Don't have an account? Join the Best Live Fantasy Chat Community!
Already have an account? Log In
Welcome to the first ever Wild Card edition of the WR/CB Matchup Chart. Congratulations to everyone who won their league. If this series helped you this season, shout us out on Twitter @draft32teams. The purpose of this week's article is to help you in playoff fantasy leagues or DFS. Staying on top of news is one way to get an edge, but understanding matchups is also important. One factor to consider in the playoffs is that better teams are generally better against the pass. The easiest matchups in the league each week were usually against bad teams who didn't make the playoffs. Conversely, the playoffs also features some of the best passing attacks in the league. There may not be as many smash spots due to solid DB groups, but playoff offenses got there for a reason also. Keeping track of implied totals and player props is just as important as understanding matchups in DFS and playoff fantasy.
Creating the weekly matchup chart has been more challenging than usual this year due to the fact that most teams are moving their WRs around more than they ever have. It is difficult to pinpoint which CB each WR will be matched up against. The chart is designed to give a 1-vs-1 matchup for each player, but the reality is that most NFL WRs will see a mix of all the DBs they face each week. The chart is best used to understand how teams are defending outside versus inside receivers if teams are shadowing, and how much emphasis they put on slowing down the opposing WR1.
While matchups do matter and every piece of information can give you an edge, it is important to understand that WR skill level and target share are more predictive than matchup in many cases. Blindly following the chart is not recommended, but it can be useful in making tough lineup decisions between two WRs close in skill level. The chart is best used to understand the context of matchups overall, not predict outcomes.
The CB Matchup Chart below is a snapshot of each team's cornerback group as it relates to allowing fantasy points. There are inherent flaws within the data compilation of cornerback play. The first is the fact that quantifying a 1-on-1 matchup in an NFL game is unfair because of zone coverages, mental errors, certain passing concepts, and a million other things. Assigning fantasy points against a cornerback isn't a perfect science.
The purpose of this chart is to give more of a general sense of how defenses are handling opposing WR groups rather than identifying exactly where, when, and how every single encounter happened. Another factor to consider is that players are listed based on where they line up the majority of the time. Most receivers do not line up on the right side on every single snap, so they won't be matched up with the same CB on every snap.
The "Rtng" column is the rating of each cornerback based on film study and analytics. The lower a player is graded, the easier the matchup for the WR, so low ratings are green and high ratings are red. The "PPGA" is the number of fantasy points per game that the player has given up. A name in blue means the corner could possibly shadow the WR1. A name in red means that the player is dealing with an injury. WRs highlighted in bright green have an easy matchup. The chart is a useful tool, but should not be used as a start/sit cheatsheet.
Click image for full-screen view
The 49ers-Cowboys matchup has the highest total of the week (51), and has a good chance to see the most scoring of all the games this weekend. The Niners gave up the second-most points to opposing WR1s during the regular season, as Josh Norman has been exploitable all year. It's a good spot for Amari Cooper.
With Michael Gallup out, CeeDee Lamb will likely play more outside while Cedrick Wilson plays the slot in three-WR sets. Lamb has an easy matchup based on the data, but keep in mind that 49ers starting LCB Emmanuel Moseley has missed a handful of games. Moseley is back healthy, which means Lamb's matchup isn't as good as Cooper's.
On the other side of that game, the 49ers will look to exploit the Cowboys at RWR and slot. For whatever reason, LWRs did not produce well against Dallas all year. There are some advanced metrics that show Trevon Diggs has given up a lot of production this season, but based on FPPG against, WR1s haven't been great against the Cowboys. Diggs can shadow, and actually shadowed A.J. Green two weeks ago against the Cardinals. However, he typically does not travel to the slot, and doesn't have the athletic profile to stick with Deebo Samuel. I do not envision the Cowboys shadowing Samuel with Diggs. I expect Diggs to mainly stay at RCB and match up with Brandon Aiyuk. Deebo has the easiest matchup as the primary RWR. Jauan Jennings also gets an upgrade.
Robert Alford is questionable for Monday night's Cardinals-Rams matchup, and his status will impact Odell Beckham Jr. quite a bit. If Alford is out, Beckham will have arguably the easiest matchup of the week against Antonio Hamilton, or whoever slots in as LCB for the Cards. Hamilton himself is questionable as well. The Cardinals have been susceptible to WRs all season, so Van Jefferson is also in a good spot. Obviously, matchups don't really matter for Cooper Kupp. If you're wondering, his more favorable alignment will be outside this week, as Byron Murphy has been an above-average slot defender for Arizona.
The Rams have a solid CB group headlined by Jalen Ramsey, who has moved around the formation a lot this season. However, Ramsey's slot snaps have been trending down since Week 13, so I don't expect him to follow Christian Kirk that much. I suspect the Rams will choose to match Ramsey up with A.J. Green as much as possible, which is bad news for Green. Antoine Wesley has the easiest projected matchup based on FPPG against and should see mostly single coverage. The Rams CBs are good, but all it takes is a single one-on-one snap for a TD for Wesley to help out your lineup.
Ja'Marr Chase has the best matchup of the three Bengals receivers. Tyler Boyd will see a lot of Nate Hobbs, who has been one of the best slot corners in the NFL this season. Tee Higgins will likely see more of Casey Hayward than any other Bengals receiver. Chase will likely see a combination of Desmond Trufant and Brandon Facyson at RCB, which is a plus matchup for the eventual offensive rookie of the year.
On the other side of that game, Zay Jones has the best matchup of all the Raiders receivers. Eli Apple is arguably the most burnable outside corner left in the playoffs. Jones has been a surprise veteran standout as the primary outside threat for Derek Carr.
The total has dropped in the Eagles-Bucs game due to projected bad weather. Stay tuned for updates but also be aware that wind impacts passing stats far more than rain. In any event, Tyler Johnson has the easiest matchup of all Bucs WRs. Philly has been stellar against outside WRs all year, but susceptible in the slot. Obviously, a Gronk smash is also a decent bet.
As previously mentioned, the Bucs outside WRs will have to deal with the tough coverage of Darius Slay and Steven Nelson this week. Slay limited Mike Evans in their first matchup and has been an All-Pro performer all year. Breshad Perriman is questionable, but whoever starts at WR2 for the Antonio Brown-less Bucs will not be in a favorable spot.
In another rematch with weather concerns, the Patriots will travel to Buffalo to take on the Bills. Stefon Diggs obviously did nothing in the first frigid matchup against New England, but produced well the last time these two teams played. He still gets a downgrade because J.C. Jackson is terrific.
On the other side of that game, all three starting Pats receivers get downgrades against the stout Bills secondary. Jakobi Meyers is the likeliest for production, but the Bills have shut down slot production all year. Keep in mind that Buffalo has probably the best starting safety duo in the NFL, which makes passing in the middle of the field a difficult proposition for opposing QBs.
I touched on some of these earlier, but some of the tougher matchups for fantasy relevant players this week include Brandon Aiyuk against Trevon Diggs, A.J. Green against Jalen Ramsey and Darious Williams, Tee Higgins against Casey Hayward, and Hunter Renfrow against Mike Hilton. I must reiterate a key point when evaluating matchups - player skill, passing game potency, and target share are more important than matchup in most cases, so do not exclude players solely based on matchup.
Thanks for reading and good luck this week.
Bubba (@bdentrek) is joined by guest Jenny Butler (@JennyButler830) of RotoBaller. In this episode, Bubba and Jenny will discuss some recent fantasy baseball news, then recap the Week 10 NFBC FAAB results. Be sure to subscribe to the Benched With Bubba Podcast, part of RotoBaller Radio's Podcast Network. Like and Subscribe to the RotoBaller channel on Youtube to get all... Read More
Another week of real baseball means hopefully another win for all of your fantasy teams, RotoBallers! This was a pretty big week in terms of bullpen news, with some important and potentially very important movement in a couple of big-name bullpens around the league. One team that hasn't had a closer all year had a... Read More
It's finally here and it's really happening! Our first 15-game main slate with all 30 teams in action on the same slate! I'm not usually crazy about massive slates and I'll admit that covering them is difficult, but as someone who does daily betting and DFS content, more games = more choices and I like... Read More
Saves are an important component for many fantasy baseball leagues. Closers are one of the most volatile positions in fantasy baseball, and one of the highest turnover positions in MLB. Each year, closers drop like flies and many MLB teams make in-season changes due to injuries or poor performance. In addition to closers and saves, relief... Read More
Eight full fantasy weeks are in the books. We are more than a third of the way home, the season is flying by - welcome back to RotoBaller! We're getting you ready for everything week nine, highlighted here by our weekly starts & sits analysis article. I'm Jon Anderson back with the chart! This looks... Read More
Now that we are two months into the season, we're starting to get a better idea of the MLB landscape. Not only are postseason races becoming more clear, but individual player struggles become more worrisome, while breakouts appear to be more legitimate. As the weather continues to warm up and the sun is shining, it... Read More
Howdy RotoBallers, we are now a solid two months into the fantasy baseball season so it's time for another rankings check-in. Below in this article you will find Nick Mariano's updated 2022 fantasy baseball rankings and tiers for 5x5 mixed roto leagues. These rankings are being released in early June, and are looking at rest-of-season... Read More
We're entering the crux of trading season, with enough games in the book to give fantasy managers an initial idea of where a team is performing well and where you might need to perform some categorical surgery. We don't want to just make trades all willy-nilly. You, my savvy readers, want to make trades that... Read More
Welcome back RotoBallers to another edition of my "Breakout Hitters To Watch" series. What we're doing here is taking a good, close look at the hitting data each week to see which hitters are standing out the most. The idea is to find hitters that have made changes and/or really improved this season to find... Read More
Welcome back RotoBallers to our fantasy baseball waiver wire rankings heading into Week 10 of the MLB season. We recently recommended to add players like Roansy Contreras, MJ Melendez, and William Contreras. We are here today as always to help you pickup the best fantasy baseball hitters and pitchers for your lineups for this week... Read More
RotoBaller has assembled a list of daily MLB injury updates to help you prepare both your seasonal and daily fantasy baseball (DFS) lineups, every day of the MLB season. Below is our updated list of injured MLB players for June 10th, 2022. Only players on teams that are scheduled to play today will appear below... Read More
Are you in need of bullpen help? Have the relievers you drafted not lived up to expectations or have they suffered a pesky injury? Maybe the arms you tried streaming keep blowing up in your face. Well, you have come to the right place! Not only will this article give you the latest closer movement,... Read More
It's high time for a June update to hit the summer months strong with a powerful bullpen in our sails. I am back with an updated top-150 Saves+Holds (Solds) rankings with two months of baseball on the scoresheet. Time is precious but so are those of you who play in formats with SV+HLD/Solds or leagues... Read More
Perception is reality. You likely have heard that saying before and while it is often true – there is certainly one area where it is not: in fantasy football. For example, there is a perception by some that Kyle Pitts was a bust last season and that could not be further from reality. When Pitts... Read More
Sometimes fantasy GMs focus too much on raw, counting stats for running backs. How many yards did they rush for? How many touchdowns did they score? Perhaps, taking it one step further, they end up looking at some "manufactured" numbers such as yards per carry, yards after contact, etc... But there is something more that... Read More
Welcome to the first iteration of our offseason series breaking down the standouts for each NFL team for fantasy football purposes. The purpose is to identify one player set to break out or vastly overperform relative to ADP, a player likely to disappoint and become a draft bust, and one safe pick that can be... Read More
Last year's rookie class featured some good wide receivers. Ja'Marr Chase and Jaylen Waddle made quick impacts in the NFL, while guys like Elijah Moore and Amon-Ra St. Brown played well for their teams. Not every rookie wide receiver was instantly impactful. For some of those guys, it was a sign that they were heading... Read More
Maybe the most controversial draft strategy in a redraft league is the idea that you want to wait until the 5th or 6th Round before you draft a running back. This concept gained traction after Shawn Siegele perfected it in 2013 by continuing to hammer the value at wide receiver and grabbing running backs with... Read More
When it comes down to facing a fantasy draft, two numbers are often the most sought after by fantasy GMs: current ADP and overall rank from the prior season. No matter how experienced fantasy players are, those two numbers are thought of as the ultimate all-encompassing representations of every football player's value. Knowing what he... Read More
It isn't close to the traditional draft season for fantasy football redraft leagues but best-ball drafts have been going on for months. High-stakes players who are looking to get an edge on the competition know how to extract the proper value for picks based on ever-shifting draft positions. If you play on a competitive platform... Read More
Who doesn't love to draft a player late and see him blossom into a league winner? That can often be the case with running back handcuffs covering for starters that fall down to injury or enter the season holding out. Drafting a no. 2 running back late, or even getting him from waivers close to... Read More
Sometimes fantasy GMs focus too much on raw, counting stats for running backs. How many yards did they rush for? How many touchdowns did they score? Perhaps, taking it one step further, they end up looking at some "manufactured" numbers such as yards per carry, yards after contact, etc... But there is something more that... Read More
When it comes down to facing a fantasy draft, two numbers are often the most sought after by fantasy GMs: current ADP and overall rank from the prior season. No matter how experienced fantasy players are, those two numbers are thought of as the ultimate all-encompassing representations of every football player's value. Knowing what he... Read More
Each year we see a handful of incoming rookie RBs finish as a RB2 or better in fantasy football. While the best rookies are typically those who are drafted on Day 2 or earlier (Najee Harris, Jonathan Taylor), there are also some recent examples of Day 3 picks and UDFA RBs who had great rookie... Read More
One of the most crucial things a fantasy player can do is have the foresight to build a lineup that maximizes talent while also minimizing the risk of player injuries or holdouts. Aside from that, understanding the way coaches operate their backfields in today’s NFL is crucial to fantasy football success. The increasing level of... Read More
Have you ever had an awful boss? I am not talking about a boss that is a little annoying, I am talking about one that you dread seeing and that seemingly makes life harder for you and all your coworkers. I am talking about a boss that makes you react the way Stanley reacts to... Read More