Weather Alert: Tropical Storm Ophelia is expected to bring a weather system of heavy rains and strong winds to parts of the Atlantic Seaboard on Sunday. The NFL games likely to be most impacted are IND@BAL, BUF@WAS and NE@NYJ. All three locales have precipitation in the forecast on Sunday, along with the possibility of wind gusts of more than 30-plus MPH. For a guide to how weather can impact fantasy football, check out Jake Ciely’s weather guide.
Hello friends, and welcome to Week 3. Forgive me if I sound angry and sad this week, but you have to understand it’s because Week 2 TOOK ALL MY STUD RUNNING BACKS!!!
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Ok, sorry — but what a miserable Week 2 it was, littered with unproductiveness and fantasy disappointments across the league. And then it was topped off with the horrific season-ending injury to Nick Chubb on Monday night. We also saw Saquon Barkley go down late in the game Sunday, with what at the time looked like it could be a significant injury — but since then we have received the best news possible and our bell-cow back should return to our lineups in the coming weeks. If you’ve been reading/listening to me these past few years, you know my two favorite running backs — and players to not only draft but watch every week — are Nick Chubb and Saquon Barkley. Needless to say, it was a rough 24 hour span for not only most of my fantasy teams but me personally, as well. Add to the fact that my favorite quarterback of all time, Aaron Rodgers, was lost for the season and this year has really not been fun so far. Sundays are just better with these guys on our TV screens.
Let’s get back to fantasy… and start the process of picking up the pieces of these early-season shattered hopes and dreams.
You don’t need me to tell you that the running back landscape is quickly turning into a disaster (just look at your rosters) and the fantasy managers who do the best job maintaining a solid RB room all year (and hopefully a healthy one) might determine league championships in 2023. That means hold your CMCs, Bijan Robinsons and Tony Pollards tight — and laugh at your leaguemates when they come asking for them in trades. Having these backs — who can give you 20+ points every week — is already looking like a rare valuable asset this fantasy season… so they are off limits! Don’t come to me and say, “but Chris, he offered me this stud receiver for my stud running back!” I don’t want to hear it. In years past, the elite wide receiver was the hot commodity and they’re still a huge key to our success, but you can already see that the mid-round running backs are looking totally unreliable and that these Top 5 guys are going to create a pretty sweet advantage for our teams …if you have them.
The quarterback position was trash again in Week 2 (for fantasy) and through two weeks ,if you spent up this year on the draft board for one of the “Elite 8” guys? Well… you’re not thrilled with your return on investment. If you’re the Joe Burrow manager, for instance, I’m going to be honest with you — you’re in a jam. He’s now hurt again and looking like a game time decision for this Monday night and that’s the least of your problems. This calf injury is going to affect him for the foreseeable future and no, I’m not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night — so take it from me.
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Justin Fields, oh boy. You can ride shotgun with the Burrow manager because you’re in for a bumpy ride, too. Before your old pal Chris gives you some advice on what to do with these two, let me just say that the other six quarterbacks we took in the first five five rounds of drafts this year I don’t have much concern with going forward. But with that being said, I REALLY haven’t liked what I’ve seen so far from Jalen Hurts and I’m worried defenses are going to play the Eagles like the Vikings did last week and keep their safeties deep with the box light. This will force Philly to run the ball to death because that’s the right play to make — or at least keep Hurts throwing underneath.
As for Burrow and Fields? The hardest decision we have to make as fantasy managers is when to pull the plug on our stud QBs we drafted early and go to our bench or waivers and get the QB who’s hot and getting the job done early in the season. We can’t just force an injured Burrow into our lineups because that was our set it and forget it expectation a few weeks ago. We can’t afford to sit through a struggling QB’s early season woes. Before you know it we are staring at an 0-5 start. There will be better days down the road for these big name QBs but for now my advice would be to play the matchups with some of these QBs available in your league (or your backup on your own roster), like Jared Goff, Russell Wilson, Sam Howell, and Brock Purdy.
I saw a lot of players this past week who, after two weeks, I believe are here to stay. If they are on your roster, they just might be a big reason you are holding a trophy at the end of the season.
Lets break out our first list of the year!
Players I believe in and should be in your lineups going forward
Week 3 Survivor
Advanced with Dallas last week and if you didn’t use them last week well you’re more than welcome to use them this week as 12 point favorites but I try and shy away from taking road teams in Survivor. My official pick for this week is the Jacksonville Jaguars at home as 9 point favorites. I like them to bounce back at home after losing last week.
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**I was terrible with my gambling picks last week and scrapping that part of article going forward. You’re welcome.
Week 3 perfect fantasy lineup
Had some nice hits last week, let’s see what we can do this week!
QB1: Justin Herbert (BetMGM has this game with the highest total at 54 and I’m hoping it isn’t a dud — but I can see a track meet breaking out here. Look for big numbers from Herbert and Captain Kirk)
RB1: Tony Pollard (25 fantasy points incoming in the desert)
RB2: Jahmyr Gibbs (Monty going to miss this one and that means an uptick in usage for Gibbs. I think we see our first big dose of him and a 20+ point day in the battle of top rookie running backs)
WR1: Drake London (He has life!! Phew, we can all breathe after Week 1, right? The Lions secondary is beat up and the game is indoors. I’m calling for a London 7/120/2 TD game)
WR2: Amari Cooper (What hamstring injury?? It’ll feel even better once Cooper is done with this Titan secondary)
WR3: Chris Godwin (Evans has feasted the first two games of year but it’s time for Godwin to take the wheel as the Eagles can be had in the middle of the field and playing from behind, most likely Godwin should have his turn to feast)
TE1: Mark Andrews (The Ravens might be missing a few guys this week and with no RB depth I look for them to go to a ton of short pass plays leading to a bunch of targets and catches this week for Andrews and Zay Flowers)
Finally, as always I leave you with…
10 fantasy thoughts as we enter Week 3
(Photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Image; gif via GIPHY)
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