Week 4 - COVID Hits

And there it is. Only took us 4 weeks for COVID to alter our fantasy football landscape. The Steelers and the Titans may have to take an impromptu bye week this week, affecting many matchups this week, especially since many teams are dealing with the rash of injuries that has ravaged the league.

Since the most obvious MOTW this week includes my team, and I don't write about my team unless it's the playoffs, let's look into the impacts this Steelers Titans bye week has on the season.

Teams with Players who actually matter:

- Jon Lee: James Conner (RB2 on depth chart)

In a big week for Jon as he fights to keep his place atop the charts, he will be without his starting RB. The good news is, he has a solid backup in Antonio Gibson and if Pittsburgh makes up this game, it's one less bye week to worry about in the future. Even if he loses this week, his team has performed well and being at .500 through four games won't derail his chances at the playoffs.

Impact: 5 (out of 10)

Panic: 1 (out of 10)

- Biggie: Juju (WR2 on depth chart)

Losing Juju hurts but he's got a more than serviceable backup in Preston Williams who should be involved in a shootout against Russell "75 TD season" Wilson. This may be a hot take but with the Steelers Titans matchup being a potential ground and pound game, Williams may have been the better play this week anyways.

Impact: 3

Panic: 1

- Mike: Derrick Henry (RB1 on depth chart), A.J. Brown (WR3/4 on depth chart), Rapist (QB2 on depth chart)

Poor Mike. Although he probably would not have played the rapist, he does lose 2 key position players in a matchup to fight for the right to stay in the top half of the standings. With a weaker PF, every win will matter a lot more to Mike. The good news at WR is that Mike has been operating without AJ Brown anyways and his depth is legitimately 6 WRs deep. RB is slightly dicier where he replaces a top 5 back in Henry with Darrell Henderson. At least Henderson is trending upwards.

Impact: 8

Panic: 3

- Cho: Dionte Johnson (WR4 on depth chart), Jonnu Smith (TE1 on depth chart)

Cho is looking to crawl out of the cellar back to .500 this week but he'll have to do it without his star TE, who is having a breakout season. The good news is, TE is one of the more volatile, lower point producing positions unless you have an elite option. And you could do worse than Gronk as your fill-in. Nonetheless, when you're in the bottom half, every missing option feels twice as impactful.

Impact: 2

Panic: 3

It looks like this issue happening early in the year won't disturb too many teams and instead it will vault the trade value of some options who have had their bye weeks early. Let's hope this is an aberration and that other teams and players are more cautious going forward so we can continue our season.

Good luck to all!