Fantasy Football Week 4 WR Preview: Potential return of Diontae Johnson makes Chase Claypool risky

There may be no more banged up receiving corps in the NFL than the Pittsburgh Steelers. On Thursday we received both positive and negative updates about their injury statuses.

The positive was that Diontae Johnson got a full practice in, which means we’re ranking him as if he’ll play at full strength in Week 4. That makes him a must-start receiver in full PPR and a low-end No. 2 receiver in non-PPR. 

More positive news came with JuJu Smith-Schuster getting in a limited practice. We still aren’t ranking him yet, but he’s definitely trending in the right direction. Which is more than you can say for Chase Claypool.

Claypool popped up on the injury report with a new hamstring injury. That, combined with the potential return of the Steelers’ top-two receivers, has dropped Claypool outside of my top-36 receivers.

In relation to the Thursday night guys, I would start the top five receivers in that game over Smith-Schuster. Ja’Marr Chase, Tyler Boyd, and Marvin Jones are the only three I’d start over Claypool as long as I have a replacement available for Sunday. If not, I’d start Laviska Shenault and D.J. Chark over him as well.

Here is the rest of the Week 4 WR Preview:

Week 4 WR Preview

The following players are not being projected to play Week 4 at this time. Here’s what it means:

• 37.6% — Brandin Cooks leads all receivers with a 37.6% target share.
• 3.56 — Ja”Marr Chase has scored 3.56 Fantasy points per target through his first three games. There’s major regression coming, but hopefully a lot more targets as well.
• 151 — Jakobi Meyers has now seen 151 career targets without a receiving touchdown.
• 91.2 — Cooper Kupp leads all non-quarterbacks with 91.2 PPR Fantasy points.
• 31 — Mike Williams has 31 targets through three games. It looks like he’s going to smash his career high of 90.
• 6.2 — Stefon Diggs‘ 6.2 yards per target is the lowest of his career. It’s such a small sample size that I’d bet on regression in the coming weeks. Buy low.
• 8.8 — Calvin Ridley’s aDOT in 2021. The past two years it has been above 13.
• 18% — DeAndre Hopkins‘ 2021 target share. The Arizona Cardinals‘ passing attack has been much less concentrated.

So who should you start and sit this week? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 4 rankings for every position, plus see which QB is going to come out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that has out-performed experts big-time.