Two of the Tennessee Titans’ biggest fantasy football stars sat out the Week 4 contest against the New York Jets, as both wide receivers A.J. Brown and Julio Jones were dealing with a hamstring issue.
Meanwhile, Titans running back Derrick Henry kept chugging right along after tallying his third 100-yard game of the season, finishing with 157 rushing yards, two catches for 20 yards, and one rushing touchdown.
As far as Jones and Brown are concerned, they both had opposite starts to the week. Brown returned to practice on Wednesday, albeit in a limited fashion, but Jones remained absent.
Just in case you want to keep tabs on every bit of injury news on both or either player, you can follow along with our trackers (Brown here, Jones here), which we update regularly.
We’ll see how things progress as the week goes on, but for now we’re going to assume that both play and determine if either is worth starting in your fantasy lineup this week against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Derrick Henry: Start
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As if having Henry in your lineup every week wasn’t exciting enough, get ready for what could be his biggest game of the season.
Sure, the Jaguars do have a somewhat formidable run defense, which ranks 13th in the NFL, but Henry has had his way with the Titans’ division rival over the past three seasons, and the Jags are giving up the eighth-most fantasy points per game to backs.
In six games since 2018, Henry has tallied 122 rushes for 797 yards (6.6 yards per carry, 132.9 yards per game) and nine touchdowns in six games, and two of those games saw Henry break the 200-yard mark.
Now, Jacksonville will have to contend with Henry as a pass-catcher seeing as how his role has expanded in that area in 2021. The King is just five catches and 81 receiving yards shy of tying his career-highs.
Julio Jones: Start
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Of course, if Jones is ruled out again you’ll have to find another solution, but if he suits up we’re rolling him out in fantasy lineups. Granted, he might be playing through injury, which is normally a concern for most players, but Jones has proven during his career that he can still productive when hurt.
The Jaguars own the No. 30 pass defense in the NFL and are ceding the 14th-most fantasy points to receivers so far this season. The only concern is that Jacksonville has been stingy in allowing receivers to find pay dirt, with a touchdown rate (0.5) below one per game.
A.J. Brown: Start
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It looks like Brown will play after returning to practice on Wednesday, but can we really trust him after putting up lackluster production in the games he has played thus far?
Last week we were ready to sit him and see how things go; however, this matchup is just too juicy to ignore with the Jags owning one of the worst defenses against the pass this season.
Brown is long overdue for a blow-up game, and we think that’s coming this week against Jacksonville’s porous pass defense that ranks 30th and is allowing the 14th-most fantasy points per contest to receivers.
Adding to that, if Jones ends up not playing, Brown will be in line for an even bigger workload.
If Brown fails to produce once again, it’ll be time to consider him a must-sit until he shows us something. With that said, you never, ever drop him, no matter how bad things continue to be.
