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Week 3 Fantasy Football Surprise Sensations

Here's a look at the players who put up monster numbers in Week 3 fantasy despite having minuscule and, in some cases, nonexistent ownership rates.
Week 3 Fantasy

Fantasy football can be an unimaginably fickle beast at times. You start your superstar player at a given position anticipating double-digit points only to have the team’s third option siphon away his production. It happens pretty much every week. And it’s a fascinating topic for discussion which is what this weekly column will focus on. Here are some unexpected superstars from Week 3 fantasy as evidenced by their low ownership rates.

Note: in discussing ownership percentages, we will be using data from Yahoo Sports leagues.

Week 3 Fantasy Football Surprise Sensations

Kyle Allen

Few quarterbacks are under as much scrutiny early into the 2019 campaign as Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers. The former MVP underwent off-season shoulder surgery which forced him to retool his mechanics a tad. But hopes were high he could rebound after dealing with so much adversity last year. However, he injured his foot in the preseason and through two regular-season games, it was clear he wasn’t 100 percent. As a result, he sat out Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals with what’s now being described as a Lisfranc injury, per Joe Person of The Athletic.

Enter Kyle Allen, who impressed mightily in relief of Newton as the Panthers romped to a 38-20 victory this past weekend. He ended up completing 73.08 percent of his passes for 261 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. It resulted in a near-perfect 144.4 passer rating. His 24.34 fantasy points were sixth-best among quarterbacks but those stats didn’t benefit very many as he was owned in just three percent of Yahoo leagues. With Newton out for the foreseeable future, he’s an intriguing waiver wire option for those whose quarterbacks have underperformed thus far. That’s especially the case in Week Four as Carolina takes on the Houston Texans who are conceding the sixth-most fantasy points to quarterbacks.

Social media certainly had a lot of fun with Allen’s emergence, as evidenced by the following viral tweet.

Taylor Gabriel

Another signal-caller who’s garnered his fair share of critics early on this season is Mitchell Trubisky. Much like Newton, the Chicago Bears quarterback didn’t throw a single touchdown pass and had one throw intercepted over the course of his team’s first two games. And he essentially got bailed out by Eddy Pineiro last Sunday when he kicked a 53-yard field goal as time expired to give the Bears a 16-14 win over the Denver Broncos.

Despite facing an 0-2 Washington Redskins team in Week 3, the pressure was on, especially given the Monday Night Football atmosphere. And Trubisky turned in his best performance of the year, throwing for 231 yards and three touchdowns while completing over 80 percent of his passes in the 31-15 win. All three of those scores went to Taylor Gabriel, which likely infuriated owners of Allen Robinson and Anthony Miller. Gabriel’s exploits made him the first player since Jerry Rice to catch three touchdown passes on MNF. Not bad considering his four percent ownership rate in Yahoo leagues.

You might want to be careful picking him up via waiver wire as he suffered a concussion late in Monday’s game. And though he’s worth consideration as a stash for future games once he’s healthy, it’s hard to gauge whether Monday night’s performance was a trend or an aberration. Because Washington’s defense looked absolutely atrocious.

Tony Pollard

When it comes to the current Dallas Cowboys running back corps, the one mantra that is a virtual constant is “Feed Zeke.” Nothing seems to have changed through the first three games of the 2019 season as Ezekiel Elliott is currently fourth in the NFL with 289 rushing yards. But even a player of his proven durability could use a sidekick to help alleviate the workload. That’s what the Cowboys were hoping Tony Pollard could help out with when they drafted him in the fourth round of the 2019 draft.

Pollard almost became the primary option at running back early on given the possibility of Elliott holding out. But Dallas eventually rewarded him with the extension he was looking for. He immediately proved his value, accounting for a touchdown apiece in the Cowboys first two games, both wins. Pollard, on the other hand, struggled. He managed a paltry 46 rushing yards in that span which made him a risky start even if the Cowboys were taking on the hapless Miami Dolphins in Week 3.

But suffice it to say that his performance stood out. He ran the ball 13 times for 103 yards in the Cowboys’ 31-6 win and closed out the scoring with a 16-yard scamper in the fourth quarter. Add in his three catches for 25 yards and he finished with 21.80 points in PPR leagues. Of the seven players to eclipse 20 PPR points in Week 3, he had by far the lowest ownership rate. He’s certainly an option worth considering in deeper leagues. But keep in mind that Dallas’ Week 4 opponent, the New Orleans Saints, haven’t given up very many points to running backs this year.

Jordan Akins / Darren Fells

Perhaps no position forces fantasy owners to lose their hair more than tight end. Some resort to combing the waiver wire on a weekly basis (see what I did there?), especially if they’re unable to nab a Tier 1 player in the draft. The situation was so crazy after this weekend’s slate of games that we’re forced to include two players from the same team this week.

The players in question are Jordan Akins and Darren Fells. They combined for three touchdown catches (Akins 2, Fells 1) in the Houston Texans 27-20 win on the road over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday. Both finished top-10 among tight ends in PPR points with only four managing more than Akins’ 22.30 on the week. What makes it all the more shocking is that both were owned by exactly zero percent of players in Yahoo leagues. DeAndre Hopkins owners were probably apoplectic. But what transpired is likely a function of the attention he garners from opposing defensive backs. For that reason, Akins, perhaps more than Fells, might be worth considering if you want to roll the dice via the waiver wire.

Matt Gay

You might roll your eyes at seeing Matt Gay‘s name here given he missed a potential game-winning field goal for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. But in fantasy, it’s all about points above actual on-field results. And in this column, it’s all about featuring players who scored a lot of them with very few fantasy owners benefiting from it. In the end, Gay led all kickers with 16 points but was owned in just three percent of Yahoo leagues. In addition to the aforementioned miss at the end of the game, he also missed a PAT and had another one blocked. If those go through the uprights, he crosses the 20-point threshold and is even more of a surprise sensation.

Detroit Lions Defense / Special Teams

Don’t look now, but the Lions are undefeated through three games. That said, they could easily be winless. They tied the Arizona Cardinals in the season-opener and defeated the Los Angeles Chargers and Philadelphia Eagles by three points each. The defense deserves a ton of credit for Detroit’s current 2-0-1 mark. Against the Chargers, Darius Slay intercepted Philip Rivers in the end zone with 1:10 to go in the game to seal the win. And on Sunday, Detroit sacked Carson Wentz three times and forced two fumbles. Ultimately, some early special teams magic proved crucial as Jamal Agnew took a first-quarter kickoff to the house. It resulted in the Lions defense / special teams racking up 13 fantasy which was the league’s sixth-best total in Week 3. But not many benefited as the Lions were owned in just two percent of Yahoo leagues. Don’t expect a lot of streaming action this week, though, as the Lions host the Kansas City Chiefs. Not surprisingly, they’re giving up the fewest fantasy points to opposing defenses.

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