(Photo courtesy of Medium) “Fantasy Football logo”
Liam O’Keefe
Connector Staff
We are a month into the NFL season, and with that is the return of fantasy football. There have been many players setting career highs and taking the fantasy world by storm. These guys have been putting up monster numbers this year and it’s time they get the shine they deserve.
After being labeled a bust and joining his fourth team in five years, Sam Darnold’s career looked like it was heading towards career backup status. However, a season-ending injury to Minnesota’s top pick in this year’s draft, quarterback JJ McCarthy, has vaulted Darnold back into the starting role and has made the absolute most of it. Darnold is leading the NFL in passing touchdowns (8) and is ranked by ESPN as the third best quarterback in fantasy football, averaging 26 points a game.
On top of this Darnold’s situation as the Vikings starting quarterback should only get better as the season progresses, former first-round pick wide receiver Jordan Addison has only played in one game this season and Pro Bowl tight end TJ Hockenson is still waiting to make his season debut after suffering a torn ACL last year. So, if Darnold can keep up this level of play once he gets two of his premier pass-catchers back, the sky is the limit for his fantasy output.
Tight end is one of the most uncertain positions in fantasy football with even the biggest names like Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews being unreliable on a week-to-week basis. So, when rookie Brock Bowers entered the league people weren’t quite sure what to think of him. On one hand he was one of the most productive and dynamic players in all of college football last year at Georgia, which made him appealing. However, he got drafted by the Las Vegas Raiders which made his fantasy output uncertain because of the shaky quarterback play and the plethora of other weapons such as wide receivers Davante Adams and Jakobi Meyers. In the end, those who took the risk and put their faith in the rookie tight end have been rewarded handsomely as he is currently the second rated tight end in fantasy, while he was drafted as the TE12 making it an incredible value play to boot.
Chiefs Wide Receiver Rashee Rice has one of the best advantages that you can have in football as he plays for quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Head Coach Andy Reid’s offense. Rice benefitted from this greatly last year as he became the team’s top wide receiver.
In the offseason, the Kansas City Chiefs’ primary focus was to surround Mahomes with as many weapons as possible. This was accomplished by signing wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown in free agency and selecting wide receiver Xavier Worthy out of Texas in the draft. This, along with Kelce’s role in the Kansas City offense, made some fantasy managers nervous about the upside Rice could provide in a crowded receiver room. But things have broken Rice’s way so far this season due to Brown starting the season on IR and Kelce starting the year with a career worst in production output.
The jury is still out on whether Rice can keep up his production once Brown comes back and Worthy starts acclimating to the NFL but as for now, he is fantasy football’s second most productive wide receiver behind only Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb.
