The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:
Fantasy Football Week 3

By James Collier

Three weeks into the season just three NFL teams remain unbeaten while four are yet to find a win in 2023. Those 0-3 teams can probably rule themselves out of the playoff hunt already but in fantasy there are more routes to recovery meaning a poor start isn’t the death sentence it is in real life. 

So if you’re out there sitting at 0-3 don’t panic, remain patient and the wins will (hopefully) come. And of course, pay attention to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in the world of fantasy football.

The Good

The Dolphins (Again)

After a quiet(ish) Week 2 scoring just the 24 points, the best offense in the league exploded with 10 total touchdowns against the Broncos. Tyreek Hill owners genuinely might be disappointed that he only scored 30 fantasy points and just one touchdown with Jaylen Waddle missing this game with a concussion. But that’s because it was the running backs scoring all of the points. De’Von Achane and Raheem Mostert were the RB1 and RB2 on the week with over 95 combined fantasy points. Achane will be the most added player this week and although they have a tricky matchup with the Bills on the horizon, it’s hard to bench someone who just dropped a 50 burger.

Old Wide Receivers

Last week we looked at the early emergence of the 2023 class of wide receivers, but Week 3 was all about the thirty-somethings. The top three receivers on the week; Keenan Allen, Davante Adams and Adam Thielen are all 30+. 

Adams is right where he usually is, the WR3 through three weeks of the season. But Allen is already looking like a draft steal as the top scoring receiver on an ADP of the WR19. And if Thielen continues to lead the Panthers in target share (currently 21%), then he’ll make a mockery of those that wrote him off heading into the season.

The Bad

Derrick Henry and the Running Back Age Cliff?

A player like Derrick Henry can make you look very silly if you start to question whether they’re about to hit the age cliff, Tom Brady did it for a decade. But with Henry it’s not so much about the inefficient production but the usage. 

Henry has always been a volume and game script dependent fantasy running back. But in recent years the Titans have been successful, with a winning record in every season from 2016 to 2021. It’s safe to say that it already looks a stretch for them to be a playoff team this time around and Henry played just 18 snaps on Sunday. Unless you expect the Titans to win multiple of their next three games against the Bengals, Colts and Ravens, it may be time to move on from Henry before his Week 7 bye. 

You might be able to trade him on name value for someone like Josh Jacobs, who has a more secure workload and a handful less points so far this season. 

The Ugly

Broncos Defense

Remember when the Broncos were just a quarterback away from being a contender? It’s been a rough 12 months to be a Broncos fan and Sunday was a new low. For fantasy football this is a defense to target for the rest of the season, particularly with our running backs. But we might need to wait an extra week for that as they play just about the only team in a worse state than them in the Bears in Week 4.

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Feature image credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA Today Sports

JAMES COLLIER

Lead Fantasy Football Analyst

A Washington fan since the early 2010’s, James had no choice but to turn to fantasy football in search of happiness – and it wasn’t long until it became an obsession. You can follow him on Twitter @jamesc294.

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