Fantasy Football Week 4: Insider Notebook and Preview

You spent your summer months agonizing over—or at least debating—who you were going to pick in the first round. Now, you're spending your first days of fall lamenting who you decided to select.

The first three weeks of fantasy football have proven leagues are not won in Round 1. LeSean McCoy, Jamaal Charles (knee), Adrian Peterson (indefinite suspension), Matt Forte and Eddie Lacy have been busts to date. Those were the first five picks in FantasyPros.com's average draft position and consensus rankings. 

If you have played fantasy before, you know these guys will eventually get hot. The season is a roller-coaster ride.

Don't dare compound the bad production with the mistake of selling low on these guys and allowing someone else to get the best of them. Consider this an opportunity for those who might be frustrated with this quintet. You should be buying, not selling. 

"What struggles?" McCoy said, via Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com, after Sunday's stuffing against the Washington Redskins. "I don't feel like I'm struggling at all."

Um...it is nice to hear McCoy's confidence in himself, but his fantasy owners beg to differ. Still, things will turn around for most of your slow starters.

We might even expect Peterson to play at some point, although there will be an NFL-imposed suspension to deal with once his team-imposed one expires. You own Josh Gordon in fantasy—86 percent owned in CBSSports.com leagues—after he has been ruled eligible to play in the Cleveland Browns' final six games of the season, starting Nov. 23 at the Atlanta Falcons, per Mary Kay Cabot of The Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

Peterson might get that much action, too. This time away from football is unfortunate for his fantasy owners, but he could prove fresh among running backs for the most important games on the fantasy schedule.

The fantasy season might be a series of one-week sprints, but you need to keep some juice in the tank for the final legs.

Chief Concern: Charles in Charge Again?

We might get Jamaal Charles back in Week 4 against the New England Patriots, but that doesn't mean we should be getting rid of Knile Davis. He remains the most important handcuff in fantasy football, as we have been saying all summer.

We didn't expect Charles to play last Sunday after going down with a mild high ankle sprain. Davis stepped forward with 132 yards rushing and a touchdown at Miami.

"

Knile Davis' Emergence Allows Chiefs to Be Patient with Jamaal Charles' Recovery - http://t.co/j1CGRZe5mK #Chiefs

— Kansas City Chiefs (@fans_chiefs) September 23, 2014"

Bleacher Report lead writer of sports medicine Will Carroll told Nick Kostos and I on the B/R Fantasy Football Show on Sirius (93)/XM Radio (208) that the high taping of Charles' ankle in Week 2 suggested his injury was an aggravation instead of a new one. That gives hope for a quicker return than most high ankle sprain issues. It might even be the reason Charles was used so little in Week 1 and needed an early exit in Week 2 and a day off in Week 3.

A Charles return might be enough to sit Davis, perhaps, but we fully expect Davis to be involved heavily in the offense going forward.

As we wrote in B/R's Week 3 Predictions, Davis emerged as a frequently used backup running back late last season as a rookie. In Davis' past seven regular-season games, he has seven touchdowns. Throw in last January's playoff game, he has nine TDs in eight games—fantasy MVP production, some of which has come even when Charles has been active.

Andy Reid is a running back maker. The lack of a downfield passing game with the limited Alex Smith under center helps keep the backs involved, too.

Even Joe McKnight (six receptions for 64 yards and two touchdowns) made a surprise impact with Charles out Sunday. Don't bother with McKnight off waivers this week, particularly if rookie speedster De'Anthony Thomas (hamstring) is ready to return.

Consensus Waiver Favorites 

The following chart is published every week by FantasyPros.com, ranking the best of the waiver-wire options for Week 4. It is tough to know who might be available in your respective leagues, but this casts a wide swath of analyst favorites:

RK	Player	POS	TM	Consensus RK	Best RK	Worst RK
1	Lorenzo Taliaferro	RB	BAL	1	1	1
2	Travis Kelce	TE	KC	4.5	3	9
3	Owen Daniels	TE	BAL	5	2	13
4	Jordan Matthews	WR	PHI	5.2	2	7
5	Andrew Hawkins	WR	CLE	6	3	11
6	Brian Quick	WR	STL	6.7	4	11
7	Jerick McKinnon	RB	MIN	6.7	3	13
8	Alfred Blue	RB	HOU	7.2	5	10
9	Isaiah Crowell	RB	CLE	8	2	12
10	John Brown	WR	ARI	8.3	3	10
11	Marvin Jones	WR	CIN	11.2	9	17
12	Allen Robinson	WR	JAC	12.8	12	14
13	Larry Donnell	TE	NYG	13	7	18
14	Niles Paul	TE	WAS	13	5	16
15	Mohamed Sanu	WR	CIN	14.5	13	17
16	Malcom Floyd	WR	SD	15.2	10	17
17	Miles Austin	WR	CLE	15.5	15	16
18	Eddie Royal	WR	SD	17.3	14	18

If we had to rank the top 15 options available off waivers, all things being equal (they rarely are), we would go:

1. D/ST Detroit Lions
2. RB DeAngelo Williams, Carolina Panthers
3. RB Donald Brown, San Diego Chargers
4. QB Kirk Cousins, Washington Redskins
5. RB Khiry Robinson, New Orleans Saints
6. RB Lorenzo Taliaferro, Baltimore Ravens
7. TE Owen Daniels, Baltimore Ravens
8. TE Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs
9. TE Niles Paul, Washington Redskins
10. RB Alfred Blue, Houston Texans
11. WR Hakeem Nicks, Indianapolis Colts
12. TE Dwayne Allen, Indianapolis Colts
13. TE Coby Fleener, Indianapolis Colts
14. WR Jordan Matthews, Philadelphia Eagles
15. TE Larry Donnell, New York Giants

Week 4 Creates Roster Stress 

We sure don't go lightly into fantasy's bye season. Six teams are headed for their bye, including some of the best fantasy options around:

1. Denver Broncos (Peyton Manning, Montee Ball, Demaryius Thomas, Wes Welker, Emmanuel Sanders, Julius Thomas, Brandon McManus/Matt Prater and their D/ST)
2. Seattle Seahawks (Russell Wilson, Marshawn Lynch, Percy Harvin, Doug Baldwin, Steven Hauschka and their D/ST)
3. Cincinnati Bengals (Andy Dalton, Giovani Bernard, Jeremy Hill, A.J. Green, Mohamed Sanu, Mike Nugent and their D/ST)
4. Arizona Cardinals (Carson Palmer, Andre Ellington, Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and their D/ST)
5. St. Louis Rams (Austin Davis, Zac Stacy, Jared Cook, Greg Zuerlein and their D/ST)
6. Cleveland Browns (Brian Hoyer, Terrance West, Isaiah Crowell, Miles Austin and Jordan Cameron) 

If these players are cut to pick up fill-ins this week, you will want to stash them for the stretch run. The silver lining of having them suck up a roster spot while idle is at least their bye week will be out of the way.

Week 5 Bye Status Check

After a busy Week 4 of byes putting stress on lineups, the week after should be far more manageable. Only the Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders will be idle.

There aren't too many fantasy options you rely on heavily among those teams. In fact, the Raiders you own you can consider cutting outright to play the waiver wire. Darren McFadden, James Jones and the injured Maurice Jones-Drew might be the only players on fantasy rosters right now. For the Dolphins, hold Lamar Miller, Mike Wallace and Knowshon Moreno.

This makes next week a competitive one on the waiver wire, since the six teams will be returning from byes and these two teams aren't leaned on heavily in fantasy.

Thursday Night Start, Sit

New York Giants

Start: Rashad Jennings, Victor Cruz, Larry Donnell

Sit: Eli Manning, Andre Williams, Rueben Randle, Odell Beckham Jr., Josh Brown, Giants D/ST

Manning and Cruz finally shook off their rust in the new Ben McAdoo offense Sunday and could be significant factors in this one, particularly on the short week with Jennings coming off a 34-carry performance facing the NFL's third-best run defense. The problem is we cannot trust Manning just yet after a year-plus of being error-prone and erratic.

Jennings is not a great play against a Redskins team that has given up the second-fewest points to running backs this season, per FFToday.com. They completely took LeSean McCoy, the NFL's reigning rushing leader, out of the game Sunday, holding him to 22 yards on 19 carries. Jennings has to start in fantasy after that huge performance, but he could get a light work day.

Washington Redskins

Start: Kirk Cousins, Alfred Morris, Pierre Garcon, DeSean Jackson, Niles Paul

Sit: Roy Helu, Andre Roberts, Jordan Reed (hamstring), Kai Forbath, Redskins D/ST

Cousins got Garcon and Jackson started Sunday with a huge performance. That sets them up for a busy day against a Giants defense that is in the bottom 10 of fantasy against quarterbacks, according to FFToday.com. Morris hasn't been a great fantasy producer yet, but the good news is he is getting chances in Jay Gruden's attack. He has had back-to-back games with 20-plus carries. Keep him active.

Reed did not practice Monday, according to the official NFL injury report (credentials required), so you cannot trust he will play yet, which makes Paul a viable alternative.

Follow @EricMackFantasy

Eric Mack, one of the giants among fantasy writers, is the Fantasy Football Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, where you can ask him endless questions about your team, rip him for his content and even challenge him to a head-to-head fantasy game.