Fantasy Football Week 6: Biggest Takeaways from Sunday

Week 6 of fantasy football is coming to a close, so it’s time to take a look at some of the biggest takeaways from Sunday’s action.

The good news is that some of the season-long trends are coming into focus. 

For instance, what should you make of the Denver Broncos offense, a unit the entire fantasy community has been waiting on? Hint: nothing good.

Some other big names entered Week 6 with “put up or shut up” labels. Detroit Lions wideout Calvin Johnson certainly put up, but some other studs didn’t step up to the plate, damaging their season-long outlook in the process.

We’ll go over all of these takeaways and more, starting with the dire situation in Denver.

Denver’s Peyton Manning, C.J. Anderson Are Droppable

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Peyton Manning

The Denver Broncos defeated the Cleveland Browns in Week 6 to move to 6-0 this season, but the perfect record covers up some imperfections.

The reality is that quarterback Peyton Manning is now droppable in fantasy leagues, as is running back C.J. Anderson.

The first half of that sentence has been unthinkable for the past 15 years, and the second half of that sentence was unthinkable heading into the 2015 season. But here we are.

Despite throwing a 75-yard touchdown pass to Emmanuel Sanders late in the game (on a nice throw), Manning still ended the game as the 21st-ranked quarterback this week—and that’s with Tom Brady, Andrew Luck, Eli Manning and Sam Bradford still to play, all of whom should finish with more points than Peyton’s nine.

We’ll really drive the point home with this one fact: Landry Jones scored more fantasy points than Peyton Manning in Week 6.

Manning has now scored single-digit fantasy points in four of six games, and he’s droppable in all formats.

For his part, Anderson has scored single-digit points in every game this season and has failed to top 50 rushing yards in any game. He also hasn’t scored.

Anderson is not seeing the type of volume elite fantasy running backs need, but he’s still getting enough touches per game that he should be producing. Anderson’s carries per game so far this season: 12, 12, eight, 11, 11 and 13.

The Broncos are riding Anderson nowhere, and they are bringing fantasy owners along with them. Anderson, like his quarterback, is droppable at this point.

To top off the ugly situation in Denver, Sanders reportedly suffered an AC joint sprain toward the end of the game, but it’s “not believed to be serious,” per Pro Football Talk.

Calvin Johnson Is Still a WR1

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Calvin Johnson

Fantasy fans were ready to write off Calvin Johnson after he put up four subpar performances in the first five games of the season. But Johnson bounced back in a big way in Week 6, catching six passes for 166 yards and a touchdown to give him the third-most fantasy points among wideouts this week (as of this writing).

In truth, Johnson’s dry spell wasn’t all that bad. He caught at least five passes in every game from Weeks 3-5 and topped 50 receiving yards in each one of those games as well. At the same time, those weren’t Megatron-level performances.

Week 6 was a different story.

The Lions still don’t target Johnson enough—he had three catches for 90 yards for what felt like the entire game in Week 6 before taking over late—but perhaps Johnson’s late-game heroics (he caught a go-ahead touchdown with under 30 seconds remaining and hauled in a bomb in overtime to essentially win the game) will remind Detroit that it has one of the best weapons in the league.

Don’t give up on Johnson. He remains one of the best wideouts in the game and is a must-start fantasy player. He will be a top-10 fantasy wide receiver by season’s end, and he has several more big games up his sleeve.

Eddie Lacy Is No Longer an RB1

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Eddie Lacy

It’s time to let go of the notion of Eddie Lacy as a top-flight fantasy running back in 2015. We noted that Calvin Johnson should still be considered a WR1 in the previous slide, but the same can’t be said for Lacy.

Lacy suffered an ankle injury earlier this season, and while he has been playing since then, it’s fair to wonder whether or not that injury is largely to blame for his ineffectiveness.

In any event, Lacy is not only failing to perform at a high level, but he isn’t even seeing the type of volume a top performer needs.

His carries per game have been all over the place this season: 19, three (injured in this game), 10, 18, 13 and four. He has only scored once (in Week 1) and has yet to top 100 rushing yards in a game.

Lacy was also a regular contributor through the air in 2014, but that hasn’t been the case this season. He has only nine receptions thus far.

Things didn’t get any better for Lacy in Week 6. He played second fiddle to James Starks and was rarely seen on the field. When Lacy did get another look in the fourth quarter, he fumbled the ball.

As noted earlier in this slide, it’s difficult to know how much of a role Lacy’s injured ankle is or isn’t playing here, but it’s certainly fair to wonder and worry.

Lacy should be removed from the RB1 equation and is more of a tail-end RB2—with room to fall into flex territory—at this point. He’ll need a couple of good games to get himself out of this hole.

DeAndre Hopkins Is Now a Fixture in the Top 5

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DeAndre Hopkins

DeAndre Hopkins had his best game of the season for the Houston Texans in Week 6, catching 10 passes for 148 yards and two scores. Week 6 marked Hopkins’ fifth game with at least 15 fantasy points, fifth game with at least eight receptions and fourth straight game with at least 100 receiving yards.

NFL.com’s Gil Brandt noted that Hopkins has more targets at this point in the season than anybody has since 1991, and Rotoworld’s Raymond Summerlin crunched the numbers to find that Hopkins is on pace for 237 targets this season.

That’s absurd—but it’s the truth. Hopkins has seen double-digit targets in every game this season and has made the most of that volume.

There was some speculation about Hopkins heading into this season revolving around the poor quarterback play in Houston (which is still the case) and Hopkins' inability to score touchdowns. The latter argument has been shattered to pieces, and at least through six weeks this season, Hopkins appears to be quarterback-proof.

Hopkins has established himself as a top-five fantasy wideout for the rest of the season. He is right up there with Julio Jones at this point.

Chris Ivory Is a Tail-End RB1 for the Rest of the Season

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Chris Ivory

Chris Ivory carried the ball 20 times for 146 yards and scored a touchdown in Week 6. He added three catches for 50 yards through the air, giving him nearly 200 total yards on the day. He broke off several nice long runs on Sunday, and while he doesn’t have breakaway speed, he displayed great vision and split-second decision-making abilities.

In Week 4 (he was on bye in Week 5), Ivory carried the ball 29 times for 166 yards and a score. This means that over Ivory’s past two games, he has touched the ball 52 times for 362 yards, giving him an average of just under seven yards per touch.

That’s elite production, and his schedule for the rest of the season indicates he could be putting up big numbers from here on out.

Ivory’s schedule, in order: New England Patriots, Oakland Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills, Houston Texans, Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants. He’ll play against the Tennessee Titans, Dallas Cowboys and Patriots in the fantasy playoffs.

There are, of course, some tougher matchups in there, but it’s far from a murderer's row.

Feel free to ride Ivory with confidence for the rest of the season.

Martavis Bryant Is a Must-Start

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Martavis Bryant

In just his first game back this season, Pittsburgh Steelers wideout Martavis Bryant got back to his usual touchdown-scoring ways in Week 6.

The speedster caught six passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday on eight targets. He was the second-highest-scoring receiver of the week (as of this writing) behind only DeAndre Hopkins. Bryant caught a short touchdown from Landry Jones after Jones came in to replace Michael Vick, and then he turned what would have been a moderate gain into an 88-yard touchdown.

Jon Zimmer—also known as @NFLhistory on Twitter—noted Bryant is the second player in NFL history with an 88-plus-yard touchdown catch in each of his first two seasons. He is the first player in nearly 80 years to accomplish that feat.

Bryant remains an otherworldly athletic talent who can score from anywhere on the field. And with Ben Roethlisberger expected back in the coming weeks, Bryant’s rest-of-season outlook is rosy. Keep him in your starting lineup.