Friday afternoons are my opportunity to connect with FantasyPros readers and the FantasyPros Discord community. If you haven’t already done so, be sure to join our Discord to get answers to your questions. I host weekly AMAs on Fridays, and other analysts also routinely answer questions. Below were three standout topics from Friday’s busy Week 6 AMA.
- Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups
- Weekly Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football Start/Sit Advice
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
Discord AMA: Week 6
How Should Gamers Handle the Chargers’ Backfield?
Los Angeles’s backfield looks like a train wreck. Omarion Hampton and Najee Harris are on injured reserve (IR), leaving a rag-tag group of Hassan Haskins, Kimani Vidal, Amar Johnson and Nyheim Hines as the options to play running back for the Chargers this week.
Johnson and Hines are on the practice squad. Vidal was on the practice squad to begin the year before the club signed him to the active roster. Haskins’ presence on the active roster to open the year should be a signal that he’s ahead of the others on the depth chart. He’s a different archetype than the alternatives, making him the most likely to handle the between-the-tackles work and the goal-line duties.
However, the organization’s decision to sign Hines after seeing him in the preseason should serve as a signal as well. Hines is a pass-catching specialist, which leads me to believe he’ll cut into Vidal’s role. Furthermore, it suggests the team might continue to play a pass-heavy brand of football. According to nfelo, the Chargers have the second-highest pass rate over expectation (+5.7% PROE) this season.
As a result, gamers would be best served avoiding the backfield altogether this week. Yet, gamers in a pinch because of injuries and byes should lean toward Haskins as a touchdown-or-bust play over Vidal and Hines, who could battle for passing-game and change-of-pace work.
How Valuable is Michael Carter This Week?
In Arizona’s first game without James Conner and Trey Benson, Michael Carter had a backfield-high 57% snap share, followed by 28% for Emari Demercado and 16% for Zonovan Knight. More importantly, according to the data suite at Fantasy Points, Carter handled 18 of the backfield’s 25 rush attempts (72%) and had a 35.1% route participation rate versus 24.3% for Demercado and 10.8% for Knight.
Demercado didn’t do himself any favors for earning more playing time this week by being the latest fool to drop the ball before crossing the goal line for a touchdown in Week 5. Jonathan Gannon was so angry with Demercado that he struck him in the chest and was fined $100,000 for his actions.
Carter should see a rock-solid workload. However, the Cardinals are 7-point underdogs, and the game’s total is 47 points, leaving them with an implied team total of 20 points. Carter found the end zone last week, but banking on him scoring another touchdown is a thin bet.
Carter could scam his way to points in half-PPR and full PPR formats on dump-offs in a negative game script, namely if Kyler Murray starts and doesn’t scramble because of his injury. Still, Carter’s ceiling is low. He’s a low-end RB2/high-end RB3 or Flex option in 12-team leagues this week. Gamers who need a high-floor play could do worse than Carter.
Is Ja’Marr Chase a Buy, Sell or Hold?
Sadly, gamers aren’t getting what they hoped for from Ja’Marr Chase when they took him first overall or shortly thereafter. Chase is the WR10 in half-PPR points per game (14.1), but he has three games with fewer than 6.5 half-PPR points this season.
I would have advocated selling Chase before the Bengals traded for Joe Flacco to replace an ineffective Jake Browning. What should gamers do with Chase now? Frankly, if gamers can sell him as a low-end WR1 based on his recent production and enthusiasm about Flacco breathing life into the offense, I’d encourage it. Flacco isn’t what he was during his surprising hot streak in 2023.
If gamers can’t secure better compensation than a top-16 receiver would fetch, they should hold and hope for a stellar performance against the Packers this week to create an opportunity to sell. Also, I don’t advocate trading for Chase.
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Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.
