Pat Fitzmaurice has you covered each week with his rankings and positional tiers. This will help guide your lineup decisions. You can find Fitz’s full Week 3 fantasy football rankings and tiers article here. And below we dive into a few players of note ahead of this weekend’s games.
- Weekly Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football Start/Sit Advice
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
- Waiver Wire Picks
Fantasy Football Outlook (Week 3)
More than one fantasy analyst has noted that injuries to Nick Chubb, J.K. Dobbins, Saquon Barkley, Austin Ekeler, et al. are making this look like a good year to have gone with the Zero-RB draft strategy. On the other hand, QB injuries are kneecapping the fantasy value of some top wide receivers, so it’s not like all the Zero-RB advocates have come away unscathed. A lot of people were eager to draft Garrett Wilson somewhere near the first-round/second-round turn, but a season-ending injury to Aaron Rodgers has turned Wilson into a tricky start/sit call for some of his investors. Joe Burrow appears to be greatly diminished by a lingering calf injury, which means lower fantasy expectations for Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. There’s some doubt about Burrow’s Week 3 availability. For now, I’m ranking Chase WR8 and Higgins WR20 based on the assumption Burrow is able to play against the Rams on Monday night. If Burrow is out, Chase will fall into WR2 range and Higgins into WR3 range. Garrett Wilson is now a weekly denizen of low-end WR2/high-end WR3 range.
I guess there’s no longer any question about whether to start Puka Nacua every week, huh?
George Pickens reportedly tweaked a hamstring last weekend, but he played against the Browns on Monday night and had 4-127-1 on 10 targets, highlighted by a 71-yard catch-and-run touchdown on which his hamstring looked just fine, thank you very much. A long touchdown spritzes perfume on any underlying inefficiency, but we should still consider it a good sign that Pickens drew 10 targets in the Steelers’ first game without Diontae Johnson (hamstring). The inability to consistently draw targets was the most worrisome blemish on Pickens’ profile coming into the 2023 season. As a rookie, Pickens didn’t draw more than eight targets in any game, and he didn’t draw more than six targets in any game from Week 6 on. It was good to see Steelers QB Kenny Pickett force-feeding Pickens on Monday night. Start the young receiver with confidence this week against the Raiders, even though the Pittsburgh offense as a whole has been extremely wobbly over the first two weeks.
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