Tag: Jamaal Williams

Fantasy Football start ’em, sit ’em: Week 4

Here’s a look at some tough start/sit decisions in Week 4 of fantasy football.

Entering the fourth week of fantasy football, managers can begin separating from their leagues while others look to gain ground in the race. Much of this will be determined by the start/sit decisions.

Doing start/sit articles can be a little challenging. The players featured on the list below should not be taken as “must starts” or “must sits.” Instead, these are more suggestions on what we believe managers should do with fringe players heading into the weekend. The choice is ultimately up to the manager.

Just because a player is listed as a “start” doesn’t mean he should be put in the lineup over the secure, bona fide studs. Vice versa for the “sits.” If there’s no better option on the waiver wire or the bench, a manager shouldn’t automatically sit the player. That’s why these can be tricky waters to navigate.

You also can check out our start and sit bench list for Week 4.

Here is a look at some of the tough start and sit decisions in fantasy football for Week 4:

Lions being favored with their 2 best playmakers out is proof of how far they’ve come

D’Andre Swift and Amon-Ra St. Brown are both out against Seattle.

The days of teams seeing the Detroit Lions on their schedule and assuming victory are over. In the year 2022, it’s actually been the reverse. The Lions are going into games with expectations of victory.

They were 2.5-point favorites over the Washington Commanders in Week 2, which was set to snap a nearly two-year long underdog streak at several sportsbooks, though the public bet them down to one-point dogs at BetMGM. The Lions responded with a thorough beatdown of the Commanders.

Now, they’re favored over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, and that’s even with running back D’Andre Swift and wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown both ruled out with injuries. If that’s not proof of how far Detroit has come, I don’t know what is.

St. Brown and Swift are Detroit’s two biggest playmakers, though the loss of St. Brown is potentially bigger. Prior to last week’s loss to the Vikings, the receiver had caught a touchdown in a franchise-record six straight games. He still finished with six catches for 73 yards, and leads the team in targets this season by a wide margin with 33. The Lions have been maybe the NFL’s most consistent offense through three weeks, and he’s a huge reason why.

With St. Brown out, Jared Goff will likely divide his target-share between receivers Josh Reynolds and DJ Chark and tight end TJ Hockenson. Meanwhile, Swift’s absence is softened by the presence of Jamaal Williams, who led the team with 20 carries for 87 yards and two touchdowns against the Vikings. His four touchdowns on the season leads the team.

Detroit is undefeated against the spread, but that no doubt becomes a little more difficult as the favorites, and without their two best offensive players. The public has already bet the line down from -4. I’d avoid betting Detroit at anymore more than -2.5, but if there’s a coach who can maximize what he has to work with, it’s Dan Campbell. I’m riding the Lions moneyline all the way.

Prince’s Pick: Lions win 24-21

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Lions vs Vikings: Best and Worst PFF grades from Week 3

Here are the Detroit Lions best and worst PFF performers for this Week 3 game against the Minnesota Vikings.

It is never easy losing against your division opponent, but what happened for the Detroit Lions at the end makes it hurt that much more, losing their second game against the Minnesota Vikings, 28-24.

The Lions looked to be in control, but after some heavily questionable playcalling, ill-timed injuries, and miscommunication, they felt that win slip through their fingers. It has been documented enough that Coach Dan Campbell wishes he would’ve made a different call at the end, so we don’t need to beat a dead horse while it’s down. The Lions will look to redeem themselves next week against the Seattle Seahawks in hopes they can rebound from this devastation.

Most of this week’s PFF grades fall right in line with the eye test, good and bad. So we will go ahead and highlight the best and the worst PFF performers for the Lions for Week 3 against the Vikings.

Fantasy Football Waiver Wire: Week 4 free-agent forecast

Here are the top waiver wire targets in fantasy football for Week 4.

We are nearly a quarter of the way through the 2022 season, and fantasy football managers will continue to rely on the waiver wire to push

We’ll be taking a look at the top available players rostered in ESPN leagues, using the 75% mark as the threshold. If you have any questions about prioritizing a certain player over another, don’t be afraid to hit me up on Twitter (@KevinHickey11). Your questions, comments, and roasts are always welcome!

Fantasy football waiver wire recommendations refer to 12-team league formats, unless specifically stated.

Check back for any updates throughout Monday and Tuesday as more injury news becomes available.

The Lions are leading (if not winning) with a dominant rushing attack

The Detroit Lions are 1-2, but they have an offense that should be the envy of the rest of the league.

The 2922 Detroit Lions are 1-2 and at the bottom of the NFC North after the first three weeks of the season, so it may seem odd to write an entire article about how awesome Detroit’s offense is. But it’s important to evaluate the process as opposed to the outcome. The Lions lost 38-35 to the Philadelphia Eagles in the opener, and the Eagles look very much like a Super Bowl team. They then beat the Washington Commanders, 36-27, and that’s what you want to do when you’re a team on the rise — beat the teams beneath you in the pecking order.

Sunday’s 28-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings was the real killer; Detroit had a 24-14 third-quarter lead, and they then let it get away. We don’t really know what the Vikings are yet, just as we don’t know what the Lions are. But what we do know is that the offense led by head coach Dan Campbell, offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, and assistant head coach/running backs coach Duce Staley, has brought an entirely new energy and productiveness than we’ve seen before.

Atypically, the strength of this offense is the run game, and everything works off that. Even in the Vikings loss, the Lions ran the ball 35 times for 139 yards and two touchdowns, and though they were more efficient and explosive in the passing game against Minnesota, those explosive plays were built to a great degree off that run threat.

We’ll get to that in a bit, but let’s start with how the Lions are killing defenses with run concepts of every stripe, in every situation.

“It goes back to thought process,” Staley said last week, when asked why this rushing attack is working now, when it didn’t in previous years. “It goes back to OTAs, training camp, and making a commitment. And not just the players making a commitment, the coaches also. So, you see [offensive line coach] Hank [Fraley], myself being – everybody, you make a commitment to run a ball, you just – you spend a couple extra hours in the office trying to get it right.”

The multiplicity of concepts are most impressive, especially with injuries all over their offensive line. Let’s start with how Detroit’s run game beats defenses from the head down.

Detroit Lions Week 3 players of the game

The Lions lost to the Vikings but a few Detroit players had really strong games

While the Detroit Lions weren’t able to hold on to their lead against the Minnesota Vikings, several players on the team had noteworthy performances that should not go unrecognized.

Here are three players of the game for Week 3:

Offense: RB Jamaal Williams

Williams was the biggest contributor to the Lions’ offense today as he found the end zone twice. He netted 107 total yards against Minnesota, with 87 on the ground and 20 receiving. He averaged nearly five yards per touch as he became the go-to running back while D’Andre Swift was dealing with an injury.

Williams also helped convert a fourth down for Detroit that eventually drove the team to their second touchdown of the day.

Defense: LB Alex Anzalone

Leading the team in tackles was linebacker Alex Anzalone. The veteran linebacker showed something that the Lions defense hasn’t seen in a while: the ability to make plays in coverage. On a pass attempt to tight end Irv Smith, Anzalone was able to force an incompletion.

His play of the game came in the second half, where he had a wide-open lane to Kirk Cousins and was easily able to bring him down. Anzalone ended the day with 10 tackles and the lone sack.

Special teams: P Jack Fox

While Fox did have a spectacular day punting, his name appears here more so because kicker Austin Seibert and long snapper Scott Daly didn’t have the best performances of their respective careers.

Fox punted three times for an average of 44.7 yards per punt. Two of those punts landed inside the opposite 20-yard line, putting the Vikings in suboptimal field position.

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NFL fans thought Jamaal Williams getting penalized for his hip-thrusting homage to Hingle McCringleberry was hilarious

That’s more pumps than are allowed!!!

The Lions were running all over the Vikings (-6) on Sunday afternoon. Their suddenly impeccably consistent offense continued to do what it wants against a hapless Minnesota offense. But among all of Detroit’s players, it was Jamaal Williams who seemed to enjoy himself the most amidst the hoopla.

After already scoring Detroit’s first touchdown, Williams found himself in the end zone again late in the third quarter to continue an offensive barrage. And with the Lions’ seemingly rolling along as they pleased, Williams decided to use his celebration to mark the occasion with a special nod to the famous Key & Peele character Hingle McCringleberry:

Williams would, unsurprisingly, be penalized 15 yards for “unsportsmanlike conduct” with his celebration. I mean, hey: That’s definitely more than three pumps, too. So, in a way, Williams exceeded McCringleberry’s celebration standard.

Jamaal Williams penalized for Key & Peele touchdown celebration

Lions RB Jamaal Williams penalized for one too many pelvic thrusts on the TD celebration, a la Hingle McCringleberry

Jamaal Williams found the end zone for the second time in the Week 3 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings. And while the touchdown, which put the Lions up 24-14 late in the third quarter, was outstanding, Williams celebrated a little too vigorously for the officials.

Williams was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for his celebration, which was very reminiscent of the famous Hingle McCringleberry skit from the old “Key & Peele” show. As in the skit, Williams tried to get away with one too many pelvic thrusts and got penalized for the extra hip action.

Keegan-Michael Key, a noted Lions fan, originated the skit.

The Lions’ offense is demolishing the Vikings’ defense on fourth down

Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions are proving to be historically great on fourth down against the Minnesota Vikings.

It’s been a very long time since we’ve been able to talk about the Detroit Lions’ offense in a historical sense that wasn’t a historically negative sense, but these are not the same old Lions. A revamped run game that has every defense on edge, in which Detroit is successfully deploying just about every run scheme known to man, sets the tone for quarterback Jared Goff — who, all of a sudden, is pretty fierce when using play-action.

Not that you need a great run game to successfully use play-action — there are far too many examples to the contrary to bend to that old canard on a no-matter-what basis — but the Lions’ case, it’s working like a charm.

The most prominent exhibit of this would be the Lions’ overall scoring success.

The most recent exhibit of this would be what the Lions did to the Minnesota Vikings in the first quarter (plus one play) of Week 3’s matchup.

Detroit failed to convert any of its third-down conversions — they were 0-fot-4 — but they did convert all three of the fourth-down attempts they tried.

When one of Goff’s targets is Amon-Ra St. Brown, that’s generally going to be a problem for defenses. This was the first fourth-down conversion; 30 yards on fourth-and-5.

The second fourth-down conversion came with 1:53 left in the first quarter, and this was just running back Jamaal Williams blowing through Minnesota’s defense for a five-yard gain on fourth-and-1, and check out the block by St. Brown.

The third fourth-down conversion game at the start of the second quarter. Another play-action fake, another frozen defense, and another successful try.

The Lions came into this game with the NFL’s eighth-best offense by DVOA. At this rate, you can expect a jump for an offense that has been one of the league’s biggest surprises this season.

Watch: Lions extend TD streak to 16 straight quarters

Watch: Lions extend touchdown streak to 16 straight quarters on Jamaal Williams’ 2-yard TD run

The Detroit Lions got on the scoreboard first in Minnesota in the Week 3 matchup with the Vikings. Jamaal Williams plunged into the end zone from two yards out to give the Lions the early lead.

Williams’ touchdown extended the Lions streak of scoring a touchdown in each quarter to an outstanding 16 in a row. That’s the most in the NFL.

The touchdown was set up by an aggressive call from offensive coordinator Ben Johnson and head coach Dan Campbell to go for it on 4th-and-5 from the Minnesota 32-yard line. The shallow crossing pattern to Amon-Ra St. Brown wound up gaining 30.

Both the Lions and Vikings missed field goals on their opening possessions.