Fantasy Football Week 3 Winners & Losers: Trending Up For Jeremiyah Love

Someone make it stop.

After a ton of unfortunate injuries in Week 2, it seemingly got worse this week. We saw key, star players suffer injuries on Sunday, making a massive impact on the fantasy football landscape. Let’s recap both the good and bad from the NFL in Week 3.

Week 3 Fantasy Football Winners

Jeremiyah Love | RB | Arizona Cardinals

It was only a matter of time.

The Cardinals’ early-season usage of Jeremiyah Love, a running back they selected with the third overall selection of this year’s draft, has been head-scratching to say the least. Through the first two weeks, Love had logged just 43% of the snaps and handled 43% of the rush attempts. Somehow he was the clear 1B in this backfield.

That all changed on Sunday.

Love finally cemented himself as the Cardinals’ workhorse in Week 3, carrying the ball 21 times for 90 yards, while adding 5 catches for 19 yards and a touchdown through the air. The rookie handled 26 of Arizona’s 32 running back touches on the day, while logging 63% of the snaps. HC Mike LaFleur fully committed to his talented rookie running back, while simultaneously slamming shut any potential buy-low window in the fantasy football world.

Cam Skattebo | RB | Giants

Through the first two weeks of the year, Cam Skattebo’s usage was a little underwhelming, logging 61% of the snaps and 58% of the team’s rush attempts. Devin Singletary was mixing in more than the fantasy community would like, while we even saw Najee Harris take a few goal-line carries from Skattebo last week.

But after seeing that Singletary was a healthy scratch on Sunday, my eyebrows raised.

Skattebo finally saw the workload we were expecting, carrying the ball 20 times, while adding 3 receptions. Perhaps the uptick in volume had a lot to do with the Giants and Titans playing in a monsoon, but he did log 76% of the snaps, while handling 66% of the team’s running back attempts. Given the weather, it wasn’t surprising to see the Giants attempt only 22 passes, something that likely doesn’t happen again this season, but hopefully the overall percent of the team’s carries hovers around the same mark we saw today.

Brock Bowers | TE | Raiders

It was worth the wait.

After missing the first two weeks of the year, Brock Bowers returned in a massive way on Sunday, hauling in 10-of-13 targets for 116 yards and a touchdown. Bowers immediately established himself as Las Vegas’ top target, drawing a target on three of Kirk Cousins’ first 4 pass attempts. He ultimately finished the game with an absurd 43% target share, while drawing a target on 36% of his routes.

Klint Kubiak lined up Bowers all over the formation, running 12 routes out wide, 16 from the slot, one from the backfield and seven from in tight. The football robot from heaven was truly a machine on Sunday, and is the only candidate to surpass Trey McBride as fantasy’s TE1 the rest of the way.

Week 3 Fantasy Football Losers

Omarion Hampton | RB | Chargers

Omarion Hampton was a player I was trying to sell high on following last week’s game, but it’s very likely that ship has sailed. Not only was Hampton inefficient against the Bills on Sunday (15 carries, 56 yards), but he was part of a three-man committee in the Los Angeles backfield. Hampton logged 42% of the snaps, while Keaton Mitchell played just three fewer snaps, touching the ball 11 times on 26 snaps. Hell, we even saw Kimani Vidal, who played 10 total snaps from Weeks 1-2, play 17 snaps in this game, leading the backfield in both two-minute and third-down snaps.

Oh, and did we mention this Chargers offense is a mess right now?

Not only is Hampton playing on a struggling offense with sudden competition in the backfield, but he’s seeing virtually zero usage in the pass game. Hampton caught zero passes against the Bills, his second zero-catch game of the young season. He ran just six routes on 38 dropbacks, a massive step backward from his promising early-season pass-game involvement as a rookie. From Weeks 3-5 last year (before his injury), Hampton ran 62% of the routes, sporting a TPRR of 20%. He’ll still lead this team in carries most weeks, while remaining the favorite for goal-line work (should the Chargers get that far down the field). But OC Mike McDaniel loves Mitchell, who might just be a better fit for this outside run scheme.

Hampton often went ahead of Derrick Henry, Chase Brown and Kenneth Walker in drafts this summer. Through three weeks, that’s looking rough.

Brian Thomas Jr. | WR | Jaguars

If it wasn’t already over for Brian Thomas Jr., it sure feels like it is now.

BTJ saw 9 targets last week, though converting them against Pat Surtain in Denver is a tough task. The production was underwhelming, but the volume was encouraging. However, that volume disappeared this weekend, as Thomas saw just 1 target against the Patriots. But the more alarming number? 46%, as in the percentage of the routes Thomas ran on Sunday. He played just 37% of the snaps, as he rotated, not with Parker Washington or Jakobi Meyers, but with rookie wide receiver Josh Cameron. Thomas played less than usual when Jacksonville was in 11 personnel, which is a serious concern.

We were worried about Thomas’ involvement with Washington, Meyers and whatever Travis Hunter might have done at wide receiver. But the fact that a sixth-round rookie is now cutting into BTJ’s playing time is probably the last straw. Thomas will be cut by a lot of fantasy rosters this week.

Jadarian Price | RB | Seahawks

While Jeremiyah Love is on the rise, his college teammate appears to be trending in the wrong direction.

Jadarian Price entered this week with a chest injury, but was reportedly “full go” for Sunday’s game against Washington. He started the game for Seattle, seeing the first two carries of the game. Price opened the second drive with a lost fumble, which led to a trip to the shadow realm. Seattle then turned to Emanuel Wilson and George Holani, while Price didn’t receive a single carry until the first drive of the third quarter. The Seahawks run game was an afterthought in this game, as Sam Darnold dropped back to pass 45 times. Wilson led the team with nine carries, while Price touched the ball just six total times.

Price ultimately played just 19-of-67 snaps (28.3%) on the day. With Zach Charbonnet sidelined, this is the time for Price to take full advantage and take over the Seattle backfield. But two fumbles through three weeks aren’t helping his cause. And Seattle is already giving Wilson goal-line work over him, which will undoubtedly be Charbonnet’s role once he returns. Rookie running backs obviously improve as the season goes along, but I’m afraid by the time he gains momentum, Charbonnet could be back.