Welcome to Week 4 of the fantasy football season. Week 3 gave us a fantasy breakout for Caleb Williams against the Cowboys, while Jalen Hurts finally was pushed to throw the ball, leading to a top fantasy day for him against a good Rams defense. Let’s take a look at who might shine this week below.
QB injuries/news
JJ McCarthy, Vikings
McCarthy is out with an ankle injury until around Week 7. Head coach Kevin O’Connell was adamant about getting McCarthy 100% healthy before putting him back out there. Backup Carson Wentz performed well enough in relief, as the defense did the heavy lifting early in Week 4.
Brock Purdy, 49ers
Purdy was able to get in some limited practices last week and will again practice this week. It will come down to how mobile he is with his toe injury as to whether or not he’ll return to face the Jaguars in Week 4. His replacement, Mac Jones, aggravated his knee injury, but was able to play with it using a brace. If Jones does end up playing, he’d have some revenge vibes going against his old team.
Jayden Daniels, Commanders
Daniels remains day-to-day with his knee sprain, but he was unable to practice last week. If he can;t go again, Marcus Mariota would continue to lead the way, this week against the Falcons.
Justin Fields, Jets
Fields should be cleared of his concussion ahead of this week’s SNF game against the Dolphins, but head coach Aaron Glenn said they would need to evaluate the situation. Tyrod Taylor almost got the win last week against the Buccaneers, but wasn’t exactly great in doing so. This situation could remain murky as the season goes on.
Jaxon Dart, Giants
Russell Wilson looked about as bad as he could against the Chiefs last week, bad enough in fact that head coach Brian Daboll has decided to go with Jaxon Dart moving forward. He’ll see if Dart can dig them out of their 0-3 hole. Unfortunately, the rookie will face a tough Chargers defense in his debut, then a reprieve against the Saints, and then the Eagles, Broncos, then Eagles again.
Week 4 odds
Highest point totals
Ravens at Chiefs (48.5)
Colts at Rams (48.5)
Saints at Bills (48.5)
Packers at Cowboys (47.5)
Bears at Raiders (47.5)
Highest implied individual team totals
Bills (32.5)
Packers (27)
Lions (26.5)
Rams (26)
Chargers (25.5)
Ravens (25.5)
Lowest point totals
Titans at Texans (38.5)
Vikings at Steelers (40.5)
Lowest implied individual team totals
Titans (15.5)
Saints (16)
Browns (18)
Bengals (18.3)
Largest point spreads
Saints at Bills (-16.5)
Browns at Lions (-8.5)
Titans at Texans (-7.5)
Bengals at Broncos (-7)
Streaming QBs
Geno Smith, Raiders vs. Bears
Geno Smith has had two great fantasy games and one awful one so far this season. The good news this week is he gets a good matchup with a poor Bears pass defense that has been stung by the injury bug. They’ve allowed the second-worst completion rate at 75.3%, while allowing the most passing touchdowns. The Raiders are 1.5-point favorites at home, but the Bears offense showed up last week and I’d expect Smith to need to chuck the ball plenty this week.
Sam Darnold, Seahawks vs. Cardinals
Arizona has faced Spencer Rattler, Bryce Young, and Mac Jones so far this season. The lack of top fantasy QBs there has helped their stats to start the season, but injuries have ravaged their secondary and Young put up a big game on them, albeit with 55 pass attempts. Darnold has looked good so far this season and last week would have likely had a big game if not for the defensive touchdowns pushing the score out of reach early against the Saints.
