When choosing my lineup last week for a playoff league where you can use each player only once, I neglected to select Nico Collins. I'm not really sure why, since I thought Houston would lose, and it wasn't really surprising that the ultra-talented Nico outperformed the guys I did use. Question now is whether he's got one more big week in him.
I will for sure be using Collins this week, but he's at Kansas City, facing one of the league's top defenses and one that allowed only 20 touchdown passes during the season. How might Collins fare in this matchup?
I pulled out the numbers from all opposing No. 1s to face Kansas City this season. The list includes Collins himself, who caught 6 passes for 70 yards when Houston faced this defense a month ago.
Straight off the numbers, looks like he should be OK. He sure looked good against the Chargers last week, setting the tone for the rest of the game on Houston's long touchdown drive to take a lead it never relinquished. And No. 1 wideouts against Kansas City this year averaged a healthy 6 catches for 78 yards. Not otherworldly numbers, and a few surprising duds (like Ja'Marr Chase early in the season). Those players also caught only 5 touchdowns in the 15 games I included. (More on that in a moment.) But no reason to shy away from Collins in this type of league, if you haven't used him yet.
The two games I left out from Kansas City's schedule were San Francisco, which lost both Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk in the first half of that game, and Tampa Bay (which didn't have either of its top two wideouts available). In both games, opposing TEs George Kittle and Cade Otton had strong weeks. But I wanted to stick to No. 1 wideouts. One other note: Ladd McConkey missed the second Charger game, so I used Josh Palmer as the No. 1.
| NO. 1 WRS VERSUS KANSAS CITY | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Tgt | No | Yds | TD |
| Flowers, Bal. | 10 | 6 | 37 | 0 |
| Chase, Cin. | 5 | 4 | 35 | 0 |
| London, Atl. | 9 | 6 | 67 | 1 |
| McConkey, K.C. | 7 | 5 | 67 | 1 |
| Olave, N.O. | 4 | 2 | 27 | 0 |
| Meyers, L.V. | 7 | 6 | 52 | 1 |
| Sutton, Den. | 9 | 6 | 70 | 1 |
| Shakir, Buf | 12 | 8 | 70 | 0 |
| Thielen, Car. | 4 | 3 | 57 | 0 |
| Meyers, L.V. | 11 | 6 | 97 | 0 |
| Palmer, LAC | 9 | 6 | 78 | 0 |
| Jeudy, Cle | 14 | 11 | 108 | 0 |
| Collins, Hou. | 10 | 6 | 70 | 0 |
| Pickens, Pit. | 7 | 3 | 50 | 0 |
| Sutton, Den. | 7 | 5 | 98 | 1 |
| Average | 9 | 6 | 78 | 0.2 |
I'll be using Collins and hoping for similar reception and yardage numbers and perhaps a touchdown this week.
--Andy Richardson