards. Before their bye Justin Jackson (5 carries for 12 yards, 5 catches for 43 yards) looked great while out-touching Kelley by a count of 20 to 12. So I was surprised, delighted and aroused when Kelley took the lead this week. It sounds like we won’t be seeing Austin Ekeler (hamstring) for at least a couple more weeks, so make sure Kelley wasn’t dropped in your league.
Keenan Allen – 10 catches for 125 yards. Herbert really locked in on Allen who saw 13 targets, which was 10 more than the next closest Charger wide receiver. The connection with his rookie QB has made Allen a must-start WR1 every week.
Mike Williams – 1 catch for 4 yards. As someone who started Big Mike, I can confirm that this game was not enjoyable to watch. He was hardly on the field in the 2nd half leading me to speculate that he was injured, but apparently this was just some wacky game plan. I’m still high on Williams rest of season with how good Herbert looks, but obviously he’s a boom or bust guy right now.
SEA at ARI
Russell Wilson – 33/50 for 388 yards, 6 carries for 84 yards, 3 passing touchdowns and 3 interceptions—he now has 22 passing touchdowns on the season. All year long he’s been cookin’ like my grandma on Thanksgiving. Sunday night he decided make a stew. Russ threw all kinds of random stuff into that stew: kale, anchovies, an old shoe. But there was never much doubt the stew would turn out to be another fantasy delicacy. Wilson’s 22 passing touchdowns have tied Peyton Manning’s record thru 6 games.Â
Tyler Lockett – 15 catches for 200 yards and his 5th, 6th and 7th touchdowns. Pigskinonator did have an inkling about this eruption, ranking Lockett as it’s #7 fantasy wide receiver for week 7. That’s the second three touchdown game for Lockett this year, he’s been one of Russ’s favorite sous chefs.Â
D.K. Metcalf – 2 catches for 23 yards. It was a tepid fantasy night for the phenom, but the play of the game may have been when Metcalf showed off his ridiculous speed by chasing Budda Baker 90 yards from behind to save a touchdown after the rare Russell Wilson miscue. He also had a game winning touchdown called back due to a hold in overtime.
Chris Carson – 5 carries for 34 yards, 1 carry for 7 yards before leaving in the first half with a foot injury and never returned. Carlos Hyde (15 carries for 68 yards, 3 catches for 8 yards and his 2nd touchdown) is the speculative add if Carson ends up missing time.
Kyler Murray – 34/48 for 360 yards, 14 carries for 67 yards, 3 passing touchdowns and 1 rushing touchdown—he now has 13 passing touchdowns and 7 rushing touchdowns on the year. If I could have a threesome with Kyler and Waller I would die a happy man. Wait, did I type that out and click publish?Â
Kenyan Drake – 14 carries for 34 yards and 1 catch for 7 yards before leaving with an ankle injury. How many freaking ankle injuries have there been the past two weeks?! If only there were a presidential candidate who promised to end high ankle sprains, they’d have my vote.
Chase Edmonds – 5 carries for 58 yards, 7 catches for 87 yards. Edmonds has looked better than Drake for a lot of these first seven games, so this ankle injury might open the door for Edmonds to supplant Drake as the Cardinals RB1, for good. Make sure he’s owned in your league.
DeAndre Hopkins – 10 catches for 103 yards and his 3rd touchdown. Nuk da bomb!
Christian Kirk – 5 catches for 37 yards and his 4th and 5th touchdowns. Captain Kirk started the year slow, but he’s come on extra strong lately with four TDs in the last two games. With Murray’s high level of play, there’s a chance Kirk puts up WR2 numbers rest of season.
