Here’s our Bills vs. Cardinals Fantasy Football Outlook for Week 3. The teams will play at New Era Field at 1pm on Sunday afternoon.
Bills Wide Receivers and Tight Ends
The Bills offense has been a mess this season. They have struggled to get the running game going with LeSean McCoy and outside of two long touchdown passes last week their passing attack has struggled.
If you remove those two long touchdowns as “statistical anomalies” then the Bills would not have had a receiver gain over 43 yards this season in a game. That’s not exactly a fair thing to do since the Bills proved last season they can use the deep throw effectively but this is just to highlight the point that when they are not connecting on those deep plays, they aren’t moving the ball through the air.
Even more concerning is that Sammy Watkins will most likely miss the game. According to NFL.com, Rex Ryan said, “Odds probably not real good that he plays. If he feels good and up to it he will. Don’t officially count him out.” Stay tuned on Sunday morning to any news because he could be a game-time decision.
For those thinking that Robert Woods or Charles Clay will have big days if Watkins is out of the lineup think again. Woods played three games when Sammy Watkins was not in the lineup last year. In those games, he had only 13 receptions for 123 yards with a 9.5 average per catch and one touchdown.
Charles Clay had his best game of the season when Watkins was out against the Giants last season. He was targeted 13 times with 9 receptions for 111 yards. The issue with Clay is he’s battling a knee issue. He returned to practice on Thursday but he wasn’t startable when he was healthy and Sammy Watkins being out of the lineup is not enough of a reason to change that.
According to the below tweet from Kent Somers of AZ Central Sports, if Watkins does play he is expected to be shadowed by Patrick Peterson, the best cornerback in the league in my opinion.
Tyrann Mathieu says Patrick Peterson will be on Bills WR Sammy Watkins on Sunday. No surprise. #asexpected
— Kent Somers (@kentsomers) September 21, 2016
Watkins has played well with injuries before, but I can’t see him having a good day with a foot at less than 100 percent with Patrick Peterson covering him. If Watkins doesn’t play, Peterson will shift over to Woods although he may not shadow him like he would Watkins. I wouldn’t start any of the Bills receivers this week.
Now that we’ve covered the Bills wide receivers, let’s discuss the Cardinals on the next slide.