10 Fantasy Thoughts: Canada’s Chuba Hubbard about to step into spotlight

Someone smart once said, ‘The best ability is availability.’

This saying is probably the best way to describe fantasy football strategy. It’s still early, but once again we’re seeing star players miss time at what seems like an incredible rate this season.

Among the big names many were counting on play big roles this year but have already missed (or could miss) time due to injury: Christian McCaffrey, A.J. Brown, Josh Jacobs, Darrell Henderson, Tee Higgins, Tua Tagovailoa, Jerry Jeudy, Jarvis Landry, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Diontae Johnson, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Sterling Shepard. That list doesn’t even include players already lost for the season, like Travis Etienne, J.K. Dobbins, Cam Akers and Gus Edwards.

That looks like a pretty good team you could field there.

Drafting is just part of the process in a long fantasy football season – how you play the waiver wire and trade market will ultimately determine how far you get. Players like Tim Patrick, Sam Darnold, Cordarrelle Patterson and even Hunter Renfrow were likely on your waiver wire and have proven to be reliable fantasy assets with good scoring floors.

The waiver wire can be a league winner for you this year and every other year. Now, go find those gems!

(All weekly rankings courtesy of Fantasy Data)

1. Canada’s Chuba Hubbard about to hit the spotlight

It’s a real shame when we see a player go down with injury, especially one widely regarded as the best at his position.

With Panthers RB1 Christian McCaffrey injured, Canadian Chuba Hubbard is now thrust into the top-dog role of Carolina’s running game. The Sherwood Park, Alta. native had 11 carries for 52 yards and reeled in three of five targets for 27 yards in relief of McCaffrey last Thursday against the Texans.

The beauty of this situation is that we have a pretty good idea of how head coach Matt Rhule will deploy the next man up after seeing how Mike Davis was used in McCaffrey’s absence last season. Davis ended up finishing as the RB12 in 15 games after taking on a bigger workload.

He averaged around 17 touches per games without McCaffrey in the lineup, and we can likely expect the same for Hubbard going forward. We know he’s going to be the top waiver pickup in leagues where he is available, and there’s no denying that he will be worth it – players who are almost guaranteed that kind of volume don’t grow on trees.

The rookie wasn’t given a ton of work in the passing game while at Oklahoma State, averaging less than two catches per game during his career there, but if there’s a coach that I trust to get the most out of his players, Rhule would be near the top of my list.

2. Maybe we shouldn’t trust rookie quarterbacks just yet

I had high hopes for some of the rookie quarterbacks coming into this season.

Hey, one was tabbed as a generational quarterback talent, another was referred to as “Patrick Mahomes-like” and one was being labelled as the heir apparent to Tom Brady’s unclaimed throne in New England. These are not my words, but I certainly thought it was going to be better than this.

It’s been futile, to say the least.

Trevor Lawrence: 64 of 118 for 669 yards, five touchdowns and seven interceptions (three starts)

Zach Wilson: 58 of 105 for 628 yards, two touchdowns and seven interceptions (three starts)

Mac Jones: 81 of 120 for 737 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions (three starts)

Justin Fields: 12 of 33 for 128 yards, no touchdowns and one interception (one start and about one half in relief of Andy Dalton)

That’s a combined 57.1 per cent completion rate and a nine-to-18 touchdown-to-interception ratio in 10.5 starts for these first-year QBs. I don’t think we could have predicted it was going to be this bad.

Here’s what we’ve learned: Don’t start any of these quarterbacks until we see improvement. They are hindrances to your lineup and should be left firmly planted on the bench, regardless of their matchup. You’ll thank me later!

3. Allen back in fantasy MVP conversation?

Full disclosure here: I’m a biased Bills fan.

But my goodness, Josh Allen looked great against Washington this past weekend.

I will be the first to say that there were some concerns after the first two weeks of the season. Allen’s completion percentage was below 60 per cent and he was missing throws that he hadn’t missed a lot last year when he finished second in MVP voting.

Then, in Week 3, he torched Washington for 358 yards, four touchdown passes and one rushing touchdown en route to the QB1 overall finish. Buffalo’s offence looked like it was back to the same level it was last year, with Allen getting plenty of receivers involved in the action.

The schedule favours the Bills going forward. The Bills get the Texans, Chiefs, Titans, Dolphins, Jaguars, Jets and Colts in their next seven games before playing some of the tougher defences in the league in the Saints and Patriots.

Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll lets Allen sling it all over the field and now they have some semblance of a successful running game, so needless to say it’s wheels-up once again for Allen and his offence.

4. Pittsburgh’s offence is a nightmare

Last year looked like the beginning of the end for Ben Roethlisberger, whose body continued to break down while he also dealt with an elbow injury. He did manage to finish as the QB14, but it certainly wasn’t pretty.

Now it looks like we are seeing the end of what is sure to be a Hall of Fame career, and it’s hard to watch.

Roethlisberger’s 801 passing yards has him tied with Jared Goff for 13th in the category, and he’s got just three touchdown passes in the first three games to go along with three interceptions. Of his passing yards, 433 are gained after the catch and his Air Yards Per Attempt is right where it was last year at 6.9. He’s even less mobile than in years prior and he’s already dealing with some injuries to his pass catchers.

What does this mean for the Steelers’ offence?

Running back Najee Harris and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster (if healthy) should maintain pretty good floors because of the lack of a need to get downfield to create plays. Diontae Johnson (if healthy) should remain the top target, but it’s hard to rely on a solid weekly output because of Big Ben’s lack of arm strength at this point in his career.

Now, where does that leave Chase Claypool?

It really does feel like his value in redraft is going to be dependent on the health of the other two receivers in the pecking order. With Johnson out this past Sunday and Smith-Schuster leaving the game early, Claypool caught nine of 15 targets for 96 yards. His snap share was up to 92 per cent after only seeing 67 per cent and 72 per cent in the two previous games.

Both Smith-Schuster and Claypool are somewhat hard to trust, but the former has the higher floor.

Remember when this offence was so much fun to watch? Good times, good times.

5. ‘You like that!?’

You have to like what Kirk Cousins has done through three games this year, don’t you?

The Vikings quarterback has been a pretty reliable fantasy asset, but there has always been some concern about his turnovers. This year has been totally different.

Through three games, Cousins is the QB4 overall with eight touchdowns and zero interceptions.

Yes, you read that right.

He’s continued to play at a high level through the first three games, regardless of the opponent and — dare I say — has become a must-start in all formats. The receiving corps is really good with Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen and an emerging K.J. Osborn to go along with Dalvin Cook (and when he’s hurt, Alexander Mattison).

It’s a fun offence to watch. I can’t believe I actually said that.

With matchups against Cleveland, Detroit, Carolina, Dallas and Baltimore on the way, the coming weeks will tell us if Cousins is for real. If Minnesota’s playmakers can stay healthy, it feels like we could see the reliable Kirk Cousins turn into the elite fantasy option Kirk Cousins.

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6. Chase proving his doubters wrong

Ja’Marr Chase has a case of the drops.

Ja’Marr Chase can’t separate at the NFL level.

Ja’Marr Chase can’t see the ball when it’s thrown to him.

Blah, blah, blah.

There’s a reason why he was drafted fifth overall by the Bengals: He’s good at football.

Through the first three games of his NFL career, the LSU product has made the most of his limited 16 targets, converting them to 11 catches for 220 yards and four touchdowns. He’s a big-play threat who has lived up to the billing, currently sitting as the WR11 overall.

He has strong chemistry with former college teammate Joe Burrow, he’s got a great set of playmakers surrounding him to take some of the pressure off, and oh yes, he gets the Jaguars in his Week 4 matchup.

The Bengals’ offence got off to a slow start, but that’s expected considering Burrow’s coming off a torn ACL. Already, it looks as though things are turning around and Chase will be a big part of that going forward.

It’s almost as though people weren’t crazy to have him ranked as the top wide receiver in his class. Maybe those that didn’t should have their own vision checked and not worry about Chase’s.

7. Stafford living up to the hype

We’ve long heard about Matthew Stafford maybe being the most talented quarterback in the NFL — and no, these are not my words — but are we to believe that he’s not in the top five or six?

He’s proving to be worth the price paid by the Rams in the off-season, his talent transforming L.A.’ offence into something that seemingly only existed in Sean McVay’s dreams while Jared Goff was the quarterback. He’s made Cooper Kupp into a bona fide star and is putting up great numbers in the process.

He’s tied for sixth among fantasy quarterbacks while putting together some extremely impressive numbers. He’s first in QB rating and has managed to throw for 942 yards on less than 100 passing attempts. (No one else in the top five in passing yards has thrown the ball fewer than 100 times.) He’s efficient, he’s added a deep-ball dynamic to an offence that greatly needed it and has made the Rams back into a Super Bowl contender.

We also haven’t seen the interception numbers pop up just yet, either. Stafford has one interception through three games and if we look historically, he has never had less than double-digit interception totals in a full season. Maybe “The Boy Wonder” McVay has unlocked a different and more dangerous Stafford.

That’s nightmare fuel for opposing defences.

8. The curious case of Indy’s backfield

This really shouldn’t be difficult, but it’s getting to a point now where it’s hard to figure out what’s going on with Jonathan Taylor in the red zone. He’s been absolutely futile with his carries inside the 10-yard line (eight attempts for minus-1 yard) and inside the five (six attempts for zero yards). For a guy who was pretty lights-out inside the 10 last year (25 attempts for 43 yards and nine touchdowns), this doesn’t make sense.

The Colts’ coaching staff has noticed these struggles and has given some more rein to Nyheim Hines who received 78 per cent of red zone snaps compared to Taylor’s 33 this past weekend. The total snap share was a little bit closer with Hines taking 54 per cent to Taylor’s 49.

I like Hines just as much as the next person, but Taylor’s skillset is far superior and it’s just not translating.

So, how do we approach this?

It’s an easy decision to start Taylor week in and week out because he’s going to get out of this funk eventually. Unless you are loaded at the position, he likely slots into your RB2 spot because he’s still going to get work. Hines has 32 touches through the first three games and has the only touchdown among the two backs and is close to a flex play, especially with the injuries around the league.

I trust that Taylor bounces back because he is just way too talented to continue this cold stretch, especially in the red zone.

9. The “Zero RB” and “Zero WR” draft strategies are both right… and wrong

Fantasy Twitter is such a funny space because you are either right or you are wrong and your opinion is great or it’s terrible. There’s no grey area there.

The conversation of the Zero RB strategy or Zero WR strategy is one of the more divisive in the fantasy world.

And guess what: they’re both right and they’re both wrong.

Can we have that? Are we allowed to agree on this?

Some running backs taken early haven’t produced to this point, like Jonathan Taylor, Antonio Gibson and Saquon Barkley. But some of the wide receivers taken around these same spots also haven’t produced — take Calvin Ridley, Julio Jones and DeAndre Hopkins, for example.

At the same time, players who were part of both strategies like Cordarrelle Patterson, Tony Pollard, Mike Williams and Brandin Cooks have all produced. The joke here has to be, ‘Why even draft in the first five rounds?’

At the end of the day, both strategies can be right and both will almost certainly be wrong. As we have seen every single year of fantasy football’s existence, there’s no perfect draft solution.

Now, can we all be friends?

10. The Weekly “Mike Tolbert Vulture Awards”

Trey Lance: It feels like Lance is going to be on this list until he begins starting games because the 49ers love using him in the red zone, and not anywhere else on the field. He posted the immaculate line of one carry for one yard and one touchdown against the Packers Sunday night, which is the ultimate vulture line.

Titans Offence (Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Chester Rogers and Jeremy McNichols): Three players from the same team? This is unheard of, especially considering that this roster has Derrick Henry, A.J. Brown and Julio Jones. Granted, Brown left the game early, but c’mon — you can’t be serious?

Westbrook-Ikhine wasn’t starting in fantasy for anyone and grabbed four catches for 53 yards and a touchdown, while his two counterparts reeled in one catch each: Rogers took his to the house from six yards and McNichols took his one catch for 10 yards and a touchdown.

Ryan Tannehill has everyone seething.

Jody Fortson: The Chiefs are in the red zone and a tight end catches a touchdown. That has to be Travis Kelce. IT HAS TO BE TRAVIS KELCE.

Incorrect.

Fortson — yes, that Fortson — snagged two catches for seven yards, including a two-yard touchdown.

Alec Ingold: Another immaculate line from a player who feels like someone that frequented this list last year. Ingold turned his one catch into a one-yard touchdown. We may be nearing a name change of these weekly awards to the Alex Ingold Vulture Awards.