The Tampa Bay Buccaneers added Antonio Brown to the COVID IR list Wednesday. We know that the Buccaneers are 100% vaccinated, which means we know what Brown needs to do to be able to play this Sunday. He must receive two negative test results, 24 hours apart. As of Thursday morning that seems increasingly unlikely, so we're not ranking Brown for Week 3 and you should make alternative plans as well.
Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, and Rob Gronkowski were going to be started everywhere anyway, and this only increases their Week 3 target projection. The Rams have a very good defense, but this game has an over/under of 56, so Vegas doesn't seem to care. Neither should Fantasy managers.
What is more interesting is whether a deep sleeper emerges in Brown's absence. The Buccaneers embarrassment of riches at wide receiver includes incredible depth. Tyler Johnson, Scott Miller, and Jaelon Darden all possess upside if given the opportunity.
Miller and Johnson have both played 20 offensive snaps so far this year while Darden has yet to see the field. Johnson has three targets to Miller's zero, so he's my favorite as a DFS punt play or sleeper in a very deep league, but it's a coin toss between the two. Both need a touchdown to make a significant Fantasy impact, and their scoring odds are significantly higher than the average third or fourth wide receiver because of the offense they're playing in.
If nothing else, Week 3 may give us a peek into the future value of Tampa Bay's fourth receiver should Brown, Evans, or Godwin miss significant time later in the year.
Here is the rest of the Week 3 WR Preview:
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Week 3 WR Preview
The following players are not being projected to play Week 3 at this time. Here's what it means:
WR Preview
Numbers to Know
- 50% -- Brandin Cooks was targeted on nine of Davis Mills' 18 attempts in Week 2.
- 309 -- Air yards for Courtland Sutton through Week 2, the most in the NFL.
- 22 -- Targets on the season for Mike Williams, one more than teammate Keenan Allen.
- 4.4 -- Average depth of target for JuJu Smith-Schuster; incredibly that number has gone down further from 2020.
- 19% -- Target share for K.J. Osborn. We've never seen the third option in Minnesota this involved in the Kirk Cousins era.
- 41.2% -- Catch rate for A.J. Brown so far this year. He's been over 60% each of the past two seasons. Buy low.
- 0 -- Jakobi Meyers still has zero career touchdowns on 137 targets.
- 46.5 -- The Raiders are averaging 46.5 pass attempts per game, the most in the NFL.
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Matchups that matter
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Waiver Wire Targets
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Heath's Projections
So who should you start and sit this week? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 3 rankings for every position, plus see which QB is going to come out of nowhere to crack the top 10, all from the model that has out-performed experts big-time.
