Let’s get this out of the way first: Injuries are ugly — but not in an eye-roll-y way. More like a heartbreaking way. Dig what happened yesterday to some really, really good NFL players:
- San Francisco LB Fred Warner is out for the year with a broken and dislocated ankle that will require surgery.
- Buccaneers WR Emeka Egbuka dinged his hamstring. An MRI will show us the severity as well as a timeline for his return.
- Rams WR Puka Nacua and Titans WR Calvin Ridley both suffered ankle injuries. The severity and timeline for both are also TBD.
- Cardinals WR Marvin Harrison Jr. suffered a concussion. He’ll likely have to go through protocol before he gets back on the field.
- Jets WR Garrett Wilson hurt his knee, and is set to undergo tests.
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NFL Week 6 Fantasy Football: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
All of the above are legitimately ugly and depressing for fans and fantasy managers alike. All of the below, however, are more on the side of lightheartedness. Except for Justin Fields. There’s nothing remotely humorous about his work on Sunday. Nothing at all.
Here’s the best, the worst, and the really worst of NFL Week 6’s weekend.
(All stats via FantasyPro based on non-PPR scoring.)
Panthers RB Rico Dowdle: The Good
Reality Stats: 183 rushing yards, 58 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD
Fantasy Points: 29.9 (RB1)
The Skinny: In the week leading up to the Cowboys-Panthers Week 6 clash, former Dallas RB Dowdle told his old team they’d better, “...buckle up.”
Clearly the Cowboys D left their seatbelts at home, because the former South Carolina stalwart ran roughshod all over Jerry Jones’ crew, leading the Panthers to a 30-27 upset dub.
Re: the ‘Boys, they’re wasting an MVP year from QB Dak Prescott, and that’s not a good look. One might even say it’s ugly.
Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa: The Bad
Reality Stats: 27-of-32, 205 passing yards, 1 passing TD
Fantasy Points: 9.6 (QB21)
The Skinny: In his postgame presser, Tua went off on his teammates, saying, “We have guys showing up to player-only meetings late. Guys not showing up to player-only meetings. So it’s a lot of things of that nature that we got to get cleaned up.”
On one hand, don’t throw your teammates under the bus in public. But on the other hand, it’s possible that Tua — one of Miami’s captains — has already discussed this with his teammates and they’re not paying attention.
Either way, the Dolphins stink. Next.
Jets QB Justin Fields: The Ugly
Reality Stats: 9-of-17, 45 passing yards, 9 sacks
Fantasy Points: 4.9 (QB26)
The Skinny: This was such a stinker from Fields out in England that one wouldn’t be surprised if the team left him in London.
Is that backup QB Tyrod Taylor I see doing some stretches?...
Patriots QB Drake Maye: The Good
Reality Stats: 18-of-26, 261 passing yards, 3 passing TDs
Fantasy Points: 27.2 (QB2)
The Skinny: On three occasions during Sunday’s broadcast, NFL RedZone’s Scott Hanson said of Maye, “You’re seeing a star bloom before your eyes.”
Well, yeah.
A week after leading the Pats to an upset win over the mighty Bills, Maye and his squad made it clear they’re legit, taking down a surprisingly feisty Saints team in New Orleans, 25-19.
Maye has two weeks of cupcake opponents coming up — the Titans in Tennessee, the Browns at home — so the blooming will likely continue.
Ravens WR Zay Flowers: The Bad
Reality Stats: 5 receptions, 46 yards, 1 fumble
Fantasy Points: 2.6 (WR53)
The Skinny: Welcome to the Baltimore Ravens portion of our program. Like the Dolphins, this is a bad, bad team, and their WR1 exemplified their offensive futility, putting up WR3 numbers and coughing up the first fumble of his NFL career.
But that wasn’t as bad or ugly as...
Ravens QB Cooper Rush: The Ugly
Reality Stats: 11-of-19, 72 yards, 1 INT, 1 fumble
Fantasy Points: -0.1 (QB29)
The Skinny: Ravens QB Lamar Jackson’s fill-in was so garbage that he was benched in the second half for Lamar Jackson’s fill-in fill-in, Tyler Huntley. Huntley wasn’t much better (6.6 fantasy points), but, Ravens, amirite?
Eagles TE Dallas Goedert: The Good
Reality Stats: 9 receptions, 110 receiving yards, 1 receiving TD
Fantasy Points: 17 (TE1)
The Skinny: One of my buddies called me after the first wave of games and kvetched, “I started Darren Waller over Dallas Goedert!”
Nobody likes to listen to anybody’s lame fantasy decision-making war stories when they’re weeping about their own bad choices — mine being starting Justin Fields over Colts QB Daniel Jones (23.5 fantasy points, QB4) — but whatever.
Titans QB Cam Ward: The Bad
Reality Stats: 26-of-38, 222 passing yards, 1 passing TD, 1 INT
Fantasy Points: 7.9 (QB24)
The Skinny: For Ward, “bad” is about as good as it gets.
Lions WR Amon-Ra St. Brown: The Ugly
Reality Stats: 9 receptions, 45 yards
Fantasy Points: 4.7 (WR35)
The Skinny: The fact that in your season-long league, you probably drafted the Sun God in one of the first two rounds makes this mess that much messier. And fun fact: This is St. Brown’s second sub-5 fantasy point performance of the year (4.5 in Week 1). Ugly, ugly, ugly.
49ers WR Kayshon Boutte: The Good
Reality Stats: 5 receptions, 93 yards, 2 receiving TDs
Fantasy Points: 21.3 (WR3)
The Skinny: Heading into the 2025 season, Niners fans were looking forward to enjoying a QB/WR combo platter of Brock Purdy and Ricky Pearsall. Thanks to injuries to both, they’re taking equal happiness out of the Mac Jones/Kayshon Boutte duo.
Yeah, San Fran got mauled by Tampa Bay 30-19, but you take your fun where you can get it.
Rams WR Davante Adams: The Bad
Reality Stats: 4 receptions, 39 receiving yards
Fantasy Points: 3.9 (WR40)
The Skinny: This one was all about opportunity.
After Puka Nacua went down with his ankle injury, fantasy managers who rostered Adams (like me) were psyched that their guy was going to go off.
He didn’t, and it’s his own fault, as he was targeted a team-high nine times, hauling in less than half, likely pissing off Rams QB Matthew Stafford…and definitely pissing off fantasy manager Alan Goldsher.
Ravens TE Mark Andrews: The Ugly
Reality Stats: 4 receptions, 24 yards
Fantasy Points: 2.6 (TE32)
The Skinny: Hey, another Raven! But for good reason.
Andrews stands at 6’5” and weighs 250 pounds, so Balto HC John Harbaugh wasn’t wrong to trust his TE to stand behind center when his team was at the Rams’ one-yard line.
But even with his teammates pushing his tush, Andrews couldn’t plow his way into the end zone — which is the 2025 Ravens in a nutshell.
Giants RB Cam Skateboo: The Good
Reality Stats: 98 rushing yards, 3 rushing TDs
Fantasy Points: 29 (RB2)
The Skinny: As a Bears fan, this guts me, as Chicago could — and should — have drafted the Arizona State brute in the fourth round.
Instead, they selected undersized Maryland LB Ruben Hyppolite II, who’s made a grand total of four tackles, none of which have come after Week 2.
I’m bitter.
Eagles RB Saquon Barkley: The Bad
Reality Stats: 58 rushing yards
Fantasy Points: 6.7 (RB16)
The Skinny: Remember when I mentioned that you’re probably super-annoyed you drafted Amon-Ra St. Brown early in your fantasy draft? Welp, multiply that by five if you grabbed Barkley in the top-five.
After his historical 2024, Barkley has become straight-up mediocre, averaging 11.7 fantasy points per week, which lands him at RB16, behind the likes of J.K. Dobbins and Travis Etienne Jr., neither of whom you grabbed in the top-five.
In Week 7, he has to try and make hay against a sixth-ranked Vikings D coming off of a bye. Good luck.
The Ugly: Giants HC Brian Daboll
Reality Stats: Dude needs a reality check.
Fantasy Points: If he was a player, -75.2
The Skinny: The NFL and NFLPA tell us that, “Only medical personnel deemed essential to the care of the athlete may be present for the tent and/or locker room evaluation. No other individuals are permitted in the tent or locker room during an evaluation. This includes coaches, front office personnel and/or other players.”
During their Thursday night game against the Eagles, when Giants QB Jaxson Dart took a blow to the head and was led to the blue medical tent, Daboll followed. Which is a nice thing. But it’s against the rules. And it’ll cost them.
FOX NFL insider Jay Glazer tweeted, “Giants bracing for hefty fine but nothing more severe expected at this point for Brian Daboll going [into] the blue medical tent on Thursday night.
That said, if the NFL decides to throw the hammer down, the G-Men could lose a draft pick. Clearly Daboll didn’t know the rule.
And that’s ugly.
Regardless of whether your PrizePicks picks were good ,bad, or ugly, you had a ton of fun making your selections, and will continue to do so as the NFL season progresses.
And if you enjoyed our NFL Week 4 fantasy winners and losers, stick with Playbook all season for advice, predictions, takes, goodness, badness, and, you guessed it, ugliness.
