Weekly Twitter Observations

Luke Wetta

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Each week I will be walking through the Twitterverse extracting some of the best commentary from trusted fantasy football minds. Twitter can be overwhelming with the amount of information that streams live, but it also proves to be one of the fastest and easiest ways to communicate. In 140 characters or less you can learn something about a player you may have never thought of from trends, stats or analysis.

Quotes of the Week

The below mentioned esteemed fantasy prognosticators deliver a bounty of fantasy knowledge to the masses every week. They also display the ability to paint a vivid picture amongst the throng of stats and numbers flowing across my fantasy timeline daily.

Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns have taken the Jaguars’ passing game to where most likely could not have predicted. The duo has combined to receive 46% of Blake Bortles’ targets year to date, while securing 61% of his passing yards and an incredible 74% of his touchdowns thrown. Hurns himself is in the midst of an impressive scoring streak currently standing at seven games (Editor’s note: the streak finally ended on Thursday night against the Titans).

This was by far the best description of the train wreck that was Peyton Manning last week. As a fan, you never want to see one of the greatest of all time hang around too long and be benched due to injury and disastrous play. I truly would like to see Manning go out with one more great performance and not have week ten of the 2015 season be the last remaining memory we have of the signal caller on a football field.

Aaron Rodgers, QB GB

Following the latest news on Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, you would assume he has become one of the worst players in the NFL. Green Bay is in the midst of a three game losing streak, his girlfriend is getting blamed for his struggles, his receivers are not producing, and he found himself on the injury report this week. Of course, the President of the United States is also comparing himself to Rodgers and he sits as the second or third best fantasy quarterback through ten weeks depending on league scoring systems. The only real news that caught my eye was delivered via Chris Wesseling, referencing a recent article from Bob McGinn.

If the play calling and the performance of his pass catchers along with himself is causing excessive stress on the team, you would assume the first could at least be corrected. The team clearly is missing Jordy Nelson and Cian Fahey wrote an article breaking down Davante Adams’s struggles this week. Despite all of this, Rodgers is still providing fantasy owners with the very high floor and consistency (outside of the Denver debacle) they paid for. The truth is though, that another five to six quarterbacks are providing close to the same return and most came at significantly less value. Rodgers is still a top fantasy quarterback, and I would not change that stance when it comes to rankings. But when considering the position as a whole, I would no longer be will to pay what is commonly necessary to acquire the top ranked players at the quarterback position. Danny Amendola, WR NE I mainly wanted to talk about Patriots wide receiver Amendola based on this play shared by the PFF team.


The other impressive aspect from the tweet was Amendola’s perfect catch rate as graded by Pro Football Focus. To date, Danny has been playing fourth or fifth fiddle in the perfect Patriots melody. As Dianna shared though, there is a sizeable workload left behind due to recent injuries.

Amendola is going to be on the field along with Brandon LaFell for the majority of snaps the rest of the season and he clearly provides more upside in PPR formats. He has never logged more than three scores in a single season but if anyone can improve that figure it will be Tom Brady. If you are looking to make a late run, Amendola still represents a cheap option in dynasty formats that can provide immediate consistency and serve as a potential handcuff to other Patriot receivers next season. Charcandrick West, RB KC When fantasy stud Jamaal Charles went down with an ACL tear earlier this season, the Chiefs made it pretty clear that second year runner Charcandrick West would be the next man up. While the starter may have been easy to target to roster in fantasy lineups, I doubt many owners were expecting they would be getting a top five running back the rest of the season.

The point Chris made in regards to the upcoming matchup against San Diego is something fantasy owners pushing towards the playoffs should pay most attention to as well. The Chargers have been gashed by runners all season, so the stats West is piling up are not likely to subside in week 11. Looking ahead at Kansas City’s schedule, there are no more matchups that are clear land mines either. Buffalo in week 12 and Baltimore in week 15 are not cake walks, but they also do not pose a threat to consider benching a top player either. In week 14 the Chiefs square off against the Chargers for the second time, then on championship weekend Charcandrick faces the Cleveland Browns. If you are seriously in contention for the title this season, West is a player who can likely help deliver the gold. [inlinead]The next question for dynasty owners is West’s value beyond the 2015 season. Looking at current rankings, his value is all over the board, being slotted in the mid 50’s at the running back position all the way up to 26th overall by DLF’s own Karl Safchick. Charcandrick is an Exclusive Rights Free Agent in 2016, essentially meaning he will be with the team at minimum in 2016. Though you would assume with the way he has performed that the Chiefs will look to lock him up more long term. You also have a 29 year old coming off his second ACL surgery with two remaining seasons on his contract. The interesting point about Charles’ situation is that he is only owed $6 million in 2016, and none of that is tied up in guaranteed money. For comparison’s sake, Jonathan Stewart (also turning 29) is owed $9.5 million next year with $7.3 million still remaining in dead cap. I doubt Kansas City let’s Charles walk at a reasonable price but the option is available. Either way, West looks to be a definite factor next year with the team and could possibly emerge as the number one depending on Jamaal’s recovery timeline. Jonathan Stewart, RB CAR Speaking of the Panther, Stewart has been on a roll of late as well as Josh and Adam both pointed out this week.


The undefeated Panthers have been utilizing their lead running back heavily recently. Heading into their week five bye, Stewart had actually been seeing a reduction in carries each week from 18 to only ten. The trend had many owners likely abandoning hope of any type of fantasy relevance this season or beyond. Now, he is on pace to obliterate his previous career high for rushing attempts. If he manages to average 20 carries a game over the last seven weeks he will cross the 300 attempt mark, which is impressive considering he has only managed more than 200 carries one other time over eight seasons. The stats he has compiled too over the last five weeks have come against some of the NFL’s stiffer defenses. At this point, it would be hard to imagine the Panthers changing course in regards to usage either, as their mixture of defense, running power and Cam Newton is a tough matchup for every team in the league.

The four rushing touchdowns in five weeks is also impressive, but partially an anomaly as well. Over the past five seasons Stewart has never had more than four running scores in an entire year as Newton, DeAngelo Williams and Mike Tolbert were heavily involved. Williams has since departed, Tolbert’s role has decreased and Kelvin Benjamin’s absence in the red zone has obviously been missed, leaving more chances for Jonathan to thrive in fantasy lineups. The one negative that still remains is his injury history. He has had multiple ankle surgeries, and ankle sprains have kept him out of a number of contests. He also tore is MCL in 2013, forcing him to miss the last ten games of the year. Between 2012 to 2014, he only managed to play in 28 of 48 possible games. While he is signed for another two seasons, you should be overly cautious about his current workload, age and ability to stay on the field. Like West, Stewart has some solid matchups in the fantasy playoffs he should be able to continue to exploit, so the immediate future appears to be bright.

Thank you to 4for4.com, Football Outsiders, Football Guys and NFL Savant for some of the stats used within this article. All are great resources still available for the average fantasy fan and highly recommended.

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