Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

Set 'em up and knock 'em down! We hope that you have gotten through ok to the other side in week 3, but regardless it is still early in the season so even if you're off to an 0-2 start there is still time to right the ship. Some players that I think will surprise and overperform other experts' projections this week are Sony Michel, Marquez Callaway, David Njoku, and Pat Freiermuth. Check out our top weekly waiver pickups and make smart decisions early in the season. Consider playing high-floor guys in most of your early week matchups since there is still a ton of variability in fantasy production right now. Best of luck!

Good luck, and feel free to reach out to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any specific questions or comments that you might have. We are now broadcasting our weekly podcast, The Fantasy Finish Line, LIVE on YouTube every Wednesday at 9pm CT during the regular season. Tune in!

Not all that glitters is gold. We're all familiar with the adage, but often as fantasy football team managers it's all too easy to get caught up in the momentum of a player and/or his circumstances without looking forward into how things will progress throughout the season. For these specific examples below, fantasy points may well follow for a couple more weeks but all are headed to a place closer to a benchwarmer on your roster than a starter. Why not take the advantageous route of offering these overperforming players to other managers in your league and getting some more consistent, higher-floor players back in return? That's my plan. Either way, good luck out there!

• Sammy Watkins - Here we go again with Sammy. Drafted this year as WR 89, the ‘Week 1 Wonder’ put up 11.6 fantasy points as WR37. He led the team in targets (8) and yards (96), and looks very much to be the Ravens #1 WR going forward. This may be a hit or miss kind of situation based on how much of a shootout the Ravens are involved in from week-to-week, but this is a player that - when healthy and featured - will have fantasy value throughout the season as a flex start. That said, I think those situations will be few and far between so I’m not buying into Watkins this year.

• Melvin Gordon - Gordon finished as the RB6 in Week 1, with 19.3 points. But take away the 70-yard TD run that he had in the fourth quarter and that number drops to only 6.3 points. In fact, Gordon actually had less carries during the game than rookie RB Javonte Williams. Those team managers that didn’t pay attention to the specific stats of this game may be clamoring to start Gordon but I think we’ll see his usage wane as the season progresses.

• Ty’Son Williams - Williams rushed 9 times for 65 yards and 1 TD on Monday Night Football making him the RB9 in Week 1. He also caught 3 passes for 29 yards and a total of 16.9 points. I don’t want to take a single thing away from his performance because he looked great, showcasing good speed and breaking a few tackles - but this is not likely the usage that he’ll continue to see over the course of the season. Newly signed veteran RB Latavius Murray took the majority of the carries in the second half (in fact, Williams only had two), and Williams missed a blitz pickup in overtime that led directly to Lamar Jackson’s fumble and the Ravens’ subsequent loss. No doubt Williams is talented, but those kinds of mistakes on top of Murray’s already split usage and Le’Veon Bell likely headed to the active roster to assist in 3rd down pass protection situations will result in much less fantasy production going forward than many are expecting.

• Deebo Samuel - An impressive outing from Samuel, he finished as WR3 with 27.4 points. That’s 9/12 for 189 yards and 1 TD. Yeesh. Clearly Samuel is not a ‘flash in the pan’ player as he totaled more than 800 yards receiving in his rookie year with the 49ers, but there are a few things to note here: 1) Brandon Aiyuk (hamstring injury) will be eased into this offense and take some targets away from Samuel as the season progresses and 2) The Eagles defense that he will face in Week 2 profiles as much better than the Lions - Calvin Ridley only chalked up 51 yards on 5 catches. Samuel and Gronk (who I’ll get to next) are clearly the best of tonight’s fantasy fool’s gold segment, but I think it’s important to understand that they have likely played their best games of the season already and we should expect regression. I expect 5-6 catches for 50-80 yards this week, which aligns more closely with the WR2/3 numbers we should anticipate on a weekly basis from Samuel. Consider week 1 a lucky spin.

• Rob Gronkowski - TE1 with 25 points. Is Gronk back to his glory days? In a way, yes. Same relationship with Brady, same kinds of plays and mismatches we’ve seen in the past, etc. But we know that Gronkowski’s gears were already getting rusty and that injuries tend to crop up over the course of a football season that prevent the big guy from playing at 100%. I will admit that it looked like Gronk drank some water from the fountain of youth out there against the Cowboys secondary, recording 8 grabs for 90 yards and 2 TDs but - like plastic bags - that’s simply not sustainable. We will see a major drop-off from Gronk going forward, but we may not see it this week against the Falcons. Their less-than-stellar secondary gave up plenty of fantasy production to the tight end position last week. So trot Gronk out there as a TE1 once more, but that will change starting with the Rams in Week 3. Mark my words!

On this episode of the Fantasy Finish Line podcast - your hosts Jason Evans and David Biggs will recap some crazy Week 1 matchups, go in-depth on our Week 2 rankings, sort out some Fantasy Fool's Gold, and engage in some possibly illegal gambling activities all about fantasy performances going forward.

Stay on top of the latest news and analysis by listening to the show! This video/podcast will go live at 9pm CT on Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - it will also be available on all major podcast channels and remain available on YouTube for later review and comments. Join us live and add your comments/questions to the show!

This video features the songs and artists listed below, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license: - Various original music by David Biggs

Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes to get notifications whenever we release a new episode. We also broadcast the shows live on our YouTube channel Wednesday nights at 9pm CT. Feel free to browse over and join in the discussion in the chat room and subscribe to the drinkfive channel for updates!

As we head into Week 2 of the Fantasy Football season, it's important to remember that one good or bad game does not a trend make. Sure we saw Rodgers eat a lot of mud against the Saints this past weekend, but the odds are that we see a reversal of his fantasy fate when going up against the Lions this week. Yes Sammy Watkins had a productive outing as a Raven in Monday night's thriller against the Raiders, but we've seen that before and I don't believe it will continue. With news of Raheem Mostert choosing to have season-ending surgery, one huge waiver wire pickup this week is Elijah Mitchell who may end up as the lead back for the 49ers... that's probably the biggest move that could develop over the coming weeks so far. Happy hunting!

Good luck, and feel free to reach out to me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any specific questions or comments that you might have. We are now broadcasting our weekly podcast, The Fantasy Finish Line, LIVE on YouTube every Wednesday at 9pm CT during the regular season. Tune in!