This week, like every week, we will look back at last week’s advice to see how we did. Advising Eli Manning as the top QB matchup was a whiff — you can thank Saints head coach Sean Payton and his bend-but-don’t-break game plan for that. We hit on C.J. Anderson but pretty much missed on Odell Beckham Jr. (see Manning).
If you listened to our advice to start Ezekiel Elliott and Mike Wallace, that worked out well. But if you fell into the trap we laid with Kirk Cousins, then I’m sorry to have led your astray. Garbage-time points ruined our advice to sit Ryan Tannehill, and a Danny Woodhead injury made sitting Melvin Gordon even worse, but hey — we were right about benching Allen Hurns.
Let’s jump into the Week 3 slate.
The best matchups
Drew Brees, QB, Saints (vs. Falcons)
It’s not a great week matchups-wise for the top quarterbacks. This is a great week to fade them in DFS. Cam Newton tries to truck his way through the Vikings defense, Aaron Rodgers tries to prove defenses haven’t figured out how to defend him, Russell Wilson’s offensive line is worse than it’s ever been, and Andrew Luck is without his No. 2 receiver against a Chargers defense that has improved significantly in the passing game. That leaves us with Brees. Don’t worry though — he’s back in the dome, so that means he’s going to cash in.
The Falcons are still far away from fixing their defense. Desmond Trufant is a talented piece they found for their secondary, but his presence is offset by a nonexistent pass rush (again) and teammates starting in the secondary that include washed-up veteran Dashon Goldson. After matchups against what looks like a streaky Bucs passing offense and the Raiders, the Falcons check in as our 28th-best team in pass rush overall and our 23rd-best team in pass coverage. That’s not a recipe for stopping someone like Brees.
The Giants’ defensive line was able to get Brees off of his spot. They kept everything underneath and forced him to make throws from uncomfortable angles. The Falcons simply don’t have the personnel to do that same thing. Former 2012 UDFA Derrick Shelby is logging snaps with Dwight Freeney in passing situations. The washed-up pair has contributed just five quarterback pressures combined on 96 pass-rush snaps.
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