With fantasy football ramping up and dynasty seasons collapsing by the week, it’s never too early to look ahead to 2020 rookie dynasty drafts and beyond. College football offers big-time matchups every week, and we’re here to keep you up to date on the ups and downs of the season.
After only three ranked teams lost in Week 3, we saw a considerable increase in Week 4 with eight AP Top 25 teams going down. That number is slightly inflated by three ranked vs. ranked matchups, but we did see five ranked teams lose to unranked foes.
With Week 4 of the college football season in the books, it’s time for our weekly stock report and a preview of the best devy fantasy football matchups in Week 5.
Stock Up
Standout players that saw their devy stock increase from the previous week include:
Michael Pittman Jr. – After an average start to his senior season, the talented wide receiver exploded in USC’s 30-23 victory over #10 Utah on Friday night. Pittman Jr. entered Friday’s contest with 205 receiving yards on the season. He pushed that number above the 400-yard mark with 232 receiving yards, and an incredible 78-yard touchdown in the Trojans upset over the Utes.
On pace to shatter his career-high in receptions, yards, and touchdowns, Pittman Jr. has the talent and bloodlines to be fantasy football relevant in the next few seasons. For those unaware or too young to remember, his father Michael Pittman Sr., played 11 seasons in the NFL for the Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Denver Broncos.
Joe Burrow – With another sensational performance in LSU’s 66-38 win over Vanderbilt, it’s officially time to put Joe Burrow on our devy radars. The Ohio State transfer has brought new life to an LSU offense in desperate need of a creative spark. Burrow has transformed the Tigers offense with over 1,500 passing yards and an impressive 17:2 touchdown-to-interception ratio four games into the season.
Against Vanderbilt, Burrow threw for 398 yards and six touchdowns while completing 73.5% of his passes. Crazy as this may seem, that was a season-low for the senior quarterback completing over 80% of his passes so far this season. Even with Burrow unlikely to go early in the loaded 2020 NFL Draft, he could still have a fantasy football future as a mid-to-late rounder.
Bryan Edwards – In South Carolina’s 34-14 defeat to Missouri, Edwards accounted for 44% of the Gamecocks receiving yards and over 41% of their total yards. Edwards, who somewhat shockingly returned for his senior season, had 113 of South Carolina’s 255 receiving yards in the contest.
After the Gamecocks struggled to the tune of 30 total yards in the first half, Edwards showed off his YAC ability with the first pass of the second half. Edwards caught a screen at the 21-yard line, made multiple guys miss, then turned on the jets to win the race to the pylon for a 75-yard touchdown.
The 2015 Mr. Football finalist — routinely awarded to South Carolina’s top high-school player — Edwards could be a draft-day steal in real life and fantasy football. While Edwards could slip in the draft due to the sheer volume of pass-catchers available, he seems destined to have a long career at the next level.
Stock Down
Disappointing players that saw their devy stock decrease in the previous week:
Zack Moss – I hate to put a player on here because of injury, but it has to factor in knowing Moss’s injury history. After starting the first nine games of last season, Moss suffered a season-ending knee injury late last season.
Healthy and off to a good start, the last thing anyone wanted to see was another injury to the talented running back. Unfortunately, the football gods saw otherwise. Moss left Friday’s game against USC with what is being reported as an AC separation.
Even though Utah is being coy about Moss’s availability going forward, expect the running back to miss multiple weeks with this type of injury. While Moss is an extremely talented runner in that second tier of running backs available in the 2020 NFL Draft, this injury has to impact his fantasy football stock moving forward. There were already concerns about the amount of thread on his tires before this recent injury.
Hunter Johnson – The Northwestern quarterback has been one of college football’s most disappointing players so far this season. Expectations were pretty high for the Northwestern Wildcats with the former five-star quarterback taking the reins of the offense. Johnson has thus far failed to live up to the hype.
The transfer from Clemson has passed for 308 yards… on the entire season. He also has a 1:4 touchdown-to-interception ratio while completing less than 50% of his passes. Yuck. On Saturday, the sophomore quarterback completed 15 of his 26 passes for only 88 yards before being yanked in the second half. While there’s still plenty of time for Johnson to rewrite the script, he hasn’t looked like a player with much of a fantasy football future.
K.J. Costello – After entering the season with some late first-round hype, Costello has yet to play up to those standards in Stanford’s first three games. You can certainly understand why Costello was getting so much preseason love. The senior quarterback threw for over 3,500 yards and had a 29:11 touchdown-to-interception ratio a season ago.
After losing his top three pass-catchers — JJ Arcega-Whiteside, Kaden Smith, Trenton Irwin — along with running back Bryce Love, Costello has yet to make a significant impact this season. The Cardinal quarterback has seen his completion percentage drop from 65.1% to 56.4% this season while he has a 2:2 touchdown-to-interception ratio. Costello is still considered a solid prospect due to his accuracy with the ball, but he’s seeing how hard life gets without your top playmakers. While I think Costello’s fantasy football upside is lower than others quarterback in the 2020 NFL Draft, the quarterback is still someone worth keeping an eye on in deeper leagues.
Devy Matchups to watch in Week Five
Virginia @ Notre Dame
Virginia: QB Bryce Perkins (2020), RB Wayne Taulapapa (2021)
Notre Dame: QB Ian Book (2020), WR Chase Claypool (2020), RB Tony Jones Jr. (2020)
USC @ Washington
USC: WR Amon-Ra St. Brown (2021), WR Michael Pittman Jr. (2020), WR Tyler Vaughns (2020), RB Vavae Malepeai (2020), RB Stephen Carr (2020)
Washington: QB Jacob Eason (2020), RB Salvon Ahmed (2020), TE Hunter Bryant (2020)
Ohio State @ Nebraska
Ohio State: QB Justin Fields (2021), RB J.K. Dobbins (2020), WR K.J. Hill (2020), WR Chris Olave (2021), WR Garrett Wilson (2022), TE Jeremy Ruckert (2021), RB Master Teague (2021)
Nebraska: QB Adrian Martinez (2021), RB Maurice Washington (2021), WR Wan’Dale Robinson (2022), WR JD Spielman (2020)
Jordan Woodson is a writer for the Pro Football Network covering Fantasy Football. You can follow him on Twitter @Jordan_Woodson.