The biggest thing we learned since last Sunday was the latest on the Antonio Brown adventure. Stop me if you’ve heard this before but Antonio Brown stole headlines for his off the field antics. Even before week 3 started, Brown was released by the Patriots just 11 days after they signed him due to sexual assault allegations against him. He then went to social media to let everyone know that we won’t be playing in the NFL again. It’s hard to know how true his words are these days but, putting my morals to the side, his fantasy value has hit rock bottom. If you own him in dynasty leagues I wouldn’t drop him but you have to be worried even the New England Patriots couldn’t get through to Brown. Hopefully, this will be the end of his drama-filled saga but I have a feeling it won’t be.

Ok, let’s talk about some actual football now. Here were my other takeaways from Week 3.

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1. DJ Chark (WR – JAX) is worthy of a starting position in your lineup.

Week 3 action started with the Gardner Minshew show. Maybe Jalen Ramsey will stay now that the team has a quarterback? I guess there is still a lot of football to be played to award Minshew a starting-caliber signal-caller but he has definitely won the hearts of many with his hand-made jorts off the field and his play on the field.

One of the main reasons for Minshew’s success on Thursday was DJ Chark. Minshew found Chark four times on only five targets but he made the most of them with 76 yards and a touchdown. One of the reasons for a lack of targets was due to the game script. Once Jacksonville went up early, they didn’t need to throw a ton. Even in game scripts like Thursday, Chark still put up good numbers on low volume. I don’t think the Jaguars will be up in games like they were this week so more opportunities should be likely for Chark. He will be on the WR2 radar moving forward.

Is it 2006? 36-year-old Frank Gore is back to being fantasy relevant again. Due to an injury to rookie running back Devin Singletary, Gore was promoted to RB1 in Buffalo. He rushed for 76 yards on 14 carries and added two catches for 13 yards. Gore also scored a touchdown that turned out to be the go-ahead score to help the Bills improve to 3-0 on the season. It’s still yet to be determined how long the Bills’ explosive running back of Devin Singletary will be out but expect the ageless Frank Gore to see touches in his absence. If you picked him up to play this week you were satisfied with his 16.9 PPR FPTS. However, next week they host the Patriots and might be hard to trust against one of the best defenses going right now.

Now that the Oakland Raiders don’t have Antonio Brown, they need their other pass-catchers to step up. Insert Darren Waller. His season so far has reminded me of Jared Cook’s last year with Oakland, where he finished as the TE5 in 2018. That expectation for Waller is well in reach. On Sunday, Waller continued his hot start with catching 13 of 14 targets for 134 yards against the tough Vikings defense. At one of the thinnest positions in fantasy football, Waller could be one of those draft picks or waiver wire pickups for a team that could win a championship. With the top three tight ends going in the first three rounds, finding a guy like Waller that is putting up similar if not better numbers then them, make teams deeper and prime for the playoffs.

4. Another week another fantasy-relevant Chiefs’ player.

Add LeSean McCoy to the list of fantasy viable players from the Kansas City Chiefs. McCoy came into Sunday’s game against the Ravens with some thought that he might not play. Instead, he played and played well by finishing with 54 rushing yards, 26 receiving yards, and two touchdowns. He did leave with an injury after his second touchdown that will be worth monitoring. If he and Damien Williams were to miss any time, be sure to add however is projected as the starting running back. No matter who is on the field with the hottest quarterback in Mahomes, they can be started with confidence.

With an ineffective passing attack on Sunday, Ingram led the Ravens’ offense on the ground by tying the club record with three rushing touchdowns. Ingram had a day on Sunday against the Chiefs. In addition to his three scores, he rushed for 106 yards on 16 carries and added four receptions for 32 yards. Going into Sundays’ contest, Ingram had 32.4 PPR FPTS and was RB13 in his first two games. On Sunday, Ingram doubled his fantasy total and then some by going off for 35.5 PPR FPTS. Going forward, Ingram should be on the back-end RB1 / high-end RB2 radar in a run-heavy offense in Baltimore. He will have a challenge next week up against a tough Cleveland Browns’ defense.

6. Daniel Jones (QB – NYG) is the King of New York, for now.

What a start for the Daniel Jones era in New York. The rookie quarterback led the Giants to their first win of the season by overcoming a 28-10 halftime deficit to the Buccaneers in his first start. Jones had 38.6 FPTS by throwing 336 yards, two touchdown passes and added two rushing touchdowns. The rookie showed why the Giants selected him 6th overall in the draft and will be on the waiver wire radar for Week 4 in fantasy. Jones will face a susceptible Redkins’ defense at home that could be another favorable matchup.

7. Backup quarterbacks kept their offensive stars fantasy relevant.

Going into this week, a big concern for many fantasy owners was the fallout of the quarterbacks missing time. Cam Newton, Drew Brees, and Ben Roethlisberger all had replacements in on Sunday who were still able to provide most of the fantasy studs with good production.

The Panthers replaced Newton with Kyle Allen, who threw for 261 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions. Greg Olsen caught two touchdowns, Curtis Samuel received his first of the year, and D.J. Moore was the recipient of Allen’s 52-yard touchdown bomb. Christian McCaffery also had a big day with 153 rushing yards, 35 receiving yards, and a touchdown. We don’t know how long Newton will be out for but if Allen keeps playing like this, the Panthers might be inclined to slowly work their starting quarterback into the gameplan.

The New Orleans Saints went into Seattle and handled the Seahawks. On offense, Teddy Bridgewater didn’t light the world on fire but had a modest day throwing 19-of-27 for 177 yards and two touchdowns. Both of his passing touchdowns went to the two main fantasy players on the Saints – Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara. Kamara had a big day with nine receptions for 92 yards and another touchdown in the 4th quarter that put the game away. He finished the day with 37.1 PPR FPTS. Thomas also had a productive day with Bridgewater as his quarterback, finishing with 16.4 PPR FPTS. The Saints’ matchup next week will be against a tough defense in the Dallas Cowboys but the Kamara and Thomas owners should be comforted in how there were utilized in Sunday’s win.

Mason Rudolph’s season got off to a rocky start on Sunday. Despite the Steelers forcing five turnovers on defense, Rudolph and the offense only mustered up 20 points. Of the three backup quarterbacks, Rudolph is the one to worry about the most going forward. He had 174 passing yards with 115 of it coming from his two touchdowns. One of those touchdowns was to JuJu Smith-Schuster who wasn’t doing much up until Rudolph found him for 76 yards. Smith-Schuster ended the day with only two other receptions for a total of 5 yards. He still finished his afternoon with his best fantasy week so far this year of 17.3 PPR FPTS. The Steelers do have a favorable matchup next week against division rival Bengals so sitting Smith-Schuster in worries of Rudolph still won’t be an option just yet.

It wasn’t all good news for the New York Giants in Jones’ debut. The consensus number one fantasy player off draft boards this year, Saquon Barkley, left the game on Sunday with an ankle injury. He couldn’t put much pressure on the ankle and was later on the sideline wearing a boot. On an already injury-plagued team, it will be important for their rookie quarterback to have his talented running back behind him in upcoming games. If Barkley suffered a high-ankle sprain (as expected), a six-to-eight week absence could be on the table. Not something fantasy owners want to hear after watching how good the Giants looked on Sunday.

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Kevin O’Connor is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Kevin, check out his archive and follow him on Twitter @22kconnor.