Frankel’s Fantasy Files: Week 9

Wow. Seeing Kyle Shanahan work his magic in the ground game with a truly elite running back for the first time is a sight to behold. The head coach’s offensive prowess was on full display this past Sunday, as it turns out having superstar running back Christian McCaffrey at practice for a full week did make a difference.

McCaffrey was traded to San Francisco from Carolina in the days leading up to the Niners’ Week 7 clash with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Due to the short notice, McCaffrey was not able to be fully integrated into the offense. It showed during the game, as he only saw eight carries and two targets for a total of 62 all-purpose yards.

However, with a full week of practice under his belt, he reminded everyone that he is still the game-changing player he was when he played his college ball for Stanford just a half-hour away from his new home in the Bay.

McCaffrey accumulated 40.26 PPR points in L.A. last weekend against the Rams and was the focal point of Shanahan’s offense. He made the highlight reel for his running, catching and passing. That’s right, passing. He became just the fourth player since the 1970 merger to run, catch and pass for a touchdown in the same game, joining the likes of Walter Payton, David Patten and LaDanian Tomlinson.

If you have McCaffrey on your team, consider yourself lucky, because he’s back to league-winner form. If you’re in the majority that doesn’t, though, let’s try to make some moves that could get you one step closer to winning your league.

Frolicking in the Fields

The header isn’t just a figure of speech — it’s what Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields has essentially done the past few weeks on the football field. After a very rough rookie campaign, the second-year signal-caller appears to be finding his stride.

Everyone remembers the pictures of Fields sliding and flexing on a sloppy, flooded Soldier Field after the Bears’ Week 1 upset over the San Francisco 49ers. Since that moment of ecstasy, though, Fields and the Bears have fizzled out and looked like their 2021 selves since.

Then, the past few weeks happened. It appears as if the Bears realized the best way to use Fields might be to play to his strengths. His biggest strength? His legs.

Instead of only rushing on scrambles out of the pocket, Chicago has begun to design runs specifically for Fields, allowing him to put his tremendous athleticism on display. He has 34 rush attempts and 230 rushing yards over the past three weeks. Pair that with two rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns, and you’re looking at the highest scoring QB in fantasy football since Week 6.

He has not thrown for 200 yards in any of those games. That should be concerning, right? It won’t matter if he keeps taking care of the football and using his legs. He’s scored 23 plus fantasy points in back-to-back weeks on the road. These were also tough situations.

One was a dazzling display on Monday Night Football in Foxborough, Mass., against Bill Belichick and the Patriots. While the Patriots are not in a dynasty-like season we’ve become accustomed to seeing, Belichick is notorious for tormenting young QBs. Just look at what he did to Jets quarterback Zach Wilson this past weekend.

Then, last weekend, the Bears journeyed to Dallas to take on Micah Parsons and arguably the best defense in the league. Fields still had a great performance despite the loss, scoring just over 26.0 fantasy points.

Will he continue this play all season? Who knows. However, with a fairly easy schedule coming up, the opportunities will be there for Fields to have more days like these.

West Coast Wideout

If your team got rocked by the Ja’Marr Chase injury like mine, I know a guy who can help fill in: Los Angeles Chargers wide receiver Joshua Palmer. People got excited about Palmer after he saw eight and nine targets in back-to-back weeks and dropped two double-digit fantasy scores. That was way back in Weeks 2 and 3.

Since then, he has only reached double-figures once in three games, missing one due to injury and being on bye last week. Many people did not have enough room on their rosters and sent him back to the waivers since his surprising start to the year.

What’s not surprising? The fact that the Los Angeles Chargers receiver corps aren’t healthy again. Star pass-catcher Mike Williams went down with an ankle injury in Week 7 and won’t return until Week 11 at the earliest.

In the meantime, Williams’ touches have to go somewhere, and that will likely be Joshua Palmer. In his first game without Mike Williams this past weekend, Palmer saw a season-high 14 targets and caught nine passes for 57 yards.

Keenan Allen, the other star for Herbert to throw to, was supposed to return to the field from an injury this week. However, he will likely not be suiting up after all. This put Palmer in a position to potentially be Herbert’s WR1 this weekend and in the weeks to come.

He’s available in about 70% of leagues on most sites. He’s going to have a big week. I’d feel comfortable starting him at flex or as a WR2.

Another quick note before we finish off: stash Rams running back Kyren Williams in your IR slot now if you have the room. Reports were that Los Angeles loved him in training camp and may have been making him the lead back before he hurt himself prior to Week 1.

The Rams backfield is still in turmoil and completely up for grabs. Williams should be returning in the coming weeks and could be a steal if you stash him now.

It’s getting to the time of the year when you need to make moves weeks in advance. There are loads of guys that you can pick up or trade for that may not be useful now, but could save you down the line.

Especially if you’re 5-2 or 6-1, it’s time to start thinking about playoffs and setting up your roster to win then, but we’ll get into that later. For now, let’s focus on grabbing a W.

“Frankel’s Fantasy Files” runs every Thursday.