Everyday we will post a Market Check, which is a summary of our research on a different position for the week.
This is not the end of our advice for the week. At the end of the week, we’ll make our picks at each position. Some of the picks will not be discussed in the Market Check.
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BULL MARKET
Players we believe will out-perform their salary for the week. These guys will give you the most bang for your buck when you are building lineups.
Ebron is starting to evolve into the 10th overall pick the Lions envisioned him to be. Through 2 weeks, Ebron is on the field for 80% of the snaps, has 15 targets and and 2 touchdowns. While he has produced, he is still looking for a breakout game. There is no better stage than to help lead his 0-2 Lions team to victory on Sunday. Both Calvin and Tate will be the next victims of the Broncos’s Harris and Talib lockdown show. This will leave the middle of the field wide open for Ebron to dominate the Broncos LB’s and safeties who struggled to cover Kelce/O’Shaunessy on Thursday night (which Andy Reid refused to take advantage of). Ebron will get plenty of targets and has the ability to step into the playmaker role as the Lions try to keep pace with the rejuvenated Manning led offense.
Still under priced. Eifert’s usage make his high floor a safe play in cash game contests, while also ALWAYS a threat to explode for a monster game. Ravens will bring their “A” game on Sunday and make the Bengals earn everything they get on offense. The Ravens cornerback tandem will bounce back from a rough game vs. Cooper and Crabtree. While the corners focus on eliminating the big play threats on the outside, it sets up for Eifert to do work over the middle and split out against nickel corners.
After looking awful through 7 quarters of the 2015 season, the Broncos O showed signs of life in the 4th quarter vs. the Chiefs. Their struggles are due in large part to playing 2 very good defenses to start the season. The Lions will be their tastiest matchup so far. Owen Daniels is playing a ridiculous 91% of snaps for the Broncos and the offense is poised to air it out a bit against a weak Detroit secondary. The Broncos will finally move the ball with ease with Daniels getting plenty of receptions and red zone work. With 2 horrible weeks to start, Daniels will be a nice contrarian option in tournament contests.
I nailed Crockett Gillmore as my Penny Stock TE selection last week, and Rodgers possesses the same upside for minimum salary this week. Richard is clearly the #1 TE option, more than doubling teammate and #2 TE Andrew Quarless snaps. And if Lacy doesn’t play, they may use Rodgers as an H/ FB out of the backfield role like they showed when Starks entered the game last week. The Chiefs have been playing great in the secondary and their pass rush will be sure to pressure Aaron Rodgers. This will set up for the short/hot routes that R. Rodgers has been running. This could be a sneaky play especially when Starks will struggle to run the ball. If you plan on playing multiple tournament lineups, get RR in a few and use the savings to load up on heavy hitters at other positions.
BEAR MARKET
Players we don’t believe will perform up to their salaries. We think you can find better value elsewhere.
Third week in a row I’ve been down on Martellus and this trend will continue if he keeps being priced as a top 5 TE. Martellus is not being split out like he was last year and is not being featured in Adam Gase’s new offense. Now the Bears travel to one of the hardest places to play, in Seattle, with a back up QB. The Bears game plan will be to run the ball (which they have done relatively well when game script worked out) and protect Clausen. Martellus will be utilized as a blocker more than a receiver when the Bears surprisingly keep this one closer than people expect.
Ertz has underperformed on the struggling Eagles. They will face their toughest defense yet on Sunday at the Jets. Not a full time TE, Ertz is still over priced because of his preseason hype. There are too many other options at cheaper price points that intrigue me to roll the dice on an Eagles bounce back this week.
Love Ladarius Green as a young TE, just not in this matchup. After putting back to back solid weeks, Ladarius price has risen enough to make me fade him for a tough matchup vs the Vikings. The real Vikings defense showed up and dominated the Lions offense all day. The Chargers O-line is struggling to protect Rivers and Mike Zimmer have some new blitz looks to confuse the Hogs up front. Also rookie LB Eric Kendricks and safeties Harrison Smith and Andrew Sendejo have been doing a great job covering TE so far this season. There’s safer options in this TE price range this week.
