2023 - Week 3 Recap

 Week 3

Well, I guess the big news in the NFL this week is that Kelce and Swift are apparently banging.  I mean, they seem like pretty cool dudes, so wish the best for them.

Moving on... Congratulations, if you had a Miami player on your roster, you won this week.  The last time an NFL team dropped 70 points in a game, we hadn't even landed on the moon yet.

Hell, Dan scored 161 points and had Tua on his bench, didn't even need him.  Lamar Jackson rushed for over 100 yards with 2 ground scores, and Jefferson had his reliable weekly 150 yards.  James Conner has also looked good as of late, with another solid outing under his belt.

Oh, and Buffalo's D tagged on 32 just for good measure.

But it wasn't ALL positive.  Mike Williams was putting together a great game on Sunday, before leaving with a knee injury.  He will be out the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

Dan moves to 2-1 and has the highest total points scored on the season so far.  He'll get to butt heads with me in Week 4.

Tom came out on the wrong side of the Dacken Duo, unfortunately, despite good overall output from his roster.  But when none of your position players find the endzone, it makes it tough to win a week.  The TDs will come, just wasn't in the cards this week.  

In a possibly bold (although 100% correct) move, Tom benched Burrow this week for Jordan Love.  Jordan Love is quietly the #4 scoring QB on the season.  Burrow is the #30 QB...so, if anyone's counting, there are 32 NFL teams.  Not lookin' great for the Bengals these days. 

Tom has a meetup with Zach in Week 4.

Speaking of Mr. 3-0, Zach notched another win vs Brice this week.  Kenneth Walker exploded for another multi-TD game, and 150 total yards this week.  Travis Kelce, donning his T. Swift friendship bracelet, got 69 and scored.  He also played pretty well in the game, from what I saw.

Zach will look to continue his winning streak when he plays Tom this week.

As they say... Death, taxes, and Mike Evans TDs are all but sure things these days.  However, we can also be fairly certain that Kyle Pitts will disappoint and that AJ Dillon will do as little as possible with the opportunities he gets.  Brice found that out the hard way this week.  Not that he had much choice, with Saquon sidelined this week.  His RB room looks a bit shaky at the moment, but the duo of Bijan and Barkley should be just fine in the long run if they can stay on the field.

Brice will face Kyle's team in Week 4.

Kent's team had another rough week, narrowly losing a close matchup vs Luke.

Josh Jacobs had a slow start last year as well, before blowing up in Week 4 and beyond....so MAYBE the guy just needs a month to get up to speed.  It has not looked great so far, but hopefully things will turn around sooner rather than later.

Kent did get another painful reminder that Joshua Kelley is not Austin Ekeler.  Takes a lot of carries to get points when you only average 1 YPC for the game.

At least his latest waiver wire pickup (Tutu Atwell) easily led his positional players in scoring.  Is that a positive or a negative?  I'm not sure.  Kent will try to get things figured out, or possibly just fully embrace his new team name.  We have seen teams with rocky starts make the playoffs many times, but some must-win weeks may be coming up before too long.

Luke was one of the beneficiaries of the Dolphins massacre of the Broncos, with Tyreek Hill putting up 157 and a TD.  Chris Olave has also been incredibly reliable, with double-digit targets every week.  Hasn't found the endzone yet this year, but they're bound to come.

His RB tandem of Derrick Henry & Allgeier had really rough weeks.  Luckily their off-weeks didn't cost him a win.

Is Justin Fields good?  I mean, the Bears certainly aren't.  Just a question of whether Fields is going to be a reliable starter for Fantasy purposes.  Not reaching 100 passing yards vs the Chiefs is a little scary.  His rushing upside and potential is certainly there, so maybe they'll get things figured out?

Well, I had the highest scoring fantasy player this week.  We'll ignore the fact that he was on my bench.

De'Von Achane actually avoided more tackles (9) in Week 3 than these backs have in three games:

8 - Jahmyr Gibbs, Rhamondre Stevenson

7 - Miles Sanders, Javonte Williams, Dameon Pierce

6 - Tony Pollard

5 - Derrick Henry

I guess that's assuming that we're counting what the Broncos were doing as "tackling".

Keenan Allen also put up another monster game.  As long as he can stay healthy (which is always a concern with Allen), he looks to be the favorite target in that offense.

Jordan came out on the wrong side of the high-scoring matchup.  The late scratch of Brandon Aiyuk stings a little.  Herbert threw for 400+ and Davante Adams went for 172 and 2 scores to lead Jordan's team this week.  Kyren Williams was slowed down by the Bengals D last night, but looks to be their guy, as no other RB on the Rams got even a single touch on offense apart from him.

Jordan gets a matchup with Luke in Week 4.

Well, the Dolphins buzzsaw continued, with Raheem Mostert tallying 142 and 4 TDs.....yeaaah.  Ramsey needed little help after that performance, but did finally get a solid outing out of Ja'Marr Chase last night.  

Breece Hall's production continues to be worrying.  After putting up nearly 150 yards in week 1, Hall's usage has been confusing.  His talent is not the issue.  The Jets are.  Big games are ahead for sure, but these down weeks are discouraging to say the least.

Nagging leg injuries have also been plaguing his team, so the fact that he's sitting at 2-1 right now is encouraging.

Kyle's team ran into the common issue of not being able to find the endzone this week, despite solid yardage numbers.  Tony Pollard and Zack Moss both ran for 122, while Mattison netted 125 total yards.

Kyle gets Kamara back in action this week.

Kupp and Jonathan Taylor will be eligible to return in Week 5, but as of now, I have heard no news on whether or not they'll be returning then.  Not really looking forward to facing Kyle's team at full strength in Week 6.  But I'll try not to look too far into the future.

Alright that's all I've got.  Best of luck in your Week 4 matchups!

Cheers,

- Eric

2023 - Week 2 Recap

Week 2

The battle of the Krause brothers ended with Kyle taking down Kent's newly renamed team...

Zach Moss and Nico Collins seem like shrewd waiver moves, as Moss logged 22 touches with Jonathan Taylor still MIA, and Collins has 226 yards through 2 weeks.

With Jonathan Taylor, Kupp, and Kamara waiting in the wings on his bench, it could be a pretty scary lineup to face when these guys return to action.

I guess Kent (and all of us) learned that Joshua Kelley is actually not Austin Ekeler.  He put up a very lackluster performance, although the Titans do look like a tough team to run on.

Josh Jacobs totaled -2 rushing yards.. which has to be the first time in (forever?) that the previous year's rushing leader ended a game with negative rushing yardage.  Mark Andrews was his only player that found the endzone.  It's been a rough start, but he has a date with Luke in Week 3 to try to right the ship.

Can we talk about Dan having the highest score of the week?  Nah?  ok moving on.

alright fine, we'll talk about it.

I don't know what else can be said about Justin Jefferson.  The guy just turned 24, and he now has more career receiving yards than any Chicago Bears player in their team's history.  He's on pace for 2,600 receiving yards.

Tee Higgins rebounded from his week 1 disappearing act by putting up a 2-TD performance in week 2.  D'Andre Swift was riding Dan's bench this week (understandably, after doing nothing last week), but netted 30 touches in Week 2, and it will be hard to argue against giving him a larger role in the offense going forward.

The Dacken bros get to fight it out in Week 3.

Brice (aka Bijan Mustard), as it often goes in fantasy football, put up one of the highest scores of the week, but came up a few points short.  

Bijan Robinson seems to be the real deal, and is going to have some massive games in that offense. 

Is Kyle Pitts ever going to be good?  Feels like we've been waiting for him to breakout for like 3 years now, as he's been destroying manager's hopes and dreams week after week.

We clearly undervalued how good Mike Evans still is.  Also helps that he is a touchdown monster.  He's the #2 WR on the year.

Zach's expectations have gotta be rising after taking out Ramsey this week and moving to 2-0.  Kelce returned to action this week and scored, although didn't factor too much more into this game.  

Geno Smith had a nice bounceback performance, and Kenneth Walker appeared to re-establish himself as the cornerstone of the Seahawks backfield with a 2 TD game.  And I don't often discuss defenses, but Dallas now has 52 points through 2 weeks... yep, that is helpful.

Ramsey's probably scratching his head after this week.  Breece Hall had just 4 carries in the Jets game.  In a (now deleted) tweet, Breece Hall just posted 4 football emojis and "..."

Pat Freiermuth is keeping a consistent pace with 1 reception per game so far in 2023.  And Ja'Marr Chase has been feeling the Bengals' struggles, with just 70 receiving yards through 2 weeks.

BUT it's not all bad news.. Even though they were riding the bench this week, Raheem Mostert is now the #5 RB, and Kirk Cousins is somehow the #1 QB on the season.  Ramsey will look to figure out how to optimize his lineup in week 3 vs Kyle.

Jordan got in the winning column by outscoring Tom's team, on the backs of a multi-score game from T.J. Hockenson and solid performance from Davante Adams. Unfortunately, it appears Nick Chubb will be out for the remainder of the season after a brutal knee injury in last night's game.  If you want to find the video, it's out there.  But I wouldn't be eating anything while pulling it up.

Luckily for Jordan, Kyren Williams looks like the real deal, and should be able to plugged into his lineup for the foreseeable future.  Used both on the ground and through the air, he seems like a versatile back that can't easily be game-scripted out.

Tom's lone bright spot this week might be James Cook (aka Dalvin's 'lil brother).  His usage in both the rushing & receiving game is promising, on a high-powered Bills offense that has the capability of scoring a ton of points at will.

Mr. Najee Harris (and the entire Steelers offense) however, look...not great.

George Kittle has also been surprisingly quiet on a 49ers team that simply may not need to utilize one of their best weapons that often.  No doubt he will put up some big games throughout the year, as he's a defense's nightmare.

Tom will hope to tally a win in the brother v. brother matchup in Week 3.

Christian McCaffrey, Keenan Allen, and company gave my team enough to move to 2-0 vs Luke this week.

Mostly solid games for Luke out of Olave, Henry, Metcalf, etc..  and at this point, we kind of expect a 30-point game out of Tyreek Hill, so it's disappointing when he has a mediocre outing.

Luke will have to fend off Kent's pissed-off team in week 3.

Week 2 in the books, best of luck this week, gentlemen.

Cheers!

- Eric