Fantasy Football Saturday Mailbag for Week 3

Welcome to this weekly mailbag series! This article will take selected questions from The Footballers’ Discord server that you can join here. In it, you can find a dedicated channel for start/sit questions, public fantasy advice, and a general channel for all things fantasy football. There are also exclusive channels only available to Footclan members. Discord members are great at answering questions and you never know when your questions will appear here.

Week 3 is here, which means we have a much better idea of which teams have great offenses/defenses and which matchups we should be avoiding or targeting. We are also starting to figure out how the fantasy football teams in our league stack up opening the opportunities for moves and trades.

Here are some mailbag questions from Discord:

Question #1 – Dallas Defense

Does Trevon Diggs being out for the season ruin the Cowboys Def or just hurt it? Can we start wideouts against them now? – Taeloth

Answer: This is a great question. You can’t lose a player like T. Diggs and not have it hurt, but that unit is still really good. I do think they’ve benefited from a couple of good matchups against whatever the Giants are rolling out and a Rodgers-less Jets team, but the good matchups continue at Arizona this week and a home matchup against New England next week so no reason to panic if your league plays defenses. It will be interesting how they look when matchups get more competitive starting with San Francisco in a couple of weeks.

Just based on schedules, I’m not sure there was a WR you could legitimately debate starting against Dallas besides Garrett Wilson through the first four weeks of the season. They do have some stud WRs coming up in the schedule and I wouldn’t necessarily be happy starting them against this defense, but it’s not a good strategy to think too hard about matchups when it comes to elite receiving options. It’s better to use things like matchups and weather as a tie breaker if you’re split between two similar options for your lineup.

Question #2 – Trade

Jaylen Waddle and Khalil Herbert for James Conner and D.J. Moore? – Crunch_Dat

Answer: No way. There’s a chance Khalil Herbert will lose work to Roschon Johnson, but at least he’s getting some volume. I love Moore’s talent and not getting him the ball is such a waste, but a lot needs to change in Chicago before Moore can be trusted in a lineup – a lot – like a whole lot, and even then we need to see back-to-back games with a good amount of targets before trusting Moore in a lineup. James Conner just continues to get it done, but he’s a tremendous injury risk. I’d prefer to keep Waddle. We don’t know the rest of the roster here, but I’d look for more than Conner if I was going to trade away Waddle in a player-for-player trade.

Question #3 – Kyle Pitts

Crazy to play Taysom Hill over Kyle Pitts? – Vandelay

Answer: This is where we’re at right now. The situation in Atlanta is tough for Pitts. It’s a run-first offense, which doesn’t help. Beyond that, Drake London is a great WR, and Bijan Robinson is a capable receiver out of the backfield. We also have to remember that Pitts is still recovering from an MCL injury that lingered into the preseason so he might not be 100%. I think the explosion week is coming up and I think Pitts will bounce back, but he’s an ultra risky start especially with Desmond Ridder continuing to struggle. That’s the reality for Pitts, but Hill isn’t any better.

Hill had 79 rushing yards last week, but he was nearly shut out the week before. Even if he does start to get 8-10 carries a game, he’s not being targeted very much. We can’t count on his floor and he simply doesn’t have a very good ceiling. I hope you can find a better option than Hill or Pitts, but I’m inclined to trust the talent of Pitts even though it has been ultra painful so far this year.

Question #4 – Start/Sit

Do I start CJ Stroud or Deshaun Watson? – Jords

Answer: Taeloth, who had a question from earlier had a good answer for this. He went Watson since he’ll “Be airing it out without Chubb.” Kevin Stefanski is still going to lean into the run game, but Chubb is just on another level compared to any other RB on the Cleveland roster. Stroud will also be airing it out, but I like the receiving options Watson has a lot more, and Tennessee all but forces you to throw. We saw that last week when Joshua Kelley couldn’t get anything going on the ground while Keenan Allen and Mike Williams combined for 16 receptions, just shy of 200 yards, and two TDs.

Question #5 – Kyren Williams

My only good RB is James Cook and I’m looking for a second one. I have 5 great WRs Ja’Marr Chase, Mike Evans, DK Metcalf, Nico Collins, Chris Olave. I’m trying to trade one for Kyren Williams. Do I trade Chase or keep him? – Candres

Answer: I choose this question almost as much for the new value of Kyren Williams as for Ja’Marr Chase‘s. Williams suddenly has a prime opportunity on a Rams squad whose offense has been very good despite missing Cooper Kupp. Ja’Marr Chase has been a huge fantasy disappointment largely due to Joe Burrow clearly struggling with the calf injury he sustained during training camp. The bad news is Burrow reaggravated the calf last week and he’s questionable this week. Whether he plays or not, Burrow likely won’t be 100% before October which hurts Chase for the next few weeks. Still, I think it’s far more likely Chase helps with a playoff run than Kyren, and with those WRs, you should be able to navigate streaming a second RB. If you want to go the trade route, I would look to trade Nico Collins for Kyren or better.

This is also an interesting question because I like to build teams with strong WR corps meaning I’m constantly looking for RB2-types. Sometimes they become available on the waiver wire like Gus Edwards or Jerome Ford, but good backups are normally rostered somewhere. The best thing to do is proactively load up on RBs that already have a significant role and should get a great opportunity assuming the roster opens up in front of them. RBs that should be on RB-needy teams in no particular order include Roschon Johnson, Zach Charbonnet, Tyjae Spears, Devon Achane, Jaylen Warren, Antonio Gibson, Elijah Mitchell, Zamir White, Rico Dowdle, and Kendre Miller.

Kyren is now also a dynasty asset. I like him a lot for the time being, but there are two major concerns for me. For one he’s on the smaller side in the 195-200 lb range. The other concern is replaceability. I’m a little concerned the Rams add another RB this year, but I’m very sure they add at least one heading into next season. I am not confident Kyren will have the same role heading into next season. I doubt it gets done, but I made a trade offer of Kyren Williams and my 2024 Round 1 rookie pick (who should be a late first-rounder) for Chase in one of my dynasty leagues before seeing this question.

Question #6 – Start/Sit

Flex George Pickens or Tyler Lockett? – Will34

Answer: These two are back-to-back in the Footballers Week 3 rankings. There’s a conspiracy theory floating around that Pittsburgh doesn’t want to use Pickens more because they don’t want to break the bank on a blockbuster contract to keep him. Although Pickens only had four receptions last week, he was targeted 10 times. He also had seven targets in Week 1 so usage isn’t really much of an issue. The issue is the Pittsburgh offense has been abysmal. It may be true that Matt Canada is a sub-par OC, but we should also note Pittsburgh had matchups against back-to-back elite offenses in San Francisco and Cleveland. The schedule opens up for Pittsburgh starting this week against Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Seattle faces a Carolina team with a toothless offense meaning opportunities may be lacking for Lockett. I like Pickens better this week.