Fantasy Football Six Pack: DJ Moore officially returns to fantasy relevance
Let's try to make some sense of a league ruled by chaos and surprise. Here are six fantasy relevant stats that probably (but not definitely) matter ...
94.9 - Denver rookie tight end Greg Dulcich has run a route on 94.9 percent of passing snaps since making his debut in Week 6, the second-highest rate at his position behind only Mark Andrews. He's produced double-digit PPR totals in each of his three games. Dulcich remains only 40 percent rostered at the moment — due in part to the fact that he's on bye in Week 9 — but could easily emerge as a top-8 tight end in the second half.
36.8 - This is the percentage of total targets that DJ Moore has seen in Carolina's offense over the past two weeks since both Christian McCaffrey and Robbie Anderson were dealt. You probably don't need a fantasy expert to tell you it's a massive share — a no-doubt WR1's share. Moore has converted those chances into 13 receptions for 221 yards and two scores, completely reversing his fantasy nosedive. This throw and catch were absolutely wild:
67.6 yards in the air 😮@pjwalker_5's Hail Mary to @idjmoore was the longest completion by air distance in the @NextGenStats era (since 2016). pic.twitter.com/cSQ1Hye6j9
— NFL (@NFL) October 31, 2022
All it took was a pair of trades and the elevation of P.J. Walker to get Moore going. He's suddenly unbenchable.
9 - Christian McCaffrey obviously made plenty of fantasy noise last Sunday, doing literally everything for the Niners short of kicking field goals. Looking ahead, the most encouraging number associated with his historic performance was the nine targets he saw on Jimmy Garoppolo's 25 pass attempts. The only mildly worrisome issue when CMC was dealt to San Francisco was whether a team that had thrown so infrequently to running backs would actually use its new weapon as a high-volume receiving threat.
After Week 8, we don't have to sweat that concern any longer.
7 - In the four games Alvin Kamara has played with Andy Dalton this season, he's averaging seven catches, 67 receiving yards and 8.5 targets per week. He caught only five passes in his two games with Jameis Winston at the controls of the offense and finished last year with a career-low 47 receptions on 67 targets. Kamara had not caught fewer than 81 balls in any of the previous four seasons. We all had jokes about his lack of touchdowns prior to last week's eruption, but PPR managers hadn't been complaining.
5 - Kenny Pickett has tossed five interceptions on his 18 pass attempts of 20-plus yards this season, the highest total in the NFL — not ideal for someone who's only appeared in five games. In fact, Pickett has thrown as many completions as he has interceptions on deep balls, which is terrible. At least one of those picks actually hit Chase Claypool in both hands, so we can probably forgive that one.
Pittsburgh's offense has been a brutal watch all season, for reasons that go well beyond Pickett's play. Here's hoping something changes for the better during the team's bye week.
1.74 - Chase Edmonds has averaged just 1.74 yards after contact on his 42 carries this year, worst in the league (by far) among all backs with as many attempts. He's picking up only 2.9 YPC in an offense in which Raheem Mostert is gaining 4.5. PFF has credited Edmonds with only two missed tackles forced. It can be argued that he simply needed a change of scenery — the move to Denver certainly doesn't hurt his value — but he'll need to become an entirely different back if he's going to leapfrog anyone.
