Fantasy Football Week 3 Preview

Week 3 Fantasy Football Preview

Week 1 brought us injuries to Keenan Allen and RG3, but week 2 opened up the flood gates on running back injuries. The biggest injury is Adrian Peterson. All Day was struggling to find any daylight as it was with Minnesota’s first two opponents stacking the box and daring Shaun Hill and Sam Bradford to beat them. Scratch Peterson from your lineups for possibly the entire year and move to Jerrick McKinnon. Danny Woodhead tore an ACL and the Lions put Ameer Abdullah on IR with a foot injury. The Woodhead injury makes Melvin Gordon even more valuable, in theory, and the next man up in Detroit is Dwayne Washington. Let’s not also forget short term injuries to Doug Martin and Jonathan Stewart, which elevates the value of Charles Sims and Cameron Artis-Payne respectively.

The top 10 list changes significantly with injuries to some major backs. I put LaGarrette Blount and CJ Anderson into the top 10 even if I’m not convinced they’ll stay there all year. Matt Forte also moves into the top 10 and if he can stay healthy, the Jets may give him all the work he can handle. If Gurley can’t get it going this week, it’s going to be as bad of a year as people are panicking about. This posts after the Thursday night game but Blount was bottled up most of the night until he broke the 40 yard TD run. This is also the last week we get DeAngelo Williams as the feature back before Le’Veon Bell comes back next week from suspension.

As we get into our longshot picks, let’s take a look at how we did in Week 2. Michael Thomas caught 4 of 5 targets for 56 yards for the Saints and is still under 50% ownership. He’s worthy of a roster spot. Terrance West disappointed with only 42 yards on the ground. Neither pick lit the world on fire but they didn’t get skunked. Jimmy Garoppolo on the other hand salvaged my week of picks with 232 yards and 3 TDs in two quarters of work. It would’ve been great to see Jimmy G run up 300+ and add another score for a monster week, but those numbers absolutely play. There’s a change Garoppolo is back next week for those of you looking ahead to bye week issues.

Toss Sweep Sleeper – Shane Vereen (36% owned)

I’m not in love with this pick but a lot of the fresh faces will play tough defensive fronts in their introduction to the feature back role. Washington’s defense has been quite friendly to opposing running backs thus far and Vereen is buoyed by his ability to catch the ball. With Rashad Jennings a bit dinged up, he may get some additional carries and make for a sneaky play, particularly in PPR leagues.

Shotgun Longshot – Joe Flacco (29% owned)

Flacco draws the Jaguars this weekend and despite the offseason additions in Jacksonville, the defense has not responded thus far in the young season. Flacco has been able to hook up with Mike Wallace, Steve Smith Sr., and Kamar Aiken plus Dennis Pitta has returned to the TE1 conversation.

Fly Route Flyer – Quincy Enunwa (33% owned)

One of the more popular waiver wire adds this week, Enunwa has seemingly come out of nowhere to be the slot man for the Jets. If you caught the color-rush game last Thursday, you were likely struck by just how effective Enunwa looked. Facing an average Kansas City pass defense, Enunwa should again find enough targets to be useful. He’s averaged 7 targets per game and has caught all but one target this year.

What are you looking forward to this weekend? If anyone wants to share a bold start or a big trade in the comment section, let’s hear it. Starting that New England defense last night was your best bet to getting out to a fast start on the week.