NFL DFS game by game breakdown: Week 3
By Joe Metz
Welcome to Week 3’s NFL DFS game-by-game breakdown! These will be weekly pieces that are published every Wednesday or Thursday morning, giving you a comprehensive look at every single game of the week from Thursday through Monday.
If I would have asked you not one who the top-scoring overall NFL DFSplayer from week 2 would be, but the position they played, would you have guessed a defensive unit? I didn’t think so. The Patriots defense took the league by storm on Sunday en route to 35 FanDuel points against the Dolphins, carried by two second-half pick-sixes. It’s raised a ton of debate on whether or not defenses should be included in fantasy football and daily formats, but regardless of which side of the debate you fall on, no changes will happen this season.
You were extremely likely to cash your cash games if you played the Patriots defense, but there were another handful of chalkier options that did not pan out, including, but not limited to Derek Carr, Sammy Watkins and Leonard Fournette. On top of that, we saw two hall-of-fame quarterbacks in Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger go down with significant injuries. Brees will miss a minimum of 6 games, while Roethlisberger has been shut down for the season. These two injuries will drastically change the landscape of each offense and ultimately affect their matchups in general, leading to some interesting decisions in roster construction.
This week, we’re presented with even more enticing matchups as well as an additional week of data to dig into. With two weeks under our belts, the roles that each player is set to play this season are becoming more clear, leading to more quantitative rationale when it comes to plays, so let’s get to the week 3 breakdown!
*Player grades courtesy of Pro Football Focus (PFF), DVOA rankings courtesy of Football Outsiders, target share metrics courtesy of NFL Savant.