6 best and worst fantasy football matchups for Week 3

6 best and worst fantasy football matchups for Week 3.

Key points

• While Carolina easily stomped the Falcons, 34-3, last week, Cleveland won a nail biter in Tampa Bay that included a multi-hour weather delay.
• As the Year 2 receiver is at present on pace for just 68 receptions and 672 yards, egbuka's second-half struggles from last year have carried over into 2026.
• USA TODAY Sports' Joe Rivera and Jacob Camenker offer you their top five fantasy football waiver wire adds to target heading into Week 3.
• Zooming out, we have a dome game in New Orleans, and the Saints' offensive line should overwhelm a Raiders' defensive front that has yet to be tested.
• The Panthers find themselves as slight road favorites against the Browns, and backfield mate Jonathon Brooks just landed on IR.

6 best and worst fantasy football matchups for Week 3. Joshua Larky Fantasy Sports. Fantasy football Week 3 waiver wire: Top targets include Young & Stroud.

While Week 1 brought us the fantasy points, Week 2 delivered pain in the form of bad weather games and injuries to Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams and Jaxson Dart.

Each week, matchup analysis like mine will only become more accurate as we learn regarding team and player tendencies. Though we are still less than 12% of the way through this NFL season, yes, we have double the sample size of data already compared to last week.

Like the past couple weeks, I'll continue to identify and write up players that are not obviously starts or sits. Regardless of matchup, you're starting someone like Jonathan Taylor ever week, so I try to go a few layers deeper than your early round fantasy studs.

Note: Projections refer to player props in the betting and prediction markets. It are a valuable reference tool for anyone playing fantasy football. Best Week 3 fantasy football matchups. Tyler Shough vs. The Raiders.

In practice, the Saints signal caller at present leads the NFL with 662 passing yards, but numerous fantasy managers are worried since of the dreaded red ink that indicates up when viewing Shough's fantasy matchup against the Raiders.

Zooming out, we have a dome game in New Orleans, and the Saints' offensive line should overwhelm a Raiders' defensive front that has yet to be tested. The Raiders have not allowed more than 14 points to either opponent this season, but they have additionally faced the hapless Dolphins and a Chargers team reeling from injuries and play-calling matters.

In practice, the Saints have already faced the Lions and Ravens. It on paper are much better overall defenses. Shough's pass yards expectation in betting and prediction markets is at 253.5 yards, fourth-highest of the week. Additionally, the Raiders have really struggled to defend the slot this year, and Shough has the most passing yards and the third-best efficiency (12.6 yards per attempt) when targeting his slot weapons.

In practice, the second-year quarterback has already topped 22 fantasy points in back-to-back weeks, and now he's set for the easiest overall matchup of the young season. Chuba Hubbard at the Browns.

Meanwhile, the Panthers find themselves as slight road favorites against the Browns, and backfield mate Jonathon Brooks just landed on IR. While Hubbard hasn't reached 90 total yards in either game, his total yards projection is all the way up at 90.5 this week. And after handling just 22 total carries through two games, Hubbard's rush attempts line is a hefty 17.5.

While Carolina easily stomped the Falcons, 34-3, last week, Cleveland won a nail biter in Tampa Bay that included a multi-hour weather delay. Expect the Browns to come back to Earth after putting on a ceiling game in their Week 2 upset. As only one of the team's eight touchdowns has come on the ground by a running back, the Panthers are additionally due for some touchdown regression.

Think of Hubbard as a locked-in top-15 fantasy option in Week 3. Josh Downs vs. The Texans.

Meanwhile, the Texans have faced the Bills and Bengals. It means we should think regarding them as the direct contrast to the Raiders.

For context, the Texans' edge duo of Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter is the league's best, and Daniel Jones has demonstrated a much more limited ability to run coming back from an Achilles injury (14 rushing yards through two weeks). Slot receiver Josh Downs has operated fairly close to the line of scrimmage and just handled a team-high nine targets in a game where Alec Pierce re-aggravated his heel injury.

Like the Chiefs last week, the Texans' pass rush should force Jones into quick passes where Downs operates. He's a high-floor fantasy WR3 option this week.

WEEK 3 FANTASY RANKINGS: QB RB WR TE K D/ST FLEX. Worst Week 3 fantasy football matchups. Bo Nix vs. The Rams.

For context, the Rams looked like an entirely different defense with Aaron Donald back. Granted, this was not an Australia game, and Jaxson Dart went down early, but it takes a solid defense to put on a performance that smothering.

Nix has scored in the bottom-half of fantasy QBs both weeks so far, and this trend should continue for at least one more week. The Broncos passer is facing an absolute gauntlet of defensive fronts, from the Chiefs and Jaguars and now, to the Rams. As he's totaled eight rushing yards on eight attempts (68 yard pace in 17 games) after putting up more than 350 rushing yards in each of his first two seasons, nix's surgically repaired ankle may be bothering him still.

As Nix is projected for just 210.5 yards in this matchup, almost the same as Michael Penix in his season debut on 'Thursday Night Football.' For further context, the aforementioned Daniel Jones is projected for a much-higher 221.5 yards against the Texans, the passing side of things isn't pretty either. TreVeyon Henderson at the Jaguars.

As they allowed the fewest rushing yards to running backs last season and are now allowing the third-fewest yards through two weeks, the Jaguars' heavy investments in their defensive line have paid dividends.

Let's rapidly look at how runners have fared against the Jaguars so far.

Overall, the Jaguars are allowing just 3.2 yards per carry, and the Patriots are three-point underdogs in this matchup. It's not the best game script for Patriots backs, and while Henderson had a promising debut with 16 carries for 76 yards last week, he's in for a far tougher matchup in Week 3.

Henderson's rushing yards line sits at a paltry 39.5 this week, reflecting that the markets continue to have great respect for the Jaguars run defense. Emeka Egbuka vs. The Vikings.

While Egbuka has been much further downfield at 15 yards average target depth, chris Godwin and Cade Otton have operated within roughly five yards of the line of scrimmage on their targeted routes. Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores is predictable in that he's married to the (blitzing) game.

Meanwhile, the Vikings have pressured quarterbacks at the league's No. 2 rate this year, and Egbuka is projected for only four receptions in a game with a low 42.5 point over-under. Plenty of fantasy managers would be wise to treat Egbuka like a fringe fantasy WR3 type, and may highly well have two better options to start this week. Share your feedback to support improve our site!

In short, 6 best and worst fantasy football matchups for Week 3 is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.