Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is pretty much having his way against opposing defenses. After putting up 10 catches for 148 yards and two scores against a Jacksonville Jaguars defense that made some hilarious attempts to stop him, Hopkins has now tallied 30 receptions for 474 yards over the past three games.
To put that into perspective only 23 receivers have netted 30-plus receptions ALL season with only 15 going for 474-plus yards.
Yeah, Hopkins is pretty darn good.
It's safe to say Eddie Lacy's ankle isn't 100 percent. It's also safe to say that the DFS gods (yes, I created this term) absolutely hate most of us. Lacy was pegged as a value play against a San Diego Chargers defense that was on pace to yield nearly 3,000 total yards to wide receivers heading into Sunday's game. Lacy responded by putting up three yards on four attempts while almost losing a fumble.
Instead of Lacy eating against a bad Chargers run defense, James Starks went off for 117 total yards and two touchdowns en route to finishing the day as the second-best fantasy running back.
One takeaway here. Continue to start running backs against the Chargers. Just make sure you pick the right one. That might be the hard part. That also cost this one scribe a few bucks on both FanDuel and DraftKings.
Did I mention the DFS gods hate us?
EJ Manuel, starting for the injured Tyrod Taylor, wasn't able to lead his Buffalo Bills past the Cincinnati Bengals. Though, he was able to put up a better fantasy performance than Andy Dalton, Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan and Drew Brees.
If you picked Manuel up off the waiver-wire as a bye-week replacement or rostered him in DFS contests ... well, you are the luckiest person ever to exist in the fantasy football world. If you plan on continuing to ride him until Taylor returns, you are risking that luck running out.
Martavis Bryant put up six catches for 137 yards and two scores while catching passes from Landry Jones on Sunday. Yeah, that actually happened. On the other hand, Antonio Brown caught three passes for 24 yards, bringing his three-game total since Big Ben went down to 11 catches for 111 yards and zero touchdowns. Yeah, this is also happening.
Simply put, Brown isn't a reliable play until Roethlisberger returns from injury, which likely won't be until after next week's game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Three quarterbacks put up 400-plus passing yards on Sunday. For Carson Palmer, that number didn't necessarily equate to a solid fantasy performance. In what has to be a major anomaly, Palmer finished as the 17th-best fantasy quarterback after putting up 421 passing yards. It obviously didn't help that he threw two interceptions.
The other two quarterbacks to put up 400-plus yards finished Sunday as the two-best fantasy players at that position. Matthew Stafford (405 yards and four scores) finished No. 1 overall. Meanwhile, Philip Rivers (503 yards and two scores) finished second.
Heading into Monday's game, a total of 10 quarterbacks have put up 300-plus passing yards this week. The most surprising of which was Colin Kaepernick who gained 340 yards through the air en route to finishing Sunday as the eighth-best fantasy quarterback. Don't look now, but Kaepernick has now put up the sixth-most fantasy points among quarterbacks over the past two weeks.
Jimmy Graham might be the only good thing to come out of the Seattle Seahawks late-game loss to the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. Finally showing that he can be a big part of Seattle's offense, Graham tallied eight catches for 140 yards. If he could now get into the end zone, that would be awesome. Seattle has put up a NFL low nine offensive touchdowns in six games this year — Russell Wilson accounting for seven of them.
It sure helps that Philip Rivers has attempted 113 passes over the past two games, but tight end Antonio Gates has been targeted a whopping 27 times during that span. Including Sunday's eight-reception performance against Green Bay, Gates has put up 18 receptions for 187 yards and two scores in the two games since returning from suspension. He's an obvious top-end TE1 moving forward.
It's likely time for us to stop considering Devonta Freeman's early-season performance to be a fluke. After netting 156 total yards and two scores against the New Orleans Saints on Thursday, Freeman is now on pace for 2,136 total yards and 27 touchdowns. Yeah, there's a record or two in there somewhere.