I am a co-founder and the editor of drinkfive.com. In order to stave off fantasy football insanity, Dave and I have branched out to cover a variety of interests. When I'm not knee deep in wikipedia pages, I like to hang out at breweries or a disc golf course (especially both in the same day). FSWA Member for 5+ years.
Dion Lewis has exploded onto the fantasy scene as the newest versatile running back on the Patriots. There always seems to be room for a guy who can run and catch on the New England offense, and this year, it's Lewis's turn to give it a go. Thus far, Lewis has averaged almost 15 touches per game, not having fewer than 13 in any game. He's in the top 10 of fantasy scoring for RB's, and he's played fewer games that everyone except Adrian Peterson and Le'Veon Bell....not bad company.
Lewis was drafted by the Eagles in 2011 in the 5th round. Though he had played well in college, he had to take a back seat to a dominant LeSean McCoy. Lewis is definitely undersized for the NFL, checking in at only 5'8", 195lbs. This has never really been a problem for the Patriots, as they've had a few good ones recently, like Kevin Faulk and Danny Woodhead.
So, how does Lewis shape up for the rest of the season? Well, he's currently sharing backfield duties with LeGarrette Blount. Blount has 19, then 13 touches in his two games this year. The only danger in Blount and Lewis not at least splitting touches comes whenever the Patriots are blowing out their opponent and they just go with Blount all game. Lewis winds up with a decently high floor every game since he catches passes out of the back field and can line up as a wide receiver. He has 23 receptions in only 4 games, which will continue because Tom Brady knows how to get the ball to his backs.
Lewis should be a safe play most of the remainder of the season, and I'm predicting right now that he finishes in the top 10 RB's in standard leagues. That's pretty good for a guy who was the 59th ranked RB in the preseason on FantasyPros, and had an ADP that was way lower than that. It looks like Dion Lewis is the lucky waiver pickup of the early part of the season.
We're already at week 6 in the fantasy season. By next week, you'll be halfway to the playoffs, or halfway to being eliminated. Let's just hope you're in the first group. This week, we'll contend with Dallas, Oakland, St. Louis and Tampa Bay taking a bye week. The Falcons and Saints match up on Thursday night, and the Eagles and Giants will close out the week on Monday night. If you haven't made your picks yet, make sure to get your waiver picks in, and check out ours right here.
We still like Josh McCown in two QB leagues, even if his ECR is way down at 22, though hold off in single QB leagues with his tough matchup against Denver. Andrew Luck still has a lot to prove, and falls just outside our top 10 this week. When Marshawn Lynch returns this week, we like him to resume his normal production. I'm not saying he's due for a TD, but he doesn't have one yet this year, and I'm sure he's been stewing on that for a couple of weeks. Ronnie Hillman was quite the disappointment this past week, and likely missed his most recent chance to take over the RB spot in Denver.
We like Cecil Shorts as a flex play this week, as he'll be back and the Texans just are playing Jacksonville, ya know, his old team. Michael Floyd is a guy who is borderline droppable at this point, because he's on a very successful team and getting almost no work. Lardarius Green seems like he's not going to be phased out of the offense in San Diego, especially since Stevie Johnson has yet another hamstring injury.
We're at the quarter point of the fantasy football season, assuming (and let's do just that) you will make the championship. It's what we're all here for, anyways. This week, Carolina, Miami, New York (Jets) and Minnesota are on bye, so at least you get Gronk back, but you might lose AP. And if you do have both of those guys on the same team, then you're probably doing just fine.
Andy Dalton has been on fire all year, scoring the second most points among all QB's. Make sure to keep him in your lineup, despite his ECR of 15. Giovani Bernard is still getting more touches per game than Jeremy Hill, so while he may be making his way out of the doghouse, Bernard is still a solid every week RB2/Flex play. Arian Foster's premier was less than inspiring, so while you want to dial him up Thursday night, do it as a flex play and not RB1/2. The QB situation in Houston is just too bad to rely on their defense heavily.
Martavis Bryant returns to the Steelers lineup, and despite missing big Ben, he should still fill in just fine as a WR3. Brandin Cooks is a guy who you might want to stay away from, as Willie Snead seems to be Brees's new favorite target. Make sure to check out the waiver picks for Week 5 to keep your team from accumulating too much dead weight!
Tonight we split an excellent growler of Engrained IPA, straight from the brewery (we visited over the weekend). We started off the show by checking out the best and worst performances of Week 3, and the implications of those going forward. Let's just say it doesn't look good for Colin Kaepernick. We made it to the injuries, though there was only one major one to Ben Roethlisberger. We attended the game, and we swear we had nothing to do with it, or the fire that delayed the game.
(Listen to the Fantasy Football Podcast: 9/29/15, Week 3 Review & Week 4 Preview)
We continued with the best waiver pickups for the week, courtesy of Troy. We finished off discussing some of the guys that we like more than most in our Fantasy Pros rankings, as well as some of the guys that we don't like - aka you should stay away from. For more info on all of this, make sure you check out our Week 4 Rankings.
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