If there’s one common, yet often undiscussed, mistake made by fantasy owners, it’s overlooking the real-life considerations made by teams and players. Every player, coach and GM in the league is aware that fantasy football exists, but they don’t care about what those of us in the fantasy world want and need. They’re trying to win real games, both now and in the future. That brings us to Carson Wentz, who would be coming off an MVP award, and possibly a Super Bowl MVP, had he not torn his ACL and LCL last December. As great as Wentz already is, he’s just 25 years old. He may not have been on the field in Minnesota against the Patriots last year, but, make no mistake, he led the Eagles to that Super Bowl title. In Philadelphia’s dream future, Wentz isn’t done leading them to Super Bowls. The window on his rookie deal may close soon, but the window of him as a championship-caliber quarterback is wide open, and the Eagles have every intention of squeezing all possible wins out of it. That’s why it always made sense for the team to retain Nick Foles and take it easy with Wentz’s recovery from knee surgery. A few games at the start of this season weren't likely to make or break Philadelphia’s 2018 campaign. So long as Wentz could return in September, or, at the very worst, early October, everything they hoped to achieve this season would still be on the table. More importantly, Wentz’s long-term health would not be jeopardized. In that same vein, that’s why Wentz’s fantasy owners should absolutely have him in their lineups this week. The Eagles are atop the NFC East at 1-1, looking down at a trio of teams that can’t look too threatening after the first two weeks of the season. If anything, the Eagles are a stronger bet to win the division now than they were at the start of the season, and that likely wouldn’t change if Foles started another game or two. Do you really think that after taking the recovery process as cautiously as they have, the Eagles would run Wentz out there before he was ready? Of course they wouldn’t. We know Wentz is cleared medically, and if the Eagles are willing to put him on the field, then chances are he can do everything that had him a couple of games away from an MVP Award last year. Wentz didn’t come at a discount in fantasy leagues this season, typically going as the sixth quarterback off the board in standard leagues. You didn’t pay that price so you could sit him in his first game back. Wentz will make his season debut for the Eagles this week. He should do the same for 100% of his fantasy owners, as well. With that, let’s get to the rest of Week 3 Start ’Em, Sit ’Em. Week 3 Fantasy Football Rankings Quarterbacks Start Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers (at Chiefs) In Week 1, the Chiefs allowed Philip Rivers to throw for to throw for 424 yards, 8.31 YPA and three touchdowns. He should have had five, but Tyrell Williams and Travis Benjamin both dropped easy scores. Last week, Ben Roethlisberger lit up the Chiefs for 452 yards, 7.53 YPA and three more touchdowns. Until further notice, you’re starting any good quarterback when he plays the Chiefs. Garoppolo qualifies. Matthew Stafford, Lions (vs. Patriots) Most Stafford owners are likely starting him, but he has a consensus ranking on FantasyPros of QB10, so I thought he deserved mention here. He’s my No. 6 quarterback for the week, and I think he has a better chance to finish inside the top three than outside the top 10. Stafford bounced back as expected last week, throwing for 347 yards and three scores in a loss to the 49ers. He wasn’t terribly efficient with 6.55 YPA, but he didn’t need to be thanks to 53 pass attempts. Stafford has attempted 99 passes already this year, and the Lions are 6.5-point underdogs against the Patriots in a game with an over/under of 52. There will be some points in this one. Ryan Fitzpatrick, Buccaneers (vs. Steelers) Through two games, the fantasy community needs to come to grips with the fact that the Buccaneers may have a truly explosive passing game. With Mike Evans, DeSean Jackson, Chris Godwin and O.J. Howard, the team features four dangerous pass-catchers, all of whom are vertical threats, including a legit No. 1 in Evans. So long as Fitzpatrick is guiding that attack, he’s going to be on the QB1 radar. He’s at the low end of it this week, but playing at home gives him a boost. It’s hard to look at what he has done the first two weeks, what Patrick Mahomes put up against the Steelers in Week 2, and not feel great about Fitzpatrick as a fantasy starter on Monday night. Superflex Special Andy Dalton, Bengals (at Panthers) This is not nearly as bad a matchup as suggested on paper. The Panthers held Dak Prescott in check Week 1, which may not prove to be much of an accomplishment, then got shredded by Matt Ryan, even though Julio Jones had just five catches for 64 yards. Dalton has delivered for his fantasy owners in both games this season, totaling 508 yards, 7.26 YPA and six touchdowns against one pick. With Joe Mixon out and Giovani Bernard a dangerous receiver, there will be even more emphasis on the passing game. Dalton is a strong QB2. Sit Russell Wilson, Seahawks (vs. Cowboys) Wilson saved his Week 2 game in Chicago with a strong fourth quarter, during which he threw two touchdowns. One, however, was completely meaningless, and the Bears held the Seahawks to 80 total yards through three quarters. This offense is a mess, and it’s taking Wilson down with it. The over/under on this game is 41.5, which seems comically high for two of the league’s most boring offenses through two weeks.<doc-sep>The Telegraph Two of the surprise packages of this clay-court season have been British – initially Dan Evans, who made a deep run in Monte Carlo, and more lately Cameron Norrie, who played his second final in three weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, Norrie wasn’t able to land a maiden ATP title in Lyon. But then he was up against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been the dominant force of 2021 outside the slams, and now stands at No 1 in the table of most rankings points gained since January 1. Nevertheless, it had been a hugely creditable effort for Norrie to go this far, especially when you consider that he took out top seed Dominic Thiem on Thursday, and then trounced big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov in Saturday’s semi-final, losing only two games in the process. Norrie has come to clay late in his career, but it feels like this is developing into his favourite surface. He has one of the heaviest left-handed forehands in the game, loaded with top-spin, and uses it like a miniature version of Rafael Nadal. The result has been a tally of 14 wins and only four losses since he began his European clay-court swing in Barcelona. So while the French Open, which starts next Sunday, has traditionally been a graveyard of British hopes, there are reasons to hope that this year’s event could deliver some more positive results. Norrie’s previous final in Estoril had been a nervewracking affair which he eventually lost on a deciding-set tie-break to the more experienced Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sunday was more straightforward for Tsitsipas, who needed only 69 minutes to hammer home a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It was Tsitsipas’ second title of the clay-court sequence, after he won Monte Carlo in mid-April, taking out Evans in the semi-final along the way. He has become a serious contender to upset the establishment – specifically Nadal and Novak Djokovic – at Roland Garros over the next few weeks. “I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament,” said Tsitsipas afterwards. “I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron, who has been showing great tennis this week. He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. “It was not an easy match today. I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focused towards my goal.” On this year’s results, meanwhile, both Evans and Norrie stand among the world’s 20 most successful men. Evans is at No 16 and Norrie No 14. The next challenge for them both is to convert that ATP Tour form into a deep run at a major.<doc-sep>1 of 11 Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images Before we move on to the Week 3 sleepers, here's a look back at how my Week 2 recommendations went. Or in many cases, didn't go. For the record, sleepers count as a "win" if they finish inside weekly starter territory in a 12-team point-per-reception fantasy league that starts one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, one tight end, one defense and the always-popular "flex" play—a fairly standard setup. Jared Cook, TE, Oakland Raiders (4 catches, 49 yards): In classic Jared Cook style, Week 1's huge outing against the Rams was followed up by a much more pedestrian effort against the Denver Broncos. The more things change, the more they stay the same. LOSS Case Keenum, QB, Denver Broncos (222 passing yards, 16 rushing yards, 1 rushing TD, 1 INT): Keenum looked like a solid spot-start against a mediocre Raiders defense, but had he not gotten a late rushing TD, this one would have been ugly. LOSS Tyrod Taylor, QB, Cleveland Browns (246 passing yards, 26 rushing yards, 1 TD, 1 INT): Another quarterback with a solid matchup who needed a late score to salvage a so-so effort. LOSS Austin Ekeler, RB, Los Angeles Chargers (77 rushing yards, 3 catches, 21 receiving yards): Ekeler's status as a "sleeper" is just about gones-ville. He's a significant part of the Chargers offense and worth a look as a weekly starter in flex spots. WIN Phillip Lindsay, RB, Denver Broncos (107 rushing yards, 1 catch, 4 receiving yards): It's only been two games, but Lindsay has been the most effective tailback on Denver's roster. Who knew? WIN Chris Godwin, WR, Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5 catches, 56 receiving yards, TD): Ryan Fitzpatrick hasn't just lit up stat sheets the first two weeks of the season—he's made three receivers in Tampa Bay fantasy-relevant…including Godwin. WIN Dante Pettis, WR, San Francisco 49ers (1 reception, 35 yards): So much for Pettis seeing an increased role with Marquise Goodwin banged up. One reception isn't going to cut it. The Niners pass-catchers have been "meh" in 2018. LOSS Mike Wallace, WR, Philadelphia Eagles (Fat Bag of Nothing): To those who actually followed this half-baked recommendation and started Wallace, I can only offer an apology. It seemed like a good idea at the time. LOSS Jonnu Smith, TE, Tennessee Titans (Fat Bag of Nothing): To say that Smith's debut as the lead tight end for the Titans was anticlimactic is an understatement. I've decided the only logical thing to do is to blame Blaine Gabbert. LOSS New York Jets Defense/Special Teams (257 yards allowed, 20 points allowed, 4 sacks, 2 FR): Over the first few weeks of the 2018 season, the Jets defense has the look of a nice cheap source of fantasy production. WIN WEEK 1: 4-6 (.400) SEASON: 7-13 (.350) I'm still not where I want to be (40 percent is the bare minimum I consider acceptable, and I'm hoping to hit on over half), but there were more wins in Week 2 than in Week 1. Baby steps.<doc-sep>Need Fantasy Football lineup advice? Talk to CBS Sports on your Google Assistant to get insights on the best sleepers and to help decide between players. Just start with, "Hey Google, talk to CBS Sports." Editor's Note: If you want an early look at the waiver wire for Week 4, scroll to the bottom to see Dave's top targets for QB, RB, WR, and TE. The next time you find yourself muttering about how unfair/unlikely/unpredictable Fantasy Football is, just imagine how Mike Zimmer must feel. Zimmer and the Vikings were 17-point favorites against the winless, hapless Buffalo Bills. They were losing 17-0 after the first quarter and couldn't answer the bell the rest of the game after Kirk Cousins was sacked and fumbled to end each of the Vikings' first two drives. Minnesota ended up going three plays on four of their first five possessions and had earned just two first downs and 46 yards by halftime. Cousins had a total of three turnovers to go with his 296 yards and garbage-time score to Kyle Rudolph. He was out-played by rookie Josh Allen, who totaled three touchdowns. Any Given Sunday. It's not just the name of a football movie. It's enough to strike fear in the hearts of Fantasy owners who have been riding the wave of Cousins and Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen. Not only did they struggle Sunday, but they're headed into the Rams' den on a very short week, before traveling to play at Philadelphia in Week 5. This is no slam-dunk stretch for any team, much less one that just got routed by Buffalo. The Vikings' offensive line is a big problem. Not only was Cousins sacked four times, but he was hit another time and pressured plenty beyond that. Buffalo was smart to attack Minnesota's front five and eventually pin its ears back and get after Cousins. That flustered the quarterback, who was off-target on several throws and didn't get into a rhythm until he threw for 200 yards in the fourth quarter. The Vikings run game was also a total non-factor. It's not quite enough to push the panic button and get what you can for these guys. It's just a rotten week with a rotten couple of games in their future. At the very least, Adam Thielen has proven his reliability with three straight weeks with 10-plus Fantasy points, and Rudolph has reached a floor of at least seven Fantasy points in non-PPR leagues. At the very most, we're a week removed from Cousins throttling the Packers for 425 yards and four touchdowns, with two of them and 128 yards going to Diggs. Be patient — center Pat Elflein's imminent return should help stabilize the line, and the offense in general will turn it around. If anything, this coming week might be a good time to try and acquire some Vikings. Minnesota's misadventure wasn't all that went haywire in Week 3 ... Not everything was unpredictable. The Saints and Falcons totaled 80 points in a high-octane showdown; Patrick Mahomes added three touchdowns to his growing stat line; Cam Newton picked up four more. Three Big Questions After Week 3 Is Andrew Luck done? Luck's completed 68.5 percent of his passes through three games, but for just 5.34 yards per attempt and five total touchdowns. Worse yet, he's consistently thrown with limited velocity and has had a bunch of near-interceptions – including two on Sunday against the Eagles. The Colts even went with Jacoby Brissett to throw a Hail Mary on the final play of the game — a tell-tale sign that Luck's arm isn't back to normal if there ever was one. His receiving weapons are pretty limited — Ryan Grant scored on Sunday, and Eric Ebron accounted for two scores before failing to cash in on any of his opportunities against Philly, and those are his best options behind T.Y. Hilton. It's not very pretty, especially since Indianapolis can't run the ball yet either. Luck is no longer a high-upside Fantasy passer — a lot of people will bench or cut him for alternatives on waivers. A handful of other Fantasy owners will try getting what they can for Hilton, figuring he won't return No. 1 receiver value moving forward. The Colts host the Texans next week and the Patriots after that. Hard to expect Luck to crush either of those defenses. Has Adrian Peterson turned back the clock? Peterson landed a favorable game script and got the workload he was missing last week, piling on the Packers for 120 yards and two scores. He heads into his Week 4 bye as a top-five Fantasy running back on the strength of two 20-point outings through the first three weeks. After the bye he'll take on the Saints, Panthers, Cowboys and Giants, all four opponents who can be hurt by the run game and two with mediocre offenses. That's the kind of recipe Peterson needs to maintain his incredible numbers. A number of Peterson's Fantasy people will think this is the best he'll be and try to sell high on him. If the price ends up not being too high, he's worth procuring so long as it's not too expensive. Will David Johnson ever achieve numbers like he did in 2016? Johnson reeled in a first-quarter 21-yard touchdown from Sam Bradford, and sadly that was his only great play against Chicago. He caught all of four targets for 30 yards with the score, but turned 12 carries into 31 pathetic yards. Through three weeks, Johnson doesn't have a run longer than 11 yards, and owns two plays good for at least 15 yards — and none for more than 25 yards. The Cardinals' dreadful offensive line combined with the coaching staff's senseless decision-making (Chase Edmonds is getting notable playing time) has turned him into the best touchdown-dependent rusher in Fantasy Football. Things won't get easier — the Seahawks, 49ers and Vikings are next up on Arizona's dance card. Trading him won't net anything close to what's "fair" for a former first-round pick. It's a real quandary for Fantasy owners who might have to just stick with him.<doc-sep>
Originally I was going to use this space to extoll the virtues of Patrick Mahomes and Ryan Fitzpatrick, telling you all about the great throws that they've made through two weeks of the 2018 NFL season. This is opposite land from last year: instead of young star quarterbacks getting injured in Week 3, we have a young star quarterback returning from injury (Carson Wentz), a young star quarterback turning into an MVP candidate (Mahomes) and an old, stale retread doing the same (Fitzpatrick). The league is loaded with quarterbacks and it's never been easier to do the job. Which brings me to my new main point: if you hear someone blaming fantasy football for a dumb generation of football fans today, yell at them and call them stupid. Actually don't do that: just remind them politely how wrong they are. This is a thing that popped up on Wednesday night when someone noted on Twitter that Ryan Fitzpatrick has more touchdown passes than Troy Aikman. Aikman saw the tweet and said "who cares?," it got retweeted a ton of times and then on Thursday morning, a bunch of beat writers started blaming fantasy football for fans being dumb. A couple of things here: One, this all started because someone was trying to point out that Aikman is overrated as a Hall of Fame player. Eh, he might not be wrong. Aikman has a trio of Super Bowl rings and he's got some Cowboys Legend aura to him, but he also has the lowest number of passing touchdowns of any Hall of Fame quarterback who started their career after 1985 and second lowest in terms of passing yards of that group, ahead of only Kurt Warner. The yin/yang of Aikman and the Cowboys is obvious: his legacy was boosted by great teammates and it was also hurt by great teammates, because he was asked to do less and lost touchdowns to Emmitt Smith I'm not dogging Aikman: he is clearly a Hall of Fame quarterback, but relative to the other guys who played in his era, he had the most help and he had worse numbers. Two, of course Fitzpatrick has more touchdown passes than Aikman. How is this even controversial? So does Russell Wilson. So does Brad Johnson. So does Andy Dalton. So does Jon Kitna. Aikman is 71st all time in touchdown passes. This shouldn't be controversial. Modern offenses have created a world where quarterbacks are putting up huge numbers. Comparing Fitzpatrick, who started playing in 2005, to Aikman, who stopped playing in 2000, is absurd in the first place. Three, fantasy football hasn't made football fans dumber. It has introduced MORE fans into the nuances of football. Many of those fans are learning about the intricacies of the game and there's a learning curve there. That's fine. Four, I'll admit that fantasy causes people to focus on quarterbacks, running backs and wide receivers more than ever before, but that's not different than it's been for the past 15-20 years. Skill position guys draw the attention. They always have and always will. Five, let's not make this about "stat nerds." That's a silly way to approach this. Stats are important -- and anyone propping up Aikman over Quarterback X will use a statistic (i.e. the number of rings he has) in order to trump the argument. Any meaningful discussion about sports involves statistics, and broadening your statistical base will generally be a net positive, if you're willing to blend those stats with observing the game. Box score scouting doesn't work but neither does ignoring statistics and analytics. Third down conversions ... that's an analytic whether you like it or not. Finally, fans aren't dumber. Fans are MUCH smarter. There is so much more analysis out there now than there was 10 years ago about both football and fantasy football. Not everyone is soaking in every single nugget, of course, but the amount of information available to everyone should be obvious in the death of the sleeper. A few years ago, a dude like Austin Ekeler is hanging out there on waiver wires. Now he's universally owned. You need someone like Philip Lindsay -- a guy the Broncos might not have even known was a sleeper -- to really come out of nowhere to find a sleeper. Football is covered more now than ever before. That's a good thing for everyone, especially fans, the majority of whom are much smarter about the game than they were a few years ago.