QB Must Starts
Gardner Minshew II, JAX
Most ranking sites have the Jaguars QB outside of the Top 15 for Week 3. The Dolphins defense gives up a plethora of fantasy points to opposing QBs and is ranked 31st in the league in that category. The Jacksonville gunslinger ought to finish the game Thursday night with 300+ yards, 2 TDs, and a ranking for the week inside the Top 10.
QB Must Sit
Teddy Bridgewater, CAR
The loss of Carolina’s All-World RB will create a lot of havoc for Bridgewater. The Panthers will have to focus on throwing to their WRs, and the Chargers just so happen to be good at limiting deep threats. Expect less than 250 yards passing and a couple of turnovers from the Carolina signal-caller.
RB Must Start
James Connor, PIT
The Steelers tend to run the ball 15% more when favored. Combine the fact that Houston run defense gives up more than 115 yards and a touchdown to just about every team that they face, and one can reason a big day for Connor.
Devin Singletary, BUF
Do not fall asleep on the Bills RB. Most Analysts consider Singletary outside of the Top 24 RBs and nothing more than a flex play. Los Angeles is outstanding defending the deep pass (with their pass rush and defenders), but terrible containing RBs – ask M. Sanders and E. Elliot. The favored Bills are going to exploit that weakness, and Singletary is the right size and speed to elude the Rams front seven with misdirected runs and the intermediary pass game.
RB Must Sit
Frank Gore, NYJ
The Colts are stingy against the run (67 yards/game) but generally have a hard time defending opposing RBs who catch passes out of the backfield (those RBs average 8 catches for 60 yards). Gore is a North-South runner who was targeted a whopping 17 times in 16 games last year. Do not expect Gore to get double-digit fantasy points.
Ronald Jones II, TBB
Tampa Bay Head Coach adamantly says RoJo is the starter. Don’t believe the Hype. Everyone in the fantasy world knows that Leonard Fournette will finish the game with more carries and receptions. Denver ranks 4th best in the league at limiting fantasy points to opposing RBs.
WR Must Start
DJ Chark, JAX
Note: watch the Actives/Inactives before kickoff Thursday; Chark is listed as questionable on Tuesday night but was a limited participant in practice the first two days of the week. With Minshew listed as a Must Start earlier in this article, Chark will be the recipient of most of his targets. Every WR has had success against the Miami secondary in the first two weeks. A healthy Jaguar speedster ought to finish Top 12 for his position.
Michael Gallup, DAL
The Seahawks have given up 847 yards passing in their first two contests. Seattle will be so focused on speedsters Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb on the outside, they are going overcompensate and let Gallup slip past them across the middle and down the seams. Gallup has been relatively quiet this season but has been targeted 5 times in both games thus far. Dak knows he is there and will target him when Cooper and Lamb draw double coverage.
Corey Davis, TEN
Here are two crazy stats about the Minnesota Defense that makes the 6’3’’ wide receiver a must start. 1) Vikings have given up 18% more fantasy points to WRs taller than 6’-foot so far this year; 2) Vikings have allowed four different pass-catchers in two games this year to exceed 60 yards receiving. With A.J. Brown still questionable with a bad knee, expect Davis to shine.
WR Must Sit
Sammy Watkins, KCC
Watkins winds up on the Must Sit list for the second week in a row. There is a lot of bad press and ink about the Ravens secondary being bad, but they are not. In fact, across four different metrics sourced, Baltimore’s Pass Defense is either 1st, 4th (2X), or 5th. Expect Watkins to have a fantasy output less than 10.0 points, even in PPR scoring formats.
Preston Williams, MIA
So much expectation and so little production from the towering wideout in 2020, and nothing is going to change Week 3. Wilson has been targeted 12 times in the first two games but has only managed 3 receptions. The Jaguars Top 5 secondary are playing inspired pass defense so far this year and will not make it easy Thursday night.
Randall Cobb, HOU
The Texans passing game has been a struggle to open the season. Things are not going to get better against a Top 10 Pittsburg pass defense that does an excellent job shutting down the team’s secondary receivers with some of the best pass covering LBs in the league. The only way Cobb scores more than 10.0 fantasy points is with a touchdown (that the Steelers are prone to give up in short-yardage situations when they wrongly scheme for a run).
TE Must Start
Logan Thomas, WAS
Fantasy GMs that scrambled to make Thomas a FA pick-up last week are finally going to get rewarded. Cleveland is ranked 32nd at covering TEs and have given up an average of 23.75 points per game to the position in 2020. Haskins has targeted Thomas 17 times in the first two weeks. Expect a huge day.
TE Must Sit
Tyler Eifert, JAX
The one thing the Miami Defense does well is keeping TEs in check (9th in allowing fantasy points to the position). There will be so many wideouts open downfield that Minshew will likely forget he has a TEs for the night.
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