That Drake and ‘Reek Hill Track: 2022 Week 6 Sunday Fantasy Football Recap

Earlier in the pre-season, I talked about the importance of staggering your fantasy football beats, much like J Dilla took his programmed hip-hop beats and swung them into a new genre. Sure, it’s easy enough to say, “Draft good guys,” but it’s also important to have players who fill roles when the veterans disappear or the good guys go bad. It’s like The Avengers series — you need enough characters to carry the franchise so that when there’s a snap…you get the idea. For every Black Panther, we need an Ant Man to move the series forward. You just keep rolling with the B-squad until the third act, and then fantasy glory is at hand! 

While you’re waiting for the credits to roll, don’t forget to check out the Fantasy Besties as they recap Week 6 and get you ready for Monday Night Football — 7:15 PM Eastern on Razzball YouTube. 

Quick Hits

Week 6 Highlights

Kenyan Drake: Lead Ravens’ RB J.K. Dobbins left the game after feeling tightness in his knee, and Drake flowed into the vacancy for 119 yards on 10 rushes and a TD. What’s wilder than Drake averaging 12 yards a carry? Drake’s longest run was only 30 yards, meaning that he had several nice breaks instead of one blown coverage. Now, we shouldn’t lose our minds over Drake’s big game — after all, we’re talking about a player that has entered that “veteran backup” role that guys like Latavius Murray, Le’Veon Bell, and Carlos Hyde occupied in recent memory. Hell, Latavius Murray still occupies that role. These guys can have big individual games, but their longitudinal success tends to be, well, not great. Drake had barely topped 60 yards over his previous 20 carries on the season, so we’re likely seeing some more noise than signal. Stay tuned to the injury report to hear updates on J.K. Dobbins, and leave Drake on the waiver wire except in the deepest of leagues. 

Tyreek Hill / Jaylen Waddle: Earlier this week, I told you how excited I was to watch a revenge game between Teddy Bridgewater and the Minnesota Vikings. Of course, the game starts and it’s freaking Skylar Thompson behind center. I try not to be a Touchdown Teddy stan, but the guy was more deserving of a start than a 7th-round draft pick rookie. ENYWHEY. Thompson left the game in the second quarter and Bridgewater settled in at QB. After a rough start, the ‘Fins receivers ended the game with 177 yards for Tyreek Hill, and 129 yards for Jaylen Waddle. Had it not been for an embarrassing Waddle fumble at the end of the game, it could have been an even more impressive stat line. Of course, Justin Jefferson responded with 107 yards of his own, leaving my “revenge game” heroes with over 400 yards combined receiving. Hope you had a couple DFS lineups with them! 

Brandon Aiyuk: 8 catches on 11 targets for 84 yards and 2 TDs. Aiyuk can disappear for weeks at a time before re-appearing with explosive action, which is great trait for survivalists and Harry Potter cosplayers alike. Finally, we can all live in harmony because I found commonalities between antithetical groups! But for you fantasy managers looking for a reliable receiver, I don’t think Aiyuk is The Truth. Aiyuk had 7 receptions combined the previous 2 weeks, and he started the season with a paltry 50% catch rate on nearly 20 targets. If you just looked at the stats, you’d laugh at anybody who started a WR with fewer yards than Nico Collins, Mack Hollins, and Randall Cobb. At least we’re seeing the 49ers air it out a bit more, with Jimmy Garoppolo approaching 300 yards in the air and 8 receptions to George Kittle, who had basically been playing tackle for a couple games. My Razzbowl team went heavy on Rams and 49ers this year, which was a pre-season delight, but an in-season catastrophe. For managers like me who wanted big players from the West Coast, perhaps we’re seeing hints in that direction after Aiyuk’s big game. 

Bailey Zappe: So, uh, this is gonna be awkward, right? Mac Jones is nearing his return to the field, but Bailey Zappe has put up three consecutive elite QB games (at least from a statistical standpoint). Zappe topped 300 yards passing for the first time in his young career, and he added 2 touchdowns while maintaining a 70%+ completion rate. Meanwhile, Mac Jones has been QB for 20+ games in his career and has topped 300 yards passing 3 times in that span. In two full games as a starter, Zappe has topped 9 yards per attempt twice. In his career, Jones has topped 9 yards per attempt three times. I mean, if I’m a Patriots fan, I’m asking to see more Zappe. DeVante Parker, Hunter Henry, Jonnu Smith, and Jakobi Meyers each topped 60 yards receiving, a distribution which is somewhat nightmarish for fantasy managers trying to pick an elite receiver every week. Stay tuned for the Friday injury report and see if Belichick has a QB conundrum for week 7! 

Matt Ryan: If you want the poster boy for variance, Matt Ryan is your model. Ryan has done everything from being shut out by the Jaguars with 3 INT and 5 sacks to this week’s air raid…versus the Jaguars…with 389 passing yards and 3 TDs. So, uh, revenge game all around! Until this week, Ryan had been unusable in superflex leagues twice, and a streamer three times. Which Ryan are you going to get? I’ll say this for the 90th time, this is why I’ve moved on to best ball and DFS. For you weekly fantasy footballers, you’re stuck treating Matt Ryan as a streamer — which he has been for about the past 3 years. The more things change, the more they stay the same! 

Deon Jackson: 42 yards rushing, 1 TD, and 10 receptions for 79 yards. Y’all love a good drama, right? Jonathan Taylor’s usage isn’t in doubt when he’s healthy, but Nyheim Hines is more than expendable. Jackson left the game with a quad injury, but Jackson’s single game basically topped an entire season of Nyheim Hines, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see a re-shuffle of the RB hierarchy. So many fantasy managers love Hines, but it’s probably time to move on. Keep an eye on Jackson’s health going into week 7 — his receiving ability could earn him a fantasy roster spot in PPR leagues. 

Christian McCaffrey: An interesting stat line from the Twitterverse indicated that McCaffrey had the second-highest percentage of a team’s total yardage in the modern era…and he had less combined yards than Tyreek Hill did this week. So, uh, Carolina’s basically toast. Robbie Anderson was kicked off the field after arguing with the interim coaching staff. The team finished with Jacob Eason at QB after P.J. Walker was removed for concussion concerns. CMC and DJ Moore are in discussions for trades, and for your fantasy team’s sake, you should really, really keep your fingers crossed that they move teams. Moore could be a huge second-half asset on basically any other NFL team. Rumors indicate the Rams might be actively seeking CMC, thus the locker room troubles with Cam Akers. Whatever happens, the trade deadline is two weeks away, and we could see a bunch of Panthers playing on other teams — which is a good thing. Or maybe we live in the Bad Place and we see a Panthers / Broncos game. Oh wait, that actually happens on Thanksgiving Weekend. Of course. I knew which timeline we were really in. 

Eno Benjamin: About 60 all-purpose yards, which is really all we can ask for out of a Flex player. Of course, Kyler Murray soaked up the rush game in the absence of James Conner, although it wasn’t the exciting, TD-filled stat line we had all hoped for. Vegas had the O/U on this game at 50 points,  and we made it to 26. Well, now. Benjamin has nebulous value when Conner’s healthy, but he’s still worth a stash on the bench. 

Aaron Rodgers: Got beat by Zach Wilson and the Jets. More concerning, he got beat at home. Even more concerning: the Packers’ beat reporter from The Athletic indicated that Jordan Love‘s appearance in the 4th quarter admission of defeat was received with enthusiastic cheers that he hadn’t heard in quite some time. Rodgers has been at the edge of starter/streamer every week this year and he’s the overall QB20, which is a pretty rough return on investment. If you’ve been sipping the ayahuasca with ARog, it might be time to move on to another QB. 

Aaron Jones: Might as well put the Aaron’s together, right? For as much malign as ARog earned on Sunday, the Packers completely overlooked Aaron Jones and gave him just a handful of touches while he was seemingly healthy and ready to go. Seems like we’re either on track for the NFL Highlights music to start playing and we get a locker room montage where the Packers sing kumbaya and have a second-half recovery, or we have a massive implosion and half the players end up playing for the Patriots. Statistically, there’s no reason Aaron Jones should be getting 12 touches in a game where the freaking Jets are roasting you at home. [muttering about variance]

Mitch Trubisky: Of course all of us stat-minded mavens had “Mitch Trubisky winning over Tom Brady” on our scoresheet, right? After Kenny Pickett left for a concussion evaluation, Trubisky stepped in and helmed the Steelers to a win over the increasingly hapless Tampa Bay Buccaneers (who, at 3-3, are still in 1st place). Like, saying that Trubisky beat the Bucs isn’t saying much — the Steelers put up 270 total yards of offense. Like, Kyler Murray had a bad game and topped that number by himself. The good thing is, Chase Claypool showed up with nearly 100 yards receiving, proving he’s not completely toast and has some sort of future in your fantasy lineup. The rest of these guys, though? Yeesh. Over the past three weeks, Najee Harris has put up as many yards as Kenyan Drake did in week 6 alone. Hold my keyboard — I’m gonna go talk some sense into these coaches. [steps outside, realizes its snowing in the Bold North]. Nevermind — this is the Bad Place. 

How’d your weeks go? Did you have Kenyan Drake getting 10x as many yards as Aaron Jones? Did you have Teddy Bridgewater throwing for 2x as many yards as Kirk Cousins? Let me know if you survived the latest contrarian week that the NFL has thrown us.