Fantasy Football Stock Watch: Devin Singletary Up, Sony Michel Down
Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports
Welcome to November. The fantasy football regular-season home stretch starts now. This is the month where playoff spots are earned … or slip away. This is the month where your league’s trade deadline reignites a season or marks its unofficial end. It’s crucial to know which plays are trending positively and negatively as we enter Week 10 of the NFL season. Here is the Week 10 stock watch.
STOCK UP
RB Devin Singletary, Buffalo Bills
The tide has turned in Buffalo. Singletary outsnapped Frank Gore for the second consecutive week and, more importantly, matched his combined season total for carries with 20 in Week 9 against the Redskins. He’s scored double-digit fantasy points in each of the last two weeks and looks fully recovered from the hamstring injury that cost him three games earlier this season. He also has a pair of juicy matchups with the Browns and Dolphins on tap the next two weeks. It’s time to get the rookie into your lineups.
TE Zach Ertz, Philadelphia Eagles
Trust the process. We’ve heard that phrase in Philadelphia before. Ertz was getting the looks—he leads all tight ends in total targets and ranks second in targets per game—but the production simply wasn’t there. A big reason why was the lack of touchdowns. After catching eight TDs in each of the last two seasons, Ertz only had one before last week’s 25-yard score. Positive regression was bound to happen and we saw it in full effect against the Bears with a 9/103/1 performance. Expect more of the same when the Eagles return from their bye.
RB Ronald Jones II, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Having a piece of Tampa Bay’s backfield has been incredibly frustrating for fantasy managers so far this season. However, the Seattle game offered a glimmer of hope. Jones got the lion’s share of the backfield snaps (twice as many as Dare Ogunbowale and nearly four times that of Peyton Barber) and was effective with the increased workload. Jones has double-digit carries in both games since the Buccaneers’ bye and hit the 20-touch mark for the second time this season in Week 9. It looks like head coach Bruce Arians is finally starting to trust Jones a little more. Check your waiver wire to see if he’s available.
QB Jimmy Garoppolo, San Francisco 49ers
It felt like Garoppolo was one of the least productive fantasy quarterbacks on an undefeated team in NFL history before his TNF breakout against the Cardinals. He came into the week as the QB20 in fantasy points per game (minimum six games played) then put up 317 yards and 4 TDs in prime time. Can this continue? Yes it can. The addition of WR Emmanuel Sanders is a tremendous boost to an otherwise unproven 49ers receiving corps. Now Jimmy G has two major weapons to exploit opposing defenses. San Francisco plays Seattle and Arizona in its next two games, two teams that have been fruitful matchups for fantasy QBs.
WR Mohamed Sanu, New England Patriots
They aren’t exactly easing Sanu into his new offense, are they? In his second game with the Patriots, Sanu played 100% of his team’s snaps. He caught 10 passes on 14 targets for 81 yards and a touchdown. New England is going to roll with Julian Edelman, Phillip Dorsett and Sanu on almost every play, and the remaining schedule is shaping up favorably following the Patriots’ Week 10 bye. There are three great matchups on tap for Sanu in the next five weeks: Philadelphia in Week 11, Houston in Week 13 and Cincinnati in Week 15. If your fantasy championship is playing during Week 17, he’ll matchup against the Dolphins. Stock up!
STOCK DOWN
WR Terry McLaurin, Washington Redskins
The post-bye starting quarterback for the Redskins is still up in the air, but McLaurin is unstartable in any games with Dwayne Haskins at the helm. The last three weeks have been mediocre at best for the rookie who came on so strong to start the season, but some of it can be explained away. The San Francisco game was played on a Slip 'N Slide, and road games in Minnesota and Buffalo are tough matchups for even top tier WRs. Still, Washington is a run-first team that’s about to add Derrius Guice to the mix, and Haskins doesn’t look ready. If Case Keenum doesn’t start for the rest of the season, it’s hard to rank McLaurin as anything more than a WR4 going forward.
TE Mark Andrews, Baltimore Ravens
Andrews was able to overcome his lack of playing time early in the season, but it’s starting to severely cut into his productivity now. After catching only two of his eight targets against the Seahawks in Week 7, Andrews saw just three targets against the Patriots coming out of the bye week. He played a season-low 24 snaps. Since his back-to-back 20-plus point performances to open the season, Andrews ranks as the TE15 in fantasy points per game since Week 3 (minimum four games played). There are some juicy matchups on tap, but he has to be on the field enough to take advantage.
WR Keenan Allen, Los Angeles Chargers
At what point does a slump become a trend? Allen hasn’t had a double-digit performance since Week 3 and ranks as the No. 57 WR in fantasy points per game (minimum four games played) in the six weeks since. He’s been banged up, but he hasn’t been producing in an offense that ranks sixth in the NFL in passing yards per game. Drafted as a low-end WR1, Allen is a low-end WR2 at best right now.
RB Sony Michel, New England Patriots
How would we view Michel’s season if you took away the three-touchdown performance against the Jets in Week 7? For the second consecutive game, Michel played fewer than 30 snaps and didn’t hit the 8-point threshold. He played only 15 snaps and had five touches against the Ravens in Week 9. He’s averaging 3.3 yards per carry this season and just doesn’t look like the same running back we saw last postseason. With two more stout run defenses in Philadelphia and Dallas coming immediately after the bye, Michel is nothing more than a risky flex play at best.
WR Alshon Jeffery, Philadelphia Eagles
It’s been a weird season for Jeffery so far. He’s battled various ailments, including at the end of the Bears game in Week 9, and has flashed some success but can’t seem to put it together for multiple games in a row. He had a pair of touchdowns in Week 1, but didn’t see the field in Weeks 2 and 3. His best stretch was from Weeks 4-6, where he had 11.3, 8.2 and 18.6 half-PPR fantasy points, respectively. But since then, nothing to write home about. After his 10-catch game in Week 6, he’s only matched that total combined in his last three games. He also has a tough matchup with New England coming out of the bye. One note of optimism: If he can get healthy, he has some really favorable matchups in Weeks 12-15.
