Keenan Allen is a Fantasy Football Cheat Code! 🤖

Week 4 is the last week where bye weeks are not part of the equation for a long time. Enjoy this while it lasts.

What’s in store:

• Mike Williams becomes the latest victim of the ACL tear 😞. Which Chargers WR will step up to fill his shoes?

• QB injuries galore heading into Week 4 🤕. Could we see backups for Carolina, Las Vegas, and New Orleans?

• Faraz’s top takeaways from a busy Week 3. Everything you need to know, all in one place.

• Keenan Allen is going ballistic. And it’s not just these first three games of 2023 we’re talking about…

• Chargers WR Mike Williams suffers torn ACL, expected to miss rest of the 2023 season

  • The injury cut short a game where Williams was dominating from the jump against a porous Vikings pass defense, and a season in which he was shaping up to be one of the better values in drafts. He’ll now make the trip to IR and set his sights on the 2024 season with a long road to a comeback ahead of him. Williams is still just 28 years old, but the Chargers have an out in his contract this offseason. That could shake things up if they would opt to move on from him, considering they drafted TCU WR Quentin Johnston in the first round of this year’s draft. Johnston’s been acclimating to the NFL slower than other rookies in the 2023 class, but he’ll have increased opportunity with Mike Williams out of the picture this season. Josh Palmer becomes a must-start WR3 with upside in relief of Williams.

• Saints QB Derek Carr is considered to be week-to-week after suffering a sprained AC joint vs Packers in Week 3

  • Carr was well on his way to another mid-QB2 performance this week before going down with the injury. While the passing yardage and volume has been there for him so far this season, the touchdowns have not – and that’s been the story of his career. The good news for fantasy managers that have Saints pass catchers rostered (Olave, Thomas) is that Jameis Winston, like Carr, pushes the ball downfield a lot. Neither Olave or Thomas should be hurt too significantly, if at all, if the Saints would have to start Winston for an extended period of time.

• Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo entered the league’s concussion protocol following the game vs Steelers

  • After passing for over 300 yards and 2 TDs against a stout Steelers defense and propelling Davante Adams to 42 PPR points Sunday night, Garoppolo’s status is now in doubt for their Week 4 matchup against the Chargers. Garoppolo himself has been a middling fantasy quarterback through three weeks, but his production has been more than enough to sustain two fantasy-relevant wide receivers including new addition Jakobi Meyers. Waiting in the wings to make the start if Jimmy G can’t go on Sunday would be veteran QB Brian Hoyer and rookie QB Aidan O’Connell, the latter of which had an impressive preseason. The offense in general would likely take a hit if anyone not named Garoppolo would be under center.

• Panthers HC Frank Reich noncommittal when asked about the status of rookie QB Bryce Young for Week 4

  • After missing Carolina’s Week 3 contest, the expectation was that he would be ready to make his return in Week 4, but Reich said that he “doesn’t know yet” that Young will be ready to go. The interesting part here is that Andy Dalton stepped in and had the Panthers offense humming relative to what we had seen from the Young-led offense through two weeks. While we obviously want to see this year’s first overall pick back out on the field as soon as possible, having Dalton under center allowed the Panthers to show signs of life for the first time in 2023. If Dalton draws the start once again in Week 4, WRs Adam Thielen and D.J. Chark stand to have an elevated ceiling.

• Devon Achane is him

  1. Achane looked explosive on his 200-yard, 4 TD day, and has a chance to win the starting job in Miami. The problem is, he has two veterans in Raheem Mostert and Jeff Wilson who might not make it easy for him to get as much work as we want him to. Either way, we probably have to empty our FAAB to get him.

• Jordan Love is a fantasy QB1

  1. He had a tough matchup against the Saints, but came through with his best fantasy performance. He has two solid matchups over the next two weeks at home against Detroit and in Las Vegas. And he’ll get Christian Watson back soon.

• Sutton is Broncos WR1

  1. Courtland Sutton has received a 27% and 29% target share in the two games with Jerry Jeudy. This lines up with reports from camp, so he’s the preferred Broncos WR right now.

• Tank Dell gets upgraded

  1. Two straight weeks for Dell now leading the Texans in target share. Him and Nico Collins are locked into the top-36 at the position going into Week 4. Both are great plays against the Steelers next week. CJ Stroud is looking good.

• Alexander Mattison makes his case

  1. Mattison felt the heat after the Cam Akers trade and did what he could to hold him off for now. 87% of snaps, 27 opportunities this week, and 6+ targets each of the last two weeks is very encouraging for now. He needs to get the fumbling in check; he’s lucky he got his overturned this week.

• Sam LaPorta breaking the mold

  1. LaPorta had his breakout game, and is a Top-10 TE at the very least moving forward. He had a respectable 17% target share coming into the week, and saw 33% this week in a very tight target distribution overall from Jared Goff. It’s what you want to see.

• Jahmyr Gibbs takes over backfield

  1. This isn’t a D’Andre Swift situation, folks. Gibbs moved into the lead back role with David Montgomery out, taking 71% of the RB carries along with all 3 goal line snaps. Montgomery can miss more time, so we could see some big weeks coming up.

• Don’t underestimate the Cardinals

  1. The Cardinals handled the Cowboys at home, and they had their fantasy relevant players come through on a lot of our benches. Zach Ertz didn’t come through (he’s losing his job to Trey McBride), but James Conner and Marquise Brown did. Now we’re going to start them in San Francisco next week, and they’ll shit the bed. Of course.

• Jaylen Warren closing in

  1. Warren’s snap share has gone up in two straight weeks, and reached an equal share with Najee Harris on Sunday night. Warren had 12 opportunities to Najee’s 20, but outscored Harris in PPR for the third straight week.

This is your friendly reminder that Chargers WR Keenan Allen was drafted as the WR19 in the fourth round coming into the 2023 season, which we called as extremely low given the offense he’s a part of and his role as Justin Herbert’s favorite target. Since returning from injury last year that caused him to miss seven games and the majority of two others in 2022, Allen has been on a torrid pace and stacks up among the league’s elite producers.

Not only does Keenan Allen hold the league lead for receptions with 92 over 11 games (8.36 receptions per game), he’s yet to log a game in that span scoring less than 11.8 fantasy points. That elite consistency makes him one of the safest assets at the wide receiver position, but it’s not just the floor that should be targeted with Allen…

Allen also has the most overall PPR WR1 finishes in the past four regular season weeks dating back to 2022, with not one, not two, but THREE finishes as the top scorer at the position. He’s score 30+ points in three of his last for games while averaging over 12 targets per game in that span. He’s picked up right where he left off, and the target distribution should only get tighter with Mike Williams landing on season-ending IR with a torn ACL.