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NFL players have slow starts every year. Some of them deliver dramatic rebounds. Who are our staff's top candidates?
Welcome to Week 6 of the 2024 Footballguys Roundtable. Our intrepid panel of fantasy pundits discusses and debates four topics every week. We split the conversation into separate features.
This week's roundtable features these four topics:
- Start, Hold, Cut, or Trade: The RB Edition
- Bench, Hold, Cut, or Trade: The WR Edition
- For Real, Fool's Gold: The WR Edition
- October Rebound Candidates (see below)
Let's roll.
October Rebound Candidates
Matt Waldman: Pick the three best candidates to experience a rebound in October from a bad September.
- Caleb Williams
- Patrick Mahomes II
- Jared Goff
- Deebo Samuel Sr.
- Calvin Ridley
- Tank Dell
- Keenan Allen
- Sam LaPorta
Hit me! Don't miss me...
Sam Wagman: Tank Dell is still recovering from offseason surgery and a gunshot wound, so I'll give him a pass for the early-season woes. However, with Nico Collins on IR now, Dell has to step up in this pass-heavy offense. He can continue to get healthier each week, and I think one of these weeks will be his breakout game.
It's been quiet, but we're finally starting to get glimpses of the generational prospect the Bears drafted at 1.01 in Caleb Williams. He's having a great run of form lately, beating up on bad defenses in LA as well as Carolina, and now gets the Jaguars, Commanders, Cardinals, and Patriots in the coming weeks. It's time to maximize the passing game and give Williams a chance to get back in the race for offensive rookie of the year.
I still believe that Deebo Samuel Sr. is the engine that makes this 49ers offense run at top speed, and this should be the first week that he's closest to health as he was coming into the season. A game against Seattle this week could do the trick. Last year, he had 14 catches for 228 yards and a TD against them in two games.
Jeff Bell: Jared Goff is the easy one. The rebound may already be underway. We saw the perfect Monday night performance against Seattle before Detroit's bye. The Lions have multiple exploitable matchups, and Goff looks comfortable with Jameson Williams acclimated.
Caleb Williams has topped 300 yards in two of his last three games and has a very exploitable October schedule with the Jaguars, Commanders, and Cardinals coming up. His completion percentage has been over 70%, and he has played turnover-free football the last two weeks. Williams is quietly becoming the player we all hoped for, just when the social media consensus was ready to declare that the Bears had missed again.
With Nico Collins landing on IR, I am going to (wish)cast positive vibes for Tank Dell. I am concerned that last year's season-ending leg injury, combined with getting shot in the leg, has robbed Dell temporarily of his athleticism. But the Texans will need him to step up without Collins and with no credible option outside Stefon Diggs.
At 4-1 in an otherwise lousy division, the Texans can run away and shift their focus to playoff seeding over the next month. Games against the Colts and Lions should provide a runaway for their passing game to produce. Before Collins returns, Dell must knock the rust off and click to establish himself as a playoff presence.