The Report: Game-by-Game Breakdown for Week 3

Now that the preseason is over, we can finally start to play some real football. What’s that? The preseason ended in August, you say? Well, technically speaking, yes. But the first two weeks of the regular season are essentially an extension of the preseason with all the starters getting their first full action of the year.

It’s always a weird time for football where a lot of what we see really doesn’t have any bearing on what we should expect for the rest of the season. Keep that in mind as we roll into Week 3. We’re going to start getting a better sense of what the NFL is really going to looking in 2024 starting this week.

Each week in The Report, I’m going to go through every game and give you the information you need to make the most informed decisions possible for your fantasy football rosters. I’ll provide some key about matchups, trends and anything else we need to know about each contest.

Note: The Report will be updated as I finish writing up each game, so be sure to check back throughout the end of the week. Games will be periodically added until Friday afternoons.

New England @ NY Jets

Jacoby Brissett has been every bit of a bridge quarterback so far this season, throwing for under 150 yards in both of his starts. The New England offense has been heavily reliant on the ground game, with Brissett unable to generate much of anything through the air. It’s only a matter of time before we see Drake Maye.

However, Brissett did look Hunter Henry’s way 12 times last week. Henry hauled in eight receptions for a career-high 109 yards. This performance came in Henry’s 105th career game. Henry’s arrow is pointing up, but he’s still just a streamer tight end play.

Rhamondre Stevenson has been most of New England’s offense this season, averaging 23 rushes per game, which is 10 more than his previous career-high of 13.0 in 2023. Stevenson has already rushed for two touchdowns this season, which matches half of his total from last season, when he had four. This isn’t an easy matchup, but Stevenson remains a top-15 fantasy running back. And while Antonio Gibson had a standout performance in Week 2 with 96 yards, we aren’t quite to the point where we can trust Gibson in starting lineups.

Aaron Rodgers made history in Week 2, throwing a touchdown pass to Braelon Allen, who, at 20 years and 239 days old, became the youngest player with a scrimmage touchdown since Arnie Herber in 1930. Rodgers notched his 104th career game with 2-plus passing touchdowns and no interceptions, putting him second in NFL history behind Tom Brady’s 122 such games. However, Rodgers has also gone 24 straight games without reaching 300 passing yards, the longest active streak among starting quarterbacks. Until those numbers increase, it’s very tough to trust Rodgers as a fantasy starter.

Breece Hall continues to shine for the New York Jets, racking up 114 scrimmage yards and a touchdown in Week 2. Hall now has nine games with 90-plus scrimmage yards and a touchdown since the start of last season, tying him for the second most in the NFL over that span. He remains an elite fantasy option. The aforementioned Allen also became the youngest player in NFL history to score two touchdowns in a game, surpassing Rashaan Salaam. He isn’t usable, but Allen could eventually slide up into flex territory if this workload continues.

Meanwhile, Garrett Wilson remains the clear No. 1 receiver. Unfortunately, that means he’ll draw Patriots standout CB Christian Gonzalez this week. It isn’t optimal, but Wilson remains a WR1 play. Mike Williams saw an increased role in Week 2 with 23 routes run. That’s just one fewer than Allen Lazard. We aren’t yet at the point where Williams can be started, but another uptick this week could get him closer to flex territory.