It’s @TheBLeagueSays here with this week’s ‘Game Plan’, where I give you plays to make for seasonal and daily roster construction, prop bets, and dynasty evaluations. Before you make any start and sit decisions this weekend make sure you check out our weekly rankings also.
Thank you, and enjoy!
Screen Route
Misfits, miscreants and the misunderstood…
The Texans have been telling us all season that they are a team of veterans banded together. Guys who have probably exceeded their bloated contracts elsewhere and were cut, tossed to the free-agent pool of oblivion for someone else to scoop up. But someone else’s trash is someone else’s treasure and for what it’s worth right now the Texans could use some like finding some flecks of gold as their nugget of worth isn’t even suiting up for games pending legal cases, or a trade, or whatever.
However, here’s where we ‘whiffed’ this weekend: we collectively went for the shiny new toy that breaks after one use and we should have known better because trusting the Jacksonville Jaguars on the road with a rookie quarterback and a rookie head coach, is still indeed a hot pile of uninspired garbage that even the most dysfunctional team in the NFL, the Houston Texans, put them through the wringer. That game wasn’t particularly close as the Jaguars worked their way back to a flattering scoreline as the Texans took their foot off the pedal and nothing more.
So where does that leave us? The Texans face tougher competition on the road to Cleveland who will be looking to bounce back after a tough road loss at Kansas. This week two matchup has been given a modest line set at 48 points, and the Texans have been given a hefty +12.5 point head start. I’m going to do what I should have done last week and trusted that the Texans are what they say they are, and that’s that they’ll be competitive enough to cover with the help of the 12.5 points given. Take the points, walk away, and don’t tune in. It’ll be better for your mental health if you don’t.
Comeback Route
Red rocket with a red rifle and a red hot opportunity…
You can hate Matt Nagy. You can hate that Justin Fields hasn’t been given the start already. You can hate that whole debacle the Bears have put out in the media isn’t to your liking. But do you wanna know what you can’t hate? This week’s chance for the Chicago Bears to rebound against a team that wants to draw you into ridiculously high-scoring games. In week one, the Bears in prime time got cooked by a Matt Stafford-led Rams team. You can’t hide from that. What we can’t hide from also is that Andy Dalton had nearly 40 passing attempts with a solid 71% completion rate. Now there was a lot to dislike also, whether it be the sacks or fumble lost or the frustration that was the Rams defense being just that much better than whatever the Bears tried to come up with.
But do you know what you can’t hate? You can’t hate that the Bears don’t play the Rams in week two, they now play the Bengals at home who just gave up 350 passing yards and a pair of touchdowns to Kirk Cousins (who if we are being honest) who is just Andy Dalton in a purple shirt. With Bengals players getting a bump up in price, I’m going to try and sprinkle in a few lineups that include combinations of Andy Dalton ($5200), David Montgomery ($6100), Allen Robinson ($6200), and Darnell Mooney ($4200). Don’t write off one bad week knowing that the Rams, who are a Super Bowl favorite, did what we expected them to do.
Slant Route
Two gloves, two touchdowns, and (probably) two wins to start the season…
The Denver Broncos were clinical in their dismantling of the New York Giants who fancied themselves as home favorites a week ago. Denver paid no attention and with their healthy defense back intact after a rough 2020 as they gave themselves a chance to win on the road. But it wasn’t Von Miller and his merry-men who caught the eye – it was Teddy Bridgewater and his clinical passing that made the difference on the day. He went for nearly 300-passing yards, a pair of touchdowns, and a solid 78% completion rate further asserted his dominance on Sunday with a league-leading QBR of 95.7.
Now we know that the Broncos lose Jerry Jeudy for 4-8 weeks with a high ankle sprain, but they aren’t bereft of receiving talent with Courtland Sutton and Noah Fant already stamping their names as guys that are must start moving forward with Jeudy’s removal, and K.J. Hamler has big playability. However, we have seen time and time again that Tim Patrick is always their ‘Mr. Reliable’ when it comes to stepping up and filling a vacant role. And if the small sample this weekend of 4-4-39-1, or last season’s 79-51-742-6 as a replacement for Sutton when he succumbed early into the season isn’t something that floats your boat as a priority waiver wire pick up for your flex position then I don’t know what will.
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Flat Route
Shit attitude, shit plays, and shit stains…
Mike Vrabel didn’t hold back with his comments regarding Julio Jones last week but if we are being completely honest – I have never heard a bad word spoken about the former Falcon regarding anything to do with his discipline, commitment, or attitude which makes this off the cuff remark feel like more of a (shit) storm in a teacup. Which makes his stance on that even more bizarre. Either way, it’s a nice thing that Vrabel did for his team by using this press conference to deflect from what was just a real overall shitty performance.
Shit jokes aside…
I love the matchup again this week for the Titans and you punters out there with a road trip to another NFC West monster in Seattle, who invite high-scoring games in for fun just like the Arizona Cardinals did last week. Currently, the Titans have been given the +5.5 headstart with the O/U residing in the 54 point range which I think can get there, and they’ll get there if Julio Jones can wipe the residuals of the Titans bowl that was their opening week one matchup.
The Go Route
A soiree for a savvy scalawag…
Okay.
We see you, Matt Stafford. We see you L.A. Rams. We see now what you guys have been saying all offseason. It was a Jared Goff problem IF THIS TEAM was the vision that Sean McVay has had this whole time. Jared Goff was fine, he did great for the Lions last week. But what we saw from the Rams? Who is going to stop that? I hope no one stops that… because just think of the DFS plays we can milk from the Rams and whoever they face on a weekly matchup!
But I hate being a week late and I hate overreacting and chasing last week’s points. Robert Woods could be a valuable play this week after having a quiet season opener. But it was Cooper Kupp in week one who looked the goods. And this week, at his tender price of $6000 he gets the luxury of facing the Colts who were absolutely torched by Russell Wilson, D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.
Tyler Lockett is probably more of an apples-to-apples comparison for Kupp. More so because he and Woods probably are not ever going to be compared to the physical specimen that D.K. Metcalf is. Still, Lockett popped for 26 points with a 5-4-100-2 TD statline which I don’t think is beyond Kupp on Sunday. It did help that Xavier Rhodes missed the game, I can’t overlook that. But if he is out again, Kupp, Matt Stafford $6400, and crew are worth a play in your cash lineups.
Hail Mary
Rejuvenating return to form for a pair of rebels…
Buffalo got punked by the Steelers in week one, which.. you know… I read about that happening somewhere… Ok maybe I didn’t call the result but I told you that game was going nowhere fast. And here I am, a week later, telling you the same thing. Except for the opposite. Sorta. Make sense? Anyways, Buffalo absolutely smashed Miami on two separate occasions in 2020 as they tallied up 87 points in those two meetings. Josh Allen went nuts. Stefon Diggs went nuts. Hell, even Antonio Williams went completely nuts, so much so that Plantars nearly had to change their name to ‘RBAW35’. I kid, but they should have.
The ‘hail mary’ section has always been a precarious section to write each week because I’m normally having to dig deep to figure something out. So how about we go completely off the grid with this. The O/U is currently standing at 48 points. I have the Bills rebounding in a big, big way by putting up 42 of those 48 points of the spread. Make what you want of this information. Do what you want with it (bad weather and injuries to key components aside) – it’s happening.
Out Route
Kyle’s killing dreams and kittens again…
Here’s the thing… if you’re going to throw up 31 points by half time then who the hell am I to complain about coaching philosophy, processes, and reasoning, right? Like we can complain about guys we drafted early because we know the quality of players like Brandon Aiyuk and Trey Sermon but to see them completely marginalized (one a healthy scratch, the other on punt return duties) was a bit of a mystery at the time. And in their absence, Elijah Mitchell and Trent Sherfield (making his second consecutive article, congrats bro!) stepped up and balled out – which is great for the 49ers and bad for our FAAB wallets. You can’t cut those guys you drafted, so there’s that also – you’re literally riding it out Dante Pettis style one more time to see if something changes for the players, coaches, or both.
Still, between the quarterback packages and the random running back roulette (as they now welcome in Kerryon Johnson of the Eagles practice squad) that gets constantly spun, added to the inconsistencies at receiver I just can’t with this San Francisco outfit right now. And what makes it worse, they have an awesome week lined up with the Eagles on the menu. The Eagles melted the Falcons faces last week like the 49ers did the Lions which has me just wanting to sit back and watch this one unfold instead of trying to figure out who to play and when – I’m out on this one for this week to see how it all settles down.
I want to thank you for checking this article out! As always you can follow me at @TheBLeagueSays and feel free to check out my @GothamCity_SR podcast (linktree) – subscribe, rate, review, share, and listen.
Let’s all get better together!
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