Roundtable Week 6: The True Reveal

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Welcome to Week 6 of the 2022 Footballguys Roundtable. Our intrepid panel of fantasy pundits discusses and debates four topics every week. Topics are now split into separate features.

This week's roundtable features these four topics:

• The True Reveal: Week 5 (See below)
• The Jaguars' Backfield
• Dynasty Buy-Sell-Hold
• Not So Fast . . .

The True Reveal from Week 5

Matt Waldman: For better or worse, which players showed their true fantasy value in Week 5?

• Jakobi Meyers
• Alec Pierce
• Curtis Samuel
• Rhamondre Stevenson
• Tevin Coleman
• Najee Harris
• Trevor Lawrence

Give us what you got.

Dave Kluge: Meyers is one of the most underrated wide receivers in the league. Being a college quarterback, Meyers has only played wide receiver for a few years. But he’s improved in about every season since coming into the league. In 2021, Meyers pulled a 24.4-percent target share, suitable for the 20th-highest in the league. Through five weeks in 2022, his 31.8 percent is fourth-most behind just CeeDee Lamb, Drake London, and Cooper Kupp. He gets open, commands targets at an elite rate, and already has a touchdown in just three games! A historically abysmal touchdown rate in 2021 left a lot of fantasy points on the table. But the winds of regression could blow in his favor this season, and a WR1 finish shouldn’t be out of the question.

After a surprising but welcomed Deebo-esque role for Samuel to start the season, we’ve now seen back-to-back games without a rushing attempt. That said, through five weeks, Samuel has yet to see less than seven targets in a single game. Samuel (Curtis) is a very talented player. But his role has never led to a lot of fantasy production. He’s manufactured touches near the goal line and moves like a running back with the ball in his hands. Unfortunately, though, his ceiling is pretty limited. After the first few weeks, plenty of fantasy managers were ready to crown him as Washington’s WR1. But with Terry McLaurin, Jahan Dotson, Dyami Brown, Logan Thomas, Antonio Gibson, Brian Robinson, and JD McKissic all vying for touches on a team with a below-average pace of play, it is going to make fantasy production sporadic and challenging to predict in Washington.

Harris simply has not looked good this season. After a rookie season with elite usage, the lack of efficiency in Year 2 is tough to ignore. However, many people are overlooking the Lisfranc injury that he suffered in the offseason. As we saw with Joe Mixon in 2020, those injuries linger. And Harris is running like he’s got a refrigerator strapped to his back. I have never been a huge believer in Harris’s talent, but it’s apparent that he is not his usual self right now. The scary thing is that this injury isn’t going to disappear suddenly. After an 11-carry, 20-yard game in Week 5, there’s nowhere to go but up for Harris. But it’s difficult to envision him finishing the season as the RB1 he was drafted to be.

Jordan McNamara: Rhamondre Stevenson has always had the look of a player who was an injury away from a lucrative dual-threat role in the New England offense. The injury to Damien Harris was the big opportunity Stevenson needed to go for 27 touches and 175 yards. Stevenson is an elite play this week against Cleveland.

Trevor Lawrence started the season well but has regressed back to his rookie season baseline through five weeks. The general rule for quarterbacks in dynasty formats is to be skeptical until they prove themselves capable starters over multiple seasons. The week two and three performances which had some crowning Lawrence as a top 10 quarterback in the league, have been derailed by two poor performances the past two weeks. Lawrence has made too many turnover-worthy plays through five weeks while failing to generate a fantasy ceiling. Lawrence has only two games with 8 passing yards per attempt, weeks four and five of last season, which is just not good enough through 22 starts in his career.