By: Greg Landry | LineStar Chat: @glandry | Twitter: @GP_Landry

Welcome back to LineStar NFL Takeaways! For those of you new to the community here, this article is published every Tuesday and takes a position by position look at several players whose fantasy performance stood out (both good and bad) and what this might mean in the fantasy landscape as we start to prepare for the week ahead.

What are the three things everyone is certain about in life? Death, paying taxes, and every game the Seattle Seahawks play this year being a shootout. This season, the total in each of Seattle’s games has been 63, 65, 69, 54, 53, 71, 64, and now 78. Unfortunately, for the Seahawks, their early-season strategy of letting Russ handle everything isn’t working as well recently. After winning the first five games of the season, they’ve now dropped two of their last three. Still, from a fantasy perspective, this is actually good news for us. If Seattle continues to struggle it means their games will continue to be competitive and high scoring. It's not a big secret but it also doesn't matter. You need to have exposure every single week to whatever game the Seahawks are playing in.

What Did We Learn?

Here we'll focus on some players at each position who stood out (both good and bad) and identify if there's any actionable information we can use when building our rosters going forward.

Quarterbacks

Josh Allen: 31-38, 415 yards, 3 TD, 7 rush, 14 yards, 1 TD

Nothing cures a couple of bad games for a quarterback better than a matchup against the Seattle Seahawks, who rank 27th in success rate allowed to wide receivers. After two games in a row without throwing a touchdown, Allen bounced back in a big way with three in this one, plus a rushing touchdown. In fact, he was also the Bills second-best rusher (despite only going for 14 yards). Buffalo’s rushing attack continues to be a complete mystery with Singletary seeing two carries for one yard and Zack Moss seeing nine carries for 18 yards. We should expect the Bills to continue to go pass-heavy for the foreseeable future. Allen now has five games with 300 or more passing yards this season after having zero such games in his first two seasons in the NFL. Continue investing in this Buffalo passing attack and, more importantly, continue investing in ANY game involving the Seahawks. 

Kyler Murray: 21/26, 283 yards, 3 TD, 11 rush, 106 yards, 1 TD

Murray came up short in this matchup to the man who finished runner up to him in the Heisman Trophy race back in 2018. Overall, he was outstanding, completing 80% of his passes with three touchdowns and a nearly perfect passer rating of 150.5. As if that wasn’t enough, he was also the Cardinals leading rusher, going over 100 yards on the day picking up another touchdown. Unfortunately for Murray, the difference in this one was his first-quarter fumble which Miami recovered and returned for a touchdown. Coming into this game, Miami had the number one scoring defense in the NFL (before scoring again, their second game in a row with a defensive touchdown). They are also riding a streak of 14 straight games with a takeaway, the second-longest streak in the NFL behind only Baltimore. What does this mean for us? First, despite the fumble, you would have been very happy with the fantasy performance here if you rostered Murray. The Cardinals offense is firing on all cylinders right now and Murray continues to get it done with his legs. He should be on your quarterback radar most weeks. Secondly, the Miami defense is for real. They will give up points but they are aggressive and they force opposing offenses into mistakes which is more important for scoring fantasy points.

Jake Luton: 26/38, 304 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 rush, 13 yards, 1 TD

What’s up with the Jaguars and random sixth-round quarterbacks? With Minshew Magic currently on the shelf due to a thumb injury, we got a taste of Luton Magic who was pretty impressive in his first-ever NFL start (and remember with zero preseason prep). But, I bring this up NOT because of Luton but more because of how this performance proves just how attackable the Houston defense continues to be. Coming into this game, Houston was 23rd in DVOA against the pass and 27th in DVOA against the run. They are allowing the most rushing yards per game in the league, rank 30th in success rate allowed to wide receivers, and rank 29th in success rate allowed to tight ends. In other words? They can’t stop anything. But, similar to Seattle, they have DeShaun Watson and a pass-heavy, high powered offense, which should lead to high scoring game environments most weeks. Games that Houston is involved in could make for a great pivot off of games Seattle is involved in if looking to differentiate in tournaments.

Running Backs

Christian McCaffrey: 18 carries, 69 yards, 1 TD, 10 receptions, 82 yards, 1 TD

Hopefully, the report that came out shortly before game time that Christian McCaffrey would split the workload with Mike Davis didn’t send you scrambling to change up your roster. To be honest, I started looking around for other options, but couldn’t find anything I liked better than what I had already built. I decided that hopefully a lot of the public, who may have already been hesitant about playing CMC in his first game back, would shift off of him giving us even lower ownership to help offset the risk. It paid off, as the news couldn’t have been further from the truth. McCaffrey was thrust right back into his typical workload with 18 carries and 10 targets while Davis received a whopping single carry and six targets. Also unsurprisingly, CMC didn’t skip a beat catching all 10 of his targets and averaging nearly four yards per carry on the ground. Assuming McCaffrey isn’t going to miss more time (he got hurt in the 4th quarter) he and Dalvin Cook are pretty much every week cash game must-haves. In addition to highlighting the return of McCaffrey, I also wanted to point out how KC is turning into a bit of a run funnel defense which could be actionable information for our rosters in future weeks. Coming into this game, they had allowed the 2nd fewest receptions and the fewest yards per game to wide receivers, but the 4th most rushing yards and ranked 23rd in passing success rate to running backs. These ranks should only get worse after this game. Look for opportunities to expose the KC defense with opposing running backs.

Kalen Ballage: 15 carries, 69 yards, 1 TD, 2 receptions, 15 yards

New DFS Law:  If a player USED to play for Adam Gase and sucked but now plays on a different team then you should probably play him. I found a helpful flow chart on Twitter you can print for reference:

Need proof? Look no further than Ryan Tannehill, Devante Parker, Robbie Anderson, Kenyan Drake, Preston Williams, and now Kalen Ballage. All former Gase players who are now thriving on their new teams (okay, Ballage isn’t thriving yet but he looked like a totally different player). With Justin Jackson going down early in this one, the Chargers didn’t turn to Joshua Kelley as you would have expected, but instead, Ballage got an opportunity to showcase his skills. The good news is, he looked really good. Although let’s not forget that most running backs look good against Las Vegas who came into this game ranked 31st in DVOA against the rush. The bad news is, Anthony Lynn appears dead set on always having a committee at running back be it Ekeler/Jackson, Jackson/Kelley, or now apparently Ballage/Kelley. Keep an eye on the news this week with Jackson. If he misses time, it’s possible Ballage will get the majority of the carries in a committee which could make him an interesting value option.

Josh Jacobs: 14 carries, 65 yards 1 TD

Jacobs continues to nurse a knee injury that puts him on the injury report each week although he always winds up playing. After 31 carries in terrible weather last week against Cleveland, the Raiders stated they wanted to keep their running back fresh as they look to make a playoff push down the stretch. They then proceeded to stick to their word limiting Jacobs to only 14 carries in this game despite it remaining competitive throughout and Derek Carr only throwing the ball 23 times. Instead, Devante Booker picked up 8 carries of his own and was productive with them actually out rushing Jacobs (68 yards to 65 yards) and finding the end zone. Considering the possibility of having his workload capped (don’t assume this will be the norm after one game but it is interesting) and the fact that he hasn’t had more than three receptions since week one, Jacobs is trending toward more of a “touchdown-dependent” back than a “workhorse back” despite being priced like a workhorse. Keep this in mind when considering him in future weeks. He’s labeled as an automatic play by much of the DFS community but the numbers actually suggest otherwise.

Wide Receivers

Jerry Jeudy: 7 receptions, 125 yards 1 TD

One week after setting career highs in targets, catches, and yardage, Jeudy followed it up by setting new career highs in two of those categories again, including a whopping 14 targets in this one. Albeit, against a soft pass defense that ranks 29th in DVOA, the rookie looked every bit the player the Broncos hope they drafted 15th overall in this year’s draft catching 10 of his 14 targets and finding the end zone for the second time in his young career. Drew Lock will continue to make mistakes as he develops but he’s not afraid to sling it downfield, which should lead to opportunities to put up fantasy points. The stock on this passing attack is continuing to rise as they had into another favorable matchup this week against Las Vegas who rank 27th in DVOA against the pass.

Olamide Zaccheaus: 4 receptions, 103 yards, 1 TD

No Calvin Ridley? No problem for the Falcons. The issue for us in DFS unfortunately is that the opportunities did not go to the people we expected them too with Ridley out. After having zero receptions, and just a total of 34 snaps over the last three games, Zaccheaus ended up second on the team in targets with six, only one behind Julio Jones. I expected a much larger boost to Julio’s looks without Ridley on the field. Jones in fact had a disappointing day overall, with just 54 yards, but managed to salvage it with a rare touchdown. Christian Blake was another player who was expected to see a boost in opportunities without Ridley but ended up only playing 12 offensive snaps and managed just three receptions for 31 yards. With the Falcons on bye in week 10, Ridley should have enough time to be ready for their next game. But, given the uncertainty, and Julio’s injury history, keep Zaccheaus in the back of your mind as a value option in case one of those two receivers misses any additional time down the stretch.

Tight Ends

Jimmy Graham: 6 receptions, 55 yards, 1 TD

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, at a super-thin position for fantasy scoring Jimmy Graham continues to stay relevant. He’s had less than five targets in every game except one this season and has now had six or more targets in four straight. He’s tied for second among tight ends with five touchdowns behind only Travis Kelce and Jonnu Smith (6). The yardage isn’t overly exciting, this was actually his first game with more than 50 yards receiving since week three, but the targets and red zone opportunities continue to keep him in the conversation at a position that is essentially a weekly dart throw unless you pay for Kelce.

Marc Andrews: 3 receptions, 22 yards

I’ll start by saying this was a difficult matchup against a tough Colts defense ranked 4th in DVOA against the pass and 2nd in success rate allowed to tight ends. With three games in a row now that Andrews hasn’t scored a touchdown after scoring five touchdowns in the first five weeks, we find ourselves with an interesting buy-low opportunity. For the most part, the targets have still been there relative to other tight ends which will eventually lead to increased production. He has a few more difficult matchups coming up against the Patriots, Titans, and Steelers before things get really soft against the Cowboys, Browns, Jaguars, Giants, and Bengals. If Andrews falls completely off the radar, which I expect him to with a few poor performances and some tough matchups ahead, look to jump back on this train (hopefully the price will have dropped more by then) when the matchups improve considerably toward the end of the season. Be patient here and wait for your opportunity to strike.

Key Injuries To Watch

In this section we'll take a look at some key injuries and what the potential impact may be for fantasy purposes.

Note: As a reminder, I’m writing this on Monday, so the news below may change depending on when you read this. Use the NFL beat writers Twitter feed (which is directly inside your LineStar account) as well as the news page to get up to speed.

Christian McCaffrey, RB, Carolina Panthers

Late in the 4th quarter, McCaffrey hurt his shoulder and reports are saying it also appeared that he was having his ribs examined on the sidelines. Right now he’s listed as day to day. Should he miss more time, Mike Davis would be back in our lives. The problem is Davis is already priced like a starter, only one week removed from McCaffrey’s previous injury so there isn’t likely to be much value here in DFS.

David Johnson, RB, Houston Texans

David Johnson suffered a concussion and Duke Johnson filled in nicely with 16 carries for 41 yards, and a touchdown while also catching four passes for 32 more yards. Duke Johnson has long been considered an underutilized player so if David Johnson misses time it could be a big opportunity for Duke to showcase his skills as the primary option. He’ll be a popular value option.

David Montgomery, RB, Chicago Bears

Montgomery also suffered a concussion and with Tarik Cohen already out for the season, the Bears suddenly find themselves very thin at running back. Ryan Nall did fill in and catch a few passes in this game. He’d likely be the next man up.  

Laviksa Shenault JR, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars

Shenault suffered a hamstring injury and did not return to the game. His absence opened up additional looks for DJ Chark (12 targets) and Chris Conley (8 targets). Expect that to continue making Conley a potential value option.

Preston Williams, WR, Miami Dolphins

He was carted off with a foot injury which appears to be serious. Jakeem Grant is the next man up, who is mainly a special teams option, but should see a boost in targets assuming Williams misses time. Look for Parker to also get a boost. The Dolphins are suddenly very banged up on offense.

Kyle Allen, QB, Washington Football Team

Another brutal injury for a Washington quarterback. This time it was Kyle Allen, who reminded me of Dak Prescott with his ankle pointed in the wrong direction. Alex Smith is now expected to be the starter for the remainder of the season in Washington. Terry McLaurin will still be in play and to a lesser extent, Antonio Gibson.  

Jack Doyle, TE, Indianapolis Colts

Doyle suffered a concussion and will miss time. The Colts are spreading the ball around a lot right now, particularly at tight end with both Mo Alie-Cox and Trey Burton. This likely isn’t going to give either player enough of a boost to make them interesting.  

🚨 Get 3 Free Months of LineStar Premium 🚨

Get 3-months of LineStar Premium for new users to SuperDraft who deposit/play $10!

Terms: Partnership offers do NOT renew. See SuperDraft landing page for full terms and conditions. Must be a new user to SuperDraft and deposit and play a minimum of $10 to qualify. If you have an existing LineStar Premium subscription you get a Hat/Tee/Pen combo instead of the 3-months.