Top Fantasy Football Storylines after Week-3

0:11 What's up, everyone? Welcome into the show. I am your host, Chase Daskalos. And every single Monday, we're going through the numbers and the data of what happened in the fantasy football world on Sunday. Player performance, opportunity, usage, team trends, league trends, you name it. I got the numbers on it featuring next-gen stats and NFL Pro. We're going to go through my biggest takeaways from most of the games in week three. And the best place to start is actually from Thursday night, Falcons and Packers. This marked the return and the debut of Michael Penix Jr. in 2026 after he missed the first two weeks from his knee injury last season. And we immediately saw the boom of Drake London. He had a very quiet first two weeks

0:48 with Cooper Rush at quarterback. Then he goes nine for 194 on 10 targets against the Packers. This is the continuation of the insane splits that we've seen from Drake London with and without Michael Penix at quarterback. London is now up to 3.5 yards per route and a 36.6% target rate with Michael Penix at QB in his career.

1:09 Those are JSN, Puka Nakua level numbers, and he's a locked in top 10 wide receiver the rest of the way. And then of course, we saw just the special talent of Bijan Robinson on display. His jam is those outside zone runs, 17 carries for 155 yards and a touchdown on outside zone. It's the second most outside zone yards in a game in his career. Not much needs to be said about him. He is my and nearly everyone's RB2 the rest of the way behind only Jameer Gibbs.

1:37 Going to go through the Packers side too, and it starts with their 74% called pass rate this season, which is the highest in the NFL. They had just nine rush attempts as a team in week three, and with no Josh Jacobs and really no clue what that situation looks like, Packers, they're just airing it out. And it's great for Matthew Golden and Christian Watson. 30 targets for Matthew Golden so far this season, 29 for Christian Watson up to this point. Golden has the third most air yards in the NFL. Christian Watson ranks seventh. So there's just massive downfield opportunity for the duo. And Matthew Golden is looking like one of the biggest late round steals of fantasy drafts so far this year. For Jordan Love,

2:16 I guess, and for the offense as a whole, this offensive line could be a major issue. Jordan Love has now faced 38 quick pressures, which is pressures under two and a half seconds through the first three weeks. That's six more than any other player. So his fantasy production has been fine, but he becomes a risky play each week if he's going to be under this much duress.

2:36 And he has shown to be one of the more pressure sensitive quarterbacks in the NFL. I wanted to hit on some Seahawks commanders numbers on a really weird game where Washington puts up 33 on Seattle and wins the game. But Jadarian Price is in the doghouse. He lost a fumble in the first quarter. He has now played just 36% of the Seahawks offensive snaps this season and just 21% in the red zone. He's also accounted for just 37% of Seattle's running back carries and just 17% in the red zone. So that's three of 18. And keep in mind too, this is all without Zach Charbonnet. Charbonnet is still on IR. So Jadarian Price is unfortunately very benchable moving forward until we see, if ever this season, the

3:17 usage trend in a positive direction for him. And Jackson Smith and Jigba continued what has been a dominant historic start to 2026, 10 for 128 and two touchdowns against the Commanders. He's now gone over 100 yards in all three games. He's up to six touchdowns on the season. He's the first wide receiver in NFL history to open a season with three straight games of eight plus catches, 120 plus yards and a touchdown. He is now at 1.16 fantasy points per route this season, the record in a single season since 2016. His. 84 by Tyreek Hill in 2023. So we're just seeing this record-setting pace by JSN through three weeks. On the other side, Marcus Mariota was very respectable. 20.4 fantasy points. He threw three touchdowns.

4:03 And the Seahawks had allowed just 9.8 points to Drake May in week one. And just 6.5 to Jacoby Brissett in week two. So he was the first quarterback to put up double-digit fantasy points against the Seahawks defense this season. I think he's a streamable option as long as Jayden Daniels is out. And the Commanders get a very soft matchup next week against a Colts defense that's kind of struggling.

4:24 Chiefs at Dolphins started with a major bummer in the first quarter. Devon Achan goes down with what is now being reported as a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the season. After Achan left, Ollie Gordon was the only Dolphins running back with a carry. He finished with 17 carries, so a very fantasy viable workload for him.

4:42 He's worth going after on the waiver wire, though it is worth mentioning that Jalen Wright was inactive for this game. He definitely will be active moving forward. So it's not going to be 100% Ollie Gordon. But if you are an A-chan owner, I think Gordon is worth going after on the waiver wire. I think I believe Washington is going to get a ton of work too. We've seen him get carries in the past. And his usage as a wide receiver is much better this season. He's at 10.8 area yards per target in 2026. He was at 5.2 in both 2024 and 2025. So he's being used much more downfield. He has 191 incomplete air yards or unrealized air yards, which is air yards on incomplete targets to that player. That's the sixth most in the NFL.

5:23 Malik Willis is just chucking it downfield. 10.1 air yards per attempt so far in 2026. That's the third most in the league. For the Chiefs, it was a really weird game offensively. They only ran 49 offensive plays. That's tied for their eighth fewest in any game since 2016. But Kenneth Walker was productive per usual. We finally saw the involvement of Rasheed Rice that we've been used to.

5:44 He had just a 12.5% target rate in weeks one and two. That spiked all the way up to 50% in week three. In 2025, he was at 31%. In 2024, he was at 34.5%. Both of those numbers in 2025 and 2024 were top five among wide receivers. So this gives me a ton more confidence in Rasheed Rice moving forward. He's going to be used like the seasons that we've seen in the past. In Jacksonville, we got another dud from the Patriots. And this conversation has to start with Drake May. He has now been held under 10 fantasy points in all three games this season. He has scored 21.6 fantasy points in total. He's now committed seven turnovers, and the majority of them are from this massive regression in downfield passing production. On downfield passes in 2025, he

6:33 had a 61% completion rate. He threw 18 touchdowns and just six interceptions. Now in 2026, through three weeks, He's at a 43.3% completion rate, so nearly 20% lower. He hasn't thrown a single downfield touchdown. He's thrown six interceptions, which is the most in the NFL. So he has as many downfield INTs through the first three weeks as he had all season last year. Really bad play from Drake May, really sloppy play. He should be on your bench moving forward. The Lions escaped at home against the Jets 31-24. And this Detroit defense is a problem, but it's really good for fantasy shootouts. We got another massive performance from Jameer Gibbs, 41.4 PPR points. He's now scored 98.3 points through the first three weeks. That's the fourth

7:18 most by any player over the last 11 seasons. He's basically breaking fantasy football. Doesn't look like his pace is going to slow down at all. On the other side, the Kenyan Sadiq breakout happened. Career high 56% snapshot in week three. That was with Adonai Mitchell out. I just love tight ends that are used downfield. He averaged 9.1 air yards per target and put up 67 deep receiving yards.

7:41 That's actually the most deep receiving yards by a Jets tight end in a single game in the Nexion Stats era, which is since 2016. So reminder too, this is a tight end who ran a 4-3-9-40 and vertical jumped 43.5 inches at the combine. This is a special athlete with tons of upside and he flashed that on his incredible diving touchdown catch as well. Geno Smith has looked good this year too. So if you're like a Kyle Pitts owner or someone struggling at tight end, I'd look at Sadiq if he is available on your waiver wire. An ugly one in Buffalo that featured tons of turnovers, but this game is just the definition of the floor that Josh Allen has. It was basically a disaster all the way around, but he scored two rushing touchdowns. He salvaged

8:20 his day to score 17 fantasy points. The involvement and production from DJ Moore is a big takeaway. Now in two full games in weeks one and three, He has a 39% target rate, and he's put up 3.6 yards per route. This is coming off a season in Chicago with career worsts, 16.2% target rate, and 1.3 yards per route.

8:42 So very clear connection with Josh Allen early in Buffalo. And the Chargers are just a disaster. They fall to 0-3. The schedule coming up is absolutely brutal. Seattle, Denver, Kansas City, bye week. Rams, Texans, Ravens. Yikes. The 49ers took down the Cardinals at home, and Brock Purdy continues to play on fire. He is now the QB2 behind only Josh Allen after 31.3 points against the Cardinals. EPA per dropback is a metric that is very heavily correlated to the NFL MVP each season, and your EPA per dropback leader through three weeks is Brock Purdy. This was also finally the Jeremiah Love takeover, 21 carries to Tyler Udgear's two.

9:25 He's got a career-high 26 opportunities. That was 21 carries. and five targets. He played a career-high 63% of offensive snaps. And Jeremiah Love really wasn't playable the first two weeks of the season, but he has to be in your lineup moving forward after seeing this usage. It looks like his ankle's healing. He is a must-start moving forward. The Raiders were 2-0 without Brock Bowers. They are now 3-0, and Brock Bowers saw 13 targets in his first game back.

9:50 He caught 10 for 116 and a touchdown. So in his first game of the season, he's the tight end one on the week. Special talent. really un-Gore player. Clint Kubiak is going to use him in ways that make him just undefendable. When lining up out wide against the Saints, he saw eight targets. He caught six for 81 yards.

10:09 He's just a matchup nightmare. He could win you your week every single week at the tight end position. Tyler Shuck is looking like the best late round quarterback pick through three weeks. He's finished as a QB eight. QB8, and QB5 in each week. The Saints lead the NFL in total plays ran by 20. The play volume is just insane in New Orleans in terms of pace of play.

10:29 They're playing as the second fastest team in the league. So whoever the Saints are playing each week, that game is going to set up as a very fantasy friendly game environment. Tyler Shuck is looking like a locked in top 10 fantasy quarterback the rest of the season. And we saw a wild game in Brazil, and I wanted to take the time to just contextualize the small sample production that we've seen from Zay Flowers so far this year.

10:51 He did end up playing in week three after missing week two with a hamstring injury, but he ran just 15 routes on 24 Lamar Jackson dropbacks against the Cowboys. So just a 63% route participation. But my goodness is he cooking. He saw six targets, five receptions, 84 yards on those 15 routes, which now puts him at 9.0 yards per route through the first three weeks. He's run 26 routes now on the season. So a fun small sample exercise out of any player to run at least 25 routes across the first three weeks of the season since 2016. His 9.0 yards per route is the most in the NFL by 1.8. So essentially on a per route basis, he is off to the best start by any player over the last 11 years. seasons i'm going

11:38 to end these episodes each week with my biggest move to make in fantasy and this week it is by zay flowers by hi by whatever you have to do to get him on your team immediately all right that's going to do it for this week three edition of the show we'll be back every single monday throughout the season sifting through each week's data appreciate everyone for tuning in we'll be right back here for week four