It is a morning like this that I am lucky we have so many dedicated scientists in the lab at Roto Street Journal crunching numbers to make my job easier. One of my fantasy leagues is officially in the dumps, as my team that drafted A.J. Brown, Cooper Kupp, and Trey McBride sat in horror, watching Patrick Mahomes take Rashee Rice out at the knee like a damn mob hitman in retaliation for Rice’s previous actions against their family. Like the families that were involved in Rice’s reckless driving, my team is left mangled and confused, looking for answers. Justice must be served for those families (and my fantasy football team if time is left).
Coming off of another week of incredible projecting from the scientists in the lab telling you to sell Mark Andrews (finished week 4 with 3 receptions for 39 yards) for anything you can, but do not buy into the negative hype for Travis Kelce (finished week 4 with 7 receptions for 89 yards), the scientists have another batch of hype for you to help better understand the shifting world of fantasy football. The Hype Meter and Confidence Score can help you better navigate the waiver/trade/start-sit battlefield by understanding if your reading is rooted in truth or just hype.
Dontayvion Wicks, WR Green Bay Packers
Late in the first quarter of week 4, the fantasy world saw Christian Watson take a low hit and be dismissed for the day. Early attempts at a diagnosis have Twitter diagnosing him with a high-ankle sprain, which would project at least a few weeks on the sideline, and since the internet never lies, I will believe it. Due to this injury, we saw the increased usage of Dontayvion Wicks (it took me five attempts to write Dontayvion).
A second-year wide receiver out of Virginia, Wicks has seen the exact amount of targets in 2024 as leading pass-catcher Jayden Reed and is now the leading touchdown receiver for the Packers after a two-touchdown week 4.
The scientists in the lab believe Jayden Reed will continue to be the alpha of the Packers’ receiving core; however, Wicks has a real chance of beating out fellow sophomore Wide Receiver Romeo Doubs to be the WR2 of a pass-heavy Packers offense. In two seasons, Wicks has played over 70% of snaps only three times, but those games resulted in 12.7 FFP (2023 Week 15), 21.1 FFP (2023 Week 18), and 22.3 FFP (2024 Week 4). Even with these stats, keep your expectations tempered, and don’t buy too much into the hype.
Our experts here at Roto Street Journal already gave you insight into the ceiling Wicks has in dynasty, and it now seems like he may be finding relevancy in all redraft leagues. Expect Wicks to be a possible spot-start for your flex position until more data is collected.
Chase Brown, RB Cincinnati Bengals
If you woke up today without any context of yesterday’s games, you’d think Chase Brown is Cincinnati’s new bell cow. The truth is, however, that Chase Brown, for the first time in his NFL career, had seen over 33% of snaps for the Cincinnati Bengals. This is not to say that Chase Brown will not be a relevant fantasy player this year. Still, I need to give fantasy analysts the Carolina treatment to cool them down.
Chase Brown finished the game with 15 carries for 80 yards, including two touchdowns. Although he did not out-snap or out-touch fellow Bengals Running Back Zack Moss, his touches were much more efficient. However, the scientists in the lab are not buying into the hype that is building on Brown due to the consistent usage of Zach Moss in this backfield. Although Bengals HC Zac Taylor spoke all off-season about the importance of Brown in the Bengals offense, which we covered closely, Moss has seen a large majority of the snaps, and it hasn’t been close.
Our scientists recommend keeping expectations of this backfield low. Worse than the current state of “start Moss and bench Brown,” the emergence of Chase Brown could lead to a two-headed nightmare for fantasy owners, where you never know which one to start. Wolf currently has Moss ranked RB31 and Chase Brown RB38, and I expect those two to meet somewhere in the middle during his next rankings rollout.
Jayden Daniels, QB Washington Commanders
The QB1 heading into October will be Rookie Quarterback Jayden Daniels, just as everyone anticipated. If you follow Roto Street Journal or its founder, the Wolf, you’ll know how invested we are in the Konami Cheat Code quarterbacks, being some of the first to buy into any quarterback that offers you points on the ground. However, we did not have this breakout pegged. After week 1, however, Wolf had the stock of Daniels rising quickly, even with a couple of nay-sayers.
Scoring over 25 fantasy points three out of four weeks, the hype on Jayden Daniels is legit. The numbers coming out of the lab are a bit behind on this. However, he is still only started in 61% of Sleeper leagues. If you are a Daniels owner, start him and do not look back. Jayden Daniels currently:
- Has a higher YPC (4.7) than James Conner, Josh Jacobs, and James Cook
- Has more rushing yards than Jerome Ford, Travis Etienne, and Zach Moss
- He is tied forth with Saquon Barkley and Jonathan Taylor for most rushing touchdowns with 4
- Has more passing yards than Kirk Cousins, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen
- Leads the league with 82.1% completion, almost 10 total % points higher than the next QB.
Start Daniels wherever you can. If a QB-rich owner has Daniels, see if you can buy him and ride the Konami Cheat Code upside throughout the season.
Diontae Johnson, WR Carolina Panthers
In a move that surprised nobody, the Carolina Panthers stuck with Quarterback Andy Dalton for their week 4 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals. He did objectively better than any other quarterback on the team would have. With Dalton behind center, Diontae Johnson has seen the largest bump.
The stat difference between Johnson and Bryce Young as his quarterback and Andy Dalton as his quarterback is incredible. In the first two weeks of the season with Young under center, Johnson had five receptions on twelve targets for 34 yards, with an average target depth of 2.83 yards and yards per catch of 6.8 yards. In his last two weeks with Dalton as his quarterback, Johnson has had 27 targets and 15 receptions for 205 yards, with an average target depth of 7.59 yards and yards per catch of 13.66 yards. In addition, his only touchdowns have come from throws of Andy Dalton.
The hype is up for Diontae Johnson; however, the confidence score is still on the lower side of the meter due to the coaching decisions of the Carolina Panthers. In the upcoming weeks, the Panthers have winnable matchups (Week 5 Bears, Week 6 Falcons, Week 8 Broncos, Week 10 Giants) that could lead to the want to switch over to their franchise quarterback Bryce Young to get some more reps under his belt while not going against the best the league has to offer. If this happens, Diontae Johnson again goes to an irrelevant fantasy start.
