Melvin Gordon had his best performance of the season with a two touchdown effort against the Giants.
Credit: @SNFonNBC
Week Five in the NFL season is now over and there is plenty of newsworthy headlines to talk about. Elite players such as J.J. Watt and Odell Beckham Jr. both sustained season-ending injuries that will have big impacts on their respective teams. Rookie quarterback Deshaun Watson was back to making a case that he was the best quarterback taken in the draft with five passing touchdowns against a solid Chiefs defense. Unfortunately, Watson won’t be talked about in this article because he was featured last week. So let’s take a look at some of the other great performances from this past weekend in fantasy football.
Melvin Gordon, RB Los Angeles Chargers:
It hasn’t been a great season for Gordon or the Chargers offense as a whole. The team has been struggling to score significant points, and Gordon has only been averaging around 11 fantasy points per game in standard scoring leagues, which is good, but not nearly what owners who drafted him had been expecting. The 27 points scored by the offense on Sunday was a season high, and hopefully this can help turn their season around. Gordon has been reliable so far with double digit point games in all but one outing this year, though this week was the first time he scored more than 15 in a game this season (28.3 standard points). The running back is somewhat touchdown-dependent seeing as he has not surpassed 3.9 yards per carry over an entire season in any of his three years in the league. Luckily for owners, the Chargers seem intent on giving Gordon plenty of goal line rushes and he now has three receiving touchdowns after only having two last year. The young running back remains an elite fantasy asset given his heavy workload and his ability to produce touchdowns at a high rate.
Leonard Fournette, RB Jacksonville Jaguars:
The impressive rookie campaign continues for the LSU product as he ran for a career high 181 yards and added two touchdowns in the process. The rookie led all flex eligible players in standard scoring with 30.4 points and is well outperforming his third-round selection from most drafts. Fournette has not been very efficient thus far as this was his first game he had more than 3.8 yards per carry and his long run of 90 yards was the first time he surpassed 17 yards on a single play this season. The star rookie has been helped by receiving a large workload that has given him at least 24 carries in three games so far. The Jaguars offense has been much improved this year and Fournette could get even better as the season goes on and his offensive line continues to improve with run blocking. Expect the bruising running back to carry many teams into the fantasy playoffs and be one of the first names off the board next season.
A.J. Green, WR Cincinnati Bengals:
The veteran wide receiver continues to be one of the most sure things when it comes to fantasy football. He has now scored a touchdown in three straight games and already has two games of over 100 receiving yards to start the season. This is his seventh year in the league and he has had at least 1,000 receiving yards every season except in 2016 when he appeared in only 10 games. The Bengals offense is back to scoring at its usual rate and Green has been one of Andy Dalton’s favorite targets yet again. The elite wide receiver is on pace for what would be a career high 1,600 receiving yards and a solid 10 touchdowns. Many didn’t trust Green as a first round pick after his injury shortened season, but he is erasing all doubt by providing great value no matter where he was drafted.
Dak Prescott, QB Dallas Cowboys:
A star in his rookie season, Dak Prescott has gotten better in his second year even with the Cowboys having a losing record. He is on pace to throw for 35 passing touchdowns this season which would completely shatter his total of 23 last year. Prescott is being asked to throw a lot more this season as the defense just hasn’t been able to hold a lead, and with a possible suspension of Ezekiel Elliot looming, the offense may be even more pass heavy in the near future. Dak has given a great return on investment this year after being drafted in most leagues behind Matt Ryan and Russell Wilson. Expect the star quarterback to slow down a bit seeing as the Cowboys prefer to keep the ball on the ground and eat up the game clock, but a big fantasy season could be just beginning. Keep him locked in as your quarterback for the rest of the year because a sophomore slump doesn’t seem to be a thing for Prescott.
DeAndre Hopkins, WR Houston Texans:
Fantasy owners got a nice surprise on Sunday night when Hopkins was able to score three times, two of which were in the final three minutes of the game. The Chiefs led the Texans for the entire game but only blew open the lead in the fourth quarter after a De’Anthony Thomas catch and run touchdown followed by a Tyreek Hill punt return for an additional score. Until that point in the game, Hopkins had been struggling with only one catch for a short touchdown earlier in the contest. Luckily for Hopkins owners, Deshaun Watson has been looking his way early and often as the veteran wide receiver has at least 12 targets in four of five games this season. Don’t expect this kind of performance to happen all the time, but Hopkins appears to have the same high floor he did back in 2015 when he finished the year with 1,500 receiving yards.
