Fantasy Football Player Notes

AJ Green is a fantastic start this week as a WR3 option with upside in this matchup. Denzel Ward will remain on John Ross' side of the field, which should negate him from any fantasy relevancy, but that leaves Green lined up on Terrance Mitchell. With the target volume that Green saw in week one, he's a solid bet to finish within the top-24 this week.

It wasn't a great start to the season for Boyd, who caught just four passes for 33 yards in Week 1. It was a tough matchup no matter where you looked against the Chargers secondary, but he still had the best cornerback matchup on the field, so it was disappointing. The Browns are a plus-matchup for slot receivers, as even Willie Snead was able to exploit that last week, torching them for 64 yards and a touchdown on just four targets. Boyd didn't have massive games against them last year when he posted 5/75/0 and 5/59/0. Those totals aren't anything to latch onto, though, as they're under a new head coach and defensive coordinator, as well as having a new starting slot cornerback. Tavierre Thomas is the one who took over there and we watched him allow 3-of-3 passing for 55 yards and a touchdown in Week 1. There are many different avenues the Bengals can choose to attack this matchup, so there's some volatility here with Boyd, though I'd still feel confident playing him as a WR3.

He only walked out of last week's game with two catches for 17 yards, but the encouraging sign for Ross was that he was an every-down player. He actually led all Bengals skill-position players in snaps. Zac Taylor also seemed to take it easy on Burrow in his first game, giving him a bunch of short throws, allowing him to ease into the NFL in a tough matchup. Knowing how often Burrow was under duress, it's no wonder we didn't see many deep passes. The Browns registered a sack on 6.9 percent of dropbacks last year and 7.1 percent in Week 1, so it's not likely he'll have a lot of time to look downfield in this game. The difference in this matchup is the cornerback play, though, as the Browns don't have near the cornerback or safety talent that the Chargers do. The downside is that their best cornerback, Denzel Ward, typically sticks at LCB, which is where Ross runs most of his routes. They moved him around, so it's not exclusive, and it's possible they decide to have Ward shadow A.J. Green. Ross is someone who should be owned in fantasy leagues, but he's still a boom-or-bust WR5 until we see Burrow and him connect. He's a one-play upside tournament play in DFS, though.