We got a bit of a surprise out of this Week 4 Sunday Night Football matchup if I’m being transparent. The Kansas City Chiefs took on the New York Jets for Sunday Night Football. We know how the Jets offense has looked over the past few weeks with Aaron Rodgers out for the season with the Achilles injury. And I don’t know about you, but I thought this game would be more of a walk in the park for the Chiefs to come and handle business empathically. Instead, we got a good game out of this matchup. The Chiefs headed into Week 4 with a 2-1 record while the Jets entered the contest at 1-2.
Offensively, the Chiefs are the superior team. I probably don’t need to say why, do I? Patrick Mahomes is one of the best quarterbacks in the league for a reason. That may be the case for reality football but for fantasy, he hasn’t been the best. After three weeks of football, Mahomes headed into the Week 4 matchup as the QB15. The puzzling thing about that ranking is that Mahomes is averaging 22.1 fantasy points per game, which puts him as a top 5 quarterback. Jets quarterback Zach Wilson wishes he was ranked that high as Wilson ranks as the QB33 with 7.7 fantasy points per game.
Quarterback Analysis
While all of this information might be true, that doesn’t always make it a wash game. This week while the Jets came in as the underdogs for the game, they managed to put up a solid fight against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Unfortunately for fantasy managers, it didn’t yield a bounty of fantasy points. Patrick Mahomes had an underwhelming game against the Jets defense who were determined to make it hard for the Chiefs QB all night. Mahomes finished that game with a pedestrian 18/30 for 203 passing yards, just one touchdown with two interceptions.
Patrick Mahomes has thrown two interceptions in the first half pic.twitter.com/RokmRfP4EE
— Grace (@gracesporttakes) October 2, 2023
Mahomes would finish with a 63.6 passer rate on the night and just 13.2 fantasy points. That finish placed Mahomes as the QB19 for Week 4. Do you want to hear something surprising? Zach Wilson actually finished higher in fantasy for Week 4 than Patrick Mahomes. Yes, you read that correctly. Wilson finished as the QB13 with 19.2 fantasy points! Wilson would throw for 245 yards and two touchdowns. Now that’s wild.
Skill Player Analysis
The rest of the night didn’t yield a bunch of points from the other skill positions. Both receiving groups were nearly invisible on the fantasy stat sheets. From the Chiefs side, only Rashee Rice was able to get above five fantasy points in Week 4 at 6.2 fantasy points. One positive note on Rice, he did lead the WR group in targets with five. From the Jets’ side, both Allen Lazard and Garrett Wilson had big nights scoring 15 fantasy points a piece. Garrett Wilson saw a game-high 14 targets. If the Jets continue to get targets to Garrett Wilson moving forward, it may be safer to place him in your lineups as a flex.
Garrett Wilson is so smooth. What. A. Catch. pic.twitter.com/9lhfNPqkqW
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 2, 2023
At the tight spots, Jets TE Tyler Conklin saw most of the targets going 4 of 6 for 58 yards. Conklin could be a player to watch if the Jets are going to be throwing the ball. Travis Kelce was bottled up against the Jets. While Kelce did see nine targets and 60 yards, it didn’t feel like it was a big game despite the 12-point finish. We know that Travis Kelce is more than capable of having bigger nights but against the Jets, it was rather lowkey. Kelce saw just three passes his way in the first half of the game and didn’t get another target until late in the third quarter.
The Chiefs’ running game was the highlight of the night. Isiah Pacheco was unleashed on the Jets’ run defense. Pacheco stomped his way to a 5.8 y/a against the Jets, finishing with 115 rushing yards and a touchdown while adding another 43 yards through the air on three targets. Pacheco would finish as the RB6 for Week 4 behind a 24.8 fantasy performance.
Isiah Pacheco is that kid at the sleepover whose parents don’t let have soda.
— Jeff Bell (@4WhomJBellTolls) October 2, 2023
Conclusion
While the week 4 Sunday Night Football game was a bit underwhelming for fantasy managers, Mahomes has shown to be able the get the job done more times than not. But maybe, just maybe, Mahomes is missing Eric Bieniemy right about now. As for the Jets, it doesn’t look like they’re moving on from Zach Wilson. If the Jets continue to get their top offensive weapon, Garrett Wilson, involved with that kind of target share that would be great for Wilson owners. Breece Hall was solid (6 for 63, 9.3 y/a) but getting just six carries on the night is horrible usage. Hall’s ACL injury shouldn’t be holding him back so it’s time to take the kid gloves off of him. You’re going to need to be able to run the ball as the NFL gets deeper into the season.
