Somebody had to win last night, or at the very least, both teams couldn’t lose. Our hope that our weekly evening spent with Booger would end with an entertaining game at the very least did not come to fruition. In fact, I turned this catastrophe off after the 3rd quarter. I love watching football as much as anybody, but I couldn’t stomach another second of this game. As sparse as the fantasy tidbits were on Monday night, let’s run through any and all implications. It will be a miracle if this ends up being 500 words.
Pittsburgh Steelers Backfield
Due in large part to last night’s performance, James Conner is actually still a low-end RB1 in 12-team PPR leagues so far. Conner also has an easy matchup this upcoming Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens. We could be seeing a turnaround for Conner.
There is a problem though. Jaylen Samuels split touches 50-50 with Conner last night. While 18 touches is nothing to scoff at, James Conner was drafted as an every down back playing behind one of the better offensive lines in the league. You can either trade Conner for what will probably be a discount, or you can ride with the guy that plays the team that gave up 165 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns to Nick Chubb this past Sunday. I’m leaning towards keeping Conner and watching him keep the ball rolling. I also believe that Jaylen Samuels in a startable flex play until further notice. Samuels is available in 70% of Yahoo leagues and 80% of ESPN leagues.
Mason Rudolph
Mason Rudolph is the beneficiary of having two good running backs that can catch the ball out of the backfield. He also has JuJu Smith-Schuster, but he only targeted him four times last night. Rudolph managed a fantastic game in a good matchup throwing two touchdowns and only tossing 4 incompletions. He is a nice 2-QB or superflex option for week 5 against the Ravens.
JuJu Smith-Schuster
It’s sad to see how badly that the absence of Ben Roethlisberger has affected J2S2. I previously mentioned that J2S2 only saw 4 targets. Well, he caught 3 of them for 15 yards. I’d keep him in your lineup, you probably don’t have that much better of an option. But if you do, I’d start considering that option.
Diontae Johnson
We are seeing the breakout of Diontae Johnson just 4 games into his career. Johnson caught a touchdown and went for over 50 yards for the second consecutive week. This time, he caught all 6 of his targets for 77 yards as well. He’s under 10% owned across the board.
Andy Dalton
He is so hard to predict. He’s had great games this year and last night he threw up a stinker in a good matchup. The offensive line is clearly an issue because Dalton was sacked 8 times. He’s a bye week stash, at best.
Joe Mixon
Joe finished outside of the top 30 PPR RBs this week. Mixon is looking like a waste of a high draft pick. If you followed along with me during the preseason, you found a better option in the second round.
Auden Tate
Two weeks in a row for the former Florida State Seminole. He’s on my waiver wire radar while A.J. Green continues to be sidelined.
Tyler Boyd
It was his first game without double-digit PPR points this season. I’m not worried at all and sticking him right back in my lineup this week in a nice matchup against the Arizona Cardinals.
