Fantasy Football – Thursday Night Football Preview Week 2

Week 2 is just about here and it’s kicking off with the Baltimore Ravens visiting the Cincinnati Bengals and here’s what you need to know about the matchup!

Thursday night football brings out some different reactions among some people and the quality of football isn’t always great. I personally don’t play one game slates almost ever, so this breakdown is possibly going to be more useful for seasonal players but there should be plenty of information to take if you want to try your hand in DFS Thursday night. These division rivals have seen each other plenty of times before so let’s see who’s a good play and who isn’t.

Baltimore Ravens 

I don’t think many folks would need to do it, but Joe Flacco may not be the worst play from this game. Believe me, I know how gross that sounds. Clicking submit on any lineup with Flacco in a quarterback slot is likely to cause some heartburn but he really seemed to click with his new weapons last week against Buffalo. It may have taken 53 passing attempts but the Bengals defense did allow the sixth most passing yards last week and were one of only eight teams to give up 300 or more in the air. Flacco now has Michael Crabtree, John Brown and maybe even Willie Snead as a solid three man corps. No receiver saw more than six targets last week and perhaps a little surprisingly, Crabtree had a higher aDOT than Brown.

Baltimore didn’t have to stretch their passing game out last week since they smashed the Bills so throughly and we still don’t fully now how they plan to utilize these three. The under the radar weapon in the passing game could wind up being Nick Boyle. Flacco and the Baltimore offense have targeted the tight end position among the top 10 in the NFL the past two season. Boyle also led the team in red zone targets with three this past week.

Some players might be scared of Alex Collins after he laid a dud at their feet last week but I’m not particularly concerned here. Yes, he did fumble and that’s typically going to be an issue but the Ravens have two active running backs on their roster as of this writing in Collins and Buck Allen.

While they likely call up someone from the practice squad for an emergency, this is going to be the Collins show with a liberal amount of Allen sprinkled in. In DFS and deeper leagues, I think Allen is a really nice play since he’s involved int he passing game and the red zone. Collins got very little work last week but I contend the Ravens were saving him on a short week since the didn’t need him. I’ll bet he sees at least 16-20 carries this week and maybe even more than that if the game goes towards Baltimore.

Ravens Players to Consider 

Starters – Alex Collins, Buck Allen in deep leagues

Potential Starts – Joe Flacco, John Brown, Michael Crabtree, Nick Boyle

Cincinnati Bengals 

We loved the Bengals last week but the Ravens defense is a lot different from the Colts defense. There’s two locked in starters and that’s A.J. Green and Joe Mixon. Green gets to deal with a Ravens secondary without Jimmy Smith, who’s suspended and that doesn’t hurt Green at all. These two players ate up 53 percent of the total targets last week and Mixon is clearly the work horse on this team. He racked up 22 touches to just two for Gio Bernard. If he continues to get that type of volume, he’s going to be no worse than a top 15 back. The Ravens did allow 83 yards rushing to a team that didn’t have a legitimate quarterback last week so Mixon could do some work here. Regardless of the match-up, Mixon is must start until further notice.

The secondary options are a little more unclear at this point. John Ross score his first NFL touchdown last week and played on 65 percent of the snaps. That’s the good news because he basically didn’t see the field at all last year. The bad news is he only saw two targets, one of which was a three yard fade for his touchdown. Until he becomes more involved int he offense, he’s a dangerous start in any format regardless of the fact that he can burn a defense at any moment. Tyler Eifert only saw 22 plays last week as the Bengals ease him back onto the field and he didn’t draw a red zone look.

However, as bad as the tight end position is right now, you’re likely going to start him by default. If I’m looking at DFS, I think Boyle would be a nice pivot away from Eifert and potentially even the better play outright. It just boils down to touchdowns for the big man for the Bengals. I think either defense can be a candidate to start but there is a little more risk. Both offenses are better from their 2017 forms, even through one game.

Bengals Players to Consider 

Starters – Joe Mixon, A.J. Green

Potential Starts – Tyler Eifert(starter in seasonal), John Ross, Tyler Boyd in deep PPR

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