Every Saturday morning, I'll take a quick look at all the week's games, offering my own brief take on what I think will happen, as well as touching on significant injury news since our Weekly came out. I'll check in every so often over the course of the day to answer lineup questions, too.
What follows is a brief look at all the games with how I'd react in my own lineups to injury developments or other news. The official rankings are the ones in the Weekly. Those are the ones that subscribers are paying for, and should take precedence. But sometimes players are very close, and in those cases I'm glad to offer opinions on how I'd approach those situations. Sometimes I like certain players more or less than Ian, and sometimes I have different risk tolerance with injuries etc.
If a guy is 20 spots higher in the rankings, that's a question you probably don't need to ask. Trust the rankings. If I don't get to your question right away, fear not -- I'll get to it by the end of the day Saturday. Sunday morning might be too late, sorry; we try to post news if there's a surprise inactive/suspension etc. OK, on to the games.
Titans at Falcons: Another year where the Titans have a nice game early on to fool people into thinking they'll be good and then fall apart. That's what I'm seeing with this Mariota-led (for now) offense. But Atlanta's defense hasn't done much yet, so Derrick Henry looks like a legit option. Delanie Walker yes, but that's it for the passing game. Corey Davis was waived in a couple of my leagues this week, probably not on the roster of many (any?) Index readers. Titans better versus the pass, but I think you use their key starters anyway.
Browns at Ravens: Picked the Ravens in my Survivor pool. Divisional battles can be tricky and I'm not sure how good the Ravens defense actually is, but the Browns just seem a mess. Beckham and Chubb the only players I'd consider here. I like Jackson, Ingram and Marquise Brown for the Ravens. Sounds like Mark Andrews will play, but all these limited or missing practices mean you need to watch the inactives on Sunday morning just in case.
Patriots at Bills: Would be nice to believe the Bills rise up and punch the AFC East bully in the mouth this week. Lot of history against it, but maybe. But I'm steering clear of all Bills. New England has Julian Edelman questionable and no lock to play. Burkhead also questionable but expected to play. Gotta check the inactives before using either player. Hopefully Burkhead being less than 100 percent helps James White.
Kansas City at Lions: Danny Amendola is the noteworthy questionable, given that he's been busy thus far and is facing a soft defense. Matthew Stafford also questionable but he's almost certainly playing. For Kansas City it will be a LeSean McCoy-Darrel Williams tandem. I picked up Darrel in a few spots and am using him. You know the drill with the Kansas City wideouts. They're working with the game's best quarterback and each could put up huge, multi-touchdown games, or be the team's 3rd-best wide receiver. The risk is what it is. I like Kerryon, Golladay and perhaps Marvin Jones in this one. Hockenson iffier, needs to be consistently involved in the passing game. One game out of three doesn't cut it.
Panthers at Texans: Carolina has some offensive line concerns, and so does Houston. But at least Deshaun Watson is used to it, we'll see about Kyle Allen. Using Houston passing game, Carolina's too. McCaffrey, duh. Nothing too major going on here.
Raiders at Colts: T.Y. Hilton is banged-up, and although not practicing isn't a huge concern, being listed as doubtful is. I'm not using him. Mack, Jacobs and both Ebron and Waller are the appealing players. Lukewarm on the quarterbacks and wideouts.
Chargers at Dolphins: I don't have Melvin Gordon anywhere. But if I did, I'd use him and Austin Ekeler. I think Ekeler will play the most, but Gordon's going to have to play some and given the matchup will probably run for 50-60 yards and a touchdown at some point. No Mike Williams, but I'm wary of investing too deeply in replacements like Dontrelle Inman. He's a maybe, Keenan Allen is the definite. Not interested in Miami's offense, at all.
Washington at Giants: Terry McLaurin has been awesome through three weeks. But he picked up a hamstring injury in practice on Thursday and sat out Friday. Reports say it's mild and he was held out for precautionary reasons; most likely he's playing. But whether you use him depends how good your other options are, given the risk of a setback. I'm benching him, currently, for James White in a PPR flex spot. I could still change my mind. Neither defense is any good so I'm using main Giants receivers and yes Wayne Gallman. If you picked him up this week, go ahead and use him -- why pick him up if not to use him against a lousy defense?
Seahawks at Cardinals: Another game where I'm not sure either defense is much good. I know Arizona's isn't, and Seattle hasn't been impressive either. Fitzgerald, Kirk, Lockett, Metcalf, and the quarterbacks. David Johnson and Chris Carson, though it seems Rashaad Penny might be available. Oh, and Will Dissly, but I think I've talked enough about him.
Bucs at Rams: Another option for Survivor Pools, though Tampa Bay did win in Carolina (albeit with a half-dead Cam Newton leading the offense). Love the Rams offense in this one. For the Bucs, I'm sitting Chris Godwin. Sounds like he'll give it a go, but it's a tough secondary to match up wide receivers with and he's not 100 percent. Basically Mike Evans and perhaps Jameis Winston are the Bucs I'd use. Kind of can't sit Evans down after last week, but a tough matchup.
Vikings at Bears: A lower-scoring affair. Dalvin Cook is the appealing player in this game, Adam Thielen and perhaps David Montgomery. And the defenses.
Jaguars at Broncos: Another lower-scoring affair. Doesn't sound like Jalen Ramsey will be available, either due to injury, illness, childbirth, trade demands, all of the above. That's a plus for Emmanuel Sanders and Courtland Sutton (the negative being Joe Flacco). Leonard Fournette looks OK and the Broncos running backs are in a committee and facing a tough matchup, so not ideal, but it can be hard to find starting running backs.
Cowboys at Saints: Hey, it's a fun Sunday night game. The running backs look great and most of the Dallas offense too -- Cooper, Prescott, maybe even Jason Witten in TE-friendly scoring systems. For the Saints, Michael Thomas. Probably a higher-scoring affair, but I'm wary of guys like Bridgewater, Devin Smith, Jared Cook, Ted Ginn. I dropped Wil Lutz for Zane Gonzalez this week, I have more faith in Arizona's offense right now. Hard to believe, I know.
Bengals at Steelers: Whoo, one of these teams will get a win. Probably, unless the NFL gods want to subject us to five quarters of Steelers-Bengals and a tie. In one league I have Mixon and Conner and I'll be using both players (and likely losing big after Sunday). Neither team has played defense very well to this point, so both offenses have some appeal. Within the context of 0-3 teams meeting on Monday Night Football, that is.
Enjoy the games.
--Andy Richardson