If Week 2 is the end of our priors, Week 3 and 4 are often weeks where we’re waiting for the carnage to settle. Sometimes things look a little better than we expected, sometimes things look a bit worse. And sometimes, sometimes, Emmanuel Wilson is one of the best running backs in the NFL.
Stock Up
Xavier Worthy, Kansas City Chiefs
The Chiefs left Week 4 with Tyquan Thornton’s ankle bent in an unnatural way after he scored two touchdowns. Rashee Rice left early with a hamstring injury. That left much-maligned Xavier Worthy as the lone major target on the field, securing 4/70 on seven targets.
Patrick Mahomes on WR Xavier Worthy:
— KC Sports Network (@KCSportsNetwork) October 5, 2026
“He's getting open and he's getting himself in position to make plays ... I have a ton of confidence in him, and I think if we can continue to get him going, it'll open up the offense even more.” pic.twitter.com/CZCARr7Z86
The Chiefs will probably wind up spreading more production to Kenneth Walker and Travis Kelce in their passing game. But Thornton’s injury looked devastating, and Rice’s non-contact hamstring injury did not exactly leave me thinking he’d be playing next week, even if Andy Reid described it as a “tweak” postgame. That leaves Jalen Royals, Cyrus Allen, and Nikko Remigio as the backup wideouts behind Worthy.
I am not necessarily “in” on spending a huge FAAB amount on Worthy, mostly because I think the Chiefs might now be incentivized to trade for a wideout at the deadline. But he is the easiest solution here and he should flirt with WR3 value if Rice isn’t playing.
Emmanuel Wilson, Seattle Seahawks
Last week’s fumble by Jadarian Price opened the window. Wednesday’s practice injury to Price’s chest threw a brick in the window, eventually sending Price to IR on Saturday. Sunday’s game against the Chargers beat down the door. Emanuel Wilson is back. Wilson had 36 of the 60 Seahawks running back snaps, well ahead of George Holani, and managed 24 of the 32 backfield touches between the two.
Make that 2️⃣ TDs for Emanuel Wilson!@LACvsSEA on CBS/Paramount+
— NFL (@NFL) October 4, 2026
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/aZFgT0Olj9
The news Sunday that the Seahawks would visit with Joe Mixon made it seem like Seattle’s a team that might be a little worried about Wilson as the lead ballcarrier, and to be certain I’m not advocating he gets the full FAAB clip. But again, as with Worthy, he is the Occam’s Razor solution. He’s in-house. He’s played well. He can help your fantasy team.
C.J. Stroud, Houston Texans
The Texans can’t run the ball. They’ve tried nothing there – begging the line to play better, pleading with them to be better -- and they’re all out of ideas. That means that over the first four games, Stroud is the touchpoint of the offense. With Nico Collins back, he even got some touchdowns. The 25-year-old has yet to throw an interception this season, and while I realize this is something that you don’t care about because the Texans are 0-4, he’s playing as well as he’s played since 2023.
I don’t think this means Stroud needs to be a QB1 or anything, not yet anyway, but he’s climbing the superflex ranks. I might rather start him than someone else who I’m about to talk about in a few paragraphs. The running game has just been so, so bad that the Texans have no choice but to run the offense through the fourth-year quarterback. So far that’s actually equating to fantasy value.
Carnell Tate, Tennessee Titans
The year started with three sub-60 yard games. Week 4 ended with Tate out-targeting Wan’Dale Robinson 12-5 and finishing with more receiving yards than the rest of the Titans receivers combined. Maybe the Titans found something here – or maybe it’s just typical Ravens second-half jitters.
Cam Ward buys his time and finds his guy Carnell Tate 🎯
— NFL (@NFL) October 4, 2026
TENvsBAL on CBS/Paramount+
Stream on @NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/50Q43xgmh2
Either way, it feels like now that the Titans know that Tate can do this, they’d be foolish to try to put it back in the bottle. Week 5 brings a matchup against a vaunted Texans defense that hasn’t lived up to the press clippings. Tate’s target share will be a source of major interest as the two teams try to avoid 0-5.
Stock Down
Bo Nix, Denver Broncos
The Broncos managed just 30 passing yards on passes that went 10 or more yards past the line of scrimmage. Raheem Morris has been an underrated defensive coordinator, but this 49ers outfit didn’t have Nick Bosa. And yet, even with a 2.99s time to throw, Nix couldn’t seem to find anybody open beyond checkdowns.
The Broncos have survived the early season despite these issues, mostly on the back of performing like an NFL offense when they absolutely have to. but they are one of the NFL’s ugliest offenses through four weeks. Perhaps it can all be chalked up to the idea of Davis Webb learning what works and what doesn’t as a playcaller. But this is not quite the open offense Jaylen Waddle’s acquisition promised.
It’s just hard to feel like Nix offers better than superflex QB2 value now, the Broncos need to go back to square one with this offense.
Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles
93 total passing yards and two touchdowns, one of which was essentially a saved interception:
DARIUS COOPER JUST TURNED A JALEN HURTS PICK INTO A TOUCHDOWN 🔥pic.twitter.com/S3QTHCHDWL
— Yahoo Fantasy Sports (@YahooFantasy) October 4, 2026
The Eagles passing offense is down bad without DeVonta Smith. Help may not be coming next week, either, with Smith supposedly very questionable for Week 5’s game against the Jaguars. And the Rams, much as they’re a superteam in theory, didn’t have Myles Garrett or Aaron Donald for this one. The Eagles have specifically worked on creating a quarterback who can throw down the middle – Hurts was 7-of-10 for 55 yards and a touchdown targeting the short and intermediate middle. The problem is that this is all he can do now. Other than the Cooper touchdown, he had just 20 total passing yards outside.
This will rebound a bit; Hurts isn’t that bad, the Rams have great cornerbacks. But it’s getting harder and harder to pencil in 200 passing yards from Hurts.
Daniel Jones
Our day started with a game in which Jones was arguably not even as good as Commanders rookie quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis. Jones was sacked twice, fumbled again, and threw a ghastly interception. Only the fact that Marcus Mariota got hurt kept the Colts from falling to 1-3.
We may have simply come to a point where the non-run game infrastructure isn’t good enough for the Colts to run a good passing offense. Ashton Dulin and Laquon Treadwell led the team in targets while Josh Downs was taken out of the game. The Colts were able to run a good pass offense in 2025 with Jones; through four games he has three touchdowns and is a non-factor as a rusher. He has been picked off at least once in every game. Jonathan Taylor will keep this offense from bottoming out entirely, but given how poor the pass offense has been, I’m starting to get a little worried teams will simply attack Taylor and make Jones beat them.
Emeka Egbuka, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
We of course, knew that Jalon Daniels taking over the pass offense would make things weird in Tampa Bay. I didn’t appreciate just how weird, though. Daniels ran eight times for 55 yards and essentially nerfed Emeka Egbuka, who finished with just four of the 26 targets for two catches and 13 yards.
Ironically on a day where Bucky Irving didn’t score either touchdown in the backfield, I think he comes out of it with his fantasy value mostly unscathed. In fact, if Daniels is going to be a read-option threat — six of the eight carries were scrambles — I think Irving might gain some value here.
But this poor, poor passing game. It’s got nowhere to go. They couldn’t threaten deep. Only two of Daniels’ 19 completions even went more than 10 yards. The Cowboys are usually a get-right game for opposing offenses, but Egbuka’s down bad second half has continued into this season.
