Don’t Overlook The Receivers and Tight Ends For The Tennessee Titans
Don’t Overlook The Receivers and Tight Ends For The Tennessee Titans
The New England Patriots are expected to walk all over the Tennessee Titans. When Vegas makes you a 13.5-point underdog, they are saying you aren’t just going to lose. You are going to get dominated.
Chances are, they are probably right. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider starting any of the Titans wide receivers in daily fantasy leagues this week.
What? That’s crazy!
Not really. For one, let’s assume that Tom Brady decimates the Titans defense as expected and gets the Patriots out to a significant early lead. That means that even if the run game is working for the Titans, they are going to have to pass if they want to catch up.
The Patriots pass defense finished the season ranked 30th in the league (251 yards/game). From a fantasy perspective, they allowed the fourth highest number of points per week to wide receivers in the regular season.
Marcus Mariota is not the best quarterback in the NFL, but he could certainly carve up a defense playing that poorly.
However.…
Over half of the total passing yards the Patriots allowed came in the first six games (2,029 total yards; season total– 4,020). So, over the final ten games of the season, they gave up a total of 1,991 passing yards—or 199 yards/game.
That would make them the No. 4 pass defense in the league.
So—don’t start any of them?
To be fair, the Patriots compiled those stats over the final ten games of the season against some pretty easy competition. They only faced two quarterbacks having a good season (Ben Roethlisberger and Phillip Rivers); Big Ben threw for 280 and Rivers 212.
The rest of the cast was pretty unimpressive (Jay Cutler, Tyrod Taylor, Bryce Petty, Derek Carr, Matt Ryan, and Brock Osweiler.
Marcus Mariota was 20th in the NFL this season in passing yards and 18th in fantasy points (in ESPN leagues). He had two 300+ yard games; one against a terrible Indianapolis team and the other against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
So, a case could be made that he is capable of having success against the Patriots defense.
Yes or no?
But what needs to be remembered is that daily fantasy points could care less if yards come in garbage time. New England will more than likely get out to a big lead at some point in the game. If they happen to have a big enough one in the fourth quarter (entirely possible), they could let the Titans work their way down the field with short to intermediate passes.
If you are looking for someone cheap that has the potential for upside, go ahead and take Rishard Mathews, Delanie Walker (depending on his price), or maybe Corey Davis (but only if he is super-cheap).
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