Wide Receivers
Start: Emeka Egbuka
I’m stacking the Bucs players this week. As I mentioned in the Fantasy Football Week 2 Start/Sit: QB and TE Decisions article, the Browns are a defense I want to target. I anticipate this being the case all year long. Their secondary is pathetic, and since they traded away their former star defensive end, Myles Garrett, they aren’t generating the same kind of pressure on opposing quarterbacks. This is a bounce-back spot for the Tampa Bay passing attack.
Consensus has Egbuka ranked as the WR20 this week, but there’s clear top-12 upside. As a rookie, Egbuka commanded 7.5 targets per game. Last week, he only saw six, but caught five of them for 63 yards. This was a solid performance, even if it doesn’t reflect it on the fantasy box score. Egbuka is the clear alpha receiver in this offense, as 30-year-old Chris Godwin commanded four targets, and only Bucky Irving out-targeted him with one more target.
This is the home opener for the Buccaneers, and they are 8.5-point home favorites. While this game won’t be a shootout, I expect the Bucs to come out firing on all cylinders to make up for last week’s dud passing game performance. Expect Baker to target Egbuka early and often against this porous Browns secondary. He’ll be starting confidently in my starting lineups where I own him.
Sit: Rashee Rice
While many will be quick to give the Kansas City passing game some grace after doing very little against Denver’s defensive unit, I’m much more concerned - especially for Rice.
Rice’s separation metrics were trending at one point this week on social media. He’s never been a good separator, so, interestingly, people are just now starting to talk about it. Managers drafted Rice because of his elite fantasy upside; however, there’s context as to what gets him there. The Chiefs haven’t managed to have a reliable or threatening run game in years, but that’s obviously changed with the addition of running back Ken Walker.