RADIO
Monday Night Matchups Analysis
Players We Love
Josh Huff, WR, Eagles - Huff will be getting the bump up across the board with Nelson Agholor out. Huff has played sparingly this year with only eight receptions for 117 receiving yards and a touchdown. The Giants are still one of the leagues worst pass defenses and are now missing Prince Amukamara. With Amukamara in the lineup (he's PFF's 15th ranked best corner in the league) the Giants gave up the most passing yards per game through the first five weeks of the season. Huff saw his most playing time and snaps last week against the Saints. The second year receiver should be a good replacement for Agholor straight up or just a decent daily fantasy play.
Dwayne Harris, WR, Giants - Harris already has more targets with the Giants this year than he had in the previous two seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. Victor Cruz has been out the whole season so the Giants have been searching for a third receiver outside of Odell Beckham Jr and Reuben Randle. After only seeing one target in the first three weeks, Harris has become a part of the offense during the last two. Building trust and an understanding with both Eli Manning and the coaching staff is important to getting opportunities on this Giants team. After two solid weeks, and with potentially Beckham Jr. sitting out this game, it makes Harris an appealing option to start on Monday Night. Whether Odell plays or not Harris should be an interesting prospect moving forward as he gets more acclimated to being a receiver rather than just a special teams star.
Zach Ertz, TE, Eagles - The Giants have some of the lower rated safeties and linebackers in the NFL when it comes to pass coverage. The Giants defense as a whole has given up the third most fantasy points to opposing TEs so far this year. Ertz has at least two catches in every game this season but hasn't really had a single performance to write home about. Assuming the Giants continue to stop the run game, Ertz will get open looks though the pass. The only question is whether or not Sam Bradford can get him the ball.
Eli Manning - There are three "wait, are you serious?" candidates for MVP so far this season: Cam Newton, Andy Dalton, and that's right, Eli Manning. He is trailing everyone else in the MVP conversation by a country mile (let's not forget about the usual suspects Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers) because of his late game tomfoolery the first two weeks of the season. His stats are comparable with anybody's (10 TDs 2 INTs) and he's playing some of the most mistake free ball of his life. The Eagles have given up 290+ passing yards in 3 of 5 games and 250+ the other two. Manning should continue his pseudo-MVP like season Monday Night.
Players We Hate
DeMarco Murray, RB, Eagles - The Giants have been a really good run defense so far and Murray just isn't the same back in this Chip Kelly offensive scheme. Murray probably helped singlehandely win fantasy leagues last year and now it looks like he's just another guy in a three back rotation. On eight less carries than Murray, Ryan Mathews has 75 more rushing yards while Darren Sproles has 15 more receiving yards on two less receptions. Basically, they are trying to feed Murray the ball but he hasn't been able to do much with it ,and the other two guys have looked more explosive.
Giants RBs Not Named Shane Vereen - Shane Vereen should always start in PPR leagues but the other two Giants backs split time and carries so frequently that they just aren't viable starting options. Rashad Jennings and Andre Williams basically switch up duties on a "drive-to-drive" basis. There is no separation between who gets the red zone carries and who doesn't. Guessing which one of these backs will get the carries or opportunities is impossible because the coaching staff probably doesn't even know until their in a particular game situation.
Prove It To Me Players
Sam Bradford, QB, Eagles - Bradford has multi interception games in three of his five starts this year. He hasn't been the main reason the Eagles offense hasn't been able to recreate the success of the last two years but he also hasn't been "good". The last two weeks have seen Bradford have his best games and also his highest yards per pass attempt. Instead of just dinking and dunking he managed to complete some deeper passes down the field. Monday Night will be a huge game for both Bradford and the Eagles as they look to keep pace with the Giants for the NFC east division lead. Bradford had a good individual game against (270 yds 3 TDs 0 INTs) the Redskins but his team still lost. He could have a similar performance against the Giants. That would go a long way in proving his consistency and whether or not this offense can run at full speed with him at the controls.
Giants Defense - The Giants have been a top 10 defense when it comes to turnover differential (+4) and rushing yards. They have also been the worst defense when it comes to pass defense. The Jekyll and Hyde nature of the Giants defense makes them the ultimate "bend don't break" squad. The Eagles scored their most points of the season last week (39) and over the past few weeks have started running the ball more efficiently and effectively. Both squads are trending upwards and Chip Kelly is supposedly a "genius" so this week will go a long way to seeing exactly how for real this Giants defense can be.
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