Your “The Pickens are Mighty Skinny” Sunday NFL Football Early Slate Open Thread

Well, it’s looks as though all my whining and carrying on has been heard by the powers that be and we’ll get a half-decent number of games on the late end. But I never thought things all the way through. We’ve got ourselves a real mixed bag here. Shall we put our metaphorical hand in and root around to see what’s there?

TO THE GAMES!

Texans/Browns:

When will Cleveland understand what they have in Rashard Higgins? The guy catches everything thrown his way, (12 grabs on 15 targets) he moves the chains and when he was actually thrown to 6 times he scored 2 TD’s. Perhaps they should look across the field and see what Houston has done since Billy Bob O’Brien was axed. Wr’s Cooks and Fuller have gone bananas to the tune of 7 TD’s and 688 yards receiving combined. They need all that and more because their D is a joke. Opposing #1 wr’s usually get 100+ yards and a score (or 2).

Team/Lions:

Do you think Wash’s qb Alex Smith is (perhaps understandably) jumpy/gun shy? He throws to his first read more often than anyone aside from Cam and Josh. It’s worked out so far because that look tends to be McLaurin, who has the most yards after the catch than anyone not named Kamara. The secondary beneficiary is the suddenly fantasy-relevant J.D. McKissic.

Jags/Pack:

Not that it’ll be an issue this week but Green Bay only generates pressure on opposing qb’s 25% of the time, down from a figure of 39% last year. Rodgers should be padding his MVP CV here and wr Adams will likely go for 150+ and a score or two. [wipes hands]

Eagles/Giants:

You’d think that of the qb’s on offer here that the one that has the most turnover-worthy plays (off-target throws, passes into tight coverage) would be Dimes. Incorrectamundo! The honour goes to Wentz. Still, the guy has 30+ fantasy points in two of his last three games. You might want to sit Slayton here because since Shepard has returned he’s averaged 9 targets per game. Last week The Darius had just the one.

Bucs/Panthers:

For a 3-6 team Carolina is doing okay on D, giving up an average of 23 points per game over their last seven. Had they been able to score one more TD their record would be closer to 6-2-1. Brady needs to do the rebound thingy after getting hounded by the Saints D and ending up TD-less but them Panthers have three highly-rated cb’s in their secondary, including the league’s most prominent Mennonite, Corn Elder.

Do your blurst.