Tag: Cam Newton fantasy football

Fantasy Football Market Report: Week 11

Fantasy football risers and fallers entering Week 11.

In fantasy circles, running backs are a premium because so few consistently carry 15 times or more in games. That’s what made Derrick Henry such a joy to watch (and have on your roster. In the eight games before injury, Henry had 219 carries for 937 yards and 10 rushing touchdowns. After having 17 carries in Week 1, he had 20 or more in all of the subsequent seven games, including 28 or more carries in six of those.

So, with him gone, who picks up the mantle for the workhorse running backs? Hint: There aren’t many. By my count, there are currently just four.

Dalvin Cook has 15 or more carries six of seven games played. In the two games he has missed, backup Alexander Mattison has rushed 51 times for 225 yards. Jonathan Taylor has come into his own, with 15-plus carries in eight of 10 games. Najee Harris has hit that number in seven of nine games, including five straight games with 22 or more carries (the Steelers are 4-0-1 in those games). Alvin Kamara has 15 or more carries in six of eight games played.

A case can be made that the Cleveland Browns and Chicago Bears backfields fit in that category, but injuries of kept them down. If you ever wonder why elite running backs remain the most expensive fantasy investments, that should answer your question. So few are dominant that it makes them more precious, and King Henry was the gold standard.

Here is the Week 11 Fantasy Market Report:

Fantasy Football Risers

QB Cam Newton, Carolina Panthers

It’s rare when you have the opportunity to acquire a quarterback off the waiver wire who has the potential to have the kind of games Newton is capable of having. He isn’t the star he was when the Panthers went to the Super Bowl, but when you have Christian McCaffrey as an ultimate weapon and a strong pair of veteran receivers, Newton has the ability to be a fantasy starter with the right matchups. He’s not an every-week starter, but he can bolster a roster and be a pick-and-choose type that can be plugged in as needed.

RB A.J. Dillon, Green Bay Packers

When the Packers drafted Dillon, they did so because they understand the conditions in which Green Bay plays – often a combination of cold, wind and snow. Dillon is a hammer whose value goes up as it comes to be later in the year. That is even more pronounced now that the regular season stretches into mid-January. Aaron Jones made the Fallers list due earlier this month due to not having more than 15 carries in any game since Week 3, and much of that was due to Dillon’s presence and his ability to be a banger between the tackles when they need it. Since Week 3, Green Bay has had two games with a runner with more than 15 carries – Dillon at Arizona Oct. 28 and Dillon Sunday against Seattle. He will likely be a 1b option when Jones returns after spraining a knee ligament, but he has two weeks to make his case to be in a time share, if not the lead dog as weather in the Great White North deteriorates.

WR DeVonta Smith, Philadelphia Eagles

Consistency has been an issue with the Eagles offense all season, and it’s always an issue when dealing with rookie wide receivers. However, Smith has topped 60 yards in five of the last seven games. In the last two, he has been the big-play threat in the Philly offense, catching nine passes for 182 yards (more than 20 a catch) and has scored three touchdowns. For much of the season, he was showing promise, but it wasn’t translating into consistent big plays or touchdowns. Now it is starting to show, and his value is gaining steam.

RB Mark Ingram, New Orleans Saints

Ingram was the leading rusher in Houston, but nobody felt confident that he could produce the kind of numbers needed to be in a fantasy lineup. When he was in New Orleans to start his career, once Alvin Kamara arrived, his role changed, but his ability to have big weeks continued. Running backs are the most difficult commodities to obtain in fantasy leagues. Ingram is the No. 2 guy, but Sean Payton is still the head coach and still calls the plays. He knows better than anyone what Ingram can do in his offense. He’s not a handcuff for Kamara, who happens to be out with a knee sprain of his own. He can post numbers as a rusher and receiver on his own. Playing alongside Kamara limits some of those opportunities, but look back at his first run in New Orleans. He will have his share of fantasy moments.

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RB Melvin Gordon, Denver Broncos

The funny thing about Gordon is that those who have him on their roster get frustrated because he’s clearly in a time share in Denver’s backfield. In his last seven games, he has rushed more than 10 times just once. But, his bottom line is that he has scored a touchdown in five of his last six games. I wouldn’t want to have my fantasy season hinging on Gordon having a huge game, but, if you need someone who has consistently been putting up consistent weekly numbers as a runner, receiver and scorer, Gordon checks a lot of boxes in that regard.

Fantasy Football Fallers

WR Tyler Lockett, Seattle Seahawks

In the first two games of the season, Lockett was on fire, catching 12 passes for 278 yards and three touchdowns. In the seven games since? 31 catches for 324 yards and no touchdowns. That works out to four catches for 46 yards a game. You can’t blame his lack of production on Russell Wilson missing time. In that same seven-game span, DK Metcalf has caught 32 passes for 493 yards and seven touchdowns. Lockett is still a talent who fantasy owners will have a hard time miring on their benches, but it seems like it is time to make Lockett a matchup-only type of play.

QB Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers

The best thing that happened to Roethlisberger owners is that he didn’t play last week due to COVID protocol against the Detroit Lions, because there may have been the temptation. At a time when quarterbacks routinely throw for 300 yards, Big Ben has done it just once – and that was in Week 3. More troubling is that he has 10 touchdowns in eight games – two games with two TD passes and six with one TD. Given that he is a glacier in the backfield and hasn’t earned a single point for rushing if you go on the point-for-10-yards standard. He has six yards rushing all season. I would rather take a chance with a QB left on the waiver wire gut pile than go with Roethlisberger with the expectations of having a big fantasy day.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight ends

In the first two games of the season, Rob Gronkowski scored four touchdowns. In his first three games, he caught 16 passes. He hasn’t caught a pass in the last six games due to injury, yet he leads Tampa Bay tight ends in receptions. Cameron Brate has played in all nine games for the Bucs and has caught 14 passes for 131 yards and one touchdown. O.J. Howard has played in all nine games and has caught 13 passes for 125 yards and one touchdown. Given how the Tampa Bay offense (and the Tom Brady offense) has routinely included a heavy dose of tight ends, it’s shocking that neither Brate nor Howard has filled in the void left by Gronk’s injury. They’re posting the kind of numbers glorified offensive linemen put up and have reached the point of not being able to live up to their talent or their past histories.

WR Jarvis Landry, Cleveland Browns

With all the upside the Browns came into season with, Landry may be the next disgruntled receiver looking to work his way out of town. He has missed four of the Browns’ 10 games due to injury and, in the six he has played, he has caught just 23 passes for 219 yards no touchdowns. That works out to an average of four catches for 37 yards and no scores. Futility like that is difficult to maintain over a long stretch, but he has managed.

RB Antonio Gibson, Washington Football Team

Coming off a season in which he emerged as a fantasy threat with 11 rushing touchdowns, Gibson was taken in fantasy leagues to be a starter most if not all weeks. In his last seven games, he hasn’t rushed for 65 yards in any of them and, aside from a 73-yard screen-turned-touchdown as a receiver, he has caught 18 passes for just 85 yards in the other eight games. Instead of being a weekly must-start, Gibson is player who is in lineups more by force than choice. Granted, he has scored six touchdowns, but fantasy football is played on a weekly basis and, many more weeks than not, he has come up empty.

Patriots QBs: Worth a look in fantasy football?

Is there anything of fantasy football worth going on here?

For most of the past two decades, the New England Patriots had the luxury of having Tom Brady under center. That came to an end before last season when Brady departed for Tampa Bay and New England signed Cam Newton to replace him. Going from one former MVP to another seemed like a promising move, but Newton, who took a pounding during his time in Carolina, didn’t look like the same player.

With New England going nowhere, head coach Bill Belichick gave former fourth-rounder Jarrett Stidham a look in a handful of blowouts with uninspiring results. Armed with the belief that neither Newton nor Stidham was a long-term solution, the Patriots used the 15th pick in April’s draft on Mac Jones, the Alabama QB who led the Crimson Tide to a National Championship last year.

Now Newton and Jones will compete for the top spot in New England, which had its 11-year run of AFC East crowns snapped in 2020. While Newton sits in the QB1 spot, the Pats’ first-round investment in Jones suggests his times is coming.

Cam Newton

Over his first five seasons, Newton earned three Pro Bowl selections and was named MVP in 2015. In the five seasons since, however, the 32-year-old has posted a winning record just once while tossing 73 touchdowns and 54 interceptions — those are ugly numbers in an era where passing totals are up and ball security is of paramount importance.

Injuries bear at least some of the blame as the 6-foot-5, 245-pounder has taken a lot of punishment. The fallout includes multiple shoulder surgeries, a fractured back, and a Lisfranc sprain that cost him all but two games in 2019 and resulted in surgery on his foot. As Indiana Jones once quipped, “It ain’t the years, honey. It’s the mileage.”

Newton racked up more miles last season, running 137 times for 592 yards and 12 TDs (only three players ran for more). That salvaged a modicum of fantasy appeal as his passing exploits were dreadful: 2,657 yards, 8 TDs and 10 INTs with three of those scoring strikes coming in Week 17 against the hapless Jets.

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A mostly nondescript group of pass catchers didn’t help matters, and to that end the Patriots went out and added Hunter Henry (60-613-4), Jonnu Smith (41-448-8), Nelson Agholor (48-896-8) and Kendrick Bourne (49-667-2) in free agency. That should help the offense tremendously and potentially gives the Pats one of the best two-tight end sets in the NFL, assuming the oft-injured Henry can stay healthy.

All those things, plus another year working with OC Josh McDaniels, should help, but it’s debatable whether Newton has anything left in the tank. If the mistakes start to mount, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Belichick cut bait early on and work with Jones. That makes Newton no better than a late-round flier.

Mac Jones

Jones’ scouting report can largely be summed up in four words: high floor, low ceiling. He was surrounded by elite talent at Alabama, including a dominant offensive line and running game, and the Crimson Tide rolled to a 13-0 mark that saw only a single game decided by one possession. Jones’ size and mobility are average, and he’s no threat to run. His arm strength is also considered merely adequate.

Where Jones excels is with the cerebral side of the game, consistently making good decisions and anticipating throwing windows. His accuracy is another plus. Jones shows the ability to thread the needle in the short and intermediate games while maintaining that accuracy with deep balls, despite a lack of zip. Jones also exhibits natural leadership and possesses a hyper competitiveness; he showed up big in the biggest spots during his brief collegiate career. … Do those traits remind you of any one former Patriot QB?

All of that suggests that Jones could be ready for the QB1 spot sooner rather than later, though we’d probably be looking at some variant of game management with McDaniels leaning on the backfield and short-passing designs. The receiving personnel backs up this notion, too, with the exception of deep threat Nelson Agholor.

Whereas some of the other notable rookie quarterbacks might be able to move the needle a bit with their legs, Jones seems likely to produce numbers more in line with what his Crimson Tide predecessor Tua Tagovailoa did in Miami last year. That leaves Jones exclusively with dynasty-league appeal.