By MIKE HERNDON
Had I gotten this column posted Wednesday night like I’d planned, I could have handled the “sit” portion with two simple words: All Giants.
Hopefully, you figured that out on your own. If not, you paid the price as exactly zero Giants produced a usable fantasy number in a 30-12 loss to San Francisco. Daniel Jones was particularly troublesome, with his 137 scoreless yards and one interception yielding a paltry 4.98 points in Yahoo default scoring. That’ll ruin your whole weekend.
It might have already been ruined if you’re a Nick Chubb manager, however, unless you were quick enough on the wire to grab Jerome Ford, who Kevin Stefanski says will be the Browns’ lead back now. Kareem Hunt was signed, as well, but he’ll likely be a complementary back at this point in his career, much like he was before.
It might have already been ruined if you’d pinned much of your hopes to any Pittsburgh Steeler, Chicago Bear, Carolina Panther, New York Jet or any Las Vegas Raider not named Davante Adams. With the exception of an inspired gut-check by the Jets in the game in which Aaron Rodgers was injured, these offenses have been dumpster fires so far this season. One or two of them are bound to rebound, if only by virtue of mathematical probabilities, but picking which one might be a fool’s errand.
If you have draft capital sunk in Najee Harris, Breece Hall, Miles Sanders or Justin Fields, best thing is to look for other short-term options and hold onto them (preferably on your bench) until their offenses get something figured out.
In the meantime, here are our start/sit recommendations for Week 3:
Quarterback:
Start:
Kirk Cousins, Vikings, and Justin Herbert, Chargers: The Vikings-Chargers game should be chock full of fantasy goodness. Cousins has thrown for other 300 yards in both games so far, and the Chargers secondary is the worst in the league so far, giving up over 300 yards a game. Justin Herbert threw for over 300 with Austin Ekeler out last week (he’s out again this week), and the Vikings defense has been far from intimidating, as well. Both should be great plays on Sunday.
Sit:
Sam Howell, Commanders: Howell shined in an exciting 35-33 comeback win over Denver last week, but this week he gets the Bills and will likely have to manage a wet, windy day as Tropical Storm Ophelia passes through the area (see the item on WR sits below). The combination of a tough opponent and bad conditions should have you looking elsewhere.
RB:
Start:
Travis Etienne, Jaguars: Forget last week’s 40-yard dud against Kansas City. This week’s opponent, Houston, has a much more forgiving defense, and Etienne is not being pushed for carries in this offense as some (read: me) thought he might. Ride the volume. The points will come.
Sit:
Najee Harris, Steelers: This one may seem obvious to anyone who saw the Steelers’ Monday night game against Cleveland. If they had Harris anywhere in their lineups, they left with nightmares of him getting hit behind the line time and time again. The assignment is easier this week at Las Vegas, but Harris’ performance on Monday left little reason for optimism.
WR:
Start:
Amari Cooper, Browns: The Titans secondary has been getting torched by WR1s the first two weeks of the season. They let Chris Olave get past them for 112 yards in Week 1 and then surrendered 111 yards and two scores to Keenan Allen last week. Cooper has been nursing a nagging injury, but it wasn’t enough to keep him from posting 90 yards in a frustrating loss to Pittsburgh last week.
Sit:
All Ravens, Colts, Commanders and Bills (except Stefon Diggs): Tropical Storm Ophelia is projected to be crossing Virginia and Maryland right around game time Sunday as Baltimore hosts Indy and Washington hosts Buffalo, bringing rain and 30-35 mph winds. We might see one or two of these receivers catch a touchdown, of course, but the conditions could make for a difficult day throwing the football. You can’t afford to sit Diggs – and I have one lineup where injuries to Brandon Aiyuk and Jaylen Waddle might force me to play Michael Pittman and Terry McLaurin – but it’d be a good idea to sit any of these that you can if you have other options.
TE:
Aside from avoiding the storm-affected games – and let’s be honest, you’re starting Mark Andrews anyway – play whoever you’ve got that’s getting targets.
Categories: Fantasy Football
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