Part of fantasy football is making good choices on how to adjust after the first couple of weeks have gone by. Just because you drafted a player a few rounds ahead of another doesn’t mean they should be starting for you. This is the week to start evaluating and making those pivot decisions to the guys who were either drafted in the later rounds (or not at all) to give you a better chance to win. Here are 3 guys I am trusting to put in my lineup over the next 3 weeks or beyond.
Jahan Dotson – WR, Washington Commanders
Nobody loves trusting QB Carson Wentz to get the ball to their receivers. However, he’s done well enough recently to thrust this rookie wideout into a solid role on the Commanders offense. Over the last two weeks Jahan Dotson has had 5 targets each game and has scored a total of 3 touchdowns, which makes him good enough for WR 15 (PPR) on the year. While he is slightly undersized at 5’ 11”, 182lbs, he has made well for himself in the Red Zone and is 4 for 4 on contested catches with zero drops. He has a total of 18% of his team’s red zone targets and is sixth in the league for total deep targets, with 4, and an ADOT of 15.3. I want those kinds of numbers from a rookie. According to our own Matt Olson, Dotson is third in Fantasy Points Per Target and is ahead of Tyreek Hill, Allen Robinson, Gabriel Davis, CeeDee Lamb, Mike Williams, Tee Higgins, and Dionte Johnson in Opportunity Score.
If that isn’t enough for you, the matchups from Week 3 to Week 6 provide some juicy opportunities for Dotson. This week against Philadelphia I expect that CB Darius Slay will likely follow Terry McLaurin and the Eagles as a whole will focus on containing him and Curtis Samuel. That leaves Dotson with some easier individual matchups. Dotson lines up on the outside roughly 72% of the time and in the slot the other 28%. He’s most likely to see Bradberry a decent amount who tied for the league lead last year in touchdowns allowed. The Commanders defense does not look like anything special and will force the offense to be in plenty of passing situations. After this week it’s Dallas, Tennessee and Chicago, all of which are great matchups for Dotson to keep things rolling.
Dotson is someone that you should strongly consider starting in front of players like Darnell Mooney, Juju Smith-Schuster, Jerry Jeudy, and even Brandon Aiyuk.
Michael Gallup – WR, Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys WR Noah Brown is currently WR #18 on the season. If you don’t know who that is, that’s okay. What you do need to know is that he has received 14 targets (19.7% target share) and is gaining 15.9 yards per reception. Brown is also listed #2 on Matt Olson’s Opportunity Score chart referenced above. All of that opportunity is about to shift to Michael Gallup, where the Cowboys actually want it to be. Gallup is coming off of a knee injury and coach Mike McCarthy seemed to indicate that he may not see a full amount of snaps this week against the Giants. As much as he may want that to be the case, the reality is that the Dallas receiving corp needs as much help as it can get so we may see a significant usage right from the start. Outside of CeeDee Lamb the WR room in Dallas is a bunch of warm bodies and JAGs. Third round rookie Jalen Tolbert hasn’t even found his way onto the field. Gallup will step right back into his role from last season and this time Amari Cooper won’t be there to compete for targets.
Last year when Gallup was on the field (a total of 9 games) he averaged 7 targets per game, and a 12.7 yards per catch. That placed him in front of players like Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. He also posted a 16.6% target share as the 3rd WR option. You can expect that to be at a healthy 20% for the remainder of this year. After the Giants, he’ll play Washington, the Rams, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago. While you may be cautious with him this week unless you need a spot start in a flex position, he should be a great pivot option moving forward, specifically for the next 5 weeks.
Consider playing Gallup instead of Allen Lazard, Elijah Moore, and Jerry Jeudy.
Evan Engram – TE, Jacksonville Jaguars
The tight end position is a challenge every year. So far in 2022 nothing has changed. In fact, it may be worse. Kyle Pitts is TE #35 on the season and George Kittle hasn’t even played. Over half of the people in your league still are needing a tight end who is startable, and reliability is elusive for the TE position in fantasy. The solution may just be Evan Engram. While Engram has shattered the hopes and dreams of many a fantasy player in years past, I believe you can get some solid production out of him over the majority of the season. The best part is he probably isn’t even owned (21% on Sleeper as of 9/22) and you can pick him up right now.
Engram is TE #12 on the season and he has yet to score a touchdown. That is partially due to the fact that Jaguars’ QB Trevor Lawrence hasn’t looked to him yet in the red zone. However, he has collected 12 targets over the last two games and has caught all but 1 of them. He owns a 17.6% target share, which is #10 among TEs. He has also seen 44 snaps out of the slot according to PlayerProfiler, which is the same neighborhood as Mark Andrews, Darren Waller, and Zach Ertz.
I’m not here to tell you that Engram is going to win you a week with a thirty-five point game, but in the world of the tight end wastelands I do think he is the perfect guy to help make sure you don’t lose one. He has a second year QB who seems to be comfortable going to him, and a head coach in Doug Pederson who is well known for his appreciation and use of tight ends.
You should feel good starting Engram instead of TEs such as Mike Gesicki, Hayden Hurst, Dalton Schultz, Irv Smith, and TJ Hockenson.