Jaguars WR Room Breakdown
Calvin Ridley had 2 targets in this game - luckily one of them was a TD but it was on a broken play - he did almost have a few TDs over the last couple of weeks that would’ve resulted in bigger fantasy days, but it’s been very disappointing. Three straight weeks now of him underperforming… now, he was shadowed by AJ Terrell, and Trevor Lawrence chose to stay away from that matchup. But only 6% target share for Ridley and 40% target share for Kirk is going to be a problem regardless.
Looking at Fantasy Life utilization, In Weeks 2 and 3, Kirk had a combined 24% target share and Ridley was at 18%… Week 1 had us thinking that Ridley was back to his WR1 days… but he has to be downgraded. I don’t think we go as far as saying he has to be on benches moving forward, I’m still going to rank him as a Top-24 WR next week - but it is a tough matchup against the Bills even if they’re without Tre’Davious White. Christian Kirk on the other hand, has his 3rd straight Top-24 finish. I think there will be plenty of boom weeks for Ridley, but if you’re getting 2 targets in a shadow situation, I can’t call you a WR1.
Nico Collins Continues to Shine
How about Nico Collins? 7 catches for 168 yards and 2 TDs on 9 targets. 30% target share, 3 out of 4 big games for Nico Collins now - he’s got a tough matchup next week against Atlanta, but you gotta upgrade Nico to a fantasy WR2.
I wouldn’t get too down on Tank Dell’s bad game, but what I didn’t understand is how people were starting Tank over Nico this week - we talked about it a lot, so hopefully you didn’t make that mistake. CJ Stroud though, man… great start to his rookie yea. The Texans are 2-2, and he’s now 2nd all-time in passing yards by a player in their first four NFL games. He also has no interceptions - only the 2nd QB to do not have any in their first four starts, Gardner Minshew is the other one… hat tip to Adam Schefter’s tweet for these stats.
Puka Nacua Finally Hits the Endzone
Puka Nacua is that dude. 9 catches on 10 targets for 163 yards and the game winning TD in overtime… what this guy is doing over the first four weeks of his career is absolutely remarkable. If you took Cooper Kupp’s 2021 record breaking season and compared it to Puka’s start this season, he’s out-pacing Kupp in receiving yards.
Cooper Kupp apparently is going to be activated for his 21-day practice window coming off the PUP this week, so the Rams have 21 days to activate him; he could be active for Week 5 or not, but we’ll find out this week. Regardless, it looks like Puka is a damn good player, so there’s no way he just goes away. If you sell Puka right now, don’t sell him with the premise that he takes this huge hit… I just don’t think that happens personally. He’ll take a hit, but he’s going to be a WR2 at the very least, in my opinion.
Chargers' WRs Underwhelming in Week 4
Josh Palmer ended up leading the Chargers with 8 targets, and he led them in production as well - extremely low production for the Chargers overall, very disappointing, but Quentin Johnston did run only 4 less routes than Palmer and 5 less routes than Keenan Allen. I think QJ might end up being dropped in some leagues, but I’d look to hold him; pick him up if he gets dropped, and low-key, see if you can add him to deals if you make some trades as an add-on. We should see a lot more output out of this Chargers passing offense in future games, so we could see QJ do some more and have more production at some point - just have to be patient.
Cardinals' Receivers Nowhere Near as Bad as Initially Advertised
Marquise Brown is low-key killing it this year on what was a slept on offense by everyone. There is production and there are fantasy relevant players in Arizona. Brown’s got two Top-20 finishes in Weeks 2 and 3, he’s the WR15 so far, and he’s got a good chance of having another Top-20 finish this week.
Zach Ertz has been getting it done with 10 targets himself, and it looks like he’s back as the guy there. Michael Wilson, someone I’ve been on since the Senior Bowl as well, looked great today too - 7 for 76 and 2 TDs. I think he should be picked up on waivers, but don’t spend up too much, Hollywood and Ertz still seem to be the primary targets.