I dunno about you, but Halloween is more like a season for me. When we think about those people who leave their winter holiday ornaments up until April, I try to do them one better by leaving out my Halloween decorations until May. It’s kind of like my fantasy football approach: when everybody wants immediate results, I’m out here thinking long term. And by long term, I’m finally celebrating any faith I had in Kevin White finally coming to fruition. Or is it Mike White that I’m celebrating? I get confused at my old age. Quickly, to the recap!
Mike White: Gives hope to every late round draft pick hailing from Western Kentucky University, right? I mean, where is Western Kentucky anyway? Enrollment of 13,000 students? I taught classes that big. I kid! But who had this on their projections: Mike White — replacement for the tumultuous Zach Wilson Project — throws for over 400 yards and 3 TDs in his first real NFL action. The Western Kentucky standout who was picked in the 5th round of the draft and couldn’t stick with the QB-needy Cowboys or Jets finally gets his shot and he destroys the Bengals. Apparently White was the first Jets QB to touch the 400-yard mark in 20 years, since some guy named M.I. Quite or something like that. I saw some big-ticket DFS wins behind the Mike White / Michael Carter combo, which we all saw coming, right? Just like I saw this gut rot coming after I downed half a bag of Milky Way. Ugh.
THE CROWD IS CHANTING MIKE WHITE#CINvsNYJ on CBS pic.twitter.com/dXlvjYa5HC
— New York Jets (@nyjets) October 31, 2021
Michael Carter: Had been a bench guy all year until this week, when he rattled off nearly 100 yards through the air and another 77 on the ground. When we get a capable quarterback, running backs do well, right? Keep your fingers crossed that the Mike/Michael combo stays strong going forward because it’ll be the FAABing that saves your team this year.
Elijah Mitchell: 137 yards and everybody’s heart. There’s definitely a lot of steam behind the late draft picks this year, and Mitchell’s stunning ascent to the throne of touches in San Francisco is nothing short of legendary. A 6th round pick, Mitchell emerged at the start of the season ahead of other players like Trey Sermon to lead the 49ers rushing attack, and then injury followed. As recently as Week 5, Mitchell took only 30% of the team rushes, but over the past two games, Mitchell has lined up at the buffet and taken about 80% of the rushing touches. He’s absolutely feasting recently, with nearly 240 yards in 2 games while averaging over 5 yards per carry. I can’t say that anybody can predict what happens with the 49ers backfield, but Mitchell’s the guy right now and you’re gonna start him and keep shouting into the internet “The James Robinson of 2021 is here!”
Justin Fields: Speaking of leading rushers, Justin Fields finally decided to just run with it and he cranked 100 rushing yards to go with his 175 passing yards. What’s up Lamar 2.0? That’s super-exciting for us Madden fans, but keep in mind for fantasy that the likes of Jimmy G and Davis Mills basically scored the same as Fields this week without having to risk their bodies.
Emmanuel Sanders: Had been on a nice streak of returning WR1-WR3 value over the past few weeks, but was entirely shut out this week on 4 targets. Meanwhile, Cole Beasley racked up 10 catches for 110 yards on 13 targets, further demonstrating the Theory of Give and Take. There are only so many targets to go around on a team, and boon to one receiver results in the…what’s the word…crap for the other guys. Emma (is that the nickname for Emmanuel? Help me out here…) should be a fine WR2/FLEX going forward in all formats.
Baker Mayfield: My conspiracy theory of “Case Keenum is going to take over the QB role in Cleveland” obviously didn’t pan out because Kevin Stefanski would rather trot out a broken, cruddy QB (that’s Baker Mayfield) than keep rolling with Keenum. Mayfield ended up with 225 yards and no TDs while wearing some sort of contraption that looks like he found while doing a read through for Fifty Shades of Grey. A hobbled Mayfield hurts the value of Nick Chubb and D’Ernest Johnson, the latter which powered through with Cleveland’s sole TD of the day. Although Mayfield was already doing a fair job of crushing your dreams that OBJ would be valuable, the bionic Baker seems like he’s going to be doing a lot of short passes to Jarvis Landry (10 targets today, 5 catches).
This is just like the harness #Browns QB Baker Mayfield will be wearing to prevent him from moving his shoulder recklessly in the heat of the moment. After all, as OC Alex Van Pelt told me: “It’s hard to coach the dawg out of someone.” pic.twitter.com/5P5HsNyds1
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) October 31, 2021
James Robinson: Left the blowout against the Seahawks with a bruised heel, and his prognosis is unknown. The prognosis was likely, “We’re losing by 3 TDs.”
Tyler Lockett / D.K. Metcalf: Combined for 18 catches and Geno Smith realized he should just throw to his awesome wide receivers. I mean, it was against the Jags, which is like…I mean Urban Meyer was literally feeling up coeds in the bar a few weeks ago, so that tells you how the Jags’ year is going. Keep starting the Seahawks, meanwhile.
Jameis Winston: Suffered a potentially season-ending knee injury. How bad luck can a guy get? Puts up gaudy numbers in pre-Brady Tampa Bay and moves to New Orleans. When Drew Brees got hurt last year, the team went with sometimes tight end Taysom Hill at QB. When Jameis won the starting job in 2021, he had to run a team with basically no experienced wide receivers. And now that receivers like Tre’Quan Smith are back (and Michael Thomas nearing return), Jameis gets a semi-horse collar tackle that basically shreds his knee as he went down. Trevor Siemian looked really good in relief of Winston, putting up 159 yards and a TD to lead the Saints to victory over Tampa Bay. If Taysom Hill is QB next week, he’s worth rostering in all formats. If Trevor Siemian is QB, you should probably just turn off your TV and catch up on that book you’ve been meaning to read.
Cooper Rush: Defeated my Vikings in pretty solid fashion. He’s filling in for Dak Prescott right now and churned a solid 325 yards and 2 TDs in what amounted to his NFL starting debut. Meanwhile, the Vikings still can’t figure out that they should use both Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison at the same time in a Zeke/Pollard fashion, instead preferring to just throw short passes to K.J. Osborn. Meanwhile, Cooper Rush helped Amari Cooper and Ceedee Lamb each pass 100 yards, and he nearly got Cedric Wilson over the century mark in receiving yards as well. Whatever. I’m not bitter. I’m just salty.
OK friends, how did your fantasy weeks go? What do you need to happen on Monday Night Football to win? I’ll see you tomorrow morning with the recap!
