Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

Week 3 starts tonight with Jacoby Brissett (not listed below) starting for the Pats, almost as interesting as the chance of Julian Edelman being the backup QB. Knowing Belichick, it'll work out anyways. As for the rest of the week, try to get Sterling Shepard in your lineup and don't forget about Matt Ryan, our #2 QB this week. As always, make sure you check our our weekly podcast to go more in-depth on our thoughts for this week.

Listen to the Fantasy Football Podcast, 9/20/16: Week 3 Preview

Welcome to Statistically (in)Significant, the place to find great stats that probably only matter at the water cooler (or bar). Each week I'll dig through the stats of the week gone by and deliver you some choice conversation starters.

52 Carries

Matt Forte has a stranglehold on the carries thus far for the Jets. With Thursday night's performance, Forte now has 264 yards from scrimmage and 3 TD's, making it look like he's still in the prime of his career, and not a 9-year veteran. With Bilal Powell at a miserable 5 carries through two games, Forte has taken 91% of the hand-offs for the Jets, a split that I don't think anybody saw coming. Their next 4 games are against the Chiefs, Seahawks, Steelers and Cardinals, so even against tough defenses, Forte will at least be an RB2 based on volume alone.

55 Points

The San Francisco 49ers have put up 55 points this season, all on offense - thus causing a certain member of the drinkfive team to perhaps eat his words a little and admit that they are not a quote "dumpster fire". The Niners have 7 TD's over two games - thank you Vance McDonald, for being the least likely Gronk fill-in to work out.

32 Attempts

DeAngelo Williams carried the ball 32 times yesterday against the Bengals, a career high. He now leads all RB's in fantasy points through two games and Le'Veon Bell owners are very eager for week 4 to get here. On the other side, the Steelers most impressive feature this season has been their rush defense, which has given up 101 yards total while leading them to a 2-0 record against two teams that can, and usually do, run the ball.

0 Kick Return TD

There have been no kicks (punts and kick-offs) returned for a TD yet in the NFL season. This has always been quite an exciting feature of the games that it seems like the NFL is trying to remove. In the five years since the kick-off was moved up to the 35 yard line, there have been about 24 return TD's per year. It doesn't seem like the touchback being moved to the 25 has changed anyone's strategy. Editor's Note: Eddie Royal took one to the house on Monday Night Football - this was the first return in 5 weeks in the NFL.

1035 Yards

After two games, the Oakland Raiders have given up 500+ yards each time they stepped on the field, most of that through the air. They have quickly become the matchup you want to exploit, and thankfully they have a good offense which can keep up and keep the games high scoring. Upcoming games against the Titans, Ravens, Chargers, Chiefs and Jags will provide all kinds of fantasy upside that might have otherwise gone to waste on your bench.

Week 1 is in the books and finally we have had a look at everybody and now we've got some new tape to go on when making this week's rankings. As usual, there's been an early exit from the rankings (Keenan Allen - get well soon), and a few guys that found themselves rocketing up the list, like Willie Snead and Derek Carr. As always, make sure you check our our weekly podcast to go more in-depth on our thoughts for this week.

Listen to the Fantasy Football Podcast: 9/13/16 Week 2 Preview