Another fantasy football week is in the books, and if you had Alvin Kamara on your team you are probably happy today, if your team played against him maybe not as much.
There were some players that had good games seemingly out of nowhere, unless you read my top waiver pickups last week!
Without further ado, here are the top fantasy football performances from week 3!
Quarterbacks
Russell Wilson – Seattle Seahawks
Wilson is off to a record setting season through three weeks, throwing for 14 touchdowns after adding 5 more against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.
He is averaging 300 passing yards a game, and is the main reason the Seahawks are sitting at 3-0, leading the offense to 38, 35, 38 points in their first three match ups.
Josh Allen – Buffalo Bills
Any other year and Josh Allen would be the most talked about quarterback in the league after the first three games. Allen did throw his first interception of the season on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, but made up for it with 5 total touchdowns and another 300 + yard passing game of the season.
This was the toughest team the Bills have faced thus far, yet Allen held his composure as the Rams made a furious comeback from down 28-3 to actually take the lead 32-28. Allen led his team on an 11-play, 75 yard drive that culminated in his 5th total touchdown of the day, and more importantly the win.
Dak Prescott – Dallas Cowboys
I remember many years ago another guy in our fantasy league asked me why I picked Tony Romo as my quarterback since the Cowboys were not very good.
I told him that even though they lost most of their games, Romo was putting up a lot of yards and touchdowns, especially when playing from behind.
The last two games for the Cowboys have played out exactly like that, with the Cowboys digging themselves into double-digit deficits before Dak brings them back, even though Seattle was able to score one more time Sunday and get the win.
It does not look like the Cowboys defense is very good this year, which will lead to a lot of high-scoring fantasy football games for Dak. Good for you if you have him on your team, bad for Cowboys fans.
Honorable Mention
Jared Goff led an impressive comeback against the Bills Sunday, coming up just short as Josh Allen did his thing. Still had 321 yards passing and 3 total touchdowns on the day. Ryan Fitzpatrick had his second straight 24+ point fantasy game, throwing for 2 touchdowns and running for one. The Seahawks are up next, so e should have a third straight. Kyler Murray had a tough game on the field Sunday against the Lions, throwing for 3 interceptions, but did have 3 touchdowns total of his own, as he cements himself as a QB1 moving forward.
Stock Down
Daniel Jones struggled against the 49ers second team defense, only throwing for 179 yards and two turnovers. Gardner Minshew was expected to have a good game against the Miami Dolphins, but ended up having the worst game of the season, throwing for 275 yards but not touchdowns and 2 turnovers. Matt Ryan did not have multiple touchdowns for the first time this season, only throwing for 238 yards and 1 touchdown and 1 interception as the Falcons dropped to 0-3.
Running Backs
Alvin Kamara – New Orleans Saints
As I mentioned earlier, if you had Kamara on your team this week, you probably won. Every time he caught a pass I saw my lead grow smaller, until the 52-yard touchdown reception put me behind for good (in which he ran for 54 yards total, do the math).
Rex Burkhead – New England Patriots
What made me more upset was the fact that I had picked up Burkhead and played him, and even his phenomenal performance was not enough to put me over the top.
He only rushed 6 times, but got 49 yards and two touchdowns off of that, plus caught 7 passes from his 10 targets for an additional 49 yards and another touchdown.
James White will be back this week, so Burkhead will not be much of a fantasy impact moving forward, but if you played him this week good job! As long as your opponent didn’t have Kamara.
James Robinson – Jacksonville Jaguars
Another recent waiver wire add that is paying dividends to fantasy owners, Robinson had a nice game, even though the Jaguars spent most of the day coming back against the Dolphins last Thursday.
He finished with 11 rushes for 46 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the ground, while catching all 6 of his targets for 83 yards through the air.
The Jaguars schedule does not look too tough in the next few weeks, but either way Robinson is making the most of his opportunity.
Honorable Mention
Derrick Henry did what Derrick Henry does, rushing for 119 rushing yards on 26 attempts, with 2 rushing touchdowns. Austin Ekeler did his best Alvin Kamara impersonation, catching all 11 targets for 84 yards out of the backfield, while adding 59 rushing yards and 1 rushing touchdown. Dalvin Cook is getting his work in, with 22 rushes for 181 yards on Sunday, but only 1 touchdown and did fumble once.
Stock Down
Josh Jacobs had a tough game Sunday, as the Raiders were trailing most of the game. He still finished with 71 rushing yards, but lost a fumble and did not make it into the end zone. Kenyan Drake, and the Cardinals as a team, were expected to do much more on Sunday against the Lions. He did rush 18 times for 73 yards, and added a 6 yard reception, but no touchdowns hurt his fantasy day. Chris Carson looks like he could be out for a couple weeks, as he recovers from a knee injury.
Wide Receivers
Tyler Lockett – Seattle Seahawks
When your quarterback is throwing for 5 touchdowns a game, that is normally a good thing for his favorite receiver. Lockett was targeted 13 times, which he caught 9 of them, finishing with 100 yards and 3 touchdowns. Not a bad day at the office.
Justin Jefferson – Minnesota Vikings
I had drafted Jefferson with a late pick in our fantasy draft, but dropped him after 2 weeks when he was only targeted 6 times total for 5 catches and 70 yards – combined!
Looks like I may have dropped him a little prematurely, as he exploded on to the scene with 7 catches on 9 targets, finishing with 175 yards that included a 71-yard touchdown in the second half.
The Vikings have struggled a lot this year, starting the season 0-3, so they will be doing anything to right the ship. Look for Jefferson to be one of the top waiver adds this week.
Cedrick Wilson – Dallas Cowboys
Who? Unless you are a super hardcore Dallas Cowboys fan, or maybe a Boise State alumni, you probably haven’t heard of the 6th round pick of the Cowboys in 2018.
But he took advantage of the Seahawks focusing on Cooper, Gallup, and CeeDee Lamb and caught 5 of his 7 targets for 107 yards and two touchdowns.
I would not expect another week like this from Wilson, but he will be worth monitoring as the Cowboys so far have shown they will be playing catch up a lot.
Honorable Mention
Kennan Allen has had the targets so far this season, but finally broke out Sunday, catching 13 of his 19 targets for 132 yards and a touchdown. Allen Lazard took advantage of Davante Adams being out, hauling in 6 of 8 targets for 146 yards and a touchdown. Still, behind Marques Valdes-Scantling in targets, but has streaming potential as long as Adams is out. Allen Robinson had a rebound game, taking advantage of the Bears switch to Nick Foles in the second half of their game against the Falcons Sunday. He finished with 10 catches and 125 yards, with an impressive touchdown escaping 2 defenders on the way. He will undoubtedly have better numbers with Foles at quarterback.
Stock Down
Keelan Cole was expected to have a nice game with number 1 receiver D.J. Chark out, but he only had 4 catches for 43 yards. T.Y. Hilton has not had a break out game yet this season, this week only catching 3 passes for 52 yards. Darius Slayton was expected to pick up the slack with Sterling Shepard out, but only caught 3 of his 7 targets for 53 yards as the entire Giants team struggled Sunday against the 49ers.
Tight Ends
Jimmy Graham – Chicago Bears
Graham is starting to show why the Bears spent so much money to bring him, scoring 2 touchdowns Sunday, bringing his season total to 3.
He was targeted 10 times, but more importantly ran 42 pass routes, which was more than every other tight end except the Eagles’ Zach Ertz. He caught 6 of them, for 60 yards, and his arrow is pointing up.
Tyler Kroft – Buffalo Bills
Kroft only caught 4 passes on 5 targets, but two of those were touchdowns. He was playing in place of Dawson Knox, who missed the game due to a concussion, so do not expect Kroft to repeat these numbers on a weekly basis.
Eric Ebron – Pittsburgh Steelers
Ebron had easily his best game of the season, catching 5 passes on 7 targets for 52 yards and a touchdown. He will be a touchdown dependent fantasy option, unfortunately, with all of the other options for the Steelers offense.
Honorable Mention
Robert Tonyan might be somebody to keep an eye on, the tight end for the Green Bay Packers. The Packers typically do not utilize the tight end position very much, but this is the second straight week that Tonyan has scored. Mo Alie-Cox is starting to get a lot of attention, as he looks to have taken over the starting job from Jack Doyle. He scored his first touchdown of the season on Sunday, and Phillip Rivers does love throwing to his tight ends. Zach Ertz is still there, just struggling along with the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles. He had his best game of the early season, catching 7 passes for 70 yards, on 10 targets. Hopefully the offense starts to gel so that he can start putting up better numbers.
Stock Down
Darren Waller followed up his incredible game last Monday night in which he had 16 targets, catching 12 of them, with a dud of a performance Sunday against the Patriots. He only caught 2 passes, out of 4 targets, for 9 yards. Good thing he doesn’t have to play the Patriots every week. Hayden Hurst started the game with a 1 yard touchdown catch on the Falcons opening drive. He did not catch another pass, only targeted 2 more times throughout the game. Jared Cook unfortunately left the game Sunday against the Packers with a groin injury, and it is unknown how much time he will miss.
Team Defenses
Indianapolis Colts
As mentioned in last weeks waiver wire pick up article, the Colts have put their week one embarrassment behind them. With 3 interceptions in back-to-back weeks, and this week scoring two touchdowns, they have put together consecutive double-digit fantasy weeks.
They have also had a safety in each of their last two games, and added a couple sacks this week o finish there scoring.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Most of the news this year from Tampa has been about the offense, but the defense has played well the last two weeks.
This week they only allowed 10 points, with 6 sacks and two interceptions, with a safety and a blocked kick to finish off the fantasy scoring.
New England Patriots
Even though Tom Brady has left, the Patriots are still led by Bill Belichek, and he will always have a good defense. This week they had 2 sacks, with three fumble recoveries and a touchdown.
Honorable Mention
The Cleveland Browns finally had a good defensive game, even if it was against the Washington Football Team. San Francisco is missing what seems like half of their defense, but they were still able to compete against the lowly New York Giants. The Miami Dolphins had a good game, against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, getting 4 sacks to go along with 1 interception and 1 fumble recovery.
Conclusion
So how is your fantasy football season going so far? It is only week three, so plenty fo time to catch up. Make sure you check tomorrow’s article on the waiver wire pick ups for week 4! Let me know who you are targeting in the comments below!
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