1023: 15 Transactions for Week 4

JJ Zachariason (0:02)

This is The Late-Round Podcast with your host, JJ Zachariason.

What's up everyone, it's JJ Zachariason. In this episode 1023 of The Late-Round Fantasy Football Podcast, sponsored by DraftKings. Thanks for tuning in. There's no better way to get closer to the action than with DraftKings Daily Fantasy, the ultimate destination for football fans. New customers can play free for their share of millions and prizes with their first deposit of $5 or more. Download the DraftKings Daily Fantasy app and enter promo code LATEROUND to play free for your share of millions. The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. New York? Call 8778-HOPE-NY. And Connecticut? Call 888-789-7777. 18 plus in most states. Eligibility restrictions apply ends December 31st. See terms at draftkings.com/promotions.

It's a 15 Transactions Day. Let's get to it. Add Trey Benson. So look, I know Trey Benson probably not available in your league. People who listen to this show, you play in a little bit more hardcore leagues than the casual office league. So Trey Benson, probably not available, but if I didn't talk about Benson who's available in about half of Yahoo leagues, a lot of people would be hitting my email inbox. So let's just talk about Benson really quick. James Connor is unfortunately out for the season. It's really unfortunate because he's a player that everyone can kind of root for. He also went to my alma mater at Pitt. He's one of my favorite players of all time. I hope he gets well soon. But unfortunately as a fantasy analyst, I have to talk about what this injury means. And what it means is that Trey Benson is about to see a lot of volume. My friend Dwayne McFarlane over at Fantasy Life, he shared on Twitter that after James Connor's injury against the 49ers, Benson stepped in, he played 87% of Arizona's offensive snaps. And his route share was 50%. Now, Mari Di Mercato, he's going to play a factor and play some role in this offense. He might steal some pass catching work from Benson. But guys, this type of volume is not easy to find off the waiver wire at all. And it's a good bit of volume for a player who's not that bad. I mean, I had some questions about Trey Benson coming out, but at the very least, he's got a lot of burst, he's a really athletic running back, and he's going to see a lot of work. He's the kind of player that you take that free agent budget and you spend all of it on Trey Benson. So right now, I think he's like a mid-range RB2, maybe even high-end RB2. I haven't done my rest of season rankings just yet, but I can at least tell you, I'm going to have him ahead of Kenneth Walker and Chuba Hubbard, just to give you some idea of where I'm ranking Trey Benson rest of season. So again, he's an RB2, who should be in store for a lot of volume in that Arizona offense. By Tedaroa McMillan. Look, I'm going to say this every single week until the end of the season, probably. Patience is everything with rookies in fantasy football. I'd argue that patience is just everything in general. But it's especially true with really good rookies with strong early season peripherals. And that's Tedaroa McMillan. On the season, he's seen target shares of 26.5%, 18.9% and 33.3%. That's a 26.2% target share per game rate right now for Tedaroa McMillan. And consider this, since 2011 among rookie wide receivers who played each game through week three, we've only had 10 of them reach a 25% target share. Those players averaged 13.9 PPR points per game during their rookie seasons, and 40% of them ended up as top 20 wide receivers in fantasy football. We should expect McMillan to post better numbers as the season goes on. And it doesn't hurt that the Panthers get the Patriots and the Dolphins over the next two weeks. Those are two teams who have not been great against wide receivers to start the season. And by the way, since I'm talking about Panthers wide receivers, you can also add Jaylen Coker off the waiver wire this week too. That's an extra transaction for you. He could be coming off IR pretty soon.

Add Luther Burden. So once again, I'm going to plug The Late-Round Fantasy Football Show, because last week on that show, when I did the look-ahead waiver wire targets, I talked about Luther Burden. And he had a productive week three. He caught all three of his targets for 101 yards in a touchdown. Now his target share was only 10.7 percent. His route participation rate was only 31 percent. Those aren't very good numbers. If he sustained that for the rest of the season, he would not be relevant in fantasy football. But they were higher than his previous outings this season. And he's a rookie who missed time during camp because of injury. And he's also a first year player who had a very good zap score. The zap model loved Luther Burden. I think we could see a bigger role being carved out by Burden as the season moves forward. We should see that. And there's always a possibility that the Bears decide to move on from DJ Moore at the trade deadline that's been rumored for weeks now. So I think Luther Burden is good and we're now seeing that he might be good. He's an obvious add off the waiver wire in case these numbers do get better. Add Woody Marks. Now, I don't always repeat transactions, but I think the Woody Marks stuff is kind of interesting. So let's talk about him again. Marks has now seen his snap share rise from 12% in week 1 to 28% in week 2 and then in week 3, it was 49%. And his route share has gotten better too. It was 9% during the first week, 23% in week 2, and then 44% this past weekend. The Texans have real problems with their offensive line. But Woody Marks can make his living in fantasy football as a pass catcher. That's his bread and butter. And that might be something that Houston almost needs to lean on given that poor play up front. And look, Nick Chubb has been fine. That's the best way to describe him, in my opinion. But he's the only player that's in front of Woody Marks right now. That's just another reason to roster Marks in most leagues.