Yahoo Sports’ Fantasy Football Live crew looks ahead to Sunday’s matchup between Chicago and Houston – including how Joe Mixon, DJ Moore and the Texans wideouts could impact fantasy managers.
Video Transcript
Let’s turn to our Fantasy game changers for this week powered by Ram Trucks where we’re identifying some of the most impactful players in one of the top fantasy matchups on the schedule.
We picked the Sunday night football, Texans and Bears.
Oh my.
Uh, we’ve got the Bears at the Texans.
Houston favored by 6.5.
The over under on this 45.5, a little lower than we saw last Sunday.
So, uh, let’s take a look at that matchup, Andy.
Who do you have that?
You’ve, uh, you’re locked in on?
Yeah, for me, for me, this has got to be Joe Mixon.
He was the second highest scoring fantasy running back a week ago and he might run that back in week two.
remember Tony Pollard had a huge week against Chicago and the Titans offense doesn’t really stress a defense at every level quite the way the Texans do.
Uh Mixon handled 33 touches in opening week.
It led to 100 and 78 total yards.
He has really always been a player capable of handling beefy workloads over extended stretches.
Nixon gained 3.4 yards after contact per attempt in opening week.
According to Pff, he had four runs over 10 yards.
Certainly passed the eye test as a Bears fan.
I, I fear we have another huge week for Mixon incoming.
He’s an obvious must start in this one.
Houston just puts too many playmakers on the field for any defense to account for them all.
Ma Mixon is the kind of back who, who can really tilt a match up in your favor.
All right, Tara give, give him some hope as a Bears fan.
Give Andy Barns, the Bears fan a little hope when you look at this matchup, I was surprised he didn’t pull this one right here.
Uh DJ Moore big game incoming here, we talked about the injuries to the rest of the Chicago receiving court here when we look at Chicago’s um game last week, they pulled out the win, obviously, but it was carried by defense offense was kind of unproductive across the board.
Cale Williams just 14 to 29 attempts, only 93 passing yards and some on the ground.
And DJ Moore was technically the leading receiver with five receptions for 36 yards.
I don’t know if we can theoretically call it the leading receiver there.
Keenan Allen was actually the target hog 11 total targets.
Roma dose wasn’t much of a factor here but removing potentially those guys from the lineup or at least at the very least them being slightly limited here.
Is gonna greatly increase the upside here for DJ Moore.
We already weren’t seeing a lot of contributions from the tight ends here.
The running backs didn’t really contribute much from the past game.
We’ve seen DJ Moore even in difficult matchups.
Absolutely take over last year with Justin Field.
So, is this the time where we see that, that massive 2023 boom DJ Moore game?
And Kayla Williams finally comes of age right here and DJ Moore is the guy that gets them there.
That’s the storyline that I’m kind of keying in here.
Uh I, I, you know, just for the sake of Andy’s joy, I want this in my life, Matt Harmon.
Uh give us the, uh the, the game changer for you.
Yeah, I’ll go back to the good offense here.
Uh That’s gonna be playing in this game and talk about the t wide receivers shock.
Uh Look, I think a lot of people are locked and loaded with Nico Collins after week one.
I think that’s the right take.
He is the number one wide receiver in this room, but I wanna focus on the other two guys here, Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell and just note that I think all three of these wide receivers are in the circle of trust.
They’re players that we’re gonna start every single week is every week gonna go great for Stefon Diggs and Tank Dell or, and even Nico Collins too.
There’s gonna be some volatility.
No, it’s there.
There’s gonna be ups and downs, but I think you’re playing them every single week.
And I think we got some real good clues about the roles for Diggs and Dell after week one.
Like, I’ve seen some freaking out some consternation about Stefan Diggs.
Like, oh, he, he only had eight or nine air yards.
He averaged fewer than two yards or two, average depth of target, like 11.3.
That’s not gonna get it done.
Uh Let me tell you what if you’re discounting Stefon Diggs because of week one air yards average depth of target.
And you’re not mentioning the fact that 63 of us, six targets came inside the 10 yard line.
Uh not a lot of air yards down there inside the 10 yard line.
You’re, you’re fooling yourself.
You’re playing yourself right there.
He’s gonna have a big role as that quick route, you know, getting the separation there near the line of scrimmage, he’s gonna get his production, but Tank Dell, not a guy that you should ignore either 16.3 average depth of target when he hits, he’s gonna hit big.
So I think you gotta live with the volatility with some of these guys because it’s such a great room and a very uniquely talented offense.