When my son was born this past summer, I could picture football season with him. There’s something special about seeing him in his football outfits and imagining the bond we might have over the game.
This past weekend, my biggest fantasy rival in my home leagues welcomed his family’s first child, also. This guy just can’t stop copying me. Wants to be as good at fantasy football as me. I have a kid, he has a kid. Can you believe this dude?
My rival also happens to be one of my best friends in the world and I know he’ll try to establish that same football bond with his daughter. Maybe one day my son and his daughter will be in their own leagues, making their own trades and agonizing over waiver wire decisions.
It’s yet another cool thing about this silly game we play. We all want to win, but we can’t forget about the fun we have with the people in our leagues. The most important thing in this, however, is that if my son and my buddy’s daughter are in a league together, the tradition of my family dominating his in fantasy sports will continue!
And with that, let’s recap Week 6!
10 Studs
- Raheem Mostert - 132 total yds. 3 TDs
- Kyren Williams - 158 yds. 1 TD
- Cooper Kupp - 148 yds. 1 TD
- Amon-Ra St. Brown - 124 yds. 1 TD
- Jared Goff - 353 yds. 2 TDs
- Derrick Henry - 114 total yds. 1 TD
- Drake London - 125 yds.
- Desmond Ridder - 307 yds. 2 TDs
- Chubba Hubbard - 88 yds. 1 TD
- Michael Pittman - 109 yds.
I’ve said this in different ways before, but it bears repeating: I try to highlight different players every week here. There are plenty of obvious studs out there, but I only want to highlight them when they go nuclear. Do you need to hear Tyreek Hill is good every week?
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So are the Dolphins. So is Raheem Mostert, who put to bed any doubts about the running game with De’Von Achane on IR. You probably can’t get Mostert but think about getting Jeff Wilson Jr. if he’s around because it seems like it doesn’t matter who’s running the ball in Miami, they’ve got a chance to score.
Kyren Williams had four yards at halftime. He had 158 at the end of the game. Sean McVay decided he was going to try and run the Cardinals defense into the ground and Williams obliged. When it wasn’t Kyren, it was Cooper Kupp, who’s as close to automatic as it gets.
The downside, at least for this game, was there was virtually no Puka Nacua. If Rams go run heavy, it could be sad days ahead for the Puka backers. Hopefully Williams’ ankle injury isn’t a bad one.
Is Jared Goff an MVP candidate? He’s a top-10 fantasy QB so far while directing traffic for the Lions offense. He could set personal records for yards and touchdowns. It helps to have Amon-Ra St. Brown, who didn’t miss a beat after being out last week. David Montgomery left the game, which may have forced the Lions to rely more on their passing game, but it looks like Goff and co. can handle the load.
Many people, including me, wondered if Derrick Henry didn’t have it anymore. Well, what better place for a King to adjust his crown than in England? Henry looked fast and powerful on his bigger runs through the Baltimore defense and gave fantasy owners reason to relax.
Ok, that’s two 300-plus passing yard games in a row from Desmond Ridder in Atlanta. Drake London turned in his first 100-plus yard day of the season. That’s the good news. Ridder still threw three picks and London couldn’t find the end zone. It feels like the Atlanta offense will always make me think it could be better. But, hey, at least Kyle Pitts scored.
Without Miles Sanders, Chubba Hubbard was … serviceable! They gave it to him 19 times and he had just under 90 yards and a touchdown. You’ll take that every time. The not fun part: 1 target.
It’s clear that Michael Pittman is Gardner Minshew’s favorite target. He had 14 targets on his way to a 9-grab, 100-plus yard day. Minshew loves targeting this guy and he might be the QB for the rest of the year if Anthony Richardson gets season ending surgery. Hope you have Pittman in PPR formats!
The Duds
This might be a cop-out, but I’ll just say the injury bug can GTFO of here and in a hurry! The blue medical tent was a who’s who of NFL talent -- Christian McCaffrey, Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence, Deebo Samuel … and those are just some of the names! Let’s hope they recover quickly.
Now for the players that stayed healthy. Losing CMC obviously hurt the 49ers, but Brock Purdy didn’t step up when needed. He also had nothing going with one of last weekend’s studs: George Kittle. You can’t tell me San Francisco fell apart by losing one guy.
Speaking of losing, the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the New York Jets! Hurts had three interceptions and an un-Hurts-like game, but you got a rushing and a passing touchdown. DeVonta Smith turned in another subpar game, but it wasn’t for lack of opportunity -- 11 targets should give Smith owners reassurance that better days are ahead.
I’ll also throw the Buccaneers QB/WR duo on here. Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans got nothing going against the Lions. The early bye might have helped the Bucs get a little more healthy, but it certainly did not look like they did a lot of game planning on the week off.