Fantasy Football Fact or Fiction: Rest-Of-Season Outlooks for Rashid Shaheed, Jameson Williams, Desmond Ridder

October 18, 2023

Justin looks at surprising fantasy football performances from Desmond Ridder, Kyle Pitts, Rashid Shaheed and more. Are these players emerging fantasy assets?

Week 6 of the NFL is behind us and it's time to look ahead to next week's action. There were some surprising performances in the sixth week of the season, but were those surprising performances a sign of things to come for players?

Every week, I'll be looking at three to five NFL players whose numbers from the week before were better than expected. I'll be analyzing their games and making sense of what their showings mean in the larger scheme of things.

Below, you'll find an analysis of the biggest fantasy football surprises of Week 6. Are those surprising results a fact, i.e. a sign of good things to come, or a fiction, i.e. an anomalous result?

Desmond Ridder - QB, Atlanta Falcons

Week 6 stats: 28-for-47, 307 yards, two touchdowns, three interceptions - overall QB6

Atlanta Falcons quarterback Desmond Ridder really struggled early in the season, but on Sunday against the Commanders he threw his second 300-yard game in a row. It was also his first multi-touchdown game of the season, with tight ends Kyle Pitts and Jonnu Smith both catching balls in the end zone from him.

This now makes back-to-back weeks where Ridder has finished as the overall QB6. Once a fantasy afterthought because of his trouble completing passes, Ridder suddenly looks like a fantasy-relevant player.

To that, I have to say...ehh, maybe.

There's no denying that Desmond Ridder's looked pretty solid over these past two games. But he was picked off three times against the Commanders this week and he has only added over 18 rushing yards in one game this season, though he has found the end zone twice on the ground.

Ridder's getting better, but I'm just not ready to say that this two-game sample makes me change my overall view of him. He's inching up closer to being a viable weekly QB2 play and he's definitely passed the Kenny Pickett/Mac Jones tier in my head, but there are so many other guys I'd feel more comfortable with. Ridder's still making some pretty bad mistakes and he's got to fix those before I can be confident in him.

Verdict: Fiction, But He's Trending Up

Rashid Shaheed - WR, New Orleans Saints

Week 6 stats: six targets, two receptions, 85 yards, one touchdown - overall WR5

Rashid Shaheed continued to show his usefulness as a big-play receiver on Sunday against Houston, hauling in a 34-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter. He also added a 51-yard reception in the game as well. He failed to bring in his other four targets, two of which were also deep attempts.

And that's been the story with Shaheed all year. The Saints don't use him a lot, but when they do it's down the field. He's caught 16 passes this season, with seven of those going for at least 19 yards.

There's definitely boom potential with Shaheed, but it isn't enough to make him a consistent fantasy option yet. He's had three games with at least 8.3 fantasy points in half-PPR, but he's also had three games that have been real stinkers, including a Week 3 contest where he failed to bring in either of his targets.

Shaheed's an emergency option in fantasy. If you need to hold your breath and hope someone gets a long touchdown reception, he's a decent bet. But he's not someone who you can trust in your lineup at this point.

Verdict: Fiction

Jameson Williams - WR, Detroit Lions

Week 6 stats: three targets, two catches, 53 yards, one touchdown - overall WR11

Second-year wide receiver Jameson Williams was quiet in his first game of the season, catching two passes for two yards last week against the Panthers. This week, he had two receptions again, but finished with 53 yards and a touchdown. It is, I believe, a sign that Williams is on his way to being Detroit's No. 2 receiver—eventually.

It's worth noting that Williams' routes run percentage was down a good bit in Week 6 over Week 5, dropping from 50% to just 19%. That came while Josh Reynolds ran a season-high 85% of routes. But Williams had 25% of the team's air yards this week, and he displayed his ability to make big plays, like on his touchdown reception:

The talent's here. Williams can be a huge part of this Lions offense. But it won't happen overnight. The team still loves Josh Reynolds, so fantasy managers with Williams on the roster need to have patience. He has a chance to be a great fantasy option in the second half of the season, but there might still be a few weeks of hemming and hawing with his snap counts first.

Verdict: Fact, But It Still Might Take Some Time

Kyle Pitts - TE, Atlanta Falcons

Week 6 stats: six targets, four receptions, 43 yards, one touchdown - overall TE3

Finally, Kyle Pitts caught a touchdown pass from Desmond Ridder. It came on a nine-yard reception in the first quarter of Sunday's loss to the Commander and was his first score since Week 8 last season, a pass he caught from Marcus Mariota.

Maybe more importantly, he's been targeted 17 times over the past two games. Fellow tight end Jonnu Smith has 12 targets over that span as well. It looks like Ridder is working to get the tight end position more involved.

I'm still a believer in Pitts' talent. Therefore, I take this added volume as a good sign that he can be a consistent TE1 in fantasy like he's been the past two weeks. Ridder, as I mentioned above, is trending up, which should help the entire offense. And while Pitts has run a lower percentage of the team's routes the past two weeks—under 65% in both games after being over 80% in each of the first four—he's made the most of the routes he has run.

More importantly, he's getting third and fourth down targets now. By week, the percentages of Atlanta's third/fourth down targets that Pitts has received are 0%, 11%, 17%, 0%, 40%, 21%. Ridder looking to him more often in these high-pressure situations is a good sign.

Verdict: Fact *Crosses Fingers*

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