With Week 7 of the 2024 season in the books- time for a dynasty reaction!
Offenses Reborn?
Offenses reborn in Week 7? Well certainly in the cases of two AFC North teams – Cleveland and Pittsburgh this looks to be the case. Much has been made about Deshaun Watson’s poor performances this season and how little you could rely on any offensive player this season for fantasy. This all seems to have changed following the gruesome achilles suffered by the QB on Sunday. Done for the year and potentially done for good, there will be a new starting QB in Cleveland going forward. The benefactors immediately appear to be Jerry Jeudy and Cedric Tillman with Tillman seeing a career high 12 targets. David Njoku (14 targets, 10 Recs, 76 yards, 1 TD) looks set to be a top TE rest of season whether it be Dorian Thompson-Robinson or Jameis Winston at QB. The Steelers surprisingly announced Russell Wilson as the new starter and he repaid the decision with a win on Sunday night and provided a platform for George Pickens to go off for 111 yards and a TD. Najee Harris continued his good form with another 100 yard rushing performance as opposing defenses have to worry more about the passing game with Wilson then they did with Justin Fields.
Kenneth Walker-Elite RB?
This is the best version of Kenneth Walker we have ever seen, despite being limited with injury. Despite missing 2 games with injury and being limited entering games played, Walker is averaging 22.3 points per game which ranks 2nd only behind Derrick Henry. Walker and this running game have been made integral to the Seahawks offensive gameplan under new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and the TDs and fantasy points are flowing. In fact Walker has already scored 7 times in just 5 appearances and he’s now only 2 TDs away from his highest output as a Seahawk. The big question mark with Walker and has always been a reason for me not to be all in on him is the health, but if he can keep himself on the field then he’s high end RB1 rest of season and still having another year on his contract means you feel good about owning him in dynasty.
Kyle Pitts (FINALLY!?) Breakout?
Kyle Pitts FINALLY becoming the stud we thought he could be? It’s been a tale of ups and mostly downs for Kyle Pitts career thus far and owning him in dynasty has been pretty stressful. That being said he’s found consistency under offensive coordinator Zac Robinson to the tune of 3 straight games of 5+ Targets, 65+ Receiving Yards and double digit fantasy points. Over the last 3 weeks, only Brock Bowers has more receiving yards than Kyle Pitts who is the TE5 averaging 13.1 points which is a huge improvement on the first 4 weeks where he was the TE16 averaging just 6.1 points. Pitts led the Falcons in Targets, Receptions and Receiving Yards against the Seahawks and I would put him firmly in the dynasty buy category.
Tee Higgins– Causing a Headache?
The Bengals would be mad to let Tee Higgins walk next offseason. For the fourth game in a row, Tee Higgins out-targeted Ja’Marr Chase who himself is looking for a new contract that will likely make him the highest paid WR in the league, and he’ll likely get it. The general consensus opinion being that the Bengals would be hard pushed to be able to pay both wide receivers this offseason having paid Joe Burrow top money back in 2023. With several teams having plenty of cash available and clear needs at wide receiver (Patriots & Commanders being two of them), Higgins could be finding himself a new home in 2025. In my opinion that would be a slight downgrade on his current situation with a top 5 quarterback and playing alongside Chase who clearly compliment eachother well. I think Higgins on his current value of WR22 on KTC still represents good value and I would be leaning that he’s still a buy (peaked at WR5 in 2022).
Romeo Doubs– Building Role?
Romeo Doubs deserves more love, even though it’s deemed uncool to like him. Jayden Reed tends to be everyone’s dynasty darling for the Green Bay Packers WR room, some more rebellious folk may choose to be a Dontayvion Wicks stan. For Romeo Doubs who caught the eye with 8 TD grabs in 2023, it was a very quiet start to the season and was even frozen out with a suspension in week 5. He came back with a bang in week 6 catching 2 TD passes on his way to a WR1 finish. Doubs followed it up with his best game for the Packers since week 4 of 2023 posting 8 receptions for 94 yards off targets. His usage has seen a bump recently even with a relatively healthy group of receivers, Doubs has been used as one of the outside guys while Dontayvion Wicks and Christian Watson share snaps at the other outside receiver spot. Jayden Reed continuing to play the slot role to a high level but Doubs has been the go to target recently and he’ll look set to build on that chemistry with Love in the upcoming weeks.
Kareem Hunt– Getting Touches
Kareem Hunt’s usage has been surprising to me, will be a huge factor rest of season. I’ll hold my hands up now, I didn’t believe in Kareem Hunt when he was brought in off the street by the Chiefs when starting running back Isaiah Pachecho went down to a broken fibula in week 2. My money at the time was on a committee between already established rookie Carson Steele after an impressive week 3, with some Samaje Perine mixed in for receiving work. It’s been the total opposite and once Hunt got up to NFL game speed, he’s dominated touched in the backfield. What’s important is, just how important touches are at running back for the Chiefs now that their playing style is not lean on Patrick Mahomes anymore, it’s run the ball and play good defense. Hunt has rushed the ball 49 times alone in the past 2 games and scored 3 times. In this rejuvenated form, he’s an RB1 rest of season and a potential league winner.
Colts Under Anthony Richardson Struggle
The Indianapolis Colts offense is a mess under Anthony Richardson, and questions need to be asked. I’m vocally one of Anthony Richardson’s biggest fans and entering the season I had massive hopes hat not only would Richardson establish himself as the Colts long term starter with an exciting offense, but also be a fantasy stud. Much like the Kareem Hunt prediction, I’ve been very wrong so far. Per FantasyData among 39 qualifying QBs, Richardson ranks 38th in passer rating, 39th in off target throw rate, and has the 2nd highest turnover-worthy rate. He looks absolutely lost as a passer which we knew would be rough but it’s almost much worst than could be expected. Yes you can correctly point out that he’s still incredibly raw and the Colts took a massive gamble on Richardson’s growth. Richardson had such few actual games as a starter in college for Florida and still only 9 games started in the NFL, he’s essentially a rookie still. The problem lies when you compare Richardson to this rookie class and it’s visible the massive gulf between Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels, Drake Maye, even Bo Nix looks more qualified as an NFL starter than Richardson does. There’s still time but I’m concerned he’s on a Trey Lance trajectory, destined to be a high upside backup. I just need to find someone to take a few dynasty shares off me.
Injuries Derailing 2024
With major injuries devastating the NFL already this season I thought I’d highlight a few players who I expect to step up and potentially be fantasy relevant in the coming weeks. In dynasty you always have to be looking for the next big thing and when opportunity knocks for players it only takes one to flourish and cement themselves as a starter and you can turn waiver bids/small trades into gold. The Buccaneers had the worst possible result on Monday night losing both Chris Godwin (season ending) and Mike Evans (multiple weeks potentially) to injury. That leaves a massive void and so many vacated targets needing to fill. My two mentions for the Bucs would be 2nd year Trey Palmer and rookie Jalen McMillan. Palmer flashed with his speed last season but has struggled with his health so far this year. McMillan came in with high hopes this season to fill that WR3 role but has struggled to secure it with inconsistency. There’s no denying the talent is there for both these WRs with McMillan presumably moving to the slot along with veteran Sterling Shepard to help fill Godwin’s role and there will be plenty of opportunity. Brandon Aiyuk another player suffering a season ending injury this weekend, ACL & MCL injury tear leaves the 49ers with major question marks over their wide receiver options going forward. Deebo Samuel currently dealing with effects of pneumonia and is understandably questionable going forward. With Jauan Jennings banged up and missing this week there is massive opportunity for incoming rookie Ricky Pearsall and Jacob Cowing. Pearsall making his league debut this week following his 1st round draft selection, he was on the field for 76% of snaps and saw an encouraging 5 targets in the primary slot role. Cowing had been used as the primary punt returner but finally saw proper snaps on offense in 11 personnel sets and although only seeing 3 targets, he made the most of them with 50 receiving yards being that deep threat. I would expect Jennings when healthy to resume a decent target share but these two rookies now have the opportunity to make their mark and especially in Cowing’s case, head coach Kyle Shanahan has never worried about draft capital, if he outperforms Pearsall etc, he will earn a bigger role going forward.
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