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.
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Fantasy Football Outlook (Week 3)
Congratulations if you had the good sense to draft Raheem Mostert this year. Available cheaply in almost every fantasy draft, Mostert is the valuable RB who was hiding in plain sight. He’s currently the RB5 in half-PPR fantasy scoring, with three touchdowns in his first two games. Last week, Mostert ran for 121 yards and two touchdowns against a New England defense that gave up only three TD runs to running backs last season. Maybe Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel will work in Jeff Wilson when he comes off IR or try to get rookie De’Von Achane more involved. But Mostert is intimately familiar with McDaniel’s system since they’ve been together for years, first in San Francisco, now in Miami, and he’s a better RB than he’s given credit for. Mostert is notoriously brittle, but you have to start him as long as he’s healthy.
The trade that sent Cam Akers from the Rams to the Vikings solidifies Kyren Williams‘ status as a must-start in fantasy. Williams is leading all RBs in snaps (129) and routes run (76), and he’s RB2 in half-PPR fantasy scoring behind only Christian McCaffrey. Rams head coach Sean Payton seems fully committed to Williams. The only question is whether the 5-9, 195-pound Williams will be able to withstand this sort of usage. It’s possible we’ll see McVay start to work in No. 2 RB Ronnie Rivers, but Williams is fantasy gold as long as his usage remains so robust. (Mea culpa: I thought Williams was too small and slow to ever be more than a bit player. Whoops.)
The Cam Akers trade might be an existential threat to Alexander Mattison‘s season-long viability, but Akers poses no threat to Mattison’s Week 3 playability. Despite his sluggish start, Mattison is a high-end RB2 this week in a plus matchup against the Chargers.
I was bullish on Najee Harris during draft season. That’s looking like a misstep, as Harris and the Pittsburgh offense as a whole have struggled. But let’s withhold judgment for a week or two. The Steelers opened against the 49ers, who have one of the best run defenses in the league, and the Browns, whose run defense appears to be greatly improved. If Najee isn’t able to get it going against the Raiders and Texans the next two weeks, then by all means, park him on your bench.
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