Fantasy Football Outlook: Amari Cooper, Kyle Pitts, Alexander Mattison, Gabe Davis

Every week we’ll bring you The Primer, a deep dive into every fantasy-relevant player from every NFL game of the week. You can find the full weekly Primer here. Below we dive into a few notable players ahead of this weekend’s games.

Fantasy Football Outlook

Amari Cooper: Cooper came into this week nursing an injury, but you could never tell that based on his play in Week 2. He had a 79% route run per team dropback rate, drawing a 22.5% target share and a 32.3% air yard share (2.31 YPRR). Cooper is the clear first read for Watson, with a 30.6% first-read share. Assuming his health holds up heading into Week 3, Cooper is poised for another strong outing against a pass funnel defense. Cooper will run about 68% of his routes against Sean Murphy-Bunting (66.7% catch rate and 129.4 passer rating) and Tre Avery (80% catch rate and 134.0 passer rating). Week 3 Positional Value: WR2

Kyle Pitts: Pitts has a 16.0% target share and a 34.0% air-yard share, which sounds great until you realize that Pitts is the TE32 in fantasy points per game. He has not been a priority against zone coverage, ranking third on the team in target share (14.3%) and fourth in TPRR (15%). Sadly, his TPRR ranks immediately behind fellow tight end Jonnu Smith. Detroit gave up a ton of production to tight ends last season, but that all came against inline tight ends. Against slot tight ends, they allowed the fourth-fewest fantasy points (Pitts 50% slot). Week 3 Positional Value: TE2 that can pop off as a TE1 in any week

Alexander Mattison: Mattison has played the workhorse role for Minnesota with at least 73% of the snaps in each game. Sadly, it hasn’t translated to volume or production on a pass-first and pass-often offense. Mattison has averaged 12.5 touches and 41.5 total yards. With the volume Mattison has received, he has not been explosive or efficient with it. Among 48 qualifying running backs, he ranks 33rd in yards after contact per attempt, 43rd in elusive rating, and he has recorded zero breakaway runs. Luckily for Mattison, this is a get-right spot. The Chargers have the ninth-lowest stuff rate, have given up the eighth-highest rate of 10-plus yard runs, and rank ninth-worst in yards after contact per attempt allowed. Week 3 Positional Value: low-end RB2

Gabriel Davis: Davis remains Josh Allen‘s second in command when he looks to go deep. Davis was second on the team in deep targets (sixth-most among wide receivers) last year. This season, he has a 14.8% target share and a 30.5% air yard share. Davis ranks 26th in receiving grade and 36th in YPRR. We’ve seen Davis have huge outings when Allen’s deep ball is on display, which could easily happen in Week 3. Davis will run about 84% of his routes against Fuller and Forbes. Week 3 Positional Value: WR3 with massive upside