Yahoo Sports’ Fantasy Football Live crew looks ahead to Sunday night’s matchup between Indianapolis and Minnesota – and how Josh Downs, TJ Hockenson and Sam Danold could impact fantasy managers.
Video Transcript
I’m just sad.
We didn’t get Harmon’s fan voice that he usually makes there.
All right, let’s turn to our Fantasy game changers for this week powered by Ram Trucks where we’re identifying some of the most impactful players in one of the top Fantasy matchups on the schedule.
Sunday night football action, Joe Flacco and the Colts obviously elite headed to Minnesota to Minneapolis to take on the Vikings.
Vikings favored by 5.5.
That’s F number with the over under 46.5, a little lower than some people expected.
So, Matt Harmon, when I say fantasy game changer, you say, oh, I say Josh Downs and there are two sides of my brain at work here.
You know, part of me does think like, man, we could have a really good, you know, long in depth conversation about.
Is this the right thing for the Colts to do?
Are they throwing the towel in too early on Aie Rich and the whole thing?
And we’ve had those conversations or space to have those conversations.
But the other part of my brain is like, oh hell yeah, Josh downs like let’s go because Josh Downs is a really good player and when he’s been on the field with Joe Flacco, we have been able to see it in the three games that Joe Flacco has taken most of the quarterback snaps for the Indianapolis Colts weeks.
4 to 6 downs is targeted on 33.7% of his routes run.
He also tied Michael Pittman for a team high five red zone targets.
He scored twice.
I think Downs has been the best Colts wide receiver this season by a pretty significant margin and he’s just a nightmare separator in the slot against man coverage.
He’s not, he’s not one of these Wanda Robinson P Pr Scam pop gun slot receiver types.
He’s a real deal Tyler Lockett type of interior weapon that can get you down field the Vikings and he mentioned this earlier, they are a scary defense for bad quarterbacks to go up against, but you can get them in some areas including slot receivers who averaged 93 yards per game against the Vikings this season.
That’s a top six mark in the NFL.
Well, you know, we’re gonna hold your feet to the fire.
Alberto says, ask FFL Downs or Tracy for Flex at P pr what do you think?
I mean, I just got all gassed up about Josh Downs and I said enough already to the New York Giants.
Um I’m gonna go with Josh Downs.
You, you follow your heart out there, but I’m going, Josh Downs on this one.
I love every ounce of that.
Staying true.
There we go.
All right, Tara Fantasy game changer for you in this matchup.
I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to give a welcome back to TJ Hawkinson as a fantasy game changer.
The Vikings have said that he will not be limited.
Um We’re getting him well rested.
They waited as long as humanly possible to activate him, which usually means that all signs are pointing to him being fully ready to go and we don’t have any 2024 stats yet, but we can look back at 2023.
Hawkinson was not a guy who lived off touchdowns.
He was a guy who thrived off of being a high target recipient, a high volume recipient, a guy with 95 receptions in just 15 games last year.
Minnesota is definitely ready to welcome him back with open arms because they need an additional volume receiver in this offense.
Sam Darnell has been a pleasant surprise.
Um and obviously the big part of that is Justin Jefferson, but he’s been the only volume receiver there and quite frankly, it’s not even been really close.
The Vikings second leading target recipient has been Aaron Jones Jordan Addison did miss a couple of games.
He has just 14 receptions.
It’s not been pretty.
The Vikings desperately need another person to provide volume and while it can take time to build rapport with a new quarterback.
I predict that Hawkinson will immediately become a favorite of Sam Arnold.
All right, Andy Barns.
Give us your fantasy game changer.
Yeah, who changes the game more than Sam Arnold?
Uh, every time I’ve given, I’m given the chance I like to remind people that Arnold is taking full advantage of a great offensive environment in Minnesota.
He is just obliterating his previous career highs in all the important stuff.
His yards per attempt, 8.5 passer rating is 107.2 completion percentage is 67 point two, which is particularly impressive for a guy who is throwing downfield a lot.
This isn’t somebody with a low A dot This is somebody who is chucking it downfield.
Um Just a very impressive season overall.
Arnold has a rushing element to his game too, which generally means two or three bonus fantasy points for us and he’s about to face a Colts pass defense that ranks in the bottom third of the league.
They give up 7.6 yards per we’ve been picking on him all year.
Donald also a as Tara mentioned for the first time this season is going to have his full complement of receiving options including TJ Hawkinson.
So this is the first dose we get of Hawkinson, Addison Jefferson all in it together.
Aaron Jones, uh, Donald enters this one with five multi touch down games on the season and I’m pretty sure he’s about to give us his sixth.
Usually I would give you so much grief for picking yet another big name quarterback to be your feature on it.
But we’re all just thankful.
It’s not a punter or a kicker.
What can I say?
We’re just thankful.
Uh, there we go.
