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 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 I don't get to your question, either I missed it (it happens) or the rankings are very clear. (If one guy is ranked a dozen spots above somebody else, I'm going to respect that more often than not; we put a lot of time into those things.) OK, on to the games!
Chargers at Falcons: Picked up DeAndre Carter, like many, hoping to use him against a bad Falcons pass defense. But he's showed up questionable with an illness, and now I'm afraid to use him given the results we got with sick Davante Adams last week. If you plan to start Carter you'll need to babysit your lineup all the way through tomorrow morning. Chargers offense should be productive, but I wouldn't be chancing the receiver options below Carter. Chargers defense is also godawful but might be a three-back committee for the Falcons. I will consider Drake London and/or Kyle Pitts.
Dolphins at Bears: Bears can't stop the run, so Raheem Mostert looks like a nice option. (Jeff Wilson is a backup, I realize you were starting him just 2-3 weeks ago, he is not usable today.) Tua looks OK and the wideouts are too productive to sit down. Bears passing game, well, some value, with Miami weakest defending it, but the overall production is still going to be modest. They're tougher on the run, and Bears are using a pretty even committee.
Panthers at Bengals: Tougher matchup for Carolina offense, but D'Onta Foreman viable matchup as a feature back. Cincinnati D certainly didn't look good on Monday. Offense should be fine, so Burrow-Higgins-Boyd-Hurst-Mixon, all starters this week. DJ Moore too, and in the league where I'm hesitant to use Carter I may have to resort to Terrace Marshall. Not happily.
Packers at Lions: Ugh. Let's talk about who looks good. Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jamaal Williams for the Lions. Aaron Jones for the Packers. Guys who look OK include AJ Dillon, Romeo Doubs and Robert Tonyan. I'm not going to use or recommend Allen Lazard maybe playing through a shoulder injury, and I'm very hesitant to use D'Andre Swift. Sammy Watkins wouldn't be in my lineup again if he were the only receiver Green Bay was putting on the field after last week's 1-catch performance (I lost a Watkins matchup by 9/10ths of a point, thank you very much). No Josh Reynolds, so Kalif Raymond is your desperation No. 2. No thanks to either Lions tight end, though I picked up James Mitchell in dynasty, what the hey.
Raiders at Jaguars: Should be more offense than defense in this one. I'm writing off the Las Vegas shutout last week as due to injury/illness. Should be fine here, facing a maybe jet-lagged Jaguars team. For Jacksonville, their offense should also be good, at least Etienne-Kirk-Engram.
Colts at Patriots: No Jonathan Taylor, and Nyheim Hines is in Buffalo. So fire up Deon Jackson, who should play close to full-time. Michael Pittman I suppose too, although Pittman's horrific drop in the final minutes of last week's 1-point loss that would have moved the Colts to the outskirts of field goal range kind of sticks with me. For the Patriots, Rhamondre Stevenson looks great, should be featured. Jakobi Meyers the top wideout. And I think we're done here.
Bills at Jets: Jets were looking good at 5-2, but after watching them stumble and bumble to a loss against the Patriots, I'm fully off New York going forward. Bills offense should be strong, Jets offense, I guess maybe Garrett Wilson, Michael Carter and Tyler Conklin. That be it.
Vikings at Commanders: Both offenses have some appeal here. No J.D. McKissic for Washington, but he hasn't played much anyway, so Antonio Gibson looks only slightly better than he already did. Using Brian Robinson somewhere and hoping he falls into the end zone at some point. Terry McLaurin and Curtis Samuel, sure, Jefferson of course, Thielen sure. T.J. Hockenson, some risk in his first game with his new team, but TE is kind of a wasteland these days, there are worse options. Like a Washington TE, as a for instance.
Seahawks at Cardinals: Thumbs up on both offenses. I realize they played a 19-9 game just a few weeks ago but I'm expecting more offense than defense. As usual, the key question is whether it will be James Conner or Eno Benjamin at running back. I have no idea. If Conner is out, I like Benjamin fine. If Conner is active, both backs are difficult to have confidence in. Main wideouts for both teams and quarterbacks, sure.
Rams at Bucs: How the mighty have fallen. These were two of the NFC's best teams a year ago. Now neither looks good. Key elements of the Bucs passing game and Cooper Kupp look good. Allen Robinson and Tyler Higbee acceptable. Leonard Fournette for his passing game role. That be it.
Titans at Kansas City: It's difficult to come up with a team that seems to have only one usable fantasy option, but here we are with Tennessee and Derrick Henry. Whoever starts at quarterback, Henry seems to be the only viable player. For Kansas City, uh, Jerick McKinnon is the usable running back, for his passing game role against a tough run defense (and I don't love McKinnon either). If I were going to start a wide receiver in this game, it would be JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Ravens at Saints: Another tricky one, with the Monday timing problematic. We'll have another round of practices or non-practices today to give us more information, but I have to write this thing now, so some guesses will be made. I don't think Gus Edwards is playing. So I think Kenyan Drake is viable as a starting running back this week. I'm not as certain about Mark Andrews, but I think his presence is iffy enough that I would be looking for other options and planning to play Isaiah Likely if I had him. The ideal would be to have either Andrews and Likely on the same roster, or one of them and Juwan Johnson. I don't know how many have that luxury. Demarcus Robinson popped up with a groin injury yesterday, making him an iffy choice too -- Devin Duvernay the safest Baltimore wideout. With the Saints, Kamara and Olave are the best choices, you're assuming some risk with any other players.
Enjoy the games!