Week three saw Jauan Jennings immediately pay off big for those that took the chance on the waiver wire last week, but the 49ers still fell late to the Rams. Here I’ll touch on a few of the talking points and trends from the latest round of NFL games, and let you in on who I’m targeting in fantasy this week.

Denver AND Carolina Win!

Just as I said in my week 2 round-up, the Broncos and the Panthers are showing real potential (no need to look, I definitely said it). Both road underdogs not only won their week three match-ups, but made it look pretty easy, with both Bo Nix and Andy Dalton looking really impressive.

Broncos 26-7 Buccaneers

Sean Payton slowly seemed to turn things around in Denver last season, producing a bunch of solid results later in the year after a horrible start. Things haven’t started brilliantly this year, either, but given they shipped 70 points to the Dolphins in week three of last year, things have definitely improved.

Denver’s defense had a really good day on Sunday as Baker Mayfield was sacked on 17.5% of his drop-backs, whilst finishing 35th among QB’s in yards per attempt.

Nix, on the other hand, was one of only four starting quarterbacks to avoid a single sack this week, alongside Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen – good company.

Nix was able to rush for six first downs to keep his team moving on Sunday which was tied for sixth in the league and first among QB’s. The rookie is still yet to record a passing touchdown this year, but was the third best rushing QB of the weekend with 47 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Panthers 36-22 Raiders

The Panthers went into this game as 5.5 point underdogs. That line may well have been greater but for Dave Canales making the smartest bet in Vegas this weekend, starting Andy Dalton over Bryce Young.

After two drives each, both teams had found the end-zone, making it 7-7, but sixteen unanswered points then set Carolina on their way to a comfortable win as Antonio Pierce’s Raiders relied way too heavily on Gardner Minshew. Las Vegas have rushed for just 153 yards this season, less than half the league average.

In his first start of the season, Andy Dalton threw for 319 yards on Sunday. This was the most yards thrown by a Panthers quarterback since week three of last season, when Andy Dalton threw for 361 against Seattle.

The fact that the two best passing games that Carolina has had since Bryce Young was drafted have been the only two games that he didn’t start, is both astounding and a little sad. It’s the kind of stat that is impossible to not notice for a young man that no-doubt had huge dreams coming into the league, I’d honestly be astonished if he came back from this.

Skol Season!

The Minnesota Vikings continued their eyebrow-raising start to the 2024 season with an emphatic win over the Houston Texans on Sunday. The Vikings are one of only five teams yet to lose through three games, having sailed through what looked like two of their most daunting match-ups over the last two weeks.

In arguably the best defensive division in the NFL, Brian Flores’ system is the talk of the town right now. The Bears defense is looking good again, the Packers lead the league in interceptions, Aiden Hutchinson leads the NFL in sacks (6.5) and has over 50% more QB hits than anyone else in the league.

The Vikings however, are a different beast. Minnesota ranks second in points allowed, tied for seventh in passing yards allowed/attempt, tied for third in rushing yards allowed/attempt, second in interceptions and first in sacks – phenomenal.

The Vikings are one of only three teams in the modern NFL era to record at least five sacks and one interception in each of their first three games of a season.

Fun* Facts

The Minnesota Vikings, Buffalo Bills and New Orleans Saints all have the third best points differential in their respective histories, through the first three games of a season.

After Monday night’s hammering by the aforementioned Bills however, the Jacksonville Jaguars now have the third worst points differential in their history, through the first three games. Not much better are the Miami Dolphins, who have only had a worse differential, at this stage of a season, three times in their history.

* The amount of fun taken from these facts may vary.

Week Four Waiver-Wire Targets

If your leagues are similar to mine, you should still have until tomorrow morning to finalize your waiver claims.

This week, I’m interested in Calvin Austin on the Steelers. I won’t be bidding a lot of my budget on Austin, as his week three usage (4/5-95-TD) may well prove to be an outlier and I may be cutting him in a week or two. Nevertheless, it was an impressive week for Austin, and I’m at least intrigued ahead of week four.

Lil’Jordan Humphries is another player I’m looking at, as he seems to be getting more looks than expected in Denver. Humphries has quietly seen a higher snap-share than supposed WR2 Josh Reynolds in both of their last two games, also overtaking the veteran in targets in week three. With Bo Nix looking more confident each week, Humphries could be a factor as he starts to feel more comfortable throwing downfield and into the end-zone.

Last but not least, Tre Tucker has definitely gained the trust of Gardner Minshew in Vegas. Tucker flashed potential last year on gadget plays and this year has popped up on NFL Redzone on a number of occasions with big catches.

Tucker’s stat line (11/14-131-TD) in week three was definitely inflated by the game-script that Vegas were facing against Carolina. Even so, I fully expect the second-year receiver to continue producing, perhaps even getting some work on the ground as the Raiders try to liven up their run game.

Buy Low Opportunities

Week three saw a whole host of sleeping giants show signs of life, Amari Cooper, Deandre Hopkins, Christian Kirk to name a few. Whilst great for them, it’s made this week’s buy-lows much harder to identify, but there’s still opportunity out there.

Tucker Kraft is a name that pops out to me, especially in a season that has been a struggle so far for fantasy managers at tight-end. I was originally looking at Green Bay receivers, but the imminent return of Jordan Love will be baked in to any negotiations at this point.

Kraft though is a much less popular name and is almost certainly not starting for whoever has him on their roster. It’s also not particularly well-documented that Kraft has dominated Luke Musgrave in the snap-share department this season (96%-25% with Love in week one), contrary to the popular narrative that the two split time between them.

Overall, trading for Kraft should be very doable at the moment and there is a very real possibility that he turns into a low-end TE1 moving forward.

Jaylen Waddle and Mark Andrews are both potential buy-low’s this week, though I’d only go there if you have a lot of depth in a certain position and can afford to give-up someone good, as they still won’t be cheap.

I’d love to add a few more players here, but I won’t reach for the sake of content. I fully believe in Kraft as a buy-low, and would encourage you to enquire about Andrews and Waddle, but I’ll end it there.