Fantasy Sports

With Baltimore experiencing multiple injuries on their defense, they turned to a veteran to help plug some holes. Van Noy, 32, played for the Chargers last season, appearing in all 17 games with 13 starts. He recorded five sacks, eight tackles for loss and nine quarterback hits while playing 70 percent of Los Angeles’ defensive snaps. While he will start out on the practice squad, the expectation is the veteran could be elevated to the active roster in a couple weeks if he can quickly get up to speed.

On Thursday, Lions head coach Dan Campbell said that Montgomery, who sat out Week Three with a thigh injury, is moving toward getting back in the lineup this week. “Two that are trending the most positive right now would be Decker and D-Mo. Those are the two I’m starting to feel pretty good about,” Campbell said. The Lions will have another walkthrough on Wednesday, but Campbell feeling good about Montgomery right now is a strong sign for his ability to play. If he is able to see the field, Jahmyr Gibbs would likely go back to something closer to his Week 2 usage, while Craig Reynolds would maybe be relegated to a small handful of carries, depending on how Montgomery feels.

While Barkley didn’t do a lot at practice on Tuesday, the Giants just had a walk through. Afterwards, Daboll was asked about Barkley’s status and said, “He’s really now, I’d say, in the day-to-day category. Feels a lot better today. But we’ll kind of take that all the way throughout the week and see how he improves.” Obviously, Barkley feeling better is a good sign, but there is still a ways to go before he gets back out on the field on Monday night against Seattle. With the Giants sitting at 1-2, they may be inclined to play their star if he’s close, so this is certainly a situation to monitor closely over the next few days.

When he was asked directly about being on the field on Thursday, Watson said, “That’s the plan.” Obviously, players are always a bit more optimistic about their chances to see the field than teams are, and Watson still has two days of work before the Packers will make the final decision, but it’s still good to hear a player say that he is anticipating being on the field. Getting Watson back in the receiving corps alongside Jayden Reed and Romeo Doubs would be big news for Jordan Love and the whole Packers offense on Thursday.

After Zach Wilson’s latest disastrous outing in Week 3 against the Patriots, the Jets have to do their due diligence and bring in a free agent quarterback or two. Siemian, who started one game for the Jets in 2019 and got one start for the Bears last season, would be an upgrade over Wilson because he is a professional QB. Jets head coach Robert Saleh re-committed to Wilson after the team’s Week 4 loss.

The Jacksonville offense, after another lousy first half against the Texans, came out firing in the second half, scoring on three of their first four possessions. That sparked speculation that Pederson had taken play calling duties away from offensive coordinator Press Taylor. “I communicated with Press and the offensive staff, you know, no more or less than I usually do,” Pederson said. “I think grabbing their attention at halftime and just letting them know that the first 30 minutes was unacceptable. It’s not up to what our standards are and our expectations, including my expectations for this football team.” If the Jaguars offense continues to struggle — they’re 29th in EPA per play — look for Pederson to get more involved with the direction of the unit.

The Chargers, according to Popper, “wanted to bring [Johnston] along slowly.” “That plan is out the window” after the team lost Williams to an ACL injury he sustained in Week 3 against the Vikings. Popper expects Johnston to inherit the deep 50-50 balls Williams had seen in the LA offense. Without Williams, Popper said, teams will be more likely to double team Keenan Allen, who has a career day Sunday against Minnesota. Through Week 3, Johnston — a first-round draft pick — has run a route on just 29.8 percent of the Chargers’ drop backs and managed five receptions for 28 yards. Johnston should be picked up in all 12-team leagues as a volatile fantasy producer who will likely play behind Allen and Josh Palmer.

The Bengals started the game by peppering Chase on the opening drive and Burrow continued looking his way for easy completions. Chase was largely confined to short area work on a night where Burrow’s mobility was affected by a nagging calf strain, but head coach Zac Taylor was able to move him around the formation enough to get him one-on-one coverage for most of the evening. Fantasy managers have to be happy with the Week 3 production after the electric wide receiver failed to provide solid counting stats during the first two games of the season. Next up is a more forgiving matchup with the pass-funnel defense of the Titans in Week 4.

Mixon continued to play heavy snaps for the Bengals and handled all but two running back opportunities in Week 3. His first touchdown of the year masked his continued low efficiency but salvaged his fantasy day, providing the first starter-worthy fantasy week this season. Mixon’s efficiency and upside could improve as the offense improves, after the Bengals have managed just 46 points scored through three weeks. That said, fantasy managers might want to make alternate plans with a matchup with the stout run defense of the Titans on deck for Week 4.

Burrow’s limited mobility showed through in Week 3 but he managed to gut it out through a troubling calf strain to lead his team to their first victory of the season. He keyed in on alpha wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, feeding his top target 15 looks in a primarily short area attack. The inefficiency and low yards per attempt were largely to be expected considering his inability to extend plays with his legs, but fantasy managers that invested a pick in the top six rounds of fantasy drafts will surely want more than what they’ve seen to this point in the season from Burrow. Burrow was also hurt by numerous drops from Tee Higgins which could have padded his stats on the night. Next up for the Bengals is a more forgiving matchup through the air when they travel to Tennessee to face the Titans in Week 4.