Fantasy Football Week 3 Start 'Em And Sit' Em: D’Andre Swift Vs. David Montgomery
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Welcome to another Week 3 running back start ‘em and sit’ em decision!
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at whether fantasy managers should be starting D’Andre Swift against the Dallas Cowboys or David Montgomery against the Baltimore Ravens. While both of them are coming off subpar Week 2 fantasy performances, there are other factors at play that we need to dig into.
Shawn Childs has a great Week 3 running back projections article that dives into the numbers behind this decision (and others!), but let’s go through the decision and see if we can come up with our own thoughts on Swift vs. Montgomery this week.
RB D’Andre Swift, Chicago Bears
D’Andre Swift was a popular pick to become new head coach Ben Johnson’s latest offensive weapon. And while he’s had a decent start to the season, Swift still hasn’t finished as a top-20 fantasy running back in either of the first two weeks of the season.
The 26-year-old has carried the ball 29 times for 116 total yards and a touchdown on the ground while catching six passes on eight targets for 18 yards. So while the usage is there, Swift’s production hasn’t exactly translated into massive fantasy success.
Now on the Week 3 injury report with a quad injury, Swift will face the Cowboys at home this week. Dallas has allowed 121 rushing yards per game to opposing offenses – which is 10th-worst in the league.
Coming in as RB22 in our Week 3 running back rankings, Swift has a nice matchup ahead of him if he’s able to suit up after being limited in practice all week.
RB David Montgomery, Detroit Lions
David Montgomery is one of the trickiest fantasy assets to manage. He’s just good enough to probably warrant a weekly flex play, but he’s not quite good (or bad) enough to make it a no-brainer decision.
Montgomery has carried the ball 11 times in each of the Lions last two games (with a 41-yard-per-game average) and has been on the field for just under 40 percent of the Lions offensive snaps. While he gets some looks in the passing game (five targets over the first two weeks), the former Bear isn’t exactly a PPR-maven either. His ability to find the end zone has been a saving grace as he’s scored once this season and has basically split red zone carries with Jahmyr Gibbs.
Coming in as RB30 in our running back rankings this week, Montgomery will face a Ravens defense that has allowed 111.5 rushing yards per game to opponents (which is basically right in the middle of the league).
The Verdict: D'Andre Swift Vs. David Montgomery
While I don’t love Swift, I can’t ignore the fact that he has both a better matchup and a cleaner path to increased usage this week. There’s an obvious injury risk here so we’ll need to monitor news leading up to kickoff, but Montgomery is a little too touchdown-dependent (read: risky) for my liking. I’d much rather target the usage and matchup here.
I’m going with D’Andre Swift over David Montgomery for Week 3.
Once a top-ranked fantasy gamer on ESPN, Nick Raducanu has been playing fantasy sports for over 25 years. His written fantasy coverage includes stops at Rotoworld, Rotowire, and The New York Times.