Week 6 Fantasy Football Takeaways: Chris Godwin Breaks The Slate
After an action-packed Sunday, Peter Overzet is here to break down the biggest Week 6 Fantasy Football takeaways:
It's time for Pete's Pick 6—my weekly recap column where I round up six things–the good, the bad, and the ugly–that caught my eye on the Sunday main slate.
Let's dig in …
TAKEAWAY #1: The Bucs go boom
There's something about the NFC South. There's no such thing as a "normal" game when this division meets up.
Yesterday, the Bucs opened their game vs. the Saints with a 17-0 run. Then the Saints went on a wild 27-7 run of their own to tighten the score 27-24. But then the Bucs went on a 27-0 run to finish with 51 total points. Um, what?
As you might imagine, this resulted in plenty of fantasy goodness as Tampa Bay set a new franchise record with 594 net yards of offense.
Chris Godwin (11-125-2) broke the slate, Baker Mayfield (325 and 4 TDs) now leads the entire NFL in TDs (14), and Sean Tucker (14-136-1; 3-56-1) stole Bucky Irving's thunder with Rachaad White out.
To be fair to Bucky (14-81-1; 2-24) he had a very solid day, including this electric run, but no one expected him to get out-produced by Tucker. It's safe to speculate whether White could get Wally Pipped here.
Tampa Bay now looks towards Week 7 for a Monday Night Football date with the Ravens.
TAKEAWAY #2: A new crop of rookies make a splash
We got our first look at some intriguing rookies on Sunday and they did not disappoint:
- Drake Maye: It started out a little bumpy, but the Patriots franchise QB quickly settled in and made all kinds of impressive plays on his way to 19.5 fantasy points vs. the Texans. Dwain has the full stat breakdown here. Everything we hoped for from Maye as a prospect–aggressiveness as a thrower and willingness to run–was on full display. The only shocker was how he was able to do this without watching Jacoby Brissett from the sidelines for 10 more weeks? A miracle, indeed.
- Spencer Rattler: Rattler's debut wasn't as auspicious as Maye's, but he also lost one of his top weapons (Chris Olave) off the rip. Still, he didn't play scared and made some nice throws. *whispers* We don't have a QB controversy in New Orleans, yet, but we will in another couple of weeks. Talk then.
- Kimani Vidal. We mentioned stashing the Chargers rookie RB in Sunday's newsletter and he immediately made good on it by scoring a TD on his first NFL touch. This backfield still belongs to J.K. Dobbins (he had 25 carries vs. the Broncos), but don't sleep on Vidal. He's an obvious handcuff and could earn some standalone value as the season progresses.
TAKEAWAY #3: The Dallas Sadboys
Where do we start with this embarrassing Dallas Cowboys team?
This was supposed to be the game of the week and instead, the 'Boys looked like they were auditioning to be relegated from the league.
The Lions absolutely bodied them 47-9 on their home turf and added insult to injury by bleeding out the clock with a bunch of goofy trick plays. It's like the fellas didn't even know that it was their owner's 82nd birthday.
Continuing a trend of getting gashed on the ground by opponents, David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs combined for 171 yards and 2 TDs. The entire Cowboys offense had 251 yards and 0 TDs.
Mike McCarthy was acting incoherent after the game and the schedule does not get any easier from here.
This team is mostly a lost cause, but the true bummer here is watching CeeDee Lamb's elite fantasy potential slowly erode.
TAKEAWAY #4: AJB & Joe Mixon pick up right where they left off
Both A.J. Brown and Joe Mixon had missed multiple games with injuries heading into Week 6, but neither were eased back in.
Brown (9-116-1) immediately returned to his alpha role, put up 23.6 fantasy points, and hauled in the game-sealing reception vs. the Browns.
Mixon (15 touches, 132 total yards, and 2 TDs) didn't show any signs of rust in his return vs. the Patriots and reclaimed his position atop the Texans depth chart.
It's a good reminder that these NFL teams are (mostly) smart when it comes to managing injuries and we shouldn't need to "wait and see it" before plugging them back into our lineups.
File this note away for when Nick Chubb returns to the field next week.
TAKEAWAY #5: It's time to blow it up, Jags
We normally cover just the "main slate" games for this piece, but I had so much fun eviscerating the Cowboys earlier that I figured it'd be fun to apply the same scalpel to the inept Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Jags–who the league somehow decided should represent the great game of American football in London on Sunday–dropped to 1-5 after getting embarrassed 35-16 by the Chicago Bears.
It's worth mentioning that Caleb Williams (4 TDs) looked awesome, but the Jags make everyone look awesome. They are easily the most shameful team in the league. They are broken across the entire organization despite having a solid roster.
Doug Pederson should be relieved of his services by the time I finish writing this sentence. Trevor Lawrence is getting paid $55 million per year to look like a poor man's Joe Flacco. Travis Etienne is getting lapped by Tank Bigsby and should probably be traded. Might as well toss Christian Kirk on the trade block, while we are at it.
But regardless, it's time to do something. Put us all out of our misery because this team is unbearable to watch. I truly apologize to the entire United Kingdom for what we put you through yesterday. You deserve better … I mean, not that much better, but at least slightly better. Like the Falcons or something.
TAKEAWAY #6: Take a deep exhale, Bijan managers
It was getting a little sweaty for Bijan Robinson managers of late. Heading into Week 6, he had yet to clear 15 fantasy points in a game and was coming off back-to-back sub-10-point outings.
This matchup vs. the Panthers forgiving run defense felt close to a "now or never" spot.
Thankfully, Bijan understood the assignment and totaled 15-95-2. Unfortunately, Bijan managers are a greedy bunch and could also be found seething about Tyler Allgeier bogarting 105 rushing yards and 1 TD.
Still, beggars can't be choosers and it was great to see Bijan get fed in the redzone.
Like the Breece Hall dynamic with Braelon Allen, some adjustment of expectations needs to be had for Bijan going forward. Two things can be true: 1) he isn't going to pay off his lofty early Round 1 price tag in drafts 2) he's going to have plenty of good weeks.