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Joe Burrow might be in for a big performance against the Cowboys in Week 2.
We broke ground on this spicy little number last week. #PICANTakes on Twitter is all about calling your shots with outlandish-but-plausible fantasy football predictions on a weekly basis. You can check out the Week 1 Hot Takes column right here.
To review, I had an inkling that Tom Brady would show some rust under the pressure of the Cowboys’ fearsome front to the tune of six sacks and three turnovers. The GOAT looked a bit rattled on a couple of sacks by Micah Parsons and threw an uncharacteristic pick that he forced into a tight window, but he and the Bucs handled the Cowboys with ease through their own defense and a stout rushing attack led by Leonard Fournette.
Next, I felt like the defenses in the Ravens-Jets game would be overmatched to the tune of a sneaky shootout. Between the rainy weather and New York’s outright refusal to run the damn football (even though their two RBs averaged 5.2 yards per carry), the game total settled at only 33 points in an easy win for Baltimore. The recipe to earn an upset win has never, and will never, include 59 passing attempts by Joe Flacco.
Those were the two bad ones. The other two were between pretty good and oh-so-close. The pretty good one offered up the possibility that the Dolphins would dominate their division rivals from New England by double-digits (check!) in an “offensive explosion…” Miami did, in fact, win by 13 points. They did not, however, score as many points versus the Patriots’ defense as I had hoped. The Dolphins enjoyed a pick-six and a fourth-down crosser to Jaylen Waddle that showcased his incredible speed to account for their two touchdowns in steamy South Florida. Half credit? Sure, I’ll take that.
The final prediction from Week 1 was the spiciest… and the closest I came to a scintillating start to the season. I thought D’Andre Swift would run roughshod against the highly-overrated Eagles defense, and he did! Swift was not the top-scoring player in fantasy but was RB3 behind Saquon Barkley and Jonathan Taylor and ninth overall with his 26.5 PPR points. The second half of the prediction was a Lions upset victory over the Birds, but alas, they came up just short in the 38-35 slugfest. I am encouraged by these results, as it tells me we’re going to nail a bunch of these opiniones picantes in 2022.
Week 2 has plenty of downright addicting allure in its storylines, but that didn’t stop me from digging even deeper for the spiciest takes in the biz. Here are the Week 2 #PICANTakes in all their glory!
If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, be sure to check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup, based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant – which allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team, and by how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.
It pains me to rag on my Cowboys, but they looked absolutely awful on Sunday night. The Bengals lost in a thrilling overtime game to the Steelers, but the injury to their long-snapper prevented Money Mac from nailing two game-winning field goals. Cincy was also dealt a major blow when Tee Higgins left the game in the first half with a concussion. Despite committing five turnovers, Burrow finished as QB6 on the slate with 338 passing yards, 47 rushing yards (!!!) and two touchdowns through the air.
Dallas was able to heat up Tampa Bay last week at times but was seriously outmanned by Mike Evans and Julio Jones. Ja’Marr Chase has been barbecuing Trevon Diggs since his days in Baton Rouge and should be his unstoppable self in this game. Even if Tee Higgins is not cleared to go in this game, the slack can easily be picked up by Tyler Boyd, Hayden Hurst and Joe Mixon. The latter two are primed for the best matchup advantage against the softest parts of the Dallas defense. I don’t even know if the Cowboys will be able to score their first touchdown anytime soon with Cooper Rush at the helm. I guess there’s always next year.
As a DFS player, narratives often give way to raw data and predictive analysis. For an article of such anecdotal nature as this one, I love to play into the personal side of these players. Davante Adams is from Northern California (shoutout) and his grandparents have not yet watched him play in the NFL… until this week. The Raiders host the Cardinals in their home opener at Allegiant Stadium and Adams’ grandparents will finally get to witness his greatness in person as he eviscerates one of the worst secondaries in the NFL.
The hodgepodge Chiefs receiving corps took Arizona’s lunch money through the air last week, to the tune of 360 yards. Adams had himself a banner performance in Week 1, earning 17 targets for only the third time in his career. He might earn more than that on Sunday afternoon and I can definitely envision Derek Carr finding his Fresno State homie for multiple touchdowns. I identified Arizona as a huge letdown team before the season started and I won’t back down from that after their pathetic showing at home last week.
We are all prone to overreacting to certain things, especially Week 1 performances after an entire summer of suspenseful buildup. Chicago was dealt four inches of rain last Sunday. I’m surprised that there weren’t more tules and waterfowl on the field than football players. Naturally, moving the football down the field was a challenge for both offenses in that slog. The fact that the two QBs involved in the game were the two young bucks with the most to prove this season just adds more fuel to the “disappointment” narratives for each of them. I think they will both be fine… more than fine. Fields and the Bears pulled out the sloppy win over the 49ers, and I think they will accomplish a sharp win over the Packers this week.
Maybe it was the impressive nature in which Minnesota’s new offense dominated Green Bay under Kevin O’Connell, but the Packers looked slow. At one point the Vikings had somehow aligned Justin freaking Jefferson across from edge rusher Preston Smith in the mismatch of the millennium. Dalvin Cook also gashed this defense for 90 yards, while the Packers appeared to be running in the mud like they were at Soldier Field. I don’t see Justin Fields’ growing pains lasting as long as it will take Aaron Rodgers to figure out who he can trust in his group of awful receivers. A couple of big runs and some timely scoring and the NFC North will be upside down through two weeks.
I really like Elijah Mitchell as a player. I had him scouted as the superior RB over Trey Sermon in the 2021 draft class and I’m proud of it. His absence in this offense with the knee injury is a stern reminder that RBs under Kyle Shanahan are like the compostable paper straws they made us switch to here in California; they just don’t hold up. The mere mention of Jeff Wilson’s name tears the scab off an old wound. You might not remember, but Wilson was a high-end RB3 in 2020. He scored 162.8 PPR points in only 12 games on the heels of 10 touchdowns. I was one of the poor saps that drafted Raheem Mostert. Jeff Wilson was vulturing touchdowns from Mostert even before the speedster went down with a knee injury after eight games.
Noted liar Kyle Shanahan has already announced that the 49ers will “ride the hot hand at RB.” If we examine his modus operandi, Shanahan only means that they will ride Wilson until he drops his bayoneted musket and leaves it for the next man up. Rookie Jordan Mason was active last week in the Chicago monsoon but did not see the field except on special teams. Tyrion Davis-Price was inactive, so he is very unlikely to shoulder much work at all in Santa Clara this week. The only ball carriers for San Francisco in their home opener will be Wilson, Deebo Samuel and QB Trey Lance. The field conditions will inevitably be better than they were last week, but rain is unbelievably in the forecast for NorCal on Sunday. Seattle looked very efficient against Denver on Monday night in their surprise win. The 49ers’ record under Shanahan is even farther under .500 after their choke loss against the Bears, so why couldn’t the Seahawks do it again?
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If you want to dive deeper into fantasy football, check out our award-winning slate of Fantasy Football Tools as you navigate your season. From our Start/Sit Assistant – which provides your optimal lineup based on accurate consensus projections – to our Waiver Wire Assistant, which allows you to quickly see which available players will improve your team and how much – we’ve got you covered this fantasy football season.
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