If it’s easy for the casual football fan to overreact to the results of Opening Day, then we must be careful to not do the same. After all, the fantasy football community might be a little more savvy than the typical fan, and we cannot fall into the traps that sixty minutes of game action could provide.
Thankfully, the game flow analysis for Week 2 follows suit with our picks article, in which a heavy focus is directed toward teams looking to rebound. The same could be said about their key players.
Sporfolio’s NFL Daily Fantasy Sports game-by-game analysis columns are driven by expected game flow. Based on a combination of our Week 2 NFL picks against the spread and our expectations for a given game, we project the actions necessary to make these picks come to fruition. We aim to pinpoint players integral to our predicted game flow for each game of the week.
Luke May is our resident NFL DFS expert, and Mario Mergola operates Sporfolio as our expert for NFL Picks Against the Spread.
Cleveland Browns at New Orleans Saints
Luke’s DFS Take: I am probably one of the bigger Cleveland Browns believers around, and last week’s tie should serve as some indication of their improvement, but this is not the situation to get cute. The Saints are looking to rebound after a sloppy and embarrassing loss to open their season and can not afford an 0-2 start. Expect to see a much sharper Saints defense and team as a whole. I’d expect a pretty convincing victory for the Saints as they right the ship this week, but there is fantasy appeal on both sides of this game. The Saints’ appeal is obvious: their big guns absolutely feasted last week, and Drew Brees, Michael Thomas, and Alvin Kamara all have the talents and volume to produce on a weekly basis. The Browns’ defense is much better than the Buccaneers’, so I wouldn’t quite bet on the same output we saw from them last week, but they are a solid bet to score you a nice amount of points this week. While I’m expecting a far better showing from the Saints’ defense, the game script puts the ball in Tyrod Taylor’s hands an awful lot and he could be a viable option, especially given his running ability. Jarvis Landry figures to continue seeing a healthy share of targets, but his upside is limited due to his average routes and efficiency with his targets. On the other hand, expect to see more passes funneled towards Josh Gordon this week. Gordon was somewhat limited in Week 1, and it is not entirely known whether that was due to his minor hamstring injury or him being in the coach’s proverbial doghouse. Either way, Gordon made his presence felt a big touchdown, and has been reinserted as the starting receiver on the Browns’ official depth chart. That should mean more work is coming his way, and a more efficient day from Taylor – in infinitely better weather conditions – could lead to a huge day for Gordon with the positive game flow.
Mario’s DFS Take: I’ll often cite a team as being “embarrassed” by its last game, and I try to shy away from the use of the word “angry,” but how can we describe the New Orleans Saints as anything other than “embarrassed” and “angry”? What happened to them at home by arguably one of the worst teams in football – at least, what is expected to be one of the worst teams – has been a focal point of conversations for nearly a week. Not to be ignored in the otherwise forgettable loss is that New Orleans’ typically high-flying offense came to play. The same will happen on Sunday, as it is the Saints’ defense that needs to change its approach. Therefore, Alvin Kamara has to be near the top of any list of players to use simply by nature of his production and the likelihood of the Saints leading late in the game. But, Drew Brees is as good an option as ever, as New Orleans cannot led Cleveland hang around for too long. Expect early strikes, and feel free to pair Brees with Michael Thomas, who remarkably caught all-but-one of his seventeen targets.