Week 3 Fantasy Football Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em: Keon Coleman vs. Jaylen Waddle
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The Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins will be the teams showcased on Thursday night for week three of the NFL season. Within that matchup, there are some decisions that many fantasy managers have to make about whether to play a player or sit them on their bench. Here are a couple of players who could be in that conversation and what fantasy football GMs should do, with either starting or sitting WRs Keon Coleman and Jaylen Waddle on Thursday night.
Keon Coleman, Buffalo Bills
Keon Coleman, after exploding for a big game in the Buffalo Bills’ season opener against the Baltimore Ravens–recording eight receptions for 112 yards and a touchdown–has come back to earth with his game in week two.
Against the New York Jets, the second-year WR had just three catches and three targets for 26 yards. This, at the surface, looks concerning, but a closer look shows it could just be a one-off. Coleman did struggle to put up a solid fantasy performance, but so did every other pass catcher on the Bills. The leader in reception yards in the game for Buffalo was Joshua Palmer, who had two receptions for 47 yards. The listed WR1 on the Bills, Khalil Shakir, had just one reception for 12 yards.
So yes, this fantasy stat line was by no means good for Coleman, but it was not due to not being given the same share of the passing game as others. If Shakir had 10+ targets and over 100 yards, and Coleman put up a line like this, then alarm bells could start going off, but that was not the case. The Bills dominated this game and just underutilized their passing game as a whole. Josh Allen threw for just 148 yards in the game.
The matchup for the Bills against the Dolphins looks like it is in favor of a bounce-back game for Coleman. Allen, in his career against Miami in 14 games, has thrown for 37 TDs and averages 266.9 passing yards per game. With that, Coleman looks like a solid play for fantasy in week three.
Jaylen Waddle, Miami Dolphins
Miami Dolphins WR2 is coming off a solid fantasy football outing in week two. Against the Patriots, he had six receptions for 68 yards and a touchdown. And while this is good to see from fantasy managers who took the risk on Waddle getting back to being one of the better fantasy wide receiver options, his matchup against Buffalo is not ideal.
In Waddle’s career against the Bills, especially recently, he has not had much success. In his last three outings, he has averaged 27.7 yards per contest. This includes his most recent outing against the Bills last season, where he recorded two catches for -4 yards. That, combined with the fact that Buffalo is coming off a strong defensive outing, only allowing 83 yards to the Jets, makes this feel like not a good spot for Waddle.
Final Verdict: Jaylen Waddle Vs. Keon Coleman
With Allen’s history against the Dolphins and Waddle’s recent history against the Bills, the decision on who to start and sit between Coleman and Waddle is fairly easy. The Miami WR2 may end up having a great season in fantasy, but this is a definite sit for him in this matchup, while Coleman is a start.
It will be exciting to see if the looks of Coleman potentially being Allen’s WR1, like he was, against the Ravens, could get even more validity against the Dolphins.
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Gray Deyo is a Nashville-based sportswriter who graduated with a sports management bachelor's degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He has covered prep sports, college sports, the WNBA, and the NBA for the past four years. In addition to writing for SI, Gray also currently contributes to Prep Girls Hoops