Kings Week 3 Fantasy Match-ups: Where Logic Dies and Legends (Maybe) Rise
Look, folks, if you thought 'Game of Thrones' had unpredictable plot twists, then clearly, you've never ventured into the high-stakes melodrama of Fantasy Football. Welcome back to Fantasy Island, the only place where you can obsess over grown men running around in tights for points, and it's considered totally normal! This week, we’ve got your lowdown on the Chargers vs. Vikings and Steelers vs. Raiders matchups, and let's be honest, this is where desperate dreams and high-brow analytics go to die.
Is Justin Herbert poised to make the Vikings reevaluate every life decision that led them to this moment? Will Kirk Cousins' brooding existentialism finally translate to fantasy points? Or will he just continue asking himself why he didn't take up knitting instead of football?
In the gritty world of the Pittsburgh Steelers, will someone remind them that football is a team sport and perhaps—just perhaps—running backs not named Najee Harris deserve a look-in? Ah, who are we kidding? Old habits die hard.
As for the Las Vegas Raiders, will Josh Jacobs continue to treat yard gains like they’re a hot potato? Or will he rise like a phoenix from the fantasy ashes, proving once and for all that Week 2 was just a bad day at the office?
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Transcript
Kings Week 3 Fantasy Match-ups: Where Logic Dies and Legends (Maybe) Rise
King: Welcome back to fantasy island guys. We're going to do our fantasy matchups for week three. That's right. We got a couple of games picked out for you, a couple of hopefully high shooting games with a couple of fantasy relevant players in there that we can sort of steer your way to put in your lineup. I know it hasn't been the greatest the first couple of weeks, but guys remember this is The way this thing plays out every year.
There's always some kind of curveballs. There's things you got to be ready for. So just roll with the punches guys. Enjoy it. It's fantasy football. Remember, it's only week two. No need to panic. No need to blow up the ship, right? Remember, there's still guys are gonna do some things even though they haven't been producing in the first couple weeks.
Just remember you drafted guys for a reason. So what we're going to talk about today is our first game is going to be our Chargers Vikings matchup this week. It's two underperforming teams. Let's just be honest, you know, both of them looking for their first win. It's getting bad when you have so much talent on both teams and they can't win games and it's ready to sort of create situations where there's going to be drastic change in both organizations.
I truly believe that after this season. Don't know really how the rest of the season is going to play out for the Vikings, especially if they start 0 3 or 0 4. Doesn't really look like they're going to make the playoffs. Kirk Cousins sitting there lame duck quarterback. Next year free agency. Whole bunch of stuff behind this matchup.
So remember guys, you got two high powered offenses going at it with two high powered quarterbacks. These quarterbacks are doing pretty well in fantasy for you. We'll start with Justin Herbert. We'll start with the chargers. Justin Herbert's the main cog there because Austin actors probably gonna be out again.
You got Austin Eckler, who's going to be out for week three. He was out for week two, again, ankle injury. Not really sure how long this is going to lag. I'm recording on Wednesday night. Doesn't look like he's going to play at all. He hasn't practiced all week. They got joshua kelly back there performing pretty good in the first two games that he's been playing. He's at 130 yards already racked up in a touchdown. So he's filling in for what they need. I mean, the reality is that offense runs through the air and especially now with kellen more as the offensive coordinator, they have a lot of expectation that they're going to move the ball deep downfield. I think one of the things that's surprising to me is just the fact that They figured out new ways to move Keenan Allen around.
,:I can see this game breaking open. You know, I see Minnesota's defense is definitely suspect, their back end is suspect, they're hurt everywhere again already, they have no depth. So I can see the Chargers exploiting their secondary, they're going to be playing on Terp in a dome in Minnesota. So it's going to be set up for them, I like the offenses here.
If you got a guy on your roster, one of those three receivers, Big Mike Williams, Keenan Allen, even Quentin Johnson. And you want to take a flyer, guys, because your guys are hurt or matchups don't look good, throw them in there. I mean, Justin Herbert's going to sling that ball. They got to get a win. And they don't got Eckler, so I don't see him pounding the rock with Joshua Kelly.
So I think that formula right there is going to be a success for anybody who's got any of those receivers and that quarterback. Definitely looking at starting those guys. On the other side of the ball, you got the Vikings. And atop the fantasy quarterback chain is old, uh, captain, you like that, Kirk Cousins.
He's got a 114. 2 passer rating, dawg. This guy's tearing it up. He's atop the fantasy fuckin world right now. He's got over 700 yards passing in the first two games, six touchdowns to one pick. They haven't won a game. And they don't have a running back that can do anything because it seems like Alexander Madison or their offensive line just isn't blocking for him, but it just seems really different now.
And I don't know if it was the fact that maybe defenses were a little bit worn down by the time he came in from Dalvin Cook, but it just doesn't seem like it's working. Now as time of this recording, they just acquired Cam Akers. Not really. I really doubt if he's going to suit up this week. I don't think he will at all.
Doesn't know any plays. He's not Christian McCaffrey. I don't think they're going to do that. They'll probably wait till next week with him. So just knowing that even if he does come in, it'll be a non factor. I mean, the reality is the only thing I like here is Justin Jefferson and Kurt Cousins.
If you got either one of those guys, plug them in. These guys are tearing it up and the Chargers secondary is giving up a ton of yards to everybody they play. Justin Jefferson is still leading the league. He's right on top. 20 receptions. You know, 15. 4 yards of reception, but zero TDs again through two games.
So really looking to see if this thing can snap a little bit and this guy can start scoring some touchdowns, but it's got over 300 yards receiving in two games. So he's definitely the class and definitely worthy of that number one overall ADP it looks like. So, you know, again, a great fantasy matchup, both sides of the ball, high powered offense.
It should be a shootout, fun to watch on TV, plug all those guys in your lineup that you can. Keep an eye on the running back situation. But right now I don't think Austin Eckler is going to be playing guys, but that'll be our first matchup of the week. Chargers Vikings,
second matchup of the week, guys. That's right. Week three matchup coming at you again with Pittsburgh against the Las Vegas Raiders. I know it doesn't sound too sexy guys, but there's a lot of fantasy relevance here and we're going to break it down for you. One of them is Devante Adams. Devante Adams has been doing pretty good.
He left the game last week with a concussion. She could be Myers has a concussion since week one. Devante Adams is not listed on the injury report, even as questionable in the concussion protocol, anything as of Wednesday. Jacobi Myers is still questionable with his concussion. So, I mean, looking at that, I just think that Pittsburgh has given up a lot of yards, or given up a lot of air yards to suspect receivers.
I think Devontae Adams and if Jacobi Myers comes back, I think they can exploit their secondary a little bit. Devontae's had some decent games. His first game, he's stuck on that six catch thing. He's had six catches in both of his games. First game was for 66 yards, no TDs. Second game, he was tearing it up a little bit when he got hurt.
He was six catches, 84 yards, and a touchdown. So he looked like the Devontae. But then he got hurt a little bit, took a pop in the melon, he was down for the count. So I think the issue there is gonna be what kind of game plan they have. And when I'm saying that, I think that you gotta look at the running back situation in last week against Buffalo, Josh Jacobs threw a stinker.
Nine carries minus two yards. Okay, that's not gonna happen again, bro. I'm just saying that. Buffalo was giving up over seven yards a carry in the first week in between the tackles. And anybody else who ran the ball other than Josh Jacobs was getting close to that number between the tackles against Buffalo.
But for some reason, it just wasn't Josh Jacobs day. They called the right plays, the defense called the right plays when he was running the ball and just made him look bad. I don't see that happening this week. And Pittsburgh is again, a little bit suspect against the run. Uh, we know what happened to Nick Chubb in their last game, but they're coming off a short week too.
They're banged up defensively. Minka Fitzpatrick. These guys are good. They have to recover. So I think that it's going to be playing into a big part of it. I think by the end of the game, Josh Jacobs should be taken over on the ground. I love a huge game from Josh Jacobs here. You know, again, Pittsburgh's going to have to try to score with them because I think Vegas is going to come out and smack him in the mouth and Pittsburgh defense is letting people smack him in the mouth and the offense is trying to hang with them.
You know, last week they did pretty good and, you know, the one guy I'll talk about first on Pittsburgh's side of the ball is George Pickens. George Pickens, he was a find for them. You know, he had a little bit of some off field issues and it dropped his draft stock a little bit, but they knew what they got when they drafted him.
And as long as he can keep his off the field issues under control, this guy had the potential to be a top wide receiver in the league, and he showed it last week. He flashed. You know, he had nine receptions for a Buck 63 last week. You know, the courtesy of a 71 yard touchdown to pad those stats a little bit, but the first week he was, you know, he played San Francisco.
They were probably keying on him. Deontay Johnson went down again in the first game. He's on the IR. Pickens is the man there. So the first week he only had five catches for 36 yards. That's still eight points in fantasy. So he didn't stinker you. He's gonna get targeted. He's gonna get the ball It just really depends on what they can do and how they could really start Flowing and their offense can start flowing and I think it starts in their backfield And I think I've been talking about it since week one even preseason a little bit There's a change coming guys and nausea Harris.
Sorry, bud You are just looking worse and worse every time you touch that ball He is basically the same guy every week. The first week, Najee had 5. 3 fantasy points. Second week, 5. 3. First week, 6 carries, 31 yards, with a long of 24. That means basically he had 5 carries for 7 yards, with an average of 71 yards per carry in those carries.
Second week he had 10 carries for 43 yards with a long of 21. That means in 9 carries he had 22 yards. That's 2. 4 yards a carry. He isn't really doing what they need him to do, and again I told you guys if you've been listening to us, Jalen Warren is the juice there. Jalen Warren is getting ease in this offense and he's going to take over this offense by week five.
The first week he scored 6. 8 points, not a big deal, big factor mostly in the passing game. Last week he started tearing it up a little bit more. He had 12. 6 fantasy points. I think by this week his floor is going to be about 15 to 16 fantasy points going forward and he has the potential to have a really big breakout season.
I like me some Jalen Warren here. So I like Jalen Warren definitely over Najee. I've liked him all year. So the fantasy matchup, there's good on both sides of the ball with the running backs. If they utilize Jalen Warren right, and I think that it's trending up his, his usage, especially his passing usage.
Najee Harris's passing usage was 11 percent of the passing plays. So definitely Jalen Warren has that wrapped up and he's gonna start taking just regular carries from the guy as well. So I think Jalen Warren's the guy there. I think when you have Jalen Warren's pickings, you got Friar Muth and you got Kenny Pickett slinging that ball like he does.
I think it makes for a good fantasy matchup. You know, again, on the other side of the ball, I'm a little worried about the receivers just because they were injured and both of them were in concussion protocol. Jimmy G is still upright, so we're good there. But I love me a bounce back game from Josh Jacobs and I think they're going to challenge that offensive line to do better this week.
And I really think they're going to perform. So I think that's going to be our second fantasy matchup, Pittsburgh versus the Las Vegas Raiders. And for the Fantasy Island crew, remember guys, hit that subscribe button. Every week, we're going to be coming at you with tidbits. I'll be coming at you with another bit here soon.
But for Bombo, for T, for everybody in the Fantasy Island crew, we are out.