Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. In this edition. Hot and cold Quentin Johnston. When will Trey Benson return? Chase Brown's improving play. And more.

Question 1

I am, like much of the fantasy world, perplexed by the Chargers passing game, especially Quentin Johnston. His first four games were great, catching 22 passes for 337 yards and 4 touchdowns, but he totaled just 6 catches on 10 targets for 70 yards and a touchdown since, with zero targets in their last game. I don't see any word of an injury. Now the question, how often have WRs started so high then fell so low so quickly before? Thanks

Josh Obusek (Pittsburgh, PA)

They’ve got lots of guys – three wide receivers and now Oronde Gadsden joining them. So there’s going to be some fluctuational. Quentin Johnston has actually been more reliable than some scoring every other week for the entire season. I would think your ire just as easily could be aimed at Rome Odunze, who scored in each of his first four buy hasn’t got in the end zone since. But you asked about these kind of receivers, and I ran the numbers. In the 32-team era, 94 wide receivers caught 4 TDs in their first four games. I see 12 who then didn’t finish with top-40 numbers (using PPR scoring).

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Question 2

I've stashed Trey Benson for a while now. He's eligible to come off IR this week. Have you heard anything from your sources? If he does suit up, would he be a better start than Jameson Williams?

David Hogshire (Plymouth, MN)

Benson might be a top-15 back when he’s ready to go. He read that he posted “SOON” on a Twitter or social media post, which presumably implies he won’t be out much longer. But he has not yet been shifted to “Designated to Return”, so not this week.

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Question 3

Hi Ian. I have not had a chance to dig into the data yet, but my thoughts seem to remember that when Joe Alt was out, the Chargers became much more pass happy and ran less effectively. Does that align with your view?

Scott Fitch (San Mateo, CA)

I remember the offense bogging down, with only 2 TDs against the Giants, Commanders and Dolphins. I think with Alt, they would have won the games against New York and Washington. Pass protection was a huge problem in those games, with Herbert passing for only 203 and 210 yards. On Sunday night they’re playing the Steelers, who got their pass rush going pretty well on Sunday. He’ll pick apart that defense if given enough time, but protection could be an issue.

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Question 4

I’m thinking about trading Justin Jefferson and Jaylen Warren for J. Gibbs or C. McCaffrey but I would be forced to stream my Flex until O. Gadsen returns. I have T.Spears and R. Shaheed (both unappealing) and Brashard Smith (only good if Pacheco is out and Hunt gets banged up this week) and Hubbard (who’s getting demoted) on my bench. But I get a top 5 back to pair with J.Taylor, JSN and R.Rice. Thoughts?

Edward Shin (Tustin, CA)

I’m not sure what to make of Christian McCaffrey. On the one hand, he’s operating at an elite level as a pass catcher. But at the same time, they haven’t been able to get their running game going. He’s averaged more than 3.2 yards per attempt in only three of his nine games. You sure you want to take that on? I guess it would allow you to unload Jefferson, who’s now paired with a quarterback who’s never passed for 160 yards in a game as a pro.

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Question 5

Is there any chance you will return to updating all the dynasty rankings every week on one convenient page? Sorting through 4 pieces of paper that are 3 weeks old is so frustrating. It makes trades and pickups much more difficult. The dynasty picture changes as quickly as the current season picture does. I recently wanted your expert opinion on the futures of Dike and Ayomanor of the Titans. Your 3-week-old opinion didn't list Dike so I had to search other fantasy websites for help.

JOHN BENNETT (Chino, CA)

Let’s do this. When you have a question about a specific guy – a Dike, an Ayomanor – send it in the mailbag. You’ll get a more detailed, thorough answer about the player in question, and you’ll get it four days earlier than waiting for a Saturday-released list.

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Question 6

How much is weather factored in (or not) to the weekly rankings? For example, Dart is playing in Chicago, with snow that morning and high winds that day. Could that be enough to consider benching Dart, or have you already considered that and are assuming Dart is running more to negate the weather challenge?

Neil Downs (Prescott, AR)

We start paying more attention to weather in the final third of the season. Typically with weather, our policy is to pretty much ignore it in the initial forecast, making adjustments in the Friday supplement (when the odds of the forecast being accurate are higher). That also me to avoid double penalizing a team for a weather situation (lowering a projection on Tuesday, forgetting about it, then further lowering it on Friday). Typically with weather, it seems like it’s rarely as bad as it seems to be. So read about winds and rains on Friday, with it seeming like it will hardly be possible to complete a pass or convert a kick. Then, they’re playing on Sunday and it’s very often no big deal.

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Question 7

I posted this as a comment for the last mailbag, but maybe it's a good question for the new: Ian and the gang, I've always wondered about this--for the Redrafter, why don't you provide projected average per remaining game and rank the players according to that, or at least provide that ranking as another option? That would eliminate the "fudging" for bye weeks. And so many leagues allow plug and play that the total for all remaining games is less helpful than the average per game (in those leagues--I understand some leagues don't allow subs or waiver pickups).

Craig Rinne (Lake Worth, FL)

Per-game stats have value, but so does overall production. In the Craig Rinne model, Omarion Hampton and Trey Benson (who both might not see the field until December) might appear as top-15 running backs. And it seems logical that if there are two players who are both going to average exactly X points per week, the one with 9 games left should be ranked higher than one with 8 games left. But keep in mind, those numbers are all tabulated and available. There’s a stat file (in Microsoft Excel format) listing all the players and exactly what we think they’ll do in each stat category. The download contains three sheets – one showing expected remaining stats, one showing per-game stats and one showing 17-game totals if the player were to start a full season. It is available in the “your products” section of the website.

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Question 8

Any chance of putting together a chart of week 15, 16, 17 for projected strong plays for DEF/ST, Kicker, and the might not be owned borderline QB, RB, WR, TEs?

Dwight Dummer (Warren, OR)

Good idea. I will try this soon when updating strength of schedule.

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Question 9

Have R Rice, McConkey, and B. Thomas Jr as starters. Have Calvin Ridley and Chris Godwin both stashed on the bench. Seems like the news on Godwin is murky, and others have stepped up on both teams. Do I hang onto either one for the hope that they can play after week 10? Must pick up a defense this week, don't want to drop Cleveland at this point.

Jodie-Books Murphy (Globe, AZ)

I believe the value of Ridley and Godwin is nominal enough that you should float them onto waivers, picking up a streaming defense. I imagine both Ridley and Godwin will still be available next week, if you want them.

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Question 10

Are you "all in" on Chase Brown for the rest of the season? Perine was a trusted backup, but high ankle sprains take time. The next few games after the bye are against playoff bound teams (I'm including the Ravens in that assessment), but Brown is looking more like what we expected at the beginning of the season, and 14 targets the last game were attention grabbing.

Robert Cummings (Los Angeles, CA)

That offense looks a lot better with Joe Flacco at the controls. Brown has averaged 65 rushing yards the last four games, at 6.2 per carry. He averaged only 29 rushing yards in the four Browning starts, and at only 2.7 per attempt. And looks like they may be missing Perine for some games, with Brown taking on a larger workload.7

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