Detroit Lions
Matthew Stafford, Golden Tate, Kenny Golladay
Stafford and the Lions should take advantage of a Packers secondary that has been plagued by injury and poor play through the first four weeks of the season. Kenny Golladay saw just four targets last week but converted all of them into catches against a tough Dallas secondary. In his previous three games, the emerging receiver saw seven, nine, and 12 targets respectively and brings good size in a matchup against the undersized Packer secondary. Golden Tate has seen eight, eight, 13, and 15 targets over his last four games with at least six catches and 69 yards in each contest. Last week Tate broke out in a big way catching all eight of his targets for 132 yards and two touchdowns. He presents good upside with his run after catch ability while being a dependable target in a high-volume passing offense. Leading the charge of this high-volume passing attack is Matt Stafford who has attempted at least 30 passes in each game this season while completing at least 24 of those attempts in each contest. Stafford has had two games (week 1 27 completions on 46 attempts) and (week 2 34 completions on 53 attempts.) I expect a similar workload here in a game that should be high-scoring and close throughout.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Vance McDonald
In the game with the highest total on the board, exposure to this game will be heavy throughout all contests which I’m fine within a game featuring two poor defenses. The Falcons defense has been losing players due to injury left and right and Ben is looking to bounce back after a poor home performance last week against Baltimore. Antonio Brown is yet to have one of his typical monster games through the first four weeks of the season but I think that we are in for that this week. He’s seen 11, 9, 17, and 16 targets over the last four weeks and has found the end zone on three occasions. Look for Ben to get AB involved early and often. Vance McDonald presents good value at the tight end spot this week with not much clarity at the position. With that said, expect McDonald to be a popular play but one that should pay off as he did last week catching all five of his targets for 62 yards. This stack presents value with McDonald and Ben, especially on DK allowing you to run it back with Julio Jones from the Falcons passing attack.
Philadelphia Eagles
Carson Wentz, Alshon Jeffrey, Zach Ertz
With most looking to the 1 p.m games for exposure this week, this game should fly under the radar and has the making of a potential shootout. The Vikings defense is solid but they have shown to be vulnerable at times, specifically against the Bills and Rams. Wentz is in his third week back and is looking more and more like the player we saw last season. Coming off of good week against a solid Titans defense on the road (33.50, 348, 2), Wentz is in the driver’s seat again this week at home. One of those Wentz touchdowns went to the returning Alshon Jeffery who missed the first three games of the season recovering from surgery on his rotator cuff. Jeffery had eight receptions on nine targets for 105 yards and that score. There’s a chance that he sees some Xavier Rhodes in this spot which should scare some people off of him. I spoke on the tight end scarcity this week when talking about Vance McDonald as a value play. On the opposite side of the spectrum, paying up for Zach Ertz could pay off in a big way. Ertz has seen 10 and 14 targets in the two games since Wentz returned with 15 catches and 185 yards. He should be a heavy target in the middle of the field. To run this Eagles stack back, the clear-cut option that I’m looking at is the rock-solid Adam Thielen. He’s seen 12, 19, 13, and 12 targets respectively over the first four weeks of the season with 8, 14, 12, and six catches. Kirk Cousins has shown over the years that he loves to distribute the ball to the middle of the field and Thielen has shown last season and so far this season to be one of the more dependable targets in that area in the league.
GOOD LUCK!!
