Can we expect Matt Ryan’s stellar play to continue?

Week 4 is here, and it is little surprise that there are plenty more storylines that will have our attention this week. Le’Veon Bell will return from his three-game suspension and make his season debut on Sunday night against the Chiefs. He is expected to receive a heavy workload, and it seems as if he will be ready to deliver great fantasy value immediately.

Josh Gordon will not be making his anticipated season debut next week as he has checked into a rehab facility. This will affect Terrelle Pryor’s fantasy value and is a situation worth watching in the weeks to come. Here are five other questions I want to see answered in Week 4.

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Is Matt Ryan for real?

Ryan has fifth most fantasy points among quarterbacks after three weeks. He has one less fantasy point than Aaron Rodgers and two less than Cam Newton. If that continues, he will be another example of why the emerging strategy to wait on quarterbacks in drafts is becoming widely accepted. Ryan has been a QB1 for two of the past three seasons, so it wouldn’t be out of the question that he sticks in the top 10 for the remainder of the season.

Still, it’s difficult to ignore the cushy schedule Ryan has navigated through to this point in the season. His first three opponents, the Buccaneers, Raiders and Saints, rank 20^th, 25^th and 32^nd respectively in passing yards surrendered per game and 27^th, 31^st and 28^th respectively in yards per attempt surrendered.

Suffice it to say things will get more challenging for Ryan as the season wears on. This week will be the first such challenge as the Falcons will take on the Panthers, who are much better against the pass than any of Ryan’s first opponents.

Last season looks like the outlier in regards to Ryan’s poor performance, but expecting him to keep pace with the best fantasy quarterbacks would also be a mistake. The next three matchups, against Carolina and at Denver and Seattle, make it difficult to trust Ryan as an elite QB1 moving forward and could mean we have already seen the best he has to offer this season.

Can Jordan Reed get on track?

Tight end has been a nightmare this season for those who invested a top pick on the position. Greg Olsen and Travis Kelce have delivered value at or near their ADP, but the rest of the top picks have lagged behind. One very guilty party is Reed as he was the second tight end off the board in most drafts this season, but after three games he ranks as the 14^th best tight end in standard leagues and eighth best in PPR.

It’s not all bad news, however, as Reed has remained healthy to this point and has gotten consistent targets. However, the fact that his catch rate has fallen from 76% to 66% and that he has yet to score a touchdown are causes for concern. Alternatively, the fact that his average depth of target has increased from 6.6 yards last season to 9.2 this season suggests that he may sacrifice some efficiency for even more explosive plays.

The sticking point for Reed owners is that he has just one target inside an opponents’ 10-yard line this season and has not recorded a reception inside the red zone. To deliver on his high draft price, that will have to change.

Will highly drafted receivers start to deliver?

Odell Beckham was expected to compete to be the No. 1 overall wide receiver in fantasy football this season, but after three weeks he hasn’t even been the Giants’ most productive wideout. Julio Jones and Allen Robinson are barely WR2 in terms of points scored. While many are singing the praises of the zero RB strategy, projected top wideouts look nearly as volatile as those at the running back position.

Plenty of mid-round wide receivers, Marvin Jones, Larry Fitzgerald, Doug Baldwin, Stefon Diggs, Sterling Shepard, and Travis Benjamin just to name a few, have provided the best value at the position to date. It’s hard to know whether this will keep up throughout the season, but the owners of Beckham, Jones and other highly coveted wide receivers entering the season will certainly keep a close eye on how they perform moving forward.

Will Bill Belichick throw us a curveball at the running back position?

Things seem predictable in the New England backfield. Too predictable. LeGarette Blount has received nearly 70% of the Patriots’ total rushing attempts and has been very productive with them. He has become a reliable starter in season long leagues and has become a fairly chalky play in DFS.

But in the past, just when it seemed that we had figured out New England’s backfield, Belichick has called an audible, and a new back has emerged. Will that be the case again this year? There is currently no sign of that, but we’ve seen it before, and things just seem a bit too predictable in New England at the moment.

What can we expect from Jamaal Charles in his season debut?

Charles is set to make his long-awaited season debut on Sunday night. It is expected that he will have a limited workload, and the details of that workload could be known by Sunday night. What isn’t known is how effective he will be with those touches and how much confidence he has in his knee.

While the Steelers’ pass defense has been atrocious, their defense against the run has been surprisingly solid so it is not a certainty that Charles will start his 2016 season on a high note.

Daniel Marcus is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Daniel, check out his archive, visit fantasy-phenoms.com, or follow him @danmarcus3.