Week 3 Top Scoring Running Backs
- Devonta Freeman (ATL)- 26 pts
- Tevin Coleman (ATL)- 26 pts
- Carlos Hyde (SF)-24 pts
- LeSean McCoy (BUF)- 23 pts
- LeGarrette Blount (NE)- 22 pts
- Christine Michael (SEA)- 22 pts
- David Johnson (ARI)- 22 pts
- DeMarco Murray (TEN)- 21 pts
- Jeremy Hill (CIN)- 21 pts
- Todd Gurley (LA)- 20 pts
The most telling stat from this week of fantasy football? It’s either:
Two Falcons running backs scored 26 points. Or,
Ten running backs scored 20 or more points across the league.
As a fantasy owner who owned three of these players (Hyde, McCoy, Michael) I had a pretty strong win, beating my opponent by more than double his points (I also played Gronk who scored 0 pts). The funny part of this is that I didn’t start Hyde fearing the matchup against Seattle. Instead I played Ezekiel Elliot who still got me 16 points. This was definitely a week for running backs dominating the league. Only 6 wide receivers managed to hit the 20 points mark and one of those, Terrelle Pryor, also played quarterback.
Week 3 Top Scoring QBs Week 3 Top Projected QBs (pts scored)
- Trevor Siemian (DEN)- 28 pts 1) Cam Newton (12 pts)
- Aaron Rodgers (GB)- 26 pts 2) Aaron Rodgers (26 pts)
- Matthew Stafford (DET)- 26 pts 3) Drew Brees (25 pts)
- Drew Brees (NO)- 25 pts 4) Andrew Luck (13 pts)
- Jameis Winston (TB)- 25 pts 5) Phillip Rivers (11 pts)
- Dak Prescott (DAL)- 22 pts 6) Matt Ryan (19 pts)
- Carson Wentz (PHI)- 21 pts 7) Ben Roethlisberger (6 pts)
- Matt Ryan (ATL)- 19 pts 8) Carson Palmer (3 pts)
- Kirk Cousins (WSH)- 19 pts 9) Russell Wilson (13 pts
- Brian Hoyer (CHI)- 18 pts 10) Eli Manning (14 pts)
Of the top 10 projected quarterbacks for week 3, 7 of the 10 failed to reach 15 points, a number considered a solid baseline for quarterbacks. A QB1 on an average week should get you 15-17 points, on a good week he should get you 18-21 points and on a great week he should get you 22+ points. This week most of the top starters failed to reach the “average” mark. What’s arguably crazier than that is that there were three more running backs that scored 20 or more points than there were quarterbacks who scored 20 or more points and quarterback is by far the highest scoring position. I would also like to point out that I have recommended picking up 3 quarterbacks thus far this season and 2 of them made the top 10 top scoring quarterbacks list this week (Winston and Wentz). The other that I recommended finished 12th this week, not too shabby. I did also recommend picking up Tevin Coleman who went off for 26 this week and was tied for the highest scoring running back.
There aren’t many people that I would say to go out and get at this point in the season, so instead I am going to make some bold predictions and we will see how they play out.
- David Johnson, the highest scoring running back thus far this season will score 7 or fewer points this week.
- Kirk Cousins is the highest scoring quarterback this week.
- Terrelle Pryor finishes in the top 5 for wide receivers this week.
Any questions or comments? Send me an email at dm-dankert@wiu.edu or come visit me at 2414 in Building C.