NFL Fantasy Stock Report: Week 3
Stock Up
Keenan Allen: Keenan was on my stock up list last week and he deserves to stay. He absolutely torched the Chargers for 18 catches and 215 yards. Even though he didn’t catch a touchdown, he got in on the scoring fun with a passing touchdown to Mike Williams. Justin Herbert continues to feed Allen as he got another 20 targets and with Mike Williams tearing his ACL Herbert should lean on Allen even more.
De’Von Achane: In his first regular season game active after injury, Achane exploded on the scene as the Dolphins dropped a near NFL record 70 points on the Broncos. Achane took 18 carries for 203 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also added a modest 4 catches for 30 yards and 2 more touchdowns.
Sure a lot of his work game when the game was well out of hand but he still found himself getting work in early as he scored a touchdown before Raheem Mostert. Mike McDaniel continues to show his wizardry dialing up this offense in the air or on the ground. Combine that with the speed this offense has everywhere it’s going to be a true nightmare to defend all season. Both Mostert and Achane carry stand alone value the rest of season to me.
Travis Etienne: Etienne might've been the lone bright spot for the Jaguars on Sunday. The Jaguars clearly were looking to get the run game going vs the Texans and he continues to look explosive. He had 19 carries for 88 yard and also caught four passes for 50 yards. Every time he touches the ball he looks like he got shot out of a cannon and you know any play could end in a touchdown. Even with the addition of Tank Bigsby, Etienne has played 70%+ snaps every game so far and I would be shocked to see that change barring injury. If you drafted later into the preseason you likely got Etienne at a discount in the midst of the Tank hype.
Stock Down
Najee Harris: Najee has been far from impressive this season and he continued the trend this week on Sunday Night Football with 19 carries for 65 yards. The Steelers are only giving Harris around 50% of the snaps and it seems like every time Jaylen Warren touches the ball he looks noticeably more explosive than Najee. He was being drafted near the 2nd/3rd round turn and as a RB1 so you aren’t getting anything even remotely close to the production you expect out of a pick that high. It wouldn’t shock me to see Warren out touching Harris later in the year.
Derrick Henry: Another running back who got drafted high (mid 2nd round) and has been a huge disappointment. Henry got 11 carries and only accumulated 20 yards this week vs the Browns. The Browns defense looks like it has the potential to be the best in the league so I’m not shocked Henry struggled but he’s averaging only 3.2 yards per carry on the year behind a bad offensive line.
The Titans clearly prefer Tyjae Spears in passing situations and that is a huge hit to Henry’s fantasy value as he was getting a solid amount of passing work the last few seasons. It’s entirely possible the Titans are looking to keep an aging Henry fresh for a playoff push as he does his most damage in November and December but in fantasy you’re looking at an uphill battle to the playoffs if your second round pick is performing like Henry has so far.
Dameon Pierce: Pierce was a consensus 4th round pick and the RB15 making him a teams RB2. He carried a lot of hype this offseason with some of his highlight reel runs and I was never on board with drafting him that high as I just wasn’t trying to invest in the Texans offense that early in my draft. The Texans have been a huge surprise on offense but it’s not because Pierce. CJ Stroud has looked phenomenal so far and even with that Pierce is averaging 2.5 yards per carry. He will continue to have a few plays a game where he makes a few defenders look silly but overall he’s just not a super impressive back. Like the others above, the snap share just isn’t what you want out of a back with high draft capital as Pierce has played just under 50% of snaps for the Texans this season.
