7. Michael Floyd vs Tampa Bay Bucs
The three-headed monster that is the Arizona Cardinals wide receiving corps will stay at home and try to rebound from a shocking loss to the New England Patriots who actually called me on Saturday to try and fill their injury riddled 53-man roster. Don’t let the Larry Fitzgerald show scare you off the expected breakout season for Floyd. He saw only three less targets than Fitz and averaged 20.3 yards per catch Sunday night. Thirty-three year old Brent Grimes leads the Bucs secondary looking to control this monster and Michael Floyd should take full advantage of this corner, who’s surrendered 13 touchdowns since the 2014 season (pro football focus). Simply put - Grimes is old. In the last 33 games this Tampa defense finds themselves in the bottom seven of the league in fantasy points and touchdowns given up to wide receivers. The Cardinals are mad and the three-headed monster is looking to eat.
8. DeAndre Hopkins vs Kansas City
There are two ways to view this matchup if you are a Texans fan, one - we are going to be 1-1 after the day is over and two - DeAndre Hopkins is going to eat. In three contests against the Chiefs (two of which came last season), the Texans are 0-3, but Nuk has 18 catches for 243 yards and three touchdowns. That’s a per game clip of 6-81-1 (20.1 PPR fantasy points per game). The Chiefs, PFF’s 19th ranked corner back corps, are led by second year man Marcus Peters who is looked at as more of a zone coverage corner and doesn't typically shadow the opposing team’s top wideout. Although he had 8 interceptions last year, he was targeted as much as…. well, a lot. Leading the league with 137 (pro football focus). Expect Nuk Hopkins to get in Osweiler’s ear this week about his eight targets and watch the squeaky wheel get oiled.
9. Mike Evans at Arizona Cardinals
Butter fingers himself seems to have switched to margarine for the 2016 season. Mike Evans has come a long way with his hands since we last saw him double catching and single dropping passes from Jameis Winston. A difficult matchup against Atlanta’s Desmond Trufant last week didn’t slow Evans from posting a 20+ PPR point week. Up next is Patrick Peterson and Tyrann Mathieu, two of the top-10 rated corners according to pro football focus. Seems like a difficult task, but so was my DIY kitchen remodel this past weekend and I came out unscathed. To combat this matchup we saw Evans with an array of targets from all over the field. Per NFLsavant, Evans saw action on the short left side of the field (2 targets), short right (2 targets), deep left (2 targets) and one deep right target. A breakout campaign is in the works for Mike Evans and Jameis Winston this year, so jump aboard the bandwagon while there’s still room.
10. Allen Robinson at San Diego Chargers
Traveling across the country to play a football game is never an ideal situation and from the likes of the Jaguars franchise the past few years, there’s a chance they may fly Southwest. To put the jet-lag debate to rest, I’ll refer to Jacksonville’s ‘home’ game in week 7 last year across the pond in London. A 6-86-1 game for Allen Robinson versus Buffalo that week had to be pleasing for the Londoners and certainly made your fantasy team happy. ARob would be ranked higher against this secondary unit if it weren't for Jason Verrett who came in as PFF’s #5 ranked corner. A PPR score above 16 against San Diego last year is a fair assessment for this week’s matchup.
11. Jordy Nelson at Minnesota Vikings
Welcome back Jordy Nelson. Quite deserving to one of the most efficient wide receivers in one of the best offenses there is in the NFL. That’s almost all I should have to say when ranking Jordy, but don't you want to hear more? The previous four games against this division rival have been friendly to Jordy, posting a per-game average of 5-79-0.75 which equates to nearly 19 PPR fantasy points. An injury to corner Xavier Rhodes kept him out of the Minnesota lineup this past week and his availability versus Nelson and the Packers Sunday night is in question. Even with Rhodes on the field last season, James Jones, filling in like a square block in a circular hole for Jordy, posted 10 catches for 211 yards and a score (5-105-0.5 per game). The Vikings can simply not cover Aaron Rodgers’ go-to outside receiver and if their top corner is going to miss another game, my expectations for Nelson will rise significantly. Otherwise, a top-10 finish is in line for the great white hope. Plus, any chance I have to play a wideout on a Rodgers led team, sign me up.
12. Alshon Jeffery vs Philadelphia Eagles
If there’s one thing we know about Jay Cutler, other than his seemingly carefree attitude during competition, is that he loves to lock in a favorite receiver. Alshon Jeffery started making a bid to be Cutler’s favorite toy a few years back and they became full time besties last season. Alshon, in six of the nine games he played last year, saw 11 targets or more. Philadelphia made a bid at being the worst defense against wide receivers last year, posting 41.7 fantasy points per game to the position. They weren't much better in the touchdown category, giving up 24 scores to wideouts. Basically what I am saying is you and I had a real chance of connecting for a touchdown against this squad and pro football focus slots them at a solid 29th in the league again this year (there are only 32 teams in the NFL. 29th is not good).