Happy Stock Watch day FANation! Week 6 is finished and we are quickly closing in on the halfway mark of the fantasy football season. This week we have a couple breakout performances in our stock up portion from a few guys who hadn’t done much this year and we have some big names in our stock down section as they continue to struggle. Feel free to shoot me feedback or anything else in the live chats or on Twitter @JustinVreeland. Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Stock up

Robby Anderson, WR NYJ – How about that game for Anderson in Sam Darnold ’s return? He finished with five receptions for 125 yards and a touchdown on eight targets in the Jets 24-22 win over the Cowboys. Overall the stat line looks very impressive, but it’s important to keep in mind that the majority of it came on a 92 yard touchdown. Without that play, we are looking at a four catch, 33 yard afternoon, and that’s far from impressive. Anderson is known for his big-play ability, so we shouldn’t completely dismiss that lengthy touchdown, but it’s not something you can expect on a weekly basis (obviously). I do like the eight targets though, which were a new season-high for Anderson. Darnold clearly gave the Jets a shot of life with his return and Anderson is worth adding, but he should be left on your bench in this week’s matchup with the Patriots. He will likely see coverage from Stephon Gilmore and that usually never ends well for any receiver. Crowder is the guy that you want to own from the Jets.

Benny Snell, RB PIT – Snell set new career highs in both attempts and rushing yards with 17 carries for 75 yards. He also hauled in one pass for an additional 14 yards. He was far more effective on the ground than Conner was, who finished with 16 carries for 41 yards. Conner is still far superior in the passing game but, with his injury and lack of effectiveness on carries this year, a door has opened up for Snell to get some work on the ground. He was fantastic at Kentucky last season, rushing for 1449 yards and 16 touchdowns, leading to his fourth round selection in the past NFL draft. Don’t get me wrong, Conner is still the guy in Pittsburgh and he has a bye week to heal up a bit, so Snell should not be going anywhere near your starting lineup, but he impressed and is worth a spot on your bench.

Hunter Henry , TE LAC – Henry made his return from the injured list Sunday night, and what a return it was! He finished with eight receptions for 100 yards and a pair of touchdowns on nine targets. He has now played in two games this season and totaled 160 yards on 14 targets. Henry has shown promise and it’s not that surprising to see him have a big night. The problem with Henry will always be the injury woes though, as his career has started off looking a lot like Jordan Reed (a talented TE who can’t stay on the field). When he is healthy, he is someone that you want to have in your lineup on a weekly basis, but if he has another strong game or two, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to sell-high on him before another injury takes place (hopefully it doesn’t happen, but it seems likely with him at this point). I would not recommend trying to trade for Henry, as his price will be too high after this one.

Carolina D/ST – We have another D/ST sighting this week, as Carolina has been fantastic. They are currently second in fantasy points, only trailing New England, and they have scored at least 13.0 points in four straight games. In their win over the Bucs this week, they had a season high 21.0 points with seven sacks, five interceptions, and two fumble recoveries. They have a bye this week, which may make them available in your league, and they would be worth putting in a claim on as they have a very favorable schedule coming out of the bye week; they will face the 49ers, Titans, and Packers before taking on the Falcons in Carolina (not a bad matchup either, as Atlanta struggles on road). They currently lead the NFL in sacks with 27 and are second in interceptions with nine. They have only one defensive touchdown to this point, making their standing as the second highest scoring D/ST that much more impressive.

Stock down

Jared Goff , QB LAR – What an ugly performance from Goff in Week 6; he finished with 1.12 fantasy points. He completed 13 passes for just 78 yards and he lost a fumble. Yes the 49ers defense is good, but this is a guy that is supposed to be a good quarterback and he usually plays well at home, so this was very ugly to say the least. I have never been a big Goff fan and I think he is absurdly overrated, but he’s playing even worse than even I would have expected. How can a guy with all the weapons that he has be this bad? He hasn’t scored 25 fantasy points in a single game yet and only has one game over 20 (and it took 68 pass attempts to do it). He is second in the NFL in pass attempts, but 17th in fantasy points (among QBs). He has no rushing ability, he leads the league in fumbles lost with four, and he has a 1:1 touchdown to INT ratio of 7:7. Gross. This all from a guy that has Cooper Kupp , Brandin Cooks , Robert Woods , and Todd Gurley at his disposal! Here is the good news though; his next two games are against the Falcons and Bengals, both of which are horrendous on defense. 

JuJu Smith-Schuster , WR PIT – Another week, another terrible performance for JuJu. He finished with just one catch for seven yards on four targets. It was his second game of the year with fewer than five fantasy points and he still hasn’t topped 20 in a single game yet this year. Not exactly ideal for a guy that was a first or second round pick this year. The Steelers offense is a mess through the air, so it’s not all JuJu’s fault, but a guy of his level has to do better than this, regardless of who is at quarterback. Normally he would be an ideal buy-low candidate, but I am not entirely sure that you can trust him to start doing any better. That being said, I would be willing to take a chance on him if the price is right. He is too talented for this, and the Steelers offense is going to have to start getting the ball to the receivers at some point, as teams are going to start keying in on passes to the running backs. If you currently own JuJu, you are probably stuck with him, as you probably won’t get any enticing offers.

Melvin Gordon , RB LAC – Gordon played like trash for the second straight game since ending his holdout; he finished with eight carries for 18 yards and hauled in three passes for 30 yards. That brings his rushing total up to a whopping 49 yards on 20 carries. Easily the most overrated back in football and his ego is far superior to his actual talent. The Chargers were averaging 22.5 points per game in the four games without Gordon and have averaged 15.0 points in the two games since he returned. Things will improve going forward, but there is no reason to expect that he will return to elite fantasy production. Hopefully you traded him when the news broke of his return, because you’re stuck with him at this point if you didn’t. His value has dropped so much that it wouldn’t even make sense to trade him.

Zach Ertz , TE PHI – Ertz had his worst performance of the season, hauling in four of nine targets for 54 yards and losing a fumble. It was his first time finishing with fewer than 10.0 fantasy points as he only provided 7.40 points this week. While this was his worst week of the year, it’s been a year-long struggle for Ertz as he hasn’t topped 75 yards or 17.5 fantasy points in any game this season. Keep in mind that Ertz AVERAGED 17.5 fantasy points per game last season and he topped 100 yards receiving on five different occasions. He is still fifth in fantasy points at the tight end position, so it’s not a complete disaster, but he is far from making good on his draft day price tag. This is someone I would look into buying-low on, depending on what your situation at tight end is. He is reliable and someone that you can feel good about in your lineup on a weekly basis.

Stocks to Watch

Adam Humphries , WR TEN – While writing my deep gem wide receiver report in the preseason, I said this of Humphries: “If something were to happen to Mariota and he were to miss action, Humphries is easily the type of guy that Ryan Tannehill  would lean on.” Nothing happened to Mariota, outside of really poor play, but he did get benched with about five minutes left in the third quarter of Sunday’s game against Denver. In came Ryan Tannehill . In just over a little more than a quarter worth of action, Tannehill hit Humphries four times for a total of 34 yards. The Titans have yet to name their starting quarterback for Week 7, but Humphries is worth adding in PPR leagues if available, with the hope that Tannehill is the guy that the Titans roll with. He probably won’t produce massive numbers, but he will be a weekly asset with Tannehill under center.