Fantasy Football Week 4 Winners & Losers: Kyle Monangai Plunges In

It still isn’t stopping.

After consecutive weeks of brutal injuries around the NFL, it didn’t slow down at all in Week 4. Star players around the league left early on Sunday, while others saw their fantasy values take a hit for other reasons entirely.

Let’s break it all down.

Week 4 Fantasy Football Winners

Quinshon Judkins | RB | Cleveland Browns

Quinshon Judkins has handled the majority of Cleveland’s rush attempts this season (72% to be exact), but it didn’t translate into much fantasy football production.

Until Thursday Night Football against the Steelers.

76% of the rush attempts went Judkins’ way, turning 17 carries into 53 yards and a touchdown. He had to work for every yard, and while the yards per carry don’t wow you, the pass-game usage does. Once Dylan Sampson went down in Week 1, the fantasy football world wondered if an uptick in receiving involvement was on the horizon for Judkins. That was very much the case on Thursday, as Judkins hauled in 6-of-7 targets for 43 yards, giving him a healthy 14 targets over the past three weeks.

It’s also very encouraging to see the 3-1 (yes, really 3-1) Browns resemble a fully functioning offense as of late. Over the past three weeks, Cleveland ranks 16th in the NFL in points (1.92) per drive, as well as 18th in percentage of drives to end in a touchdown (18.9%). That may not sound very impressive, but considering this unit ranked 32nd in both departments last season, it’s a pretty substantial step forward. That can only help Judkins, who has handled 100% of the team’s inside the 5-yard line carries this season.

Up next? A favorable matchup with a Jets defense that just surrendered over 200 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns to Chicago’s backfield on Sunday.

Kyle Monangai | RB | Chicago Bears

Speaking of the Bears’ rushing attack …

Chicago once again started D'Andre Swift on Sunday. He was busy early, seeing 6 carries on the opening drive. Of course, Kyle Monangai mixed in like usual, but everything changed when Swift lost a fumble early in the third quarter. After putting the ball on the ground, Swift did not see a single carry for the rest of the game. Monangai, meanwhile, carried the ball 30 times for 146 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Not only did Swift not see a carry the rest of the game, but he didn’t even play a snap. There were some questions whether Swift, who was slow to get up following the fumble, may have aggravated his knee, but HC Ben Johnson said his lack of playing time had nothing to do with it.

We know Monangai is capable of must-start status when he gets a full workload. And while Swift’s benching on Sunday likely doesn’t carry over into Week 5, Monangai’s stellar play could lead to an even tighter rotation between the two, which would make Swift a less-appealing RB2 and Monangai a more appealing FLEX play. It’s also worth pointing out that Swift had two goal-line carries ultimately stuffed, while Monangai got the job done.

Kyren Williams | RB | Los Angeles Rams

Kyren Williams is coming off a monster game on Sunday, rushing for 80 yards and 2 touchdowns on 16 carries, while adding 10 catches for 67 yards on a whopping 13 targets. Like usual, the Rams opened the game alternating drives between Williams and Blake Corum. But as the game went on, the Rams found themselves trailing, as Matthew Stafford ultimately attempted 51 passes. We know Williams usually benefits from more pass-heavy scripts, but we also saw the Rams run a lot more no-huddle on Sunday, which helped Williams log over 80% of the offensive snaps, easily a season high.

Through four weeks, the Rams don’t appear to be the powerhouse that we expected in the preseason, which would honestly benefit Williams if that continued.

Week 4 Fantasy Football Losers

Emeka Egbuka | WR | Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Tampa Bay passing attack was already struggling with Baker Mayfield under center.

Things didn’t get much better on Sunday.

Undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels passed for 148 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions against Green Bay, averaging just 5.5 yards per attempt. Emeka Egbuka ended the day with just 2 catches for 13 yards, giving him fewer than 20 receiving yards in two-of-four games. The Bucs are struggling mightily right now, lowering the fantasy upside of everyone in this offense. And with Mayfield expected to miss anywhere from the next three to six weeks, it’s suddenly difficult to feel great plugging any Tampa Bay players into your lineups, including Egbuka.

It’s a shame, too, because I do like the way Zac Robinson is deploying Egbuka so far. His 32 routes from motion are the most in all of football, as he’s moving all around the formation. But for the time being, Egbuka is nothing more than a WR3 in fantasy.

Feels bad.

Jacory Croskey-Merritt | RB | Washington Commanders

It feels like every time we think we can trust Bill as a viable fantasy option, it just doesn’t work out. With Rachaad White sidelined in London, it was expected that Jacory Croskey-Merritt would see an elevated role against the Colts. And to start the game, that was absolutely the case. Bill was on the field for nine of the first 10 snaps of the game, but Washington went back to a committee approach the rest of the way.

Austin Ekeler returned to Washington this week and was immediately thrust into a sizable role, touching the ball five times on 27% of the snaps. Multiple running backs logged third-down snaps, while Croskey-Merritt was impacted by the injury to Marcus Mariota, as well as the game script. He ended up playing 45% of the snaps and touching the ball 11 times for 50 scrimmage yards. We are one week removed from Croskey-Merritt carrying the ball 20 times, including a 45-yard touchdown called back, but it’ll continue to be difficult to trust him as anything more than a volatile FLEX play, especially once White returns to the lineup.

David Montgomery | RB | Houston Texans

You really, really should have sold high after Week 1.

Since his 3-touchdown Texans debut in Week 1, David Montgomery has combined for 31 touches for 115 scoreless yards. Houston continues to work Woody Marks into the rotation more and more. Montgomery out-snapped Marks 32-24 on Sunday, out-touching him 10-6. But for the second consecutive week, it was Marks, not Montgomery, who got the touchdown from inside the 10-yard line. He’s now handled more goal-to-go carries than Montgomery over the past three weeks, while it appears the Texans are moving toward a drive-by-drive rotation, the same situation Montgomery was in during his first few years in Detroit, except in a much worse offense now.