NFL Week 3 Preview
Here’s a few standard preface notes:
^ Notwithstanding the claims of any website to be your “home for Sunday morning injury report news,” nothing beats Google News – nothing. Entering a player name into this search engine trumps any other means of gathering information because it culls the data from an unbelievably wide variety of sources.
^ Especially earlier in the season, it’s always good to refer to a strong baseline of where players should have been drafted – and nothing beats FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009.
^ Unless there are any injury questions, we never discuss “gimme” players. Such core players should be started week in and week out unless there is any question surrounding their playing status. Winning teams only need to worry about “playing the matchups” with one, two or (at the most, during bye weeks) three spots in the lineup. With a full slate of games, and players drafted in a certain order for a multiplicity of reasons, we especially don’t advocate much juggling for the first two weeks of the season. Some websites promise you a crystal ball for how to manage high-risk, high-reward juggling during the season. We don’t. We play the percentages. That approach may be boring, but it’s highly effective and much more intellectually honest in what we promise you.
^ By the way, here are your core players who should not be benched if healthy
QB: Brady, Brees, P Manning, McNabb, Rivers, Rodgers, Romo, Warner
RB: M Barber, R Brown, Forte, Gore, Grant, S Jackson, Jacobs, C Johnson, Jones-Drew, Lynch, Peterson, Portis, Slaton, Tomlinson, Turner, Westbrook, D Williams
WR: Boldin, Bowe, Colston, Fitzgerald, Jennings, A Johnson, C Johnson, Houshmandzadeh, V Jackson, Marshall, Moss, Ochocinco, Owens, S Smith, Wayne, R White, R Williams
TE: Clark, Gates, Gonzalez, Witten
^ Links for each game take you to the CBS Sports home page for each game, with stats, analyis and even video previews.
^ All times listed are EDT.
^ Of the non-gimme players we like this week, the stronger plays are the ones in all caps.
Sunday, Sept. 27
Cleveland at Baltimore, 1 p.m. QB Flacco, RB McGahee, RB Rice, WR K Washington, WR Edwards, TE Heap
Pittsburgh at Cincinnati, 1 p.m. Both QBs, WR Holmes, WR Ward
Washington at Detroit, 1 p.m. RB K Smith, TE Cooley
Jacksonville at Houston, 1 p.m. QB SCHAUB, TE Daniels
San Francisco at Minnesota, 1 p.m. QB Favre, WR Berrian
Atlanta at New England, 1 p.m. QB Ryan
Kansas City at Philadelphia, 1 p.m. RB McCoy, TE CELEK
Green Bay at St. Louis, 1 p.m. WR DRIVER
N.Y. Giants at Tampa Bay, 1 p.m. QB E Manning, WR MANNINGHAM, WR S Smith, TE Winslow
New Orleans at Buffalo, 4:05 p.m. QB EDWARDS, RB Bush, WR EVANS, WR HENDERSON
Chicago at Seattle, 4:05 p.m. QB Cutler, WR Burleson, TE Carlson
Tennessee at N.Y. Jets, 1:00 p.m. TE Keller
Denver at Oakland, 4:15 p.m. RB McFadden
Miami at San Diego, 4:15 p.m. All-out on marginal players
Indianapolis at Arizona, 8:20 p.m. RB Addai, RB Hightower, RB B Wells
Monday, Sept. 28
Carolina at Dallas, 8:30 p.m. RB F Jones, WR Muhammad
NFL Week 3 Best Waiver Wire Pickups
NOTE: We only recommend plausible pickups; our threshold is 40% or less ownership in CBSSports.com leagues. These are not necessarily short-term picks, but ones that are the most likely to bear fruit before the end of the season. Players may well show up on this list more than once over the course of the season.
1 WR Garcon
2 WR K Washington
3 RB Choice
4 WR Nicks
5 WR Britt
Fantasy Drafthelp: Week 3 NFL Fantasy Advice
