Eight players last night finished with 10+ points. AJ Brown was not one of them. In yesterday's post, I labeled both him and Rome Odunze as the biggest Thursday Night Football wild cards. They're both the subjects of today's FF4W podcast. Is it time to panic?
One thing to remember about Brown -- and over the summer I discussed this here on the blog and on the podcast -- is that it would be nearly impossible for him to come close to meeting his WR7 ADP expectations. I had him at WR19, and funny enough, I would still bet on him finishing in the top 18-24. He's his team's #1 wideout in a plus offense. He's been hurt and sloppy. His struggles are correctible.
Also in yesterday's post, I described the Bears and Patriots as having two must-start QBs, two must-start RBs, at least four WRs who "will be in many/most starting lineups," and "the same goes for possibly two TEs." With the exception of Brown and DeMario Douglas, things played out as expected. Caleb Williams and Drake Maye had 22+. D'Andre Swift and Rhamondre Stevenson had 19+. Luther Burden had 23.7, while Odunze salvaged 10.9. And Colston Loveland and Hunter Henry had 19.9 and 14.1, respectively.
I'm still amazed that Henry is going strong at nearly 32 years old. He's on pace for a 63-719-4 receiving line, which would be just about on par with last year's numbers. The challenge is that he's been crushing it recently with Brown out or diminished. If you agree that Brown will bounce back, Henry's production would take a hit. The presence of third-round rookie Eli Raridon doesn't help. In deep leagues, this is the time to trade Henry.
Despite struggling, Douglas was the Patriots' #2 WR in targets, receptions, and receiving yards. But in a spread-the-ball offense, #2 WRs often have low floors.
Speaking of low floors, can TreVeyon Henderson's get any lower? He was one of my favorite RB bargains this summer. Big miss so far. Not much else can be said. But I wouldn't trade him away for peanuts. Last year he didn't get going until midseason, when Stevenson got hurt. The upside still exists, even if we're not seeing.
Finally, Burden has reeled in all his last 14 targets. He's locked in with a healthy Williams throwing to him. He'll enter Week 8 as a top-20 WR in scoring, despite the fact that he's getting less than seven looks per game.
For the final score prediction, I picked the Bears to win by six (yay). But my score was 22-16 (boo). Lazy Daze picked it perfectly (30-24). Doug Pastor was one off (31-24). Congrats to Daze.
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