Tennessee Titans vs Seattle Seahawks

Date/Time: Sunday September 19, 4:25pm ET
BettingPros Consensus Spread: Seahawks -5.5
BettingPros Consensus Over/Under: 54 points
Implied Vegas point totals: Seahawks 29.75, Titans 24.25

Tennessee Titans

__________

Seattle Seahawks

__________

Quarterback

Tennessee: Was it just rust for Ryan Tannehill in week one? Or is this the version of him we can expect in Todd Downing’s offense? Last season, Tannehill was throwing off of play action 36.4% of the time. In week one, he only threw off of play action designs 11.6% of the time. Tannehill was deadly in this passing concept last season and it was one of the main reasons why he was so successful and productive for fantasy football. If that isn’t going to be a key part of the offensive design in Tennessee, this means we need to adjust our expectations for Tannehill moving forward. It’s not time to completely panic just yet – Tannehill is still worth starting as a low-end QB1 – but we need to monitor Tannehill’s performance closely this week against Seattle to see if it was a one-time fluke or not.

Seattle: Do we think the new offense under Shane Waldron works now? Wow! Russ came out of the gates on fire in week one against an Indianapolis Colts defense that’s not supposed to allow as much offensive production as it did. An interesting stat is that last season, Russ threw off of play-action only 26.4% of the time. In week one, under the new offense, Wilson threw off of play-action designs 42.9% of the time. The Seahawks were consistently putting men in pre-snap motion to create disguised looks and they kept the defense on their heels all game long. Wilson put together a dominant performance off of it and we could see an even bigger explosion here against the defense that just gave up four passing touchdowns to Kyler Murray. Wilson belongs in your starting lineup as a top-5 QB in week two.

Running Backs

Tennessee: Last season – on 378 rush attempts – Henry averaged 3.94 Yards After Contact/Attempt. In week one, he fell all the way to 2.41 YCO/A. This offense looked disoriented without Arthur Smith calling plays and the Cardinals were able to take advantage and keep Henry in check for the majority of the game. Heading into week two, the Seattle defensive line is a solid unit. They’re currently ranked 12th in Rush DVOA and they kept Jonathan Taylor bottled up throughout week one. Henry’s still a must-start option, but we have to be concerned with what we witnessed on the field from the Titans offense in week one moving forward. Let’s see if they can fix it this time around.

Seattle: Chris Carson had a very tough matchup in front of him in week one, but he came through with a very solid performance and exceeded expectations. Carson logged 16 carries against the Colts and averaged 5.7 Yards Per Carry. While he didn’t find the end zone, this is still a very solid fantasy performance from a player in your RB2 spot. Now, Carson gets to take on the defense that just allowed James Conner and Chase Edmonds to run for a combined 116 rushing yards on them. Start Carson with confidence as a high-end RB2 this week.

Wide Receivers

Tennessee: Despite the offensive struggles for the Titans in week one, AJ Brown came through for fantasy managers. He only caught 50% of his targets, but he was able to find the end zone and finish with a respectable 4-49-1 stat line. Up against Seattle this week – that just surrendered two passing touchdowns to Zach Pascal – Brown should be viewed as a rock-solid WR1. If the offense does work out the kinks this week in practice, Brown could be in line for a massive performance. Julio Jones didn’t look to be on the same page as Ryan Tannehill this past week in Tennessee. They’ve barely played with each other with Jones missing time throughout the pre-season and Tannehill’s stint on the COVID-19/Reserve list and it showed on the field. Jones had an abysmal 24.3 Passer Rating when he was targeted and he failed to live up to expectations in week one. Jones’ fantasy managers need Tannehill and him to figure things out quickly, because they need stability from their WR2 spot and Jones isn’t providing that just yet. We shouldn’t completely panic just yet on Jones – let’s give him some time to get settled in before we draw conclusions – but we can’t start him with as much confidence as we wanted to in week one. Jones can be viewed as a mid-range WR2.

Seattle: So I guess week one was one of Tyler Lockett’s massive performances, huh? Lockett was unstoppable in week one against a Colts defense that usually does not surrender big plays, but Lockett torched them for 100 yards and two scores. While we’ve seen this before from Lockett – only to be massively disappointed by him again in the following game – there’s a lot of reasons to believe that it could be different this time around. This offense under Shane Waldron is going to keep defenses from keying in on one player and it’s going to present a million different looks to keep the defense on its toes. Lockett should be viewed as a high-end WR2 this week against Tennessee that has overall WR1 upside. DK Metcalf took a backseat to Locket’s dominant performance in week one, but he still was able to provide fantasy managers with a safe floor. Some weeks are going to be like this in the Seattle offense where Lockett has a massive game, but Metcalf is quiet. The next week it could be the opposite, but they both present week-winning upside in every single matchup. Metcalf belongs in your starting lineup again as a top-10 option.

Tight Ends

Tennessee: Anthony Firkser was a key part of this offense on third-downs, but his role hasn’t expanded much beyond what it was last year. If that’s the case, then we can’t consider him as a reliable fantasy asset. He can be dropped to the waiver wire if you’ve been holding onto him.

Seattle: Gerald Everett ended up with the touchdown last week, but this was a near-even snap split between him and Will Dissly. In fact, Dissly ended up with three targets to Everett’s two, which makes this a concerning situation for fantasy moving forward. Just like with Dallas’ TE grouping, there’s a massive opportunity for one of these players to take a step forward for fantasy, but they may just end up canceling each other out. Don’t start Everett this week unless you’re in a deeper league. Chase volume, not touchdowns.

FantasyProjection Buster: The entire Titans offense belongs in this conversation if they don’t figure out how to fix what we saw on the field last Sunday.

__________

Dallas Cowboys vs Los Angeles Chargers

Date/Time: Sunday September 19, 4:25pm ET
BettingPros Consensus Spread: Chargers -3
BettingPros Consensus Over/Under: 55 points
Implied Vegas point totals: Chargers 29, Titans 26

Dallas Cowboys

__________

Los Angeles Chargers

__________

Quarterback

Dallas: The Cowboys weren’t keen on running the football in week one and they put the ball in the hands of their star QB. The crazy thing is, it worked! They took the reigning Super Bowl Champions all the way to a last-second field goal and were able to put up 29 points on them. In this matchup, I don’t expect to see the Cowboys throw the ball 58 times again, but Dak’s going to have every opportunity to put up fantasy points with the receiving group he has in this offense. Start Dak as a top-10 option yet again this week.

Los Angeles: Justin Herbert put together a decent performance last week up against a very difficult Washington defense, but it wasn’t enough to lead to top-tier fantasy production. Herbert finished as the overall QB26 on the week and he certainly got off to a rough start, but that should change here in this matchup. The Cowboys have been gashed by opposing passing games repeatedly over the past year or so and that continued in week one against the Bucs. Start Herbert as a low-end QB1 this week.

Running Backs

Dallas: The expectations for Zeke weren’t very high last week facing off against the Bucs defense, but the Cowboys were even less interested in attempting to run the football than everyone anticipated they would be. While there were reports that Dak checked out of several called run plays at the line of scrimmage because of the look, Zeke’s fantasy managers are now panicking. We should see this offense get back to a more well-balanced approach here and start to lean back on Elliott. Don’t forget that they’re paying Zeke a lot of money and they’re going to utilize him in this high-powered offense. Don’t overreact to week one and ship him off for pennies on the dollar, but maybe go see what it takes to acquire him in your league. He could be in line for a big game against the Chargers and this is your last opportunity to buy low.

Los Angeles: Just like we all expected, Austin Ekeler currently leads the NFL in red zone carries after one week with seven, but he has zero targets. This is the absolute opposite of everything we expected from Ekeler this season, but he still got the job done for fantasy football despite coming into the game questionable. Against the Dallas run defense, Ekeler could be in line for another touchdown on the ground, but will we see his target totals come back up? If they do – and he retains his work on the ground – we could be looking at a top-5 option every single week. This will be worth monitoring heading into week two. Larry Rountree seems to have secured the RB2 job in this backfield – like I was projecting all off-season – but it might not mean all that much if Ekeler’s going to get the red-zone work in this offense. Rountree’s worth watching on your waiver wire – or maybe even scooping up in deeper formats – but he shouldn’t be started in fantasy lineups here against Dallas.

Wide Receivers

Dallas: Amari Cooper had some concerns coming into the season about what his workload would be look like coming off of his injury. Well, we’re not concerned anymore! Cooper saw the sixth-highest team target share in the NFL at the WR position in week one with 28.1% and he finished with a stat line of 13-139-2. The Chargers aren’t the easiest defense to pass on, but Cooper’s a premier talent at the WR position that should see a heavy dose of targets again with Michael Gallup out of the lineup. Fire him up as a mid-range WR1 this week. CeeDee Lamb struggled with the drops in week one – two drops according to PFF – but he still put up a fantastic fantasy performance against a solid secondary. He finished with seven catches for 104 yards and a score on 15 targets, which was tied for the second-highest target total in the NFL at the WR position last week. With Gallup out for the next few weeks, Lamb should get a healthy target share again this week and we know that he has the talent to make those targets count. He can be started as a low-end WR1/high-end WR2.

Los Angeles: Keenan Allen saw his usual 10+ targets in week one and he made them count for fantasy, despite the difficult matchup. Allen averaged 2.5 Yards Per Route Run in week one, which was good enough for a top-25 ranking at the WR position in that category. He now gets to face a Dallas secondary that won’t have answers for someone with Allen’s route-running expertise. Fire up Allen in your starting lineups as a top-10 option. Mike Williams proved that off-season coach speak can actually mean something for fantasy football! Williams came out with a 25.5% target share in week one and he made those targets count to the tune of 8-82-1. Moving forward, we’ll always have the injury concerns to worry about with Williams, but if he’s going to see this significant of target volume in this offense, he belongs in our starting lineups as a FLEX option at the least. He comes with massive upside this week against the Dallas secondary.

Tight Ends

Dallas: While both Dalton Schultz and Blake Jarwin had fine performances for fantasy football in week one, they ended up with near the same amount of snaps. This makes it a very confusing situation to sift through for fantasy football and it’s probably one to just avoid for the time being. While Schultz ended up with six total targets – and a fine fantasy performance off of it – he did that with Dak throwing 58 times. That’s not going to happen every single game and the predictability and consistency simply isn’t going to be there. If one of these two options were the only one in town, it’d be a fantasy dream come true, but it’s a situation to avoid for now.

Los Angeles: Jared Cook’s apparently not done just yet! At 34 years old, Cook is still out here producing solid fantasy numbers. He was third on this Chargers team in targets – 8 total – and he turned it into 5-56-0 against Washington. We can’t completely trust him just yet, but if you drafted and roster someone like Mike Gesicki currently, it might be worth the shot to drop him for Cook to see what he can do here in week two against Dallas. Cook can be viewed as a mid-range TE2.

FantasyProjection Buster: Which Dallas Cowboys TE sees the most targets? That will be the one that has the potential to bust my projections model.

__________

Kansas City Chiefs vs Baltimore Ravens

Date/Time: Sunday September 19, 4:25pm ET
BettingPros Consensus Spread: Chiefs -3.5
BettingPros Consensus Over/Under: 55 points
Implied Vegas point totals: Chiefs 29.25, Ravens 25.75

Kansas City Chiefs

__________

Baltimore Ravens

__________

Quarterback

Kansas City: There’s simply no stopping Patrick Mahomes and this Kansas City offense. The Browns played them about as well as any team possibly could and Mahomes was still able to bring his team to a victory. He finished as the overall QB2 on the week last week and there’s very little reason to move him off of the QB1 pedestal for week two.

Baltimore: While Lamar Jackson didn’t have the greatest day passing the football in week one, he still salvaged his fantasy output because of his rushing ability. Jackson finished with a top-10 grade in PFF’s Elusiveness Rating for all offensive players. He simply couldn’t be brought down as a runner in the open field and he moves at a different speed than everyone else. He’ll need more help this week from his receivers to push back up into the top-5, but he’s one of the safest options in all of fantasy. Fire up Jackson as a top-10 option again this week.

Running Backs

Kansas City: The encouraging part for fantasy managers is that Clyde Edwards-Helaire saw 17 total touches in week one. However, he failed to do much with the opportunity with the majority of the receiving work going to Hill and Kelce. CEH has the talent and skillset to be a top-5 fantasy football RB if he were to see the type of receiving volume that Alvin Kamara normally does in New Orleans, for example. However, with a gunslinger QB like Mahomes, there’s very little reason for him to feature Edwards-Helaire in the passing game. The volume is encouraging for fantasy managers that drafted him as a RB2, but without the promise of goal-line work each week and the lack of target volume, it’s unlikely that we ever feel comfortable ranking CEH in the top-12 at the position. He can be viewed as a solid RB2 this week.

Baltimore: Ty’Son Williams looked the part of a starting NFL RB in week one against Las Vegas. He looked like he was shot out of a cannon on multiple instances and he was second in the NFL last week in Breakaway Yards, despite having only nine total rush attempts. The Chiefs are notably a tougher run defense to face, but they just surrendered four rushing touchdowns to the Browns in week one. Williams should see enough work in this one to return low-end RB2 value and he has upside based on what he showed us on the field against the Raiders. Latavius Murray saw plenty of work last week, but he was woefully inefficient with his opportunity. He was on the field in key situations down the stretch, but this was most likely due to his veteran understanding of pass protection. He could steal some work away from Williams again this week, but it won’t be enough to put him on the redraft radar just yet. I recommend looking elsewhere, if you can.

Wide Receivers

Kansas City: Well, it turns out that Tyreek Hill is still good at football. There’s nothing that defenses can do to prepare for Hill in this offense, he’s simply going to tear them apart time and time again. His speed and acceleration, plus his chemistry with Mahomes, makes him essentially unstoppable. He’s the only WR that you should be looking to roster in this offense right now and he’s a locked-in high-end WR1 every single week, regardless of the matchup.

Baltimore: Marquise Brown took advantage of Rashod Bateman‘s absence and put together a solid performance! He ended up going 6-69-1 on all six of his targets and he looked sharp. Moving forward, Brown’s usage is probably going to be inconsistent enough that we can’t trust him in our lineups as a locked-in WR3, but he does come with some upside as a FLEX option. We’ll need to see what his receiving volume looks like this week before we make any massive conclusions, but the arrow is trending up for the speedy wideout. Sammy Watkins put up a solid stat line at the end of the game, but we’ve seen how this ends before with him. While he’s worth a speculative add at the bottom of your bench in deeper leagues, we shouldn’t be trusting Watkins in our starting lineups any time soon.

Tight Ends

Kansas City: Travis Kelce has to be watching what Darren Waller did to this defense in week one and dreaming of scoring 3+ touchdowns in this one. The Ravens could not contain Waller in week one and they have a minimal percentage chance of slowing down Kelce either. Coming off of a 6-76-2 performance, Kelce should be viewed as the TE1 in all of football yet again in week two.

Baltimore: Mark Andrews seemed to be in a smash spot last week against the Raiders, but he only saw a 16.7% target share and finished as the TE34 in all of fantasy football. Fantasy managers are going to be hoping for a major bounce-back performance here from the ultra-talented TE, but we should at least be concerned moving forward with how this passing game looked against Las Vegas. Andrews can be viewed as a mid-range/low-end TE1.

FantasyProjection Buster: Brown’s projections are building in his wide range of outcomes, but the Ravens should have to throw the ball quite a bit again in this one and we could see Brown be a factor more than I’m estimating.

__________

Detroit Lions vs Green Bay Packers

Date/Time: Monday September 20, 8:15pm ET
BettingPros Consensus Spread: Packers -11.5
BettingPros Consensus Over/Under: 48 points
Implied Vegas point totals: Packers 29.75, Lions 18.25

Detroit Lions

__________

Green Bay Packers

__________

Quarterback

Detroit: Jared Goff miraculously finished as the QB3 in all of fantasy football last week, which just proves that fantasy is insane sometimes. The Lions staged a near-impossible comeback, but fell just shy against the 49ers and this led to a high passing volume for Goff. While we could certainly see Goff air it out an insane amount of times again this week against Green Bay, we can’t trust him in our starting lineups.

Green Bay: Yikes. That pretty much sums up Aaron Rodgers’ performance in week one, doesn’t it? Did you know that this was the lowest fantasy point total that Rodgers has put up in his entire career in games where he threw more than 15 pass attempts? He finished with 1.32 fantasy points and saw players like Trey Lance and Justin Fields out score him. With that being said, you know how we saw a pissed off Rodgers come back and light the NFL on fire in 2020 after the Packers drafted Jordan Love in the first round? We could see that same type of energy here from Rodgers on Monday Night Football against the Detroit Lions. This Lions defense isn’t going to be able to slow down Rodgers and this passing game and this should be a get-right performance from this entire offense. Rodgers can be started as a mid-range/low-end QB1.

Running Backs

Detroit: One of the concerns I had with D’Andre Swift heading into the season was the target share that was most likely heading his way. In my projections, I estimated that Goff would at least target his WRs a slight amount, but that was not the case in week one. Swift saw an absurd 19% target share in week one, which is among the likes of CMC, Kamara, etc. He was effective with this opportunity too and was able to cash in with a receiving touchdown on a beautiful catch-and-run play. We should still stay measured with our expectations for Swift in this offense, but it’s encouraging to see Goff feed him as much as he did. Swift can be viewed as a mid-range RB2 in week two. Jamaal Williams came out and performed well in his first game in a Lions uniform. Just like Swift, Williams saw a hefty target share and was able to make those targets count for fantasy football. We have the revenge game narrative here in this one and Williams should see a significant workload again. It’s hard to trust him as anything more than a high-end RB3 just yet, but if he sees 7+ targets again this week, we could well be on our way there.

Green Bay: Aaron Jones certainly disappointed fantasy managers in week one, but that was the same story with the rest of the offense. This Lions defense just allowed rookie RB Elijah Mitchell to run for over 100 yards on them, so we could see Jones easily hit that mark and more in week two. Fire up Jones as a low-end RB1 in this one. With the way this Packers offense looked last week, there’s very little reason to start AJ Dillon in any format against the Lions. He might have some appeal in matchups like this when we see the offense bounce-back, but not for right now.

Wide Receivers

Detroit: None of the Lions WRs should be considered for fantasy football this week.

Green Bay: Davante Adams was the first WR drafted in the majority of leagues and fantasy managers that did select him before Tyreek Hill have to have FOMO after seeing what Hill did in week one versus Adams’ output. This should be a get-right game for the Packers offense against a Lions defense that is now without Jeffrey Okudah for the remainder of the season. Adams should be plugged right back into your starting lineup as a top-tier WR. Marquez Valdes-Scantling had a promising target share in week one and there’s the possibility that we’re talking about him as a decent FLEX option in future weeks, but he shouldn’t be played this week just yet. Not without knowing exactly what version of this offense we’re going to see in week two.

Tight Ends

Detroit: There’s no denying the talent that TJ Hockenson has, but I had concerns about the state of this offense coming into the year and the overall target volume that Hockenson would see. He’s a phenomenal blocker, so there was the strong possibility that this coaching staff would keep him in to block frequently, which would limit his target output. Well, Hockenson ran a route on 86.9% of passing plays in week one and soaked up 10 targets. If that’s going to be the case moving forward, there’s no reason to not view Hockenson as a top-5 TE option every single week.

Green Bay: Robert Tonyan hurt fantasy managers that played him in week one, but so did every other Packers option. In a matchup that we could legitimately see Rodgers throw for five touchdowns and I wouldn’t even be surprised, Tonyan belongs back in your starting lineup as a low-end TE1. We shouldn’t panic just yet. If this offense can’t get it done in this matchup, then we panic.

FantasyProjection Buster: The entire Packers offense. We have no idea what to expect after what we saw last week.

__________

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | SoundCloud | iHeartRadio

Kyle Yates is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Kyle, check out his archive and follow him @KyleYNFL.