Why Chase Brown Will Struggle In Week 3 And Beyond With Joe Burrow Sidelined

Chase Brown’s fantasy outlook takes a major hit in Week 3 and beyond with Joe Burrow sidelined, as touchdowns and targets are set to dry up.

Cincinnati Bengals running back Chase Brown (30) reacts after scoring a touchdown during the first quarter against the Cleveland Browns at Huntington Bank Field. | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

We all want our stars to perform great each and every week in fantasy football, but sometimes they hit a rough patch for one reason or another. Over the next few weeks, there are some players who are going to faceplant. You may not be happy about this player; however, circumstances have changed, and things might not go smoothly for a while.

RB Chase Brown, Cincinnati Bengals

You would think that when a quarterback like Joe Burrow goes down with an injury, it would be his star wide receivers, Ja'Marr Chase or Tee Higgins, that we would be worried about. However, it's the running back in this case. Of course, the pass-catchers will see a slight dip in production without Burrow, but Jake Browning is good enough to keep them close to their current rankings with Burrow. 

Regardless of who the quarterback is, Brown is going to get almost all of the running back work, and we don't even believe that defenses are now going to stack the box with Burrow out. The concern here is that Brown is going to lose his two most valuable assets. We do not expect Browning to dump off to Brown nearly as much as Burrow did, and there will also be significantly less goal-line work because the team is going to score less often without Burrow. 

Why Fantasy Football Managers Should Trade Bengals RB Chase Brown While His Value Is Still Sky High

This isn't to say that Brown won't be usable, or you need to leave him on your bench, because he will still get bell-cow carries. With that said, you will have to temper expectations because he won't be looking like an RB1, which is what we are hoping for. Targets and touchdowns are so valuable, and he'll feel that loss. On top of that, the schedule in front of him could be tough. 

His next four opponents are the Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, and Green Bay Packers. That's a tough run of opponents. We did just see Bijan Robinson torch the Vikings, but that's Bijan Robinson. Still, the jury is still out on them. However, the Broncos and Lions are both expected to be top defenses, and the Packers have looked like the best defense in football through two weeks. They have been particularly tough against running backs, completely shutting down the Jahmyr Gibbs, David Montgomery, and Austin Ekeler in the first two weeks of the season.

If you own Brown, there isn't much you can do about it unless someone offers you a haul for him, but odds are you'd be selling low. He's also still too good to just bench. All you can really do at this point is ride it out with him and hope he can overcome the odds. The best-case scenario is if you can lock yourself up a playoff spot and Joe Burrow can return fully healthy just in time for the fantasy football playoffs.