2018 Fantasy Football Week 3 Rankings

When the season kicked off a couple of weeks ago, I think I was extra excited for football and got my rankings done early.  Last week, they were a little late due to Hurricane Florence.  Now we're in Week 3, and I'm back to my regular Hump Day rankings release.  I'm also still rolling with the new format that debuted last week.  I'm still tweaking my usage of the FantasyPros Expert Platform, but I'm pretty happy with how easy to use their rankings tool is.  In case you missed last week's rankings, you'll notice I'm no longer comparing my rankings to just ESPN's.  I'm comparing them to the FantasyPros Expert Consensus Rankings, which I think is a much better representation of expert rankings anyway.

I also updated my rankings last Sunday morning with inactives, and that updated right here on my blog.  Pretty neat.  I'll continue to try to do that as much as I can, but you know...life and stuff.  You'll know how up-to-date my rankings are by looking at the date on the top right of the rankings window.

And with that, let's get to em!

2018 Fantasy Football Rankings powered by FantasyProsECR ™ - Expert Consensus Rankings

QUARTERBACKS
In Week 2, I was 4 spots higher on both Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford versus the experts.  I just didn't understand dropping Rodgers that much, even with the injury and the tough Vikings defense.  Well, in a good week for QBs, Rodgers was barely in the top-20.  So I guess the experts were right to be cautious with Rah-jahs in Week 2.  As for Stafford, I was right in saying he'd bounce back in San Francisco and be a top-10 play.  He threw for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns, and you can believe in him this week against a Patriots team that got lit up by Blake Bortles in Week 2.  As you can see, I have him 5 spots higher than the ECR.  I trust last week's results more than Week 1, and I think he'll throw the ball 50 times against the Patriots.   

I was down on Jimmy Garoppolo last week, and his numbers on Sunday were pretty mediocre without Marquise Goodwin.  He completed 18 of 26 attempts for 206 yards and a pair of TDs.  He was still an OK play, but well outside of the top-12.  I was also down on Cam Newton, who was without Greg Olsen (which worried me).  My pick was looking good until the 4th quarter, when Cam threw 2 more touchdowns to go with the one he threw early in the first half.  He finished as a top-10 play (just ahead of Matthew Stafford), so I was wrong with that call.  

This week, I'm still down on Jimmy G.  Yes, that Chief defense has looked terrible to start the season, but this is their home opener.  Arrowhead can still be a tough place to play, and I think Garoppolo could struggle.  The experts are ranking him as a top-12 play, and I'm just not buying it yet (I'm currently 9 spots lower on him versus the ECR). 

RUNNING BACKS
When I initially posted my rankings last week, I was about 10 spots higher than the experts on Tevin Coleman and James White.  I wasn't convinced Devonta Freeman would play, so I was way down on him versus the ECR as well.  Turns out I was right on Freeman not playing and also about Coleman easily being a top-20 fantasy RB.  I actually moved him into my top-12 when I updated my rankings on Sunday, and he nearly finished there (he finished 13th).  As for James White, he was the healthiest running back for the Patriots and got the most fantasy points of the bunch.  He finished just outside of the top-25, but he outscored Burkhead and Michel by a long shot.  

This week, I'm really high versus the ECR on Chris Ivory (+17), but that's probably because I'm not even ranking LeSean McCoy.  I think he sits.  And even if Shady does play, are you starting him against the Vikings after what you've seen from them (and HIM) through 2 weeks?!?  If McCoy plays, I'll drop Ivory out of my ranking altogether.  But if he doesn't, then I think Ivory could be a FLEX play based on volume alone.  I'm also really high on Corey Clement (+16) because it sounds like Jay Ajayi might not play this week (in addition to Sproles likely being out as well).  That may change in the next couple of days, but for now I have Clement poised to break out this week at home against the Colts.

I'm also high on Rashaad Penny (+12) who I think will get a chance to play a lot more this week against Dallas, and I have a feeling Alfred Morris finds the end zone this week in Kansas City (+13).  I'm way down on Jamaal Williams (-14) because I think Aaron Jones will hit the ground running after serving his 2 game suspension.  Time will tell on some of these RBs, but something tells me that a lot of the young guys are going to start getting more playing time here in Week 3.  I think Sony Michel will start to get a lot more work this week too.  

WIDE RECEIVERS

Last week I was 13 spots higher than the experts on John Brown, and he scored a touchdown as I was posting my rankings (my Thursday night picks had already been locked in).  However, I was also high on Ryan Grant, and that didn't pan out.  He caught 8 of 9 targets in Week 1 for 59 yards, and he clearly looked like Luck's #2 WR option.  However, he got fewer targets than Chester Rogers against the Redskins, and Luck tends to favor his tight ends after TY.  I'll be backing off from him this week.  One guy I was down about 10 spots versus the experts was Marvin Jones.  I liked Stafford to bounce back against the Niners (and he did), but Tate and Golladay were more productive in Week 1, and I liked for that trend to continue. It did.  Golladay looks like a rising star, as he finished as a top-25 WR for the second week in a row.  Tate had the most targets with 13, and he finished just outside of the top-25.  Meanwhile, Marvin Jones also had a productive fantasy day, but it was 4 catches for 54 yards and a TD.  That landed him outside of the top-30 WRs in Week 2.  I'll continue to rank him as the #3 WR for Detroit, and I feel like he'll be more of a DeSean Jackson boom/bust type of player in this offense. This week, I'm high on John Brown again (+8), but I'm also high on Jag receivers Keelan Cole (+8) and Dede Westbrook (+9).  I think both make for good plays at home, especially if Fournette and Yeldon are both banged up.  I'm also high on Tyler Lockett (+9) who is putting up good numbers with Doug Baldwin sidelined.  I hate to be down on Larry Fitzgerald (-13) because that has burned me in the past, but he hasn't done much with Sam Bradford at the helm.  He's also facing a tough Bears defense, and he's dealing with a hamstring injury.  Not good.

TIGHT ENDS I won't gloss over the fact that I was down on Travis Kelce last week because I was right about being down on him in Week 1.  I doubled down and was wrong, as Mahomes kept rolling to the tune of 6 TDs (two of which went to his stud tight end).  But I said to look at my guys in the 14-17 range to see who I was high/low on versus the ECR.  In addition to Kelce, I still wasn't feeling Trey Burton just yet.  I wanted to see him do something in this new offense before I trusted him as my fantasy tight end.  While he only totaled 22 yards, he did find the endzone on a gadget play and ended up as the #12 TE.  I'm still not really a believer in him or Trubisky.  I was also down on Evan Engram, who did virtually nothing until a garbage time touchdown.  It was pretty much the first time the Cowboy defense broke down all night, and Engram ended up as a top-5 TE because of it.   I was reluctantly high on Antonio Gates, who I just felt like would have a 2 catch game, but one of those catches would be in the end zone.  Spoiler alert: that didn't happen.  I also liked Will Dissly though, and he had another good week!  With Doug Baldwin out, I thought Russell Wilson might look to his rookie tight end again to make some plays, and like Engram, he also found the endzone in garbage time.  He finished as the 6th best tight end in Week 2 and probably won some fantasy matchups on Monday Night Football. This week, I'm still high on Dissly (+8), and if I'm not believing in Jimmy G, then I'm not believing in his tight end.  I'm just not ready to believe in Kittle as a top-5 fantasy TE like the ECR has him (I have him 9 spots lower than the experts). DEFENSES

The biggest differences in my rankings last week were the Saints and Cowboys.  I didn't believe in the Saints D after they gave up so many points to the Bucs in Week 1, so I had them outside of my top-10.  They finished just outside of the top-10 (about where I ranked them), but they did have a solid day against the Brownies.  As for the Cowboys, I liked for them to step up against Eli Manning and company in their home opener.  I thought they'd easily be a top-15 unit in Week 2, and they didn't disappoint.  They shut down the Giants for nearly the entire game before letting up some garbage time points while playing a soft defense with the bus warmed up.  They sacked Eli 6 times and finished as a top-5 defense! This week, I'm high on the Rams (+4) and down on the Ravens (-4).  The Rams are the #2 fantasy defense right now and have 4 INTs and one shutout in just two weeks.  The Charger offense has looked good, but I'm betting on the Ram D in this one.  As for Baltimore, they looked great in Week 1 against a terrible Buffalo offense.  But in Week 2, Andy Dalton lit them up when CJ Mosley left the game with an injury.  Mosley is the backbone of that defense, and he's likely out this week against the Broncos.  I think this defense could struggle to be in the top-10 until Mosley is healthy.

FLEX As I mentioned last week, this isn't something I put together on the FantasyPros site.  The tool actually did it for me, so I wanted to make sure people knew that in case they were looking at that for their flex spot.  Coincidentally, the tool put Michael Crabtree and Matt Breida right next to each other in my FLEX rankings in Week 2, and I barely decided to start Crabtree over Breida in my money league.  It wouldn't have made the difference in a win or loss, but Breida did have a nice game.  I moved him up my rankings this week, and I've also moved him up my ROS (rest of season) rankings.  That's right.  The FantasyPros site has a tool for that too.  I just found it this week, but I'll probably post those in here at some point too.  Stay tuned. As for my FLEX rankings, I actually did mess with those a little this week after taking the default that was provided with the FantasyPros tool (based on my other position rankings).  I'll continue to mess with that too, and we'll see how all of this goes. Good luck to everyone in Week 3!   (Except you, Billy...) Cheers, Bart