The 2 Step Drop is a quick weekly look at a handful of players in situations that need to be on every fantasy player’s radar.
Week 4 saw a lot of action across the league. Melvin Gordon was back on the sideline. A.J. Brown teased us with a big game. Nick Chubb was ready to drop the beast mode so defenders let him pass by on the way to the endzone. Famous Jameis continued to get better, having a truly elite game. McCaffery abused the Texans for 179 yards of total offense and Gurley reminded us he can be a good fantasy back. But more on that in a minute.
The first guy I need to talk about is DeAndre Hopkins. The superhero WR from the Houston Texans is not off to the start we all imagined. After having a dominant 31.1 ppr Nuke-esque performance in week 1, Hopkins has only amassed 27.8 points since, failing to reach 10 points in weeks 2 and 4. What’s going on?! Well, it doesn’t matter how talented a receiver is if his QB is getting hammered because of a porous O-line. Watson is having to scramble, dump off and throw away play after play as the Texans line perfects the art of the “lookout block”. Obviously, you are not dropping Hopkins, and you likely do not have another high-end WR1 on your team. Just proceed with the knowledge that Hop is a high variance player at the moment.
Oh A.J. Brown, why do you toy with me so? Brown has all the tools to be a dominant WR in the NFL except one. A QB. And targets, so 2 pretty important things. If he were to play on most other teams, I truly believe A.J. Brown would have a shot at offensive Rookie of the Year. As it is he will be what he has been so far. A guy with WR1 upside and a goose egg floor. You just cannot trust anyone on the Titans offense to be there week in and week out, nor can you guess which weeks to play them.
DO NOT DROP AUSTIN EKELER! I know, there are some of you that have roster crunches and need to move him but wait. We know he is going to get a solid load of snaps against Denver this week as the coaches have said Gordon is not regular-season ready yet. Even when he is ready there is no guarantee that things are going to completely shift Gordon’s way like they were in the past. While we all know that some NFL coaches have their guy no matter how good a backup has shown, Ekeler has earned a greater share of snaps so far this season. Even last year he was an ok emergency backup guy in ppr formats. In 2018, with Melvin Gordon getting the vast majority of the work, Ekeler still managed to average just over 7 points per week off the passing game alone. I’m definitely betting him not giving back all the work to Gordon anytime soon and also remembering that Gordon has a habit of small one or two-week injuries that will pop up later in the season. As I said, do not drop Ekeler. At the very least see if you can’t move him to the Melvin Gordon owner as a handcuff. As a Gordon owner myself let me tell you, I’ll take him! If at all possible though, he is worth an end of the bench spot once Gordon is fully acclimated.
The KC backfield looks to continue to be productive going forward. However, it also looks to be lacking a truely dominant RB that can carry a team to a title. McCoy has looked good, getting a little better each week. Although, the coaching staff has said that they are a little more comfortable in some situations with the two Williams as their running backs since they are not new to the system. Shady McCoy will likely be a solid RB2 play so long as he’s healthy. As for the Williams, If he’s healthy then go with Damien, if not go with Darrel.
Welcome back, Jimmy Graham! Graham had his first really good week in recent memory. Keep an eye out, with Devante Adams likely missing some time, Graham will be a solid play until he returns. Or, of course, until Graham himself goes down injured.
Earlier I mentioned Todd Gurley getting back into the grove of throwing up 20+ point fantasy performances. I’m not 100% sure that all is well in Gurley-ville. Gurley had 5 carries for a whopping 16 yards, but 2 TD’s. His extra damage was done in ppr leagues where he had 7 receptions for 54 yards. This was all clearly due to a case of a game script. The Rams were down and had to pass early and often. Malcolm Brown was relegated to 5 receptions for 14 yards and nothing in the receiving game. We still do not have any reason to be excited about Gurley, unless you think the Rams are going to find themselves coming back a lot this season. Until I see something seriously different, I can’t rate Todd Gurley as anything more than a good RB2 with week winning upside.
One last thing, don’t forget to figure out your DST situation as you can’t just stream against the Dolphins this week. I’m personally considering betting on the banged-up Eagles defense over the kissing diseased Jet’s offense.
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