Week Three Automatics/Don’t Do Its

Follow@cimini Kansas City and Philadelphia kickoff week three. Notjustagame.com has your automatic starters and don’t do it’s from players that garner extra thinking before inserting or benching in your fantasy football lineups.

Automatics

Alex Smith Smith has done enough with his legs and arm to be a borderline fantasy backup quarterback. If there was an opportunity for Smith to solidify himself it is this week. Philadelphia’s defense struggled poorly in the preseason and it has carried over to the first two games of the regular season. Philip Rivers Sometimes a name gives more positive attention to a team than it should. I think that’s the case for Greg Williams and the Titans defense. For the first two weeks they faced Big Ben and Matt Schaub. Schaub has shown to be a second half quarterback the first two weeks of the year, and we all know the issues going on in Pittsburgh. Rivers on the other hand has played well in both of San Diego’s games. Rivers seems to be meshing well with his new head coach and offensive coordinator in Ken Whisenhunt. Look for San Diego to continue calling proper plays and Rivers to deliver solid stats. DeAngelo Williams Carolina is catching a lot of negativity for their sluggish finishes to games. But it is nowhere near how poor the Giants have played. After Knowshown Moreno gashed the Giants defense, you can expect Williams to continue that success Sunday. Then maybe the Panthers will try to open up the passing game with Cam Newton. Joique Bell When given the opportunity Bell has flourished. He’ll have a chance to crack the top eight fantasy backs this week going up against the Washington Redskins poor defense. What’s good about Bell is he matches his yards with touchdowns with his chances on the field. Vincent Jackson To propel Josh Freeman out of his misery and back to the capable quarterback he is, the Buccaneers are going to need to force feed the ball to Jackson. There is nothing wrong with that as Jackson has proved he can be targeted and get the Buccaneers offense rolling. Look for Tampa Bay to revamp their offensive strategy and let Freeman gun it down the field against the Patriots this week. Jackson and Mike Williams should both be top twenty fantasy wideouts this week. Harry Douglas Matt Ryan is a gunslinger and is heading to Miami to deliver the Dolphins their first loss. Miami is a pressure style defense that thrives off of sacks. They were able to get after Andrew Luck and Brandon Weeden to propel the Fins to victory the first two weeks of the season. This week Miami’s defense will take a step back against a quick release quarterback such as Matt Ryan. Douglas will continue his spurt of yardage but with an added touchdown. Mohammed Sanu Sanu offers a low risk high reward, and I think he is one of the sleepers still left on a ton of waiver wires in leagues. Green Bay’s off to a hot start offensively but if it were not for the way Aaron Rodgers has played, their poor pass defense would be a hot topic. They’ve given up a ton of yards to RG3 and Colin Kaepernick in the first two weeks of the season, and are prone to giving up the big play. Expect Andy Dalton to look in Sanu’s direction for blown coverages off of extensive help by Green Bay on the other side to AJ Green. Others: Jason Witten, Chris Givens, James Jones, Danny Woodhead, Santana Moss, Reuben Randle, Kyle Williams, Terrelle Pryor, Cecil Shorts, Emmanuel Sanders.

Don’t Do It

Carson Palmer New Orleans defense has been a force to start the year, and it has done so with blitzes. Carson Palmer is one of those hot and cold quarterbacks that will be tested against the Saints blitz this week. With Larry Fitzgerald not at 100 percent and Palmer still getting acclimated to the team, I would watchout for one of Palmer’s patented three to four turnover type of games. Arizona has notoriously played poor on the road and great at home. Drew Brees should also want revenge after losing to a Max Hall led Arizona Cardinals team in 2010. Tom Brady There comes a time when even the great quarterbacks struggle. Brady was irate the entire game against the Jets and had one of his worst completion percentage games as a quarterback (48%). Sometimes extended time following a game is good. This time coming off of a Thursday game with a player of Brady’s caliber is going to be a bad sign. His young receivers aren’t going to flourish against Revis and company. That may force Brady to press more than he would like. These two teams scrimmaged against each other in August when the Brady knee injury rumors ran rampant, and also played a preseason game against each other. This will be a much lower scoring game than fantasy football owners of Tom Brady would like to see. Russ Wilson Seattle’s offense is a bit different when you’re preparing to witness a blowout. Everyone knows Jacksonville has about as small a chance to win this game as Seattle did against New Orleans as a 7-9 division winner; wait the Seahawks did win. Anyways Seattle blows teams out with defense and a strong running game. Even last week’s 26 point win over San Francisco did not feature too much from Wilson. They’ll pound away at Jacksonville’s atrocious run defense and keep things basic with Wilson. Daryl Richardson Dallas has changed their ways on defense and has utilized it’s speed for relentless blitzes the first two weeks of the season. St. Louis looks to be balking on their move of promoting Richardson and letting Steven Jackson go. Richardson has averaged a poor average of just 3.3 yards per carry in two games. He is starting to look like a true 7th round pick and won’t have any success against the Cowboys this weekend. DeMarco Murray I’ve recommended sitting Murray for quite awhile now. In PPR leagues you may be able to get away with plugging him in your lineup. Standard leagues it shouldn’t even be thought of until you see consistency in the Cowboys ground game. Murray’s ineffectiveness might not be all on him, but Dallas isn’t showing the balance of pass/run to seek Murray as a starter. Though Dallas has been much better in pass protection, run blocking has been woeful. Alfred Morris Without the read option Morris’s stats are tumbling. Owners that strictly pay attention to weekly stats need to watch game footage and determine for themselves that Morris is declining with RG3’s poor performances. Detroit’s defense may be wreckless with penalties but they’re stout against the run. They shut down Adrian Peterson after he broke a long touchdown, and nullified Arizona from any success last week. They’ll do the same to Alfred Morris and force the Redskins to win through the air. Torrey Smith With Ray Rice likely out that is just another blow to an offense that has been dealt with blow after blow. That now leaves Torrey Smith as the main weapon on the Ravens offense. I’m not sold that he can handle that role. Just a year ago he had Anquan Boldin and Dennis Pitta alongside him. With Rice and Jacoby Jones out that is going to hinder Smith’s performances over the next few weeks. Look for Marlon Brown to benefit from the extra attention Smith gets. Mike Wallace Tannehill has looked terrific, but I think this week against Atlanta is going to be a true test of the Dolphins offense. Cleveland and the Colts bottom ten secondary aren’t going to compare to Atlanta, who will force the issue greatly with the way they can score. Miami got Wallace involved with some nifty plays early against the Colts. Atlanta should be able to take those quick routes away and force Tannehill to look in Brian Hartline and Brandon Gibson’s direction. Others To Sit: Joe Flacco, Julian Edelman, Rod Streater, Rashard Mendenhall, Josh Gordon, and James Starks