Fantasy Football 2020: The week 3 winning lineup

TE | Noah Fant | vs. Buccaneers | $5,800

Here’s the bad news.  The Denver Broncos are without their young starting quarterback Drew Lock for a few weeks.  John Elway and company signed Blake Bortles this past week to back up Jeff Driskel, who made a few starts in place of Matthew Stafford for the Detroit Lions last season.

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Fant is coming off of back-to-back solid performances that both included touchdown receptions.  In Week One, Fant made five catches on six targets totaling 81 yards; he followed that up with four catches on five targets against the Steelers, who are known to defend the tight end well, totaling 57 yards.

The Buccaneers’ defense is vastly improved from a year ago but still struggles to defend the pass.  Overall the defense ranks 11th, but come in at 22nd against the pass.

The Bucs defense has yet to allow a score from a tight end this season, it’s a streak that dates back to week 11 of last season, but Fant is a solid play especially understanding Driskel will be looking to check-down early and often.

FLEX | Jerick McKinnon | @ Giants | $5,700

I haven’t considered starting Jerick McKinnon since his Minnesota Vikings days. After a pair of lost seasons due to injury, his career looked to be in serious jeopardy. Still, here we are in 2020 and plugging the explosive runner back into our fantasy football lineups with confidence.

McKinnon has the potential to give fantasy football owners significant returns in a Week Three matchup against the Giants.

The 49ers will be without both Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman, leaving McKinnon in line for a heavy workload.  Head coach Kyle Shanahan will use McKinnon as the feature back and potentially a three-down back but perhaps leaving the short-yardage work to Jeff Wilson.

McKinnon has recorded double-digit fantasy football points in both weeks one and two, expect a near 20-point performance this week.

Defense | Arizona Cardinals | vs. Lions | $3,700

Here is the thing.

It’s not the best matchup of the week, but with only $3,700 left to spend, I call it the ‘best of the rest.’

The Cardinals are averaging 7.5 fantasy football points over the first two weeks of the season.  Arizona scored has only allowed 35 total points over the first two games, and last week, the defense recorded four sacks and two takeaways.  Arizona as a team ranks third in the league with seven total sacks, but have yet to make a single interception.

Stafford and the Lions are expected to get star receiver Kenny Golladay back Sunday, and that will help the Detroit offense shake their early season cobwebs.