4for4 Mailbag Week 4
Welcome to the weekly 4for4 Mailbag, where I answer your questions about all aspects of fantasy football including redraft leagues, DFS strategy, advice on handling angry football widows, and even some pop culture. Since it will be published on Thursdays throughout the season, I won’t be tackling waiver wire advice, so be sure to check out 4for4’s valuable articles on streaming and the like, to aid with your weekly roster decisions.
To submit a question for consideration, tweet me @themondaymommy or simply use the hashtag #4for4mailbag.
Payton A from Facebook: Should I keep or trade DeAngelo Williams? I have Mark Ingram, Melvin Gordon, Doug Martin and Thomas Rawls.
JE: DeAngelo Williams is a must keep in my opinion, at least for now. While filling in for the suspended Le’Veon Bell, Williams accrued 66.7 PPR points as the overall RB2 through three weeks of play. He is running extremely well and could see more opportunity depending on the health of Bell.
I believe they will use some packages where both Williams and Bell will take part in the snaps with Bell even in a WR role at times. It’s too early to know if Williams will have stand-alone value, but I would definitely keep him rostered until we find out that he doesn’t.
The RB I would try to move on your squad would be Rawls. His fibula injury seems to be more serious than the Seahawks originally thought and Christine Michael has carried the rock well in his absence. See if you can score some depth at WR or another position where you need the help while Rawls still has some value, or else you may end up dropping him sooner than later.
@steelergrrl43: Now that JJ Watt is out, Texans D is out. Who’s the best choice?
JE: I wouldn’t jump to such a harsh conclusion on the demise of the Houston defense. Sure, JJ Watt is a beast and wreaks all kinds of havoc on opposing offenses, however, there are plenty of guys still on the field that can make great defensive plays for the Texans.
When looking at 4for4’s Hot Spots for team defenses, as well as the Schedule-Adjusted Fantasy Points Allowed (aFPA) metric, Houston has a very favorable run coming up in their schedule. This week they get a Tennessee Titans offense that gives up an average of 13.3 aFPA to team defenses, followed by one tough matchup versus the Vikings, then a Colts team with 13.2 aFPA, and two more soft teams before their bye in Week 9.
If you don’t trust the Texans without Watt, some other defenses with favorable blocks of matchups include the New York Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens.
Dan R from Facebook: Competitive 12-team PPR league and I’ve been hit by several RB injuries. I scooped up a bunch of upside RBs and now have 7 on my roster. Other than Gurley, these are the RBs on my team: Rashad Jennings, Dwayne Washington, DeAndre Washington, Chris Thompson, Kenneth Dixon, and Matt Asiata. How would you rank my RBs for the rest of the season and who’s the most droppable now?
JE: Wow, do you have enough other position players to fill out the rest of your roster? I do feel your pain on the RB injuries as I too have suffered, losing Danny Woodhead, Doug Martin and Arian Foster in the same week on the same team. I also lost Keenan Allen off that squad but this isn’t about me.
As far as ranking goes for the rest of the season, it gets a bit tricky here since five of these six RBs are filling in for injured or ineffective players who could lose touches any given week. If I were to rank them now for let’s say this week, I would have them at Dwayne Washington, Matt Asiata, Chris Thompson, Rashad Jennings, DeAndre Washington and Kenneth Dixon.
For me, DeAndre Washington is droppable until we see more out of him or Latavius Murray goes down for any significant amount of time. Dixon is a great stash on a deep bench since the Ravens backfield is pretty murky, but if you need the room get rid of him.
@BPazoles: RBs/TEs full PPR, WRs .5 PPR, Rank: Riddick, Tyrell Williams, J. Witten. Thnx!
JE: Based on your league settings, I would actually rank them exactly as you have them listed, with Theo Riddick scoring the most, then Tyrell Williams and lastly Jason Witten.
Riddick currently has 50.1 PPR points and should benefit from his backfield teammate Ameer Abdullah’s being placed on injured reserve. Dwayne Washington will take away some of his reps but Riddick is the Lion’s RB workhorse moving forward.
I really like Williams for the rest of the season as he has actually been targeted more than Travis Benjamin in the two weeks since Keenan Allen went down. He is currently averaging 10.5 .5 PPR fantasy points per game and that should increase as he and Phillip Rivers continue to build chemistry in San Diego’s offense.
After the first three weeks, Witten is sitting as the TE15 with 28.2 PPR fantasy points. He gets two straight weeks of cushy opponents as both the 49ers and Bengals have given up a plethora of fantasy points to the TE position so far this season, according to 4for4’s aFPA with 19.7 and 20.0 aFPA, respectively.
@accountinhiding: So I have an embarrassing # of starting RBs and WRs in one league. What do I leverage for Gronk?
JE: I can’t answer your question without sharing your first tweet, which was explaining that you created a secret twitter account so that your league mates won’t know how you are getting better at fantasy football. I certainly commend you on this, because as players, we're always after that edge when it comes to fantasy football and secret twitter accounts are fair game.
If I understand your question correctly, you are looking to grab Gronk from someone else in exchange for one or some of your overcrowded roster of RBs and WRs. Without knowing exactly who you have, it’s tough to really give you advice on who to offer, however, I would think now would be a good time to take Gronk off someone’s hands who is fed up with his lack of playing time and production.
Last week, he “played” yet was merely a decoy in the Patriots’ offense. With Tom Brady set to return from suspension in Week 5, New England has an easy schedule versus the TE position up until their bye in Week 9, which bodes well for Gronk’s fantasy status. I would start with a low-ball offer to your league’s Gronk owner to gauge exactly how frustrated they are with spending a most likely first or early second-rounder on him. Since you admittedly have an overabundance of starters at the WR and RB positions, giving up one or possibly two guys should be no problem for you in return for what should eventually be a solid season from Gronk.
As always thanks so much for all your submissions this week. See you all next Thursday for the 4for4 Mailbag!
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