The Week 4 matchup between the Houston Texans and Atlanta Falcons features a premier wide receiver who could make history this season. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Fantasy football projections, Week 4: Texans-Falcons featuring DeAndre Hopkins, Matt Ryan and Julio Jones
We break down the Week 4 matchup between the Houston Texans and Atlanta Falcons.
Houston Texans
After a less than impressive performance against the Carolina Panthers in Week 2, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins bounced back last week. He was targeted a team-high 14 times for eight catches, 101 yards and a touchdown. He’s been targeted in the double-digit range all season long and given the lack of talent in the receiving corps around him and the fact that Arian Foster is still trying to return from injury, Hopkins should be the team’s No. 1 option going into the game against the prolific offense of the Falcons.
Its sounding like the aforementioned Foster will be a game-time decision on Sunday. If he plays he’s an automatic starter against the league’s worst fantasy run defense even if he is a little bit rusty. If not, Alfred Blue should be able to carry the load. Blue had quite possibly the best game of his career last week, carrying the ball 31 times for 139 yards and a touchdown. Although his role won’t be as prominent once Foster returns, Blue could be in line for some big numbers on Sunday if he draws the start.
Atlanta Falcons
Newsflash! The best fantasy wide receiver of the 2015 campaign won’t be the Detroit Lions’ Calvin Johnson, the Green Bay Packers’ Randall Cobb, or the Dallas Cowboys’ Dez Bryant. It will be the Falcons’ Julio Jones. After just three games, Jones has 34 catches for 440 yards and four touchdowns. At his current pace, he’ll finish the season with more than 16 touchdowns and a mind blowing 2,300-plus receiving yards. Numbers like that haven’t been seen in this generation. Of course, it wouldn’t be totally out of the realm of possibility that Jones will come slightly lower down to the stratosphere, but it’s clear that he’s matchup proof and nobody can stop him. The young man really is coming into his own and cementing himself as an absolute superstar. The one we knew was always buried within his athletic ability.
Jones’ performance this season has certainly helped the stock of quarterback Matt Ryan. He’s always been among the second tier of elite quarterbacks in the NFL, but in leading the Falcons to a comeback victory over the Dallas Cowboys last week, it’s clear that Ryan knows he can count on Jones any time. He also had the good fortune of being able to rely on running back Devonta Freeman for some production last week. Ryan is a week-to-week starter in all fantasy leagues especially with the hottest receiver in the NFL catching his passes.
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SB Nation presents: Who to start and sit on your fantasy team in Week 4
