Fantasy football 2024: One QB, RB, WR and TE primed for huge Week 4 performances
Week 3 of NFL action is now behind us, which means that it’s time to look ahead to Week 4 in fantasy football. There are some intriguing games on the docket and, for the second week in a row, we get two Monday night games. Honestly, I’m conflicted about that — I liked to watch as much football as possible and two Monday games limit that, but it was nice in Week 3 to be able to switch over from the Bills/Jaguars blowout to the exciting Commanders/Bengals game.
But whatever — I know you aren’t here to read my thoughts about NFL scheduling. You’re here to get some advice to help your fantasy football team. The intro of these kinds of articles is like that preamble you see when you look up a meatloaf recipe — you just scroll right past it. I could say anything here. I could even tell you the secret to winning your fantasy football league and you’d never see it, right?
Below is one player at each skill position who is set to have a strong 2024 Week 4 performance for fantasy football.
Quarterback: Kyler Murray, Arizona Cardinals
Kyler Murray looks like the overall QB1 in fantasy this week against the Washington Commanders.
That’s because Washington has consistently struggled to stop opposing passers this season. QBs have thrown for 791 yards, nine touchdowns and zero interceptions this season against the Commanders — that’s the third-most yards, most touchdowns and fewest picks, though the team is tied with four other teams in that regard.
Murray is coming off a bit of a down game, tossing his first interception of the season against the Lions in Week 3, but back in Week 2 against a Rams team that has allowed similar passing numbers to the Commanders, Murray finished with 266 yards and three touchdowns while also adding 59 yards on the ground.
His rushing ability really ups both his floor and ceiling in fantasy. He hasn’t had more than five carries in any game yet, but has 45 or more yards in each contest. He’s picking his spots to run, and has a 20-plus yard carry in each game so far.
Running Back: Devin Singletary, New York Giants
Devin Singletary is only ranked as the RB23 in the FantasyPros consensus Week 4 rankings right now, but I think he’s set to have an extremely strong performance this week against the Dallas Cowboys defense, which has struggled this season.
The Cowboys have allowed the fourth-most rushing yards to opposing running backs this season, but where the team has really struggled has been at keeping running backs out of the end zone, with the team allowing six rushing scores and one receiving score to RBs, the most in the NFL.
Singletary enters the week with touchdowns in two consecutive games and has played at least 68% of New York’s snaps each week. He had 20 touches against Cleveland in Week 3. Sure, he’s likely not going to go out there and have too many explosive runs, but his role puts him in a spot where he can grind out yards and get the ball into the end zone.
The fact he faces virtually no competition really helps too. Take Week 3 for example. Tyrone Tracy has five carries and two targets. Eric Gray had one carry. Singletary has almost complete control over this backfield and none of the players behind him have shown enough for that to realistically change any time soon.
Wide Receiver: Marvin Harrison Jr., Arizona Cardinals
We’re stacking our Cards here because this matchup is just too juicy for us to ignore.
As mentioned above, the Commanders have allowed nine passing touchdowns this season. Notably, all nine have gone to wide receivers. The team has done a surprisingly good job defending opposing tight ends, but wide receivers have been consistently eating against it, setting Harrison up for a strong Week 4 performance.
Rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. had a pretty awful debut in Week 1, catching just one pass for four yards and looking befuddled by the speed of the NFL game, but that befuddlement didn’t last long. By Week 2, Harrison was dominating, catching four passes for 130 yards and two touchdowns.
And to prove that wasn’t a fluke, he had another strong Week 3 showing. Harrison was targeted 11 times, catching five passes for 64 yards and a touchdown. The expectation this season was that Harrison would be the clear No. 1 receiver on a team with major question marks at the other wide receiver spots and, well…that expectation appears to have been met, mostly. In Week 3, Michael Wilson and Greg Dortch combined for 11 catches so it’s not that the two are a non-entity, but Harrison is just able to impact the game more with his targets than those two are. Not a knock on them — MHJ is just a special talent.
Tight End: Dalton Kincaid, Buffalo Bills
I’ve been all over the place with Dalton Kincaid this season. Initially, I thought a breakout season was coming for him, but after he was targeted just twice in Week 1 against the Cardinals, I got worried that he just wouldn’t be high enough in the pecking order in a Buffalo offense that was pretty tough to sort out.
But Kincaid is coming off his best game of 2024, catching three of his five targets for 41 yards and a touchdown. He’s splitting snaps with Dawson Knox, which isn’t ideal for fantasy managers, but he has nine targets over the last two games while Knox has just two, so it isn’t really impacting his production.
This week, Kincaid faces a Ravens team that’s allowed 280 receiving yards to opposing tight ends, the second-most in the NFL. Brock Bowers had 98 yards against the Ravens in Week 2 and Jake Ferguson followed that up with 95 yards last week. Kincaid isn’t Bowers, but he’s pretty much right around the talent level — or even a little above — Ferguson. I have high hopes for Kincaid in this matchup.