Daily NFL Fantasy Football Thoughts for FanDuel and DraftKings Heading into Week 4

Week Three is in the books and it was a Sunday that saw some big games from little running backs, a few more injuries and some big time question marks from elite players. We won't get too much into picks for NFL's Week Four, that'll get taken care of around Wednesday. For now, let's just look at a few things that came up in Week Three.

Big Ben's Knee Folds and the City of Pittsburgh Dies a Little Inside

When his knee bent back into an odd reverse L position against the Rams I felt a little squeamish. And his on-field reaction makes the 4-6 timetable for Big Ben's return almost a gift. See what expectations can do to us? But in the short term, that might have spelled the end to Antonio Brown's insane level of production . I suppose there are worse backups in the world than Michael Vick who was able to come in and at least complete some passes later in the game. I doubt the Steelers ask too much of him, though he's in a solid position because the rest of their weapons are elite players. Because leagues for next Thursday's game had already been published at the time of the injury, Vick is basically a min-priced starting quarterback with a top 1 wide receiver and top 3(?) running back at his disposal. We will need to downgrade the Steelers' weapons for the foreseeable future until we see how Vick handles the offense. Though it would be insane to think he's more than 75% as effective as Roethlisberger at the very best. Antonio Brown was converting targets at a nearly unsustainable rate this season. I imagine it's right around now he starts regressing.

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Arizona Cardinals - Scoring points everywhere

No team in the league has put up more points in the first three weeks of the season than the Arizona Cardinals. They've gone for 31, 48 and 47 respectively. Granted they weren't facing the 85 Bears in that stretch, but putting up that kind of production consistently against any random sampling of three NFL teams is staggering. That two of the games have been with Chris Johnson as the primary running back make it that much more impressive.

Granted, they're defense and special teams are a part of the package. 30 of their points have come from these units. That certainly isn't sustainable and assume their team defense numbers are trending much higher than what will be the reality going forward. You can only take interceptions to the house so many times.

The offense is clicking as well, but for how long? Larry Fitzgerald is crushing it in targets, averaging almost 10 per game in the first three weeks, and putting up elite numbers in the early going. They've also been able to run the ball some. But I am tempering some of my expectations for them as a group going forward. Carson Palmer currently ranks 18th in the league in completion percentage and he has by far the highest TD/Pass Attempt ratio in the league. Much like the defensive production, this isn't sustainable in the long term. Be wary of the prices coming from the Cardinals this week. I don't see them keeping up some of these paces.

Tyrod Taylor: Real Guy

Speaking of teams scoring a ton of points who we clearly would not have expected, the Buffalo Bills have scored the third most points in the league behind only the Pats and the aforementioned Cardinals. And while the Cardinals seem a little smoke and mirrors to me, Taylor's production looks very, very legit. To start with, he's been incredibly accurate, ranking 5th in the league in completion percentage while being forced to throw it to guys like Percy Harvin, Charles Clay, Robert Woods and a banged up Sammy Watkins. He's done a nice job spreading the ball around and finding optimal pass attempts rather than force-feeding one target. Five different Bills already have at least 10 targets on the season with Harvin leading the bunch (though not by much).

The Bills have been able to run the ball once they realized Shady McCoy was totally cooked and that Karlos Williams is the more effective running back. But Taylor's added plenty of value with his feet, already rushing for 96 yards and 2 touchdowns. Expect more of the former which gives him a very high floor each week in cash games. Newton, Kaepernick and Russell Wilson have more QB rushing yards than Taylor, though of that group only Wilson is anywhere near as accurate.

Wherefore Art Thou Andrew Luck?

Yikes. It's been a statistical disaster to start the season for Luck. This is what happens when you have an offensive line that consists of a bunch of spare parts and worse who can't block at all. They made some changes prior to the game, though for much of it things seemed to be status crappy quo for the Colts. Only a miracle fourth quarter comeback saved Luck's day, but dude's still been wildly inaccurate because he simply doesn't have the time to pass. Luck ranks 29th (29th!) in the league in completion percentage and first in interceptions. That fourth quarter aside, I don't see much changing for Luck. There is no miracle cure coming for that O-line though he may get some reprieve facing the Jags in Week 4. At this point, it's too difficult to trust Luck compared to the other QBs in his price tier even if the woes aren't entirely his fault.