Week 7 Fantasy Football Return League Rankings

Dwayne Harris
Dwayne Harris
Oct 13 2013 Arlington TX USA Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dwayne Harris 17 returns a kick during the first quarter of the game Washington Redskins at ATT Stadium The Dallas Cowboys beat the Washington Redskins 31 16 Tim Heitman USA TODAY Sports

Navigating your way through fantasy football leagues that award points for return yards can be a treacherous journey. Some players are amazing, explosive kick returners but, because they don’t get enough or any offensive snaps, they are too inconsistent to rely on. Others, get plenty of offensive snaps and just enough return yardage to boost their value above what it would be in standard leagues.

This week, we say goodbye to David Wilson who appears to be out for some time, if not the season, with a neck/spine injury. We also bid farewell to T.Y. Hilton and Tavon Austin who simply don’t get enough punt return yardage to be relevant on this list. On the other hand, we welcome back Mr. 108 himself, Jacoby Jones who returned with a bang on Sunday.

Let’s take a look at who’s up and who’s down on the Return League Big Board this week.

Rank Wk 6 Rank Player

2013
RET Yards

2013 RET TD

2013
Total FPS

2013 PPR FPS

Notes

1 1 Darren Sproles

285

0

88.9

120.9

It hasn’t been Sproles’ best season but he remains atop the Big Board thanks to very solid return yardage. Although he only put up six receptions for 58 yards and five rushes for 15 yards, he helped fantasy owners with 73 return yards, bringing his PPR return league points to 20.6. That’s right around what we expect from him weekly.

2 3 Danny Woodhead

64

0

65.4

101.4

Woodhead didn’t get any return opportunities on Monday but still put up 36 rushing yards and five receptions for 47 yards, bringing his PPR return league total to 14.3. Solid but that total will be significantly higher in games where he does get return opportunities.

3 0 Jacoby Jones

102

0

22.8

27.8

Jones returned to the Ravens after hurting his knee in week one and quickly put up two catches for 42 yards and a touchdown. It was his four kick returns for 102 yards that really made the difference though, bringing his PPR return league total to 22.4. He won’t always top 100 yards but he also won’t always have just two catches so this is right around where we expect him to be weekly.

4 2 Julian Edelman

196

0

73.8

114.8

Edelman brought back three punts for 20 yards and added five receptions for 57 yards, bringing his point total to 12.7 in PPR return leagues. Not great but it was a down game for everyone involved and he should continue to be a PPR must-start.

5 4 Ted Ginn Jr.

244

0

61.5

74.5

Ginn was almost completely uninvolved in the offense this week, catching just two passes for 22 yards but added 53 return yards to salvage the game for fantasy owners. His 9.5 PPR return league points is the lowest we’ve seen from him and I would expect his production to pick back up next week.

6 5 Golden Tate

243

0

60.1

83.1

Tate can’t be relied upon in standard leagues but his 243 return yards have helped him remain relevant in return leagues. Not this week though, as he brought back just two punts for 15 yards and caught five passes for a mere 33 yards. Like Ginn, we expect better than a 9.8 PPR return performance, we’ll see if he can right the ship on Thursday against the Cards.

7 8 Jacquizz Rodgers

69

0

47.5

64.5

Rodgers was on a bye this week. His offense has been solid but the return yards haven’t been there, we’ll see if he’s still on the Big Board next week.

8 12 Jeremy Kerley

127

0

40.9

56.9

The Steelers D really shut down the Jets, holding them to six points on the game. Kerley only got 19 yards on two catches but his seven targets were promising and he’ll certainly do better against weaker defenses. His 45 return yards helped him to a 8.4 FPS day but a couple more catches would have put him well into double-digits.

9 6 Cordarrelle Patterson

406

1

55.1

63.1

Patterson put up a big goose egg as the Panthers kept the ball away from him all game but he’ll typically see significant return opportunities. More concerning was his two receptions for a mere three yards. We’ll see if the Vikes start Josh Freeman on Sunday and how he meshes with the rookie.

10 10 Keshawn Martin

586

0

69

77

Keshawn caught a couple of passes for 12 yards and ran back three kicks for 79 yards. Of course, he also fumbled the ball which brought his double-digit point total back down into the single-digits. He’s not a bad bye week replacement in PPR return leagues but I wouldn’t rely to heavily on him since he seldom makes a dent on offense.

11 11 Trindon Holliday

427

2

54.7

54.7

The Jags kept the ball away from Holliday and he walked away with just one return yard. Of course, the Jags didn’t score much and most teams will have a field day against the Broncos D, allowing for more scores and kick return opportunities. He doesn’t play any offense so he’s too inconsistent to start, particularly because of games like this but he’s already brought back two returns for touchdowns.

12 13 Dexter McCluster

320

1

49.7

61.7

The Raiders really blanketed the Chiefs receivers and McCluster only walked away with one catch for 10 yards despite being targeted five times. The targets are promising, even if McCluster’s 32 yard return day wasn’t. He didn’t get any kick return attempts, only punts, so that will change and he’s liable to rein in more passes. Because he plays some offense, he has a higher fantasy floor than return-only guys like Holliday.

13 18 Dwayne Harris

501

1

62.7

68.7

Harris had a monster game against the Redskins, bringing back two kick returns for 113 yards and two punt returns for 109 yards and a touchdown. Still, this type of game is very rare and nearly doubled Harris’ return totals on the season. He didn’t get a single target in the game, and usually doesn’t see too much offense so he remains a risky start.

14 15 Devin Hester

610

0

61

61

Hester brought back three kicks for 73 yards on Thursday and remains the league leader in return yards. Nearly 400 of those 610 yards came in two games, though, so he’s far too inconsistent to start.

15 17 Damaris Johnson

436

0

44.4

45.4

Johnson caught one pass for eight yards and brought back two kicks and two punts for a combined 60 yards, giving him 7.8 PPR fantasy points on the day. Like the other return-only players, we need to see more of Johnson on offense until we can start him but his first catch of the season is a good place to begin.

16 16 LeGarrette Blount

135

0

41

41

Blount saw just seven carries against New Orleans and ran for a mere nine yards. His 51 return yards on two kicks is a solid effort but we need to see more production in the run game before we can start him.

17 19 Felix Jones

217

0

34.1

38.1

Jones only saw five carries for 18 yards on Sunday and returned just one kick for 23 yards. We’ll see how Jones fits into the Steelers run game but he’s on the bubble and could be the next player dropped from the Big Board entirely.

*FPS based on Yahoo standard scoring.

New on the Big Board: Jacoby Jones

Off the Big Board: T.Y. Hilton, David Wilson, Tavon Austin

author avatar
Igor Derysh
Igor Derysh is Editor-at-Large at XN Sports and has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Herald, Baltimore Sun, Orlando Sun-Sentinel, and FantasyPros. He has previously covered sports for COED Magazine, Fantasy Alarm, and Manwall.com. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');