Fantasy Football Recap Week 4: 23 Things You Need To Know

If you predicted Sunday Night Football between the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers would end in an overtime, 40-40 tie, go get yourself a lottery ticket right now. That wild game was just the end of what has now become the longest single day in NFL history. From the early-morning news out of Dublin that Jaylen Warren would not play against the Minnesota Vikings to some baffling overtime clock-management decisions by the Packers as the clock rolled into Monday morning, Week 4 in fantasy football was one for the books

Before we get a Monday Night Football double header that somehow features the New York Jets battling the Miami Dolphins, let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the injured from a crazy Week 4 in the NFL.

Stud Players

Which players put up the best performances in Week 4?

Jordan Love and Dak Prescott put up some late-night fireworks on Sunday as they treated the nation to an offensive clinic. Love completed 31 of 42 passes for 337 yards and three touchdowns without throwing an interception. Prescott matched him with 319 yards and three scores without a pick. Both quarterbacks also took only one sack in a game that lasted 70 minutes, and a game where the Packers were touchdown favorites heading in was a back-and-forth shootout the entire night.

Patrick Mahomes felt like he wanted to show the world that while Lamar Jackson has been getting the MVPs and huge offensive stats lately, the AFC still runs through Kansas City. After getting Xavier Worthy back, Mahomes put on a passing clinic, throwing four touchdowns to go along with 270 passing yards. Considering the sorry state of their rushing attack, we may see more games like this, especially when Rashee Rice comes back in three weeks.

There’s the Ashton Jeanty we thought we were getting after he was drafted in the first round by the Las Vegas Raiders back in April. Jeanty broke out in a big way with 138 rushing yards, 17 receiving yards, and three total touchdowns to lead the running back position in fantasy points heading into Monday Night Football. He was the entire offense on a day when Geno Smith really struggled, and Jeanty gashed the Chicago Bears' defense all over the field. We would like to see a little more passing-game usage, but it’s hard to complain when so much of the offense went through Jeanty in this game.

Kenneth Gainwell was the huge beneficiary of Jaylen Warren sitting out the Dublin game, but did anyone actually have the stones to start him? Gainwell had the game of his life with 19 carries, 99 rushing yards, six receptions, 35 rushing yards, and two total touchdowns. This is not going to be a weekly occurrence, of course, but for one week, Gainwell can say he was a top-three fantasy running back.

The first game in the post-Najee Harris era could not have gone better for Omarion Hampton on Sunday. He rushed for 128 yards on just 12 attempts and caught five passes for 37 yards, adding a rushing touchdown as well. He finished Sunday as a top-six running back on the day, and looks primed to carry a heavy workload for the Chargers the rest of the season.

Puka Nacua is your new overall WR1 in fantasy football right now after catching 13 of 15 targets for 170 yards and a touchdown. He does not have a single game this season with eight receptions or 91 yards. Davante Adams may be getting the bulk of the touchdowns, but Nacua is going to be a virtual lock for about 10 catches and 100 yards every game.

When quarterbacks like Love and Prescott have massive games (and overtime to pad the stats), they are going to bring pass-catchers along with them. Both Romeo Doubs and George Pickens benefited from injuries to other receivers on their teams to put up massive lines in the 40-40 tie. Pickens and Doubs are second and third, respectively, in fantasy points at the position heading into Monday night's games. Pickens caught eight of 11 targets for 134 yards and two touchdowns. Doubs had his best game of the season with six catches for 58 yards and three touchdowns.

Dallas Goedert had one game in his seven-year career with more than one receiving touchdown, but he doubled that number on Sunday, catching four passes for 37 yards and two scores. Goedert has a healthy 18% target share and an 86% snap share in this Philadelphia Eagles offense.

Tyler Warren rushed for a touchdown? That’s what the box score tells me, and the film proves it. He also caught five of six targets for 70 yards to finish with 15 points in Half-PPR formats. Warren had already established himself as a top-ten player at the position, but if he has added goal-line carries to his repertoire, there may not be many tight ends better this season.

Dud Players

Which players disappointed fantasy managers the most in Week 4?

Geno Smith followed up a 289-yard, three-touchdown masterpiece last week with a game where he threw for just 117 yards and tossed three awful interceptions. He managed to salvage some kind of positive fantasy scoring with two touchdown passes, but much more was expected against a Chicago Bears’ secondary that is decimated by injury and has been getting torched on a weekly basis.

What does David Montgomery do to follow up his 164 total yards and two touchdowns in Week 3? Well, he rushes just nine times for 12 yards and doesn’t catch any passes. It was a weird game for Montgomery because Detroit was up big on Cleveland much of the game, but Montgomery didn’t benefit from any extra work. This was another one of those hyper-focused games on Jahmyr Gibbs and Amon-Ra St. Brown, and these types of things are going to happen to the Lions a few times a year.

A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith both got fed in Week 3, when they combined for 14 catches for 169 yards and a touchdown apiece. That all regressed back to worrying levels against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday when A.J. Brown caught two passes for seven yards, and Smith ended up with two catches for 29 yards. The Eagles finished with 31 points in this game, but it was Goedert and the run game that dominated the touches. This looks like it is going to be a frustrating roller coaster ride all season long.

We are getting to the point where there needs to be a serious conversation about Ladd McConkey and just how much he is prioritized in the Los Angeles Chargers offense. With the emergence of Quentin Johnston and the signing of Keenan Allen, McConkey appears to be third in line. His receptions have decreased each week of the season, and he caught only one ball for 11 yards against the New York Giants on Sunday. This was the first time McConkey had failed to catch more than one pass in his career.

Sam LaPorta also got the same treatment as David Montgomery this week. Since Gibbs and St. Brown got all the work, LaPorta finished with three catches for 39 yards. That is three games in a row with fewer than 40 receiving yards, and he still does not have a touchdown on the season.

Thud Players

Which players can we shove off our fantasy rosters after Week 4?

Bryce Young had a nice little run in the last four weeks of the 2024 season, but those days are long gone now. Bryce Young was throttled by the New England Patriots on Sunday and managed just 150 passing yards and one touchdown. He managed to throw an interception but could only lead his team to 13 points (and actually seven of those were when Andy Dalton came in during garbage time). He started the season as a nice bench filler, but now has more than 11 fantasy points in one game and can safely be dropped.

Kayshon Boutte was on the other side of the New England-Carolina game, but you might not have realized it because of his latest disappearing act. Boutte caught one pass for 18 yards, his third game in a row with two or fewer receptions. His Week 1 game with six receptions for 103 yards seems like ages ago, and Drake Maye has locked onto Hunter Henry and Stefon Diggs as his favorite receivers.

Jerome Ford is not safely the third option in the Cleveland Browns backfield, and his role has been reduced to almost zero. He had one rush attempt for negative yards and one catch for four yards this week after no rush attempts and just 10 receiving yards in Week 3. Quinshon Judkins has taken over, and Ford can safely be removed from rosters.

Bad Blood Players

Which players’ injuries are worth monitoring after Week 4?

Malik Nabers attempted to catch a long pass from Jaxson Dart in the second quarter and immediately crumpled to the field in pain, clutching his knee. Initial reports are that the team believes he tore his ACL, and he will get an MRI on Monday to try to confirm the diagnosis. It’s an awful injury for an exceptional player, especially when it just looked like the new era of the New York Giants' offense was about to get rolling. Now the Dart-Nabers-Cam Skattebo trio will likely have to reconvene in 2026.

Lamar Jackson left the game against the Kansas City Chiefs with what the team described as a hamstring injury. Mike Florio reported that it was a hamstring strain after the game, which means we will have to wait for further testing to see the severity of the injury and if Lamar Jackson will miss much time.

Ricky Pearsall said after the game against Jacksonville that his knee didn’t feel quite right. Even after leaving the game and trying to come back in, he eventually decided he had to leave for good, which is not a great sign heading into Thursday Night Football just three days from now. The word used after the game was “instability” around the knee, so we will have to wait and see what the team diagnoses.

Darnell Mooney was the one Atlanta Falcons player who was left out of their scoring bonanza against Washington. Mooney left early in the third quarter with his own hamstring injury and was quickly ruled out. Mooney already dealt with shoulder injuries in the preseason, but this hamstring issue is new and something we will have to wait for definitive news.