Thursday Night Preview-Week 6

It is Thursday Night Football time once again and we should have a good one on our hands as the Bucs head to Philly to take on the Eagles. Anytime we can see Tom Brady and his explosive offense play in a prime-time matchup, that is great for us fantasy managers. The Bucs hold a 4-1 record and stand atop the NFC South while the Eagles stand at 2-3 and will try to get a win to hold that second spot in the NFC East. Regardless of who wins, both teams have shown an ability to put up great numbers this season for the NFL and for fantasy.

Right off the bat, both teams will be without their starting TEs, as both Rob Gronkowski and Dallas Goedert will not suit up tonight. Although Gronk is out, I do not see Cameron Brate or O.J. Howard stepping up to replace him, and rather I expect that Brady will spread those vacated targets to his WRs. On the Philly side, though, this is a massive bump for Zach Ertz. Even when both TEs are healthy, we have seen Ertz get plenty of opportunities and he should see an increase in snaps and red zone looks for the Eagles tonight. This likely makes Ertz a streamable, TE1 this week.

Do you like how I got the boring position out of the way first? Yeah, me too. Now we can get in to the QBs in this one. Jalen Hurts has had a fantastic season so far for fantasy and is currently QB7 on the season. His overall passing stats and record say differently, but just the fact that he can run the ball makes a world of difference for a QB in fantasy. We saw this work in Week 2, when he threw for only 190 yards and no passing TDs, but still got you 21 points. If that is his floor, I will take that all day. The Bucs defensive line is one of the best in the league, but their secondary still needs a lot of work as they rank dead last in the NFL. With that, look for Hurts to not only use his legs to pick up fantasy points, but also get it done in the air.

Now we go to Tom Brady who is currently QB2 on the season. Now this is amazing since he is 44 years old and does nothing when it comes to running the football. He has thrown it for over 379 yards 3 times this season and in those games he has at least 4 passing TDs. Besides his down week against the Pats, he has been near perfect this year (this hurts being a Pats fan). Although he does not have Gronk this week, he still has arguably the best WR trio in the NFL with AB, Godwin, and Evans. As long as he has those weapons as well as healthy RBs in the backfield, he should give you another monster fantasy game. The Eagles D has been solid this season against QBs, but I do not believe Darius Slay can cover the entire field to stop Brady from destroying them.

Fournette is a fine play tonight as he appears to be the lead back over Ronald Jones, by quite a healthy margin. Gio can be a desperation play, but the only real RB I want to start for the Bucs is Fournette. On the other side of the ball, the Eagles are a little more tricky. Miles Sanders was to be the lead back in Philly, and although the snap percentage may say that, Kenneth Gainwell has carved out a fine role in the backfield. If you can stay away from starting Sanders, I would. The Bucs D-Line is unreal, and I hate playing any RB against them. Gainwell could be a sneaky play as he is the better pass catching and goal line back. We saw Myles Gaskin destroy the Bucs in the air last week, so Gainwell could be used in a similar fashion.

For WRs, there is not much to say about the Bucs because you are starting all of Godwin, Evans, and AB as all three should be peppered with targets tonight and they all seem to produce, even when all three are on the field. For Philly, I am loving DeVonta Smith tonight, mainly from what I said about the Bucs secondary. I cannot wait for Smith to burn the shit out of Richard Sherman and take a big play for a TD. For everyone who said Smith would be too small and skinny to play WR in the NFL, just watch the man play, he belongs in this league. Other than Smith, I am not starting any other WRs for Philly. Sure, Watkins or Reagor can make a big play for a TD, but I do not want to be the one to guess who is going to do it.

Well, there you have it. We should have a great TNF game. The over/under in this one is 52.5 and I have missed on betting the over during TNF, but I would not be surprised if this one goes over. Enjoy, and good luck if you have players going tonight.

Take your Thursday Night players out of your flex spots!