I could brag about Justin Fields once again (who was decimals away from reaching 40 points for the second week in a row), but I’ll spare you a repeat of last week’s column.
We may have just witnessed the game of the year up in Buffalo and possibly the greatest catch ever in Justin Jefferson’s game-saving one-handed snag.
We’re in the home stretch and most fantasy players are in the midst of a playoff push, or at the very least a push out of last place. Given that, let’s try to do our best Taylor Heinicke impression and give ourselves a win to celebrate — even if it comes on a roughing the passer call.
Is Christian Watson Just a One Week Wonder?
The short answer? No. The long answer? Well, let’s dive into that.
Last Sunday, the Green Bay Packers kept their season alive with a 31-28 overtime victory against the Dallas Cowboys.
The most popular storyline that has come from this game is that Aaron Rodgers might be back to normal, as he led a vintage fourth quarter comeback and the ultimate game-winning drive in overtime.
However, the larger takeaway, at least for us fantasy football savants, may be the monster game from rookie wide receiver Christian Watson.
Watson saw eight targets from his future Hall of Fame quarterback. Though he only caught four of those throws, the wideout was able to pick up huge chunks of yardage. He went for 107 yards and not only scored his first-career touchdown, but picked up a hat trick with three trips to the end zone.
All of these stats added up to 32.7 PPR points for the few fantasy owners that started him, a huge jump from his previous season-high of 9.3.
It feels like we’ve been waiting all season for Aaron Rodgers to find a receiver he really trusts. There’s been multiple names thrown out during the year as guys with the potential to fill that role, and Watson might be the one to finally take the mantle.
Watson saw the second-highest snap count of Packers wide receivers on Sunday, behind only veteran wideout Alan Lazard. He also saw about a 40% target share, good for the most of any Green Bay pass-catcher through the first 10 weeks.
The Packers finally leaned on their two-headed monster in the backfield of A.J. Dillon and Aaron Jones. Establishing the run game paid dividends towards Green Bay’s offensive revival and Watson benefited from this Aaron Rodgers offense we’ve become accustomed to over the last decade. He has huge upside for the rest of the season if Green Bay can stay looking like themselves of years past.
Despite being a top performer in all of fantasy football for Week 10, Watson is still only rostered in 41.1% of ESPN leagues.
Campbell’s Coming in Hot
Why is no one talking about Parris Campbell? The Colts wide receiver has put together three of the quietest 18-plus point outings I’ve ever seen in the last five weeks.
After a sputtering start to the season, Indianapolis switched up its offense before they hosted Jacksonville in Week 6. In his first two games after that change, Campbell garnered 11 and 12 targets and scored a touchdown in each, good for 18.7 and 23.0 PPR points in back-to-back games.
People forgot about Campbell after a couple rough games when Sam Ehlinger replaced Matt Ryan under center. When Ryan returned under new head coach Jeff Saturday this past week, Campbell showed he hadn’t missed a beat.
As Indianapolis picked up its fourth win of the season against the Raiders, Campbell was a large part of the Colts offense, catching seven of his nine targets for 76 yards and a touchdown.
That means in his last three games with Matt Ryan leading the offense, Campbell is averaging double-digit targets, over 67 yards and a touchdown each time he takes the field.
Campbell has proved to be one of Ryan’s two favorite options in the air — along with former Trojan Michael Pittman Jr. — and should continue to see a similar workload for the remainder of the season. Yet, while Pittman Jr. is rostered in virtually every league, Campbell is still on the waivers in over 60%.
One Moore
I’ll end with a nugget for those of you who are already locked into the playoffs. This is a guy with a high ceiling who I almost guarantee you forgot about, unless you’ve been keeping up with the gridiron drama in the Big Apple.
Elijah Moore could be poised to return to the waiver-wire stud we remember from the second half of last season. After a rough start to his rookie campaign with the Jets, Moore ended his first year with six straight games of at least six targets and 40 yards. He also scored five touchdowns in that span.
There were high hopes for him to be an impact player on the Jets this season, but to say he has not lived up to expectations would be an understatement. Moore was not very effective to begin the season, and after seeing minimal targets following quarterback Zach Wilson’s return, he took to Twitter to express his frustrations.
Since then he has sat out a game, requested a trade, had his trade request denied and still not recorded a catch since Week 5. So why am I mentioning a guy who simply doesn’t get the ball?
Head coach Robert Saleh recently stated the Jets are moving Moore into the slot, the position he thrived in at Ole Miss. The decision for him to play out wide puzzled many analysts in the first place, and since it clearly has not worked out, the Jets are letting him go back to his college roots.
Moore is a smaller receiver with elite quickness, making him a perfect physical fit for the slot position. New York is also coming off of a bye week, so he has had some extra time to get acclimated. We could see Moore play a big role in this offense when the Jets travel to Foxborough and look to snap a 13-game losing streak to the Patriots this weekend.
“Frankel’s Fantasy Files” runs every Thursday.