Miami Goes Nuclear vs. the Broncos! ☢️

It’s a bad day to be a Broncos fan.

What’s in store:

• Sound the alarm on the Jets and the Bears 🚨. Neither has the look of an offense worth targeting for fantasy.

• Jahmyr Gibbs takes on a full complement of work. Montgomery was out, and the spotlight was the rookie’s on Sunday.

• Takeaways from Sunday’s games! See what Zach had to say about the most consequential games.

• The Dolphins demoralize the Broncos with a 70-burger 🍔. Enough said.

• Lions TE Sam LaPorta dominates in breakout performance, WR Josh Reynolds blanked in win

  • After seeing his production take a step up from Week 1 to Week 2, LaPorta turned in what qualifies as a breakout performance in Week 3 as he reeled in his first career touchdown on the day. Not only that, but he also garnered 11 targets on the day, which was second on the team only behind Amon-Ra St. Brown. He’s finished as a Top-12 TE in every game this season, and he will likely float into the mid-TE1 range moving forward in many rankings. As for Josh Reynolds, a popular waiver wire addition last week after catching two touchdowns in Week 2, he put up a bagel and left fantasy managers hanging. With LaPorta taking on a larger role potentially, Reynolds is likely to remain as a spot starter at best on a weekly basis.

• Jahmyr Gibbs takes on full workload in the Lions offense

  • After watching Craig Reynolds handle the work left behind by David Montgomery’s injury in Week 2, Jahmyr Gibbs took on the brunt of the workload in Week 3. He handled 17 carries on top of both backfield targets for the Lions, which he turned into 82 scoreless yards. Despite the production not matching the utilization, this was still an encouraging performance from Gibbs. He’s had trouble getting off the ground so far this season in terms of fantasy points scored, but we know very well that production will regress to the mean when the utilization is there – and it is.

• Jets and Bears offenses are dead in the water, put up 10 points apiece in tow offensive collapses

  • Both teams are dealing with quarterback play that has been drastically worse than either team could have hoped, and that’s tanking the fantasy values of all players involved. Not only does Garrett Wilson offer next to no relevant upside going forward after being drafted as high as the first round this offseason, but the run game in New York is also in trouble with defenses able to sell out to stop it. Unless there’s a change at quarterback in the future for the Jets, he will continue to be borderline unstartable. Meanwhile in Chicago, there’s no clear path to improvement in quarterback play unless Justin Fields can turn things around in a hurry. The rushing production has vanished for Chicago’s best offensive player, and that’s reduced him to waiver wire option at best in 2023.

• Woah. Derrick Henry saw next to no work in this game. Granted, the Titans were playing from behind the entire time, and Tyjae Spears didn’t get a whole lot of utilization on that work – but it seems obvious that Tennessee isn’t interested in this being exclusively Derrick Henry’s backfield.

• Kendre Miller didn’t look fantastic in his debut, so that’s something. Tony Jones and him put up very similar rushing lines, but Miller didn’t get much in the receiving game. Most importantly, he didn’t put himself on the map moving forward. Nothing to panic about and he can still complement Kamara with Williams out, but the arrow is still pointing sideways for his stock.

• Tank Dell is looking like a very nice fantasy asset in the pass-first Texans offense. He’s become C.J. Stroud’s favorite target, and he was targeted down the field in this game where that had initially been Nico Collins’ role. Collins still had a role, but Dell is probably the best talent in Houston’s WR room.

• Snap share is not only falling for Dalton Schultz, but the production is nowhere to be found. If you haven’t dropped him already, there’s nothing to lose by doing so. There are better targets on the waiver wire at this point.

• Travis Etienne’s workload is still looking good, even in a negative game script all game. He saw 24 total opportunities with 19 coming on the ground, and supplemented that work with 50 receiving yards. The trouble? Tank Bigsby vultured the lone touchdown in the ground game. That’s not anything to be overly concerned about in the bigger picture, but the thorn is sticking in Etienne’s side as we predicted.

• There wasn’t a play in the Dolphins playbook that didn’t work today, and that’s meant in the most literal sense. Devon Achane was the highest scorer of the day, and he needs to be a priority waiver wire target heading into this week. Should you expect this type of offensive performance again moving forward? No – you shouldn’t expect this type of performance to happen again inside this decade. But he proved that he belongs in more than a complementary role in the Dolphins backfield, and he should get it.

• Zack Moss was a monster again from a utilization standpoint, carrying the ball 30(!) times in the game and adding a receiving touchdown. Jonathan Taylor’s return is coming so you won’t be able to sell him high – but you can take advantage of his production for one more week, which is made all the more sweet by him likely being a waiver wire addition or a stash that’s come through in a big way for your team.

• Josh Downs is a waiver wire target this week after tying Michael Pittman for the team lead in targets this afternoon. The production was minimal, but he’s got upside to be a useful PPR flex play on a weekly basis as the Colts top slot target.

• The Jets are a mess offensively and everyone is suffering for it. The Garrett Wilson sell window is closed until there’s a change at quarterback, and his breakout is essentially canceled at this point.

• Breece Hall is starting to separate himself when it comes to workload, but his upside is hurt by virtue of being on an offense that can’t move the ball to save their lives. It’s going to be too easy for defenses to play the run, so any value that he picked up this week in terms of his utilization increasing is nullified by the offense playing that much worse.

• Sam Howell was awful against the Bills, who are looking much better after their debacle in Week 1 against the Jets. The Commanders offense had nothing going and were playing from behind all day, and the turnovers kept them from capitalizing on a negative game script. Don’t worry about Howell yet – it’s his first game where he’s truly looked like a rookie, and it’s his fourth start in the NFL.

• Keenan Allen did Keenan Allen things today, and we could see a similar target volume moving forward with Mike Williams banged up after being carted off. Josh Palmer came in and scored the go ahead touchdown for the Chargers, so he could have an inflated value for a few weeks here if Williams misses some time. Quentin Johnston can be added but I’m still not interested in starting him unless it’s in a desperate spot.

• Oh yeah, and Josh Kelley has had a lot of trouble doing anything without Austin Ekeler in the backfield. It’s hard for him to do that with Justin Herbert throwing the ball 47 times, but the reality remains that Kelley hasn’t even come close to sniffing the production he had with Ekeler on the field.

The Dolphins laid a 70 burger on the Broncos and Dolphins players definitely contributed to a lot of fantasy football wins this weekend, even before Monday Night Football is played. Not one, not two, not three, but FOUR players finished with 28+ points, and TWO running backs scored four touchdowns apiece as the Dolphins threw the Broncos into the water.

On a day where Tua threw for 300 yards and four touchdowns himself and put up a season-high fantasy total on the season with 28.34 points, the Dolphins also had a 200 yard rusher in Devon Achane. Achane also hauled in two receiving touchdowns, while Mostert added one on the day.

Tyreek Hill also added a 30+ point performance in the receiving game on a day where the Dolphins were without the services of Jaylen Waddle. Translation: this offense wasn’t even at full strength. The Dolphins had over 150 fantasy points across four different players on Sunday, which is more than a lot of fantasy teams score altogether on a given week.