Week 4 Fantasy Football Strategy | Hank’s Bank

After three clean weeks, COVID-19 has begun to rear its ugly head on the NFL front. We have seen the entire game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans postponed due to an outbreak amongst the team. While writing this piece, news broke that New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton has also tested positive and will be held out of the team’s Week 4 game in Kansas City. As if formulating a successful Fantasy Football strategy wasn’t hard enough, now we’ve got a virus throwing us new unexpected curveballs.

Hank’s Bank Vocabulary Key

Cash: Start
Deposit: Bench
Asset: Trade Target
Transfer: Trade Away
Invest: Free Agent Acquisition
Loan: Weekly Streamer

Week 4 Banking

Cash: Devin Singletary | RB | Buffalo Bills

Devin Singletary is coming off of his biggest game of the young season to date. In last week’s home win over the Los Angeles Rams, Singletary totaled 71 yards rushing on 13 carries with an additional 50 yards receiving on 4 catches. The second-year back undoubtedly benefitted from rookie Zack Moss being forced to miss the game with a toe injury, evidenced in his being on the field for a season-high 88.7% of Buffalo’s offensive snaps. Moss has been trending in the right direction throughout the week and should be a go against the Las Vegas Raiders. But even if his volume suffers a bit, Singletary is still a lock this week given the terrific matchup.

Las Vegas is allowing 43.97 Fantasy points per game to opposing RBs, the most of any NFL team. What’s more, the running back with the second-highest Fantasy points total in each of the first three weeks did so playing against the Raiders (Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Kamara, Rex Burkhead). All of those backs are sound pass catchers, something that Singletary also brings to the table for the Bills. Lock him in.

Deposit: Antonio Gibson | RB | Washington Football Team

From a running back with a great Week 4 matchup to one on the other end of the spectrum. The Achilles heel of the Baltimore Ravens’ defense in 2019 was their inability to stop the run. The Ravens made moves in the offseason to address that weakness, with none being bigger than trading for Calais Campbell. Through three weeks, Baltimore ranks second in the NFL in adjusted defensive efficiency against the run. Matchup-based Fantasy Football strategy alone tells us that rookie Antonio Gibson will be more than up against it this week.

The Ravens should be able to get out to a lead early against a Washington defense that will be without Chase Young. Thus, the game script also won’t be working in Gibson’s favor. With pass-catching back J.D. McKissic likely to see the field throughout the second half with Football Team playing from behind, you are almost certain to have a better option than Gibson this week.

Asset: Kenyan Drake | RB | Arizona Cardinals

Buy low is the name of the game in the whacky world of Fantasy Football trades. No player screams buy low more to me right now than Kenyan Drake. Through three games, Drake is the RB28 on the season with 34.9 Fantasy points. That rank is well below the first-second round draft capital that was spent on him before the season began. With DeAndre Hopkins proving invaluable to Kyler Murray and the Arizona passing game, Drake has not been relied upon as much as a pass-catcher. Regardless, Drake is still playing roughly 70% of the Cardinals offensive snaps each week, meaning he still has plenty of volume and potential.

It’s also worth noting he has only found the end zone once so far. While Fantasy Football strategy decisions should not be made off of touchdowns alone, one would have to believe Drake is bound for an uptick in this category. If you can poach him from his current owner via trade, you will be landing at worst a weekly start as your RB2 for the rest of the season.

Transfer: Hunter Henry | TE | Los Angeles Chargers

Through three games, Hunter Henry has totaled 36.6 Fantasy points, good for an average of 12.2 per game. If you drafted him, you have to be pleased with that sort of per-game production coming from your tight end spot. In the name of selling high, now is the time for you to trade Henry away. The first glaring issue is the uncertainty surrounding this Chargers offense, particularly at the quarterback position. Justin Herbert will be drawing his third straight start in Week 4 as Tyrod Taylor continues to recover from a punctured lung.

Unfortunately, Los Angeles has failed to exceed the 20-point mark in each of their first three games, regardless of which QB was under center. Last week’s 16-point effort against the Carolina Panthers was particularly deflating given how bad Carolina’s defense is. Look no further than an offensive line that is once again suffering a ton of injuries to explain it. LA already lost center, Mike Pouncey, for the year. In addition, Bryan Bulaga, Storm Norton, and Trai Turner are all dealing with injuries. Considering Henry’s own injury history and the seemingly imminent negative trajectory the Chargers offense is going to take and moving the tight end while he has top-10 stature at the position is a move that must be made.

Invest: Anthony Miller | WR | Chicago Bears

While the Bears quarterback change from Mitchell Trubisky to Nick Foles will certainly benefit Allen Robinson, I don’t see any Chicago wideout benefitting more than Anthony Miller. Trubisky’s shaky play has hampered the Fantasy value of all pass-catchers beyond Robinson. Yet Miller has still managed to surpass the 30-Fantasy point threshold already this season with a pair of touchdown grabs. One of those proved to be the game-winner against the Atlanta Falcons last week, completing a miraculous Bears comeback after Foles was inserted into the game. Miller (56.1%) is battling Darnell Mooney (62.2%) in terms of snap percentage, but I would argue Foles under center will offer increased snaps and targets for both receivers. Miller is my preferred pickup of the two for now based on talent upside.

Loan: Jared Goff | QB | Los Angeles Rams

I really do have to ask a serious question. How is the current QB9 on the 2020 Fantasy Football season is only owned in 50.3% of ESPN leagues? That’s exactly the story for Rams signal-caller Jared Goff. Los Angeles seems to have found a reliable ground game with Darrell Henderson and things are rolling much better than last year as a result. Aside from the first half of last week’s game against the Buffalo Bills, Goff has been electric, with 863 yards passing and 5 touchdowns to go along with a rushing score.

Goff gets to pick on a bad New York Giants secondary in Week 4 that may very well be the source of other Fantasy Football strategy QB streamers down the road this season.  With game script looking like it’s the only thing that can slow the Rams offense down this week (Los Angeles is the biggest favorite on the betting market this week at 13 points), Goff is the perfect quarterback streamer for this week. Heck, you may even want to keep him rostered going forward too.