Sit/Start Week 3: Reviewing All Fantasy Relevant Players In Every Single Game

Game Info

Kickoff: Sunday, September 24th, at 1:00PM EST

Location: EverBank Field, DUVAAA—uh, Jacksonville, FL

Betting Odds: Jax -9.5 (OUCH!)  O/U 44 Total via PFF.com

Network: Fox

Writer: Matt Prendergast (@amazingmattyp on X/Twitter)

Houston Texans

Quarterbacks

C.J. Stroud (Start, QB1)

From this rookie class, early returns show C.J. Stroud to be the leader in the clubhouse as far as pure passing goes(Fantasy owners may prefer Anthony Richardson for the rushing yards and the 3 touchdowns – but he hasn’t finished a whole game yet, which would make me start smoking again if he was ‘my guy’). Stroud is currently fourth in the league in passing yards with 242 against the Ravens and 384 against the Colts last week. We also saw his first two passing touchdowns against the Colts. Coming up on the Jaguars this week, he’s looking down the barrel of a Jacksonville secondary that’s currently 25th in the league. Taking into consideration the Texans’ complete toilet of a running game, this should be a great week for C.J. to drop even more gaudy stats onto this first month of his career; they’ll be throwing early and often and I even like the idea that this will be Stroud’s first career win on the backs of his receivers. I fully recognize this recommendation may be directly referenced in my committal papers, but so be it – sometimes you have to look at what’s actually happening and take a little leap toward where it’s heading.

Running Backs

Dameon Pierce (Sit, RB2), Devin Singletary (Sit) 

I’ve said previously that I’m a Dameon Pierce guy. Should Pierce continue to struggle, this statement may end up on my gravestone with a couple of crying-laughing emojis.  Watching both Texans games (and a preseason one, which I did voluntarily!), I’ve heard the announcers describe Pierce’s running style as ‘fierce’ and ‘violent’ and found both to be true. Also, they should add ‘ineffective’. He had eleven carries for 38 yards and then 15 for 31; those are flat-out terrible fantasy numbers.  The run blocking for Pierce isn’t helping him at all, but I’ve also noted a lot of side-to-side happy feet that aren’t accomplishing anything but bringing Dameon’s endurance meter down. I have a waning faith this is going to get worked out by a combination of Pierce’s hard work and the Texans making some adjustments – again, I put a LOT of faith in Demeco Ryans – but there’s a lot to fix in Houston, so this might be on the back burner for another couple weeks. In addition, this matchup with the Jags might get out of hand early, and if so, I can see the Texans abandoning the run early.  As for Devin Singletary, he’s put up a total of 29 yards on 11 combined carries this season and, similar to Pierce, is not any type of factor in the passing game either. If you’ve got him as a handcuff or insurance, I wouldn’t bother. This Texans team is bad at running, and that doesn’t favor a point-generating season for Devin.

Wide Receivers/ Tight Ends

Nic0 Collins (Start, WR2 ), Robert Woods (Start, Flex), Tank Dell (Start, WR3), Dalton Schultz (Start, TE1)

Nico Collins looks like the plane has arrived. He had 80 yards in week one followed up by 146 yards and a touchdown in week 2 – all off 13 receptions on 20 targets. Nico and CJ are working together and working well. I wouldn’t in a thousand years have suspected that the Texans would figure out the passing game way before running, or run blocking, or defense, but as we’ve landed on shore and looked around, this is the landscape we’ve got to traverse. I’m leaning into ALL the Texans receivers this week with Jacksonville living in the basement of passing defense this season and all three WRs for Houston having shown great effectiveness.  An increase in targets from 4 to 10 in week 2 led to 72 yards and a touch for preseason pick Tank Dell, and it’s clear they want to keep giving this Tank ammo.  Old Hickory Robert Woods hasn’t been a slouch either – 131 yards on 12 catches so far for the veteran, who is serving a critical role as the leader of this young crew. Stroud, DeMeco, and Offensive Coordinator Bobby Slowik are executing a scheme that’s keeping them all involved – no huge revelation considering Slowik’s successes in his previous gig as pass-game coordinator for the 49ers – so I like all of them in a great matchup.  As for Dalton Schultz, he hasn’t been much of a fantasy factor in this offense yet. So far this year, there’s been a lot of middling tight-end work across the fantasy board. Schultz is still in the upper tier with 10 catches, but on the back end of the starting list with only 72 yards and no scores. Still, that should increase as this offense continues to solidify. Consider Schultz a low-end TE1 for this week.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Quarterback

Trevor Lawrence (Start*, QB2)

There’s probably some personal bias here I can’t quite ignore, but I’m just not thrilled with Trevor Lawrence for fantasy play; he’s traditionally been a pretty efficient passer, but after two weeks Big Trev is tied with 13 other guys at #14 in passing TDs (and that’s quite a range of guys, from Jalen and Lamar to Desmond and Zach). He is also 14th in yardage at 457 and has an uncharacteristically low completion percentage at 63%. In short, if I have Trevor on my team, I’m personally always trying to figure out how to move him – I just don’t see it. All that said, you absolutely drafted him to start for you, and a couple of ho-hum initial outings aren’t enough to throw Howell, Pickett, or Ridder. I’d run Stroud or Love out there ahead of him though – I like the risk/reward proposition of those two much more than Lawrence to date. I guess watching Lawrence, I’m not convinced he’s more than an above-average game manager with charisma. Regardless, I think the Jacksonville points this week are going to come more from the run than the pass. It’s a better matchup advantage for JAX, and expect Doug Pederson to gameplan that way, so I’m looking at a lower fantasy output for Trevor.

Running Backs

Travis Etienne (Start, RB1), Tank Bigsby (Start, Flex) 

The Houston Texans running defense is lower-middle-of-the-road statistically in terms of yards(they’ve given up 246 so far), and dead last in touchdowns allowed with six. Now let’s dip in the pond a little further and note the following: they have faced a little bit of J.K. Dobbins (Prayers Up, Buddy!), Justice Hill, Zach Moss, Gus Edwards, and both Lamar Jackson and Anthony Richardson. As Sunshine Lawrence isn’t necessarily going to be pressed into rolling out of the pocket as much as the previous two QBs were, I’m looking at a high probability for Travis Etienne to steamroll over 100 yards and a score this week. As for Tank Bigsby – who wasn’t at all involved in Week 2 – expect him to return to the endzone in his short-yardage role at least once this week against the hapless Texans goal-line crew. It’s a little hard to find trends in two weeks, but if we’re making any inferences from the first two weeks, Bigsby won’t see many touches in tighter games. This matchup shouldn’t be an issue.

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

Calvin Ridley (Start, WR2) Christian Kirk (Start WR3), Zay Jones * (Sit, Flex), Evan Engram (Start, TE1)

I think this is going to be one of those receiving rooms that are going to be migraine-inducing as the year goes on. This was evidenced last week with a full Parent Trap body-switch happening between Calvin Ridley and Christian Kirk. Either of these receivers could be the star in any given week. So, let’s talk about our known commodities first: Evan Engram is a big part of this offense, catches the majority of what’s thrown to him (5/5 week 1, 6/8 week 2), and is in the upper end of consistency for tight ends. He’s a set-and-forget option at a position with few all-stars this year. Semi-known commodity #2: Zay Jones hurt his knee last week, but still played 66% of the Jags’ snaps, and caught zero balls on six targets. Also, he hasn’t practiced this week (as of Wednesday). I wouldn’t steer near those waters this week if it was my boat. Give Zay some time to heal.  So that leaves us with Ridley and Kirk; I noted above that the Texans passing defense is significantly better than their run defense. What I did not note is that the same pass defense is still in the bottom half of efficiency. I like Ridley a little more because I like his talent a little more, and this should be a better matchup for him; you drafted him to be your WR2, so keep running him there with the hopes that last week was an aberration. I like Kirk to get his share of looks as well; with Jones hobbled and out, one would think the redistribution is going to happen primarily between the other three guys that are standing. I’m not concerned with Jamal Agnew cutting himself a slice of pie after fumbling his one target away against the Chiefs on 24 snaps. Great returner though.