Week 3 of the 2021 NFL regular season will take off Thursday night with a matchup between the undefeated Carolina Panthers, who seem to be enjoying their new quarterback (more about him later), and the Houston Texans. Not a lot is going Houston’s way over the past several months, including its Week 2 loss to the Cleveland Browns on the road, but the Texans are still 1-1 after two weeks, which still puts them on quite a decent foundation at this point of the year. But enough of real football talk. This is about fantasy football and the players you should be at least keeping an eye on. More specifically, those players most managers aren’t racing to the waiver wire to snag before the start of Week 3.
3. Sam of All Fears
The Panthers are having success with Sam Darnold, who's no longer seeing ghosts on the field with his new team, unlike before when he was still suiting up for the New York Jets and constantly spooked by opposing defenses. Only rostered in 8.5% of ESPN leagues, managers in deeper leagues can take a shot with Darnold, who’s facing a favorable opponent.
Although the Texans are only 17th in fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks per game (20.3) this season, Darnold could get more time with the ball in this game than the signal-callers Houston’s defense had faced in the past two weeks. See, the Texans will be giving the keys to the offense to rookie Davis Mills, who’s set to make his first career this Thursday.
On the season, Darnold has gone 50-of-73 for three touchdowns and an interception. That’s a 68.5 completion percentage for Darnold, who also rushed for a touchdown in his revenge victory against the Jets at home in Week 1.
2. A Fantasy Football Christmas Carol-ina
Christmas can come as soon as Week 3 of the NFL season for fantasy football managers who have the Panthers’ defense against the Texans. With the Texans starting Mills instead of the injured Tyrod Taylor, the shaky Houston offense got even shakier.
Taylor was actually doing an admirable job of holding the team’s offense together. The team racked up 37 points in the win over the Jacksonville Jaguars on opening week then exposed the Cleveland Browns’ stop unit by hanging 21 points on Myles Garrett and company in Week 2.
Over the first two weeks of the season, Houston even managed to crack the league’s top 10 in scoring offense with 29.0 points per game and seventh in touchdowns per contest (3.5).
All those stats can be thrown out the window for now, as nobody really knows what Mills can bring to the table in his first pro start. Carolina’s defense, fresh off mauling the Saints for 14 fantasy points, should be feeling high on its chances to pull off another huge game for its fantasy football owners. Through two weeks, Carolina’s defense is fourth in the NFL with 21.0 points, per NFL.com.
1. Play Mr. DJ
The days when David Johnson is a must-have fantasy commodity are long gone. He’s only on 52.3% of ESPN fantasy football leagues, but he can be a viable option on a flex spot in Week 3. That’s even though the Panthers are the toughest defense against the run this season, allowing just 46.5 rushing yards per game. So, why play DJ?
Assuming that the Texans play catch-up in this game, Johnson could get a relatively nice amount of looks downfield, as Houston abandons the run game. Johnson is third on the team in targets with six, while fellow running backs Mark Ingram and Phillip Lindsay only have five combined.
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