It's time for Pete's Pick 6—my weekly recap column where I roundup six things–the good, the bad, and the ugly–that caught my eye on the Sunday main slate.
Let's dig in.
Nico Collins, your new WR1
I know this season has been mired with injuries and sluggish starts, but Nico Collins' ascension to the top echelon of NFL WRs is a massive bright spot.
It's not like Nico was being ignored heading into the year—he was a mid-second round draft pick in any competitive format—but I don't think anyone thought he'd be this good.
On Sunday, he carved up the Jags for 151 yards and 1 TD on 12 catches. What's scary about that stat line is that it could have been much, much bigger had C.J. Stroud not sailed multiple balls way over his head.
Through four weeks, here is where we stand with Collins:
- Leads the league in receiving yards by a wide margin (489)
- On pace for nearly 2,000 yards (1915)
- Has three 100-yard games in four weeks
- Set a career high with 12 receptions
- Now averaging a gaudy 22.7 ppg with insane underlying peripherals
If we are redrafting today, he's a Top-5 pick (and even that might be shortchanging him).
The Justin Fields breakout game
Look, I'm well aware that the Steelers lost. I'm also aware that Fields had a fumble and made some mistakes. But this is a fantasy column on a site called Fantasy Life and Justin Fields was a fantasy star in Week 4:
- 312 passing yards, 1 passing TD
- 55 rushing yards, 2 rushing TDs
- 31.98 fantasy points
Fields was one of the most polarizing players in the league this offseason—both in real life and in fantasy—but no one could ever deny that he has the tools for blowup games like this.
Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith kept the training wheels on the first few weeks and there were plenty of "game manager" whispers floating around, but Fields took over as the engine of the offense vs. the Colts.
Fields is now 3-1 as the starter with a 71% completion percentage.
In case this needed to be said, Russell Wilson isn't getting this job.
Stats are for losers, featuring Kyle Pitts
It can't be all sunshine and rainbows around here if we claim to review "the good, the bad, and the ugly."
So here's some raw, uncut ugliness for you:
Kyle Pitts had 3 targets for 0 catches and 0 yards vs. the Saints yesterday.
Once again, he was outplayed by the likes of Darnell Mooney (3-56), Ray-Ray McCloud III (6-52), and an assortment of parking attendants and beer vendors at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
It's come to the point where there really aren't any more excuses to be made. Kirk Cousins and Zac Robinson seem completely disinterested in scheming him targets. It's hard to blame them, either—Pitts had the second-lowest open score among all TEs entering Sunday's game.
I'm sure Pitts will fall into the end zone a couple times this year, but the pie-in-the-sky ceiling outcomes we sold ourselves on after his 1,000-yard rookie season should be put to rest next.
Still, it's comforting to know that Pitts is still a "winner" because “stats are for losers.”
The Packers are back to being a fantasy point slot machine
Similar to Fields, the Packers lost the real-life battle, but boy did they win the fantasy war. Fueled by the return of Jordan Love to the field, the Packers gave us a heaping portion of garbage-time fantasy points that count just the same as the other ones.
Love, who admittedly looked very rusty (3 INTs), threw for 389 yards and 4 TDs. Jayden Reed was electric (7-139-1) and Dontayvian Wicks stepped up big time (5-78-2) after Christian Watson exited the game with another injury.
I'm sure Packers fans are bummed to have squandered the chance at an unbelievable comeback, but those of us with no laundry-rooting interests in Fantasyland couldn't be any more delighted to have this offense back at full strength. Granted, I may be slightly biased after landing two Love/Reed teams in the Top 10 of Underdog's Week 4 Battle Royale contest.
It's worth noting that both these teams are going to be major threats in the NFC playoffs. The Vikings’ offense looked close to unstoppable at times thanks to the return of Jordan Addison (3-72-1) and another stellar Sam Darnold outing (275 and 3).
Feel free to circle their Week 17 rematch—indoors at U.S. Bank Stadium—for a potential fantasy title-winning shootout.
The revenge roundup
There were all kinds of revenge games on the Week 4 menu. Let's see who came out ahead in the 'venge category:
- Andy Dalton vs. CIN: Panthers lost 34-24. Dalton played fine, but no W. Official verdict: revenge-less.
- Aaron Jones vs. GB: The Vikings won, but Green Bay kept Jones from doing the Lambeau Leap. Official verdict: stinky cheese revenge.
- Amari Cooper vs. LV: The Browns lost and Amari had a huge TD called back. Official verdict: the Raiders get the last laugh.
- Kliff Kingsbury & Zach Ertz vs. ARI: The Commanders boat raced the Cardinals on the road. Ertz didn't have to do much (3-22), but he gets to enjoy the spoils. Official verdict: put-your-feet-up-on-the-coffee-table-in-your-wingtips level revenge.
- Dare Ogunbowale vs. the Jags: Game-winning TD vs. former team. Official verdict: "suck on deeze nuts"-level revenge.
D'Andre Swift, the troll king
It was supposed to be "joever" for D'Andre Swift. He was horribly inefficient for the first three weeks and the Bears basically told us they were benching him earlier in the week in favor of “more Roschon Johnson.”
Here's how that played out:
I don't know if Swift read everyone's tweets last week or if the Bears coaches just like to troll, but it's hard to envision a bigger 180 after three weeks than this one.
Why can't the fantasy Gods do this for Pitts?