Fantasy football Week 4: The Miami Dolphins RB to own, Taylor Swift mania, more
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- After a wild Week 3 that featured a 70-burger from the Miami Dolphins and Taylor Swift mania in Kanas City, here's what I'm watching in Week 4:
Which defenses are the best to own?
This is one of my favorite times of the fantasy season. First, you get a bunch of teams desperate to make moves due to 0-3 starts or 1-2 starts. So, it's always a fun time to get in touch with your friends with bad teams.
Second, there are a remarkable number of players that could help your team available on the wire, but not in the usual spots. For example, if you are looking at the rankings of your running backs and wideouts that are available, the highest-ranked guy you'll find is probably in the 30 to 40 range. This position is usually strip-mined to the point of very little value being left.
In my years of playing, I've always found that in Week 4, at defense and kicker, there is plenty of value to be had. Currently, in our CBS league, there are five top-12 kickers available and two top-12 defenses.
Now that may not seem like an area to worry about, but say you have Jake Elliott, he's tied for first with 40 points and averages 13.3 a game. Let's say you are holding out hope Justin Tucker gets things going. He's currently ranked 20th, has 20 points, and is averaging 7.7 points a game. I do think that Tucker gets it going, but currently, he is costing me 5.6 points a game -- and that's a problem.
Another quick note. When looking at the defenses and kickers don't necessarily look for the highest scoring defense. An example of what I'm talking about is the Cowboys' defense, which is currently ranked first overall with 54 total points. We are three weeks in and their week-by-week looks like this.
- Week 1: 40 points
- Week 2: 16 points
- Week 3: -2 points.
So almost 75% of their points came in Week 1. It looks about the same for the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers, who are ranked second and third. But if you look at the Eagles and the Colts, you get a more evenly distributed point total and that's what I'm looking for. The Eagles go 14, 8, 14 over 3 weeks and the Colts go 11, 9 and 12. So while the monster weeks are great, give me consistent performances week to week. Matt Gay is a perfect example of this with kickers.
The Dolphins
This has been the hot topic of the week so far. And why not? You drop 70 points in the NFL, even if it is against the Denver Broncos, and all eyes will be on you. Unless you are a Taylor Swift fan -- and we'll get to that in a moment.
The situation I find the most interesting in Miami is at running back. Despite me having Raheem Mostert in a few leagues and getting a win or two out of it, I do not believe this will continue. He's the top-ranked running back in fantasy depending on your scoring but he simply can't stay healthy.
In his nine seasons in the NFL, he has played a full season just once, although he did play 16 out of 17 last year so that sort of counts as two. I honestly believe that De'Von Achane is the back-to-own in Miami, but until Mostert goes down both are now every week plays.
Swift mania
I'm going to be completely honest. I don't really follow Taylor Swift at all. I don't listen to her music, don't worry about what color lipstick she's wearing and I don't care who she dates. I was trying to figure out a comparison of something lots of people care about in an almost insane way that some people could care less about. After some thought, I came up with football.
Seriously, football fans have fantasy teams, jerseys, travel to follow their favorite team and spend tons of money to see them or be around them. Swifties are the same as football fans except their love and focus is on one person as opposed to 53.
So now we are heading into Week 2 of Swift Madness. Two worlds will collide once again on Sunday when the Kansas City Chiefs visit the New York Jets reportedly with Taylor in attendance. Get ready for one of the highest-rated blowouts in the history of the league. I'd bet it may get close to highest rated game ever if she is there.
There is a lot about this story I hate, but there is a lot about this story I like. I like that Travis Kelce took a shot and it went his way. I like that we got to see Mama Kelce again.
What I like the most? Let's give a shout-out to the greatest wing man of all time, Patrick Mahomes. You can think all the things you want about him beating the Eagles in the Super Bowl, his brother, and whatever else you may think, but that guy was there for his boy when he needed him most.
The Chiefs were up 34-0. They didn't need the points and they didn't need to throw but there was the MVP finding a guy on potentially the most significant first date of the 21st century for arguably the most important meaningless touchdown ever. Pat, you'll always be OK in my book!
Taylor needs to get herself a real Kelce jersey though -- at least for Nov. 20 when the Chiefs host the Birds.
CBS Philadelphia's Andy Wheeler wrote this story.