The Judge's Verdict:
football 2020 Week 6
October 22, 2020
CASE SUMMARY:
This week's top 2 quartbacks are both guys who have had a shaky start to the season so far. Tops was Deshaun Watson of the 1-5 Houston Texans, who almost followed up their first win last week with an upset of the undefeated Titans, but gave up a TD with 4 seconds left in regulation and then gave up a TD in overtime. Watson had his best game of the season, however, throwing for 335 yards, 4 TDs, and no INTs, totalling 32 points. It was only Watson's 2nd game of the year without an INT, and first with 4 TDs since Week 5 of last year.
Less than a half-point behind Watson was Matt Ryan, who led the Falcons to their first win of the year, over Minnesota. Ryan threw for 371 yards and 4 TDs without any INTs. Ryan had thrown for just 1 TD in his previous 3 games combined, with 2 INTs during that span and not reaching 300 yards in any of the three.
Kenyan Drake was the #2 RB (behind Derrick Henry) of the week with 28.4 points, on 164 yards and 2 TDs as Arizona routed Dallas 38-10. Drake finished last season with 87 points in his final 3 games, but hadn't croken 100 yards so far this year until Sunday. At WR, the top performer by far was Minnesota rookie Justin Jefferson, who caught 9 balls for 166 yards and 2 TDs to rack up 35 points, although the Vikings fell to Atlanta. Jefferson's day was the 3rd best by any WR so far this season.
DEFENDANT TESTIMONY:
4for4
Watson - 5, Ryan - 15, Drake - 20, Jefferson - 24. 4for4's rankings this week were close to the averages. To be fair, so were most analysts, there just wasn't a ton of diversity in the rankings this week, and as usual, QB rankings had the least diversity among analysts.
Huddle
Watson - 10, Ryan - 13, Drake - 33, Jefferson - 10. The Huddle has been on a tremendous roll the past 3 weeks, and they had another interesting week in Week 6. They made one terrific call, ranking Jefferson at 10th when the average ranking was 23rd. Only Fulltime Fantasy ranked him higher (see below), while the next-highest was all the way down at 18th. On the downside, they were the only site to rank Drake below 22nd, instead they placed him all the way down at 33rd, seeing very little potential. They also had Watson ranked 10th, the 2nd-lowest.
PFF.com
Watson - 6, Ryan - 14, Drake - 21, Jefferson - 18. Their Jefferson pick was wise, one of just 3 sites to place him above WR-20.
Sharks
Watson - 4, Ryan - 16, Drake - 17, Jefferson - 23. DraftSharks we 1 of only 2 sites to rank Drake above RB-20.
CBS
Watson - 5, Ryan - 12, Drake - 22, Jefferson - 42. 22nd was the 2nd lowest rank for Drake this week, and they totally missed on Jefferson, ranking him 10 spots lower than anyone else.
ESPN
Watson - 5, Ryan - 13, Drake - 19, Jefferson - 29.
HarrisFootball
Watson - 6, Ryan - 14, Drake - 15, Jefferson - 32. Harris was the most bullish on Drake, ranking him 15th, hiher than any other site. However they ranked Jefferson lower than anyone else, besides CBS.
Sharks
Watson - 3, Ryan - 11, Drake - 20, Jefferson - 27. FantasySharks had the highest ranking for both QB's this week.
Sixpack
Watson - 5, Ryan - 14, Drake - 20, Jefferson - 20.
FFToday
Watson - 9, Ryan - 17, Drake - 20, Jefferson - 23.
RotoStreetJournal
Watson - 7, Ryan - 13, Drake - 21, Jefferson - 20.
Fantasy
Watson - 11, Ryan - 13, Drake - 20, Jefferson - 6. Fulltime had to get dinged a bit as the only site to place Watson outside the Top 10. On the other hand, they made the best prediction of the week by far, which was ranking Jefferson WR-6. His average ranking was 23rd and only one other site had him above 18th. For Fulltime to rank him 6th, and then have it pay off as the top receiver of the day, just an amazing, prescient forecast, which seems to be Fulltime specialty.
FantasyAlarm
Watson - 5, Ryan - 14, Drake - 22, Jefferson - 23.
(read more about the fantasy football experts here)
VERDICT ANALYSIS:
The highlights of the week were the great calls by Fulltime and by The Huddle to anticipate a big day from Justin Jefferson and rank him in their Top 10. The degree to which their prediction differed from the consensus was huge. The other 3 players were generally in a pretty tight band, amking it difficult for anyone to really shine with ranking Drake or Ryan outside a limited group.