Yahoo Sports Fantasy MinuteThursday Fantasy Flier, Week 5: Keith Mumphery, (very) deep league special
To be clear, no one is promising you a fantasy feast on Thursday night — well, not unless you own DeAndre Hopkins. Andrew Luck is reportedly not going to start, which means Indianapolis will again roll with 40-year-old Matt Hasselbeck, who's been battling an illness this week.
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It's not an ideal fantasy situation, really. There's no obvious need to acquire additional shares of this game for fantasy purposes. But still, I'm expected to identify someone as a low-dollar, low-ownership flier. I wish it weren't a fifth-round rookie receiver tied to a sketchy quarterback, but, well ... here we are.
Keith Mumphery, WR, Houston Texans (1 percent owned, $10 in Yahoo daily)
Houston is expected to be without veteran wideouts Cecil Shorts (shoulder) and Nate Washington (hamstring) on Thursday night, which might very well lead to Hopkins seeing 45 targets. (He finished with 22 in Week 4, an insane total.) But the Texans presumably can't throw every ball to DeAndre and Arian Foster, right? At some point, they have to look elsewhere.
Mumphery has been running ahead of well-hyped rookie third-rounder Jaelen Strong, and he figures to see a few chances against the Colts. On Sunday, Mumphrey snagged four balls for 56 yards on seven targets. He's not a guy with exceptional size (6-foot, 215) or speed (4.54), and his collegiate stats weren't extraordinary. No one around here is giving you a hard sell. Mumphery is just a guy with an unexpected opportunity, likely to see a half-dozen passes on Thursday.
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Here's some tepid semi-praise for Houston's first-year receivers from head coach Bill O'Brien:
“Mumphery really had some good catches and played hard,” Texans coach Bill O’Brien said. “Strong’s getting better. He had a good week of practice last week. Worthy, same thing, young players that we think are getting better.”
So that falls just short of unrestrained enthusiasm, but it will have to do. I'm forced to start Mumphrey in a 20-team league, and I'm really just hoping he can repeat last week's not-so-impressive stat line. Anything more will feel like a massive win. He's buried at No. 60 in my WR ranks for the week — behind guys like Jamison Crowder and Marquess Wilson — so I'm only suggesting you use him in case of dire emergency.
