Well, week two was hell on wheels. Given their ADPs, there is a one-in-four chance that you lost your starting quarterback (Jaxson Dart, Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams) for the foreseeable future, or that your WR1 (Puka Nacua, Zay Flowers, Nico Collins) missed the game. It’s time to dust ourselves off and look forward to week three, and try to pick up the pieces of our shattered rosters. What a fun game that we play, for fun. For enjoyment. I’m happy; I’m laughing, actually. How are you? Good?
Below we have three players available at each position in at least 50% of Yahoo! leagues, with one of those three players as deep/long shot plays, available in at least 90% of Yahoo! Leagues.
QUARTERBACKS
First of all, shout out to our first graduation from the streamer ranks: Tyler Shough of New Orleans is 59% rostered, after making the cut the first two weeks. Shine on, Mr. Shough; we will always remember you.
Bryce Young, Carolina (45% rostered)
This roster rate is bonkers, and picking him up and streaming him against the terrible Cleveland Browns is printing money against your leaguemates this week. He has 290+ total yards in each of his first two games of the season, and has three passing touchdowns in each of his first two contests. He took on the terrible Chicago Bears defense and the godawful all-around Atlanta Falcons, but it’s the Cleveland Browns. The Browns stymied Baker last week, but that was more due to a rainstorm and Baker Mayfield collapsing in real time than anything they did; in week one, Trevor Lawrence dropped four touchdowns on their head. Bryce Young is cruising and has the #11 matchup of the week; stream him with confidence.
C.J. Stroud, Houston (43% rostered)
Stroud has 16+ fantasy points in each of his first two games, against Buffalo and Cincinnati. While Buffalo is proving to be a not-so-tough opponent, Cincinnati is a surprise early contender for the surprise defense of the year. Stroud has 627 passing yards across these two games, and his legs are becoming a factor as well (15 and 29 rushing yards in his first two games of the year). The Colts defense is attackable, as they have allowed five total touchdowns and over 750 yards of offense to quarterbacks in the first two weeks of the year. He gets a boost if Nico Collins plays, but we saw last week that sans Collins, Stroud will just spam Dalton Schultz instead. He’s a good floor play this week.
Drew Lock, Seattle (6% rostered)
Lock’s low roster rate comes from uncertainty around whether Sam Darnold (tore his butt cheek) will play this week. The most recent report from Ian Rapoport is that the Seahawks are being cautious with Darnold, and that he has a chance to play. To me, this sounds like he is moving in the right direction, but will ultimately cede to Lock. Lock has performed admirably in Darnold’s stead, mostly by recognizing that he has a top-three wide receiver in the league and proceeding to frantically spam him with targets. Last week Lock threw for 235 yards and three scores against the Cardinals; this week, he gets a Commanders team that has allowed seven passing touchdowns in their first two games, with both Jalen Hurts and Dak Prescott finishing north of 24 fantasy points against them so far this season.
If Sam Darnold plays, then Geno Smith (6% rostered) against the battered and bruised Detroit Lions secondary is your deep league pivot.
RUNNING BACKS
Woody Marks at Indianapolis (50% rostered)
Marks didn’t have an exciting week two, but he did finish with a bunch of targets (6), which is the best play for Woody Marks. He’s not a great running back (17 carries for 50 yards so far this season), but he is an excellent pass catcher. The second-year back finished last week with 38 snaps to David Montgomery’s 42, and should continue to see a good number of snaps. He’s a PPR league play, but one that should get you a good number of fantasy points in that format. The Colts have given up ten receptions to running backs in the last two weeks, with one of those games coming against the Ravens, who don’t throw to the running back.
Emmett Johnson at Miami (29% rostered)
The Dolphins yield the most fantasy points to running backs, with five touchdowns scored against them in two games so far this season. The Chiefs are one of the best teams in the league, and the Dolphins are one of the worst, so this is going to be a boat race, just like the 49ers last week. KC will eventually cede Kenneth Walker’s touches to Emmett Johnson, and with that, he will produce for you. Through two games, he has 103 yards, so he will at least get you a floor.
Emanuel Wilson at Washington (9% rostered)
Wilson got the carries in Jadarian Price’s stead last week, much to the chagrin of the “George Holani Hive.” While Price is seemingly fine for week three, Emanuel Wilson did produce admirably with his touches last week, turning 21 touches into 91 yads against the Cardinals in clock-killing mode. With Price nursing an aching shoulder/chest, the Seahawks will likely turn it over to Wilson more this week, and he should provide a nice floor. He’s a better bet in standard scoring leagues than PPR leagues, as he has zero catches through two games, but he’s a hard runner. If Price is out this week, this is a “get ahead of your leaguemates” situation, as well.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Denzel Boston versus Carolina (46% rostered)
Boston, like Shough, will graduate from this list next week, as he is currently a top-fifteen wide receiver. The rookie wide receiver is the only part of the Cleveland Browns’ offense that isn’t an abject disaster through two games. Boston currently sits with 11 targets, 7 catches, and 154 yards on the season, with two touchdowns (one in each game). He leveled up last week, going from a 2/59/1 line against the Jags to a 5/95/1 line against the Buccaneers. He gets the Panthers this week, who might be a good defense, and they might be a bad defense, but at this point, they’ve played the full operational Chicago Bears’ offense and the Cooper Rush/Jack Strand Atlanta Falcons offense, so at this point we really aren’t sure if they are good or not. So, I will chase the talent and the targets with Boston.
Dontayvion Wicks at Chicago (34% rostered)
Dallas Goedert is IR-bound, Makai Lemon is stuck in neutral, and the Chicago Bears’ pass defense is on the docket for the Eagles this week. The rainstorm that I so brutally ignored last week has passed, and we are looking at partially cloudy skies and a high of70 on Monday (AKA Football Weather), so we could have a good game on Monday night. Either way, Wicks is the #2 target in this passing game for the time being, with ten targets in his first two games. Wicks is a big play threat, as he has 70+ yards in each of his first two games, despite the moderate target volume, and he scored a touchdown in week one against Washington.
BONUS: Adonai Mitchell at Detroit (26% rostered)
There are simply too many under-rostered wide receivers this week, and I couldn’t decide who to kick off the list, so you are actually getting four wide receivers for the price of three. Mitchell had twelve targets last week against the Packers, and he was targeted on just over 29% of Geno Smith’s targets, which is a borderline elite number. While Garrett Wilson will eat first, the Jets will have plenty of opportunities to score this week against the Detroit Lions defense, who probably put another DB on IR as I typed this up. The Lions currently allow the most fantasy points per game to wide receivers.
Keon Coleman versus LA Chargers (4% rostered)
Well, nobody bought the week two breakout (6/6/63 on Thursday Night Football), and to be honest, neither did I. But we have a good matchup coming to town with the LA Chargers farting and wheezing their way into the new Highmark, running on fumes after getting smacked around by the Cardinals and Raiders in weeks one and two. DJ Moore is currently day-to-day, but even if he plays, I expect him to be very limited in an easily won matchup. The Chargers currently allow the eighth-most fantasy points to wide receivers, with Tre Tucker and Cody White going off for 143 yards and three touchdowns against them last week. Coleman doesn’t have to be good; he just has to be on the field, especially since Josh Allen is firing on every conceivable cylinder, and the Chargers are just begging to be put down out back.
TIGHT ENDS
Kenyon Sadiq at Detroit (17% rostered)
Sadiq didn’t do much last week, as the Jets attacked the Packers on the ground and with Adonai Mitchell. But this week, they will likely give Sadiq a boatload of targets as the Jets take on the woeful Lions’ secondary that allowed Juwan Johnson, Dalton Kincaid, and Dawson Knox startable games in the first two weeks of the season. Sadiq only has seven opportunities through his first couple of games, but Mason Taylor is set to miss this game with a thumb injury. That would make Sadiq fall into six or seven targets by default, and it will make him a good red zone option for the Jets. Granted, it’s the Jets. But it’s also the Lions’ defense, so it’s a case of a stoppable force versus a movable object.
Pat Freiermuth versus Cincinnati (14% rostered)
I don’t want it to be Freiermuth SZN, but he has ten targets, nine receptions, 78 yards, and a touchdown through two games, and he is eighth in the NFL in routes run while posting league-average yards per route run, targets per route run, and first downs per route run. That is to say, he is being Pat Freiermuth, but more so. Freiermuth is 27th in first-read target share, which means that we have found Aaron Rodgers’ (who is mostly a checkdown artist at this point) favorite checkdown target. The Bengals gave up a 12/14/140 line to Dalton Schultz last week, so the sky is the limit for “Firemouth.”
Oronde Gadsden II at Buffalo (9% rostered)
The Chargers very quickly went from three tight ends to one, with David Njoku and Charlie Kolar both breaking bones last week. Gadsden is a very talented player, and he flashed in the middle of last season when called upon, averaging 6.3 catches, 103 yards, and 0.67 touchdowns per game across a three-game span where he had 22 targets. The Bills are a top-ten tight end matchup with Dalton Schultz and Sam LaPorta both posting usable days (though LaPorta scored a touchdown). The Chargers will be in catch-up mode against the Bills, and with Gadsden as the only tight end in town, he will feast.
