Welcome to the Week 2 fantasy football therapy and complaint desk. In this article, I address inquiries received in the AMA channel (general-AMA) on our Discord. Let’s commiserate together. I want to know who ruined your week and which players you are generally concerned about after the second week of the football season.
In most situations, we should be patient, especially with proven veterans in solid situations. But to paraphrase Yogi Berra, it gets late early when you are staring at a 0-2 record. Here are some of this week’s submissions along with my responses.
- Fantasy Football Waiver Wire Pickups
- Weekly Fantasy Football Expert Rankings
- Fantasy Football Start/Sit Advice
- Fantasy Football Trade Tools
Fantasy Football Therapy & Complaint Desk
Do I sell my abomination of a player, Nico Collins, before full panic mode? That offensive line and, by extension, C.J. Stroud can’t do (anything). And they look stagnant.
Nico Collins has just 77 receiving yards through two games after averaging over 80 yards per game in each of the last two seasons. However, Houston has faced two good defenses (the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers) to start the season. They should have a much better time of it over the next couple of weeks.
The Texans face the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tennessee Titans in their next two games. This past week, we saw Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins combine for over 220 yards and two touchdowns against Jacksonville, while Puka Nacua and Davante Adams combined for over 240 yards and two scores versus Tennessee.
The trade question is always an interesting one because you may have a glaring need you can address by dealing Collins. But considering it’s only been two weeks, I would still hold tight. I can certainly understand the frustration, and the point about the offensive line is a valid one. But Houston’s offensive line was not good last season either.
In fact, the team ranked just 26th in offensive DVOA (defense-adjusted value over average) in 2024, including 25th in pass offense, but that did not prevent Collins from balling out. Keep the faith.
Should I try to trade Chase Brown and/or Breece Hall if an opportunity comes up? Chase is better, but I’m concerned with Jake Browning at QB. Should I be worried?
Call me crazy, but I actually would not be worried about Chase Brown in light of the Joe Burrow injury. Much of Brown’s value in fantasy football comes from his dual-threat ability. When Jake Browning saw an extended run in 2023, he targeted Joe Mixon quite a bit.
Mixon caught 26 passes in eight games, and Browning only averaged about 30 pass attempts per game. Mixon also averaged 20 carries per game in those eight games. Brown should get plenty of volume. Even if his efficiency dips slightly, he remains a must-start every week.
Breece Hall is tougher to gauge. The Jets have a decent offensive line and want to run the ball. Those should be good signs for Hall’s outlook. However, we saw what happened last week when they fell behind. It can get ugly quickly. That is the case for plenty of running backs, so it is not as if Hall is alone in that regard.
If I were to trade either Brown or Hall, it would be Hall for me. Having said that, I want to set a specific target or fill an area of need. I would not trade him for pennies on the dollar just to get rid of him. He still has a fair amount of value.
Got an offer for TreVeyon Henderson in half-PPR. Henderson and Kyle Pitts for Emeka Egbuka and Evan Engram. I have Tony Pollard, Cam Skattebo, Zach Charbonnet and Kaleb Johnson (who I might drop at this point). It’s for my Flex spot. I have CeeDee Lamb and Drake London as my WRs and Trey McBride as my TE. (2 WR/RB, 1 TE and 2 Flex.) Have Jordan Addison as well stashed on my bench. Should I just be patient?
This is an interesting deal because I would rather have Emeka Egbuka and Evan Engram in a vacuum, although that may be my Kyle Pitts PTSD talking. But I do not know if I would pull the trigger on that trade given your roster construction. Your wide receivers (CeeDee Lamb, Drake London and Jordan Addison) and tight ends (Trey McBride and Kyle Pitts) are a stronger unit than your running backs. I do not see an RB1 among that group.
That is not really a criticism — you have two WR1 candidates and two TE1 candidates. I think you’re in excellent shape if you can find whatever running backs emerge due to injury or other circumstances. I think it is just as likely that Henderson breaks through at some point.
As good as Egbuka has been, he has overperformed in terms of fantasy points compared to targets. Chris Godwin is also close to coming back. Even if it takes him several weeks to ramp up his workload, I do not know if I would rank him higher than Addison moving forward.
Of course, with bye weeks and injuries and two Flex spots, you could find a way to start him most of the time. But I think I would keep rotating running backs based on matchups until TreVeyon Henderson, Cam Skattebo or Zach Charbonnet can wiggle their way out of their respective timeshares.
Bill (Jacory Croskey-Merritt) was very underutilized, and Brian Thomas Jr. and my Michael Penix Jr./Drake London stack was terrible. It didn’t help that I went up against the Ja’Marr Chase/Lamar Jackson/De’Von Achane manager.
Hey, if you’re gonna lose, might as well get blown out, right? I lost one head-to-head matchup by under two points and another one in which I benched Bryce Young, Wan’Dale Robinson and Tucker Kraft. Those are the kinds of things that drive me up the wall. I’ll take a blowout loss any day of the week compared to that.
I will say this, though — I do not know if you have a better option at quarterback than Michael Penix Jr. on your roster, but I would not have started him just for stacking purposes with Drake London. I think some fantasy managers go a bit overboard trying to stack instead of just starting their best players. If Penix was your best option on his own, then I do not mind it. Better luck next week.
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