Three weeks into the fantasy football season, we’re starting to get enough information to separate early-season noise from trends that actually matter. Week 3 gave us several major backfield changes, breakout performances from young players, and some concerning usage developments that should immediately impact how we value players moving forward.
The injuries were also impossible to ignore. Breece Hall, Justin Jefferson, De’Von Achane, and Travis Etienne Jr. all left their games, creating several potential Week 4 waiver priorities depending on what we learn about their availability. Here are my biggest fantasy football takeaways from Week 3.
Brock Purdy has become a difference-maker at quarterback
At this point, I’m done treating Brock Purdy like a quarterback we need to evaluate based on the matchup every week. Purdy completed 15-of-27 passes for 297 yards and four touchdowns while adding 34 rushing yards in San Francisco’s 36-30 win over Arizona. Through three games, that brings him to 789 passing yards, nine passing touchdowns, 93 rushing yards, and another score on the ground. We’re not just getting the elite efficiency we’ve come to expect from Purdy anymore. He’s combining it with enough touchdown production and rushing value to give us a legitimate difference-maker at quarterback.
What makes the start even more impressive is what San Francisco has dealt with around him. The 49ers entered Sunday with Ricky Pearsall, Christian Kirk, De’Zhaun Stribling, and Demarcus Robinson already on injured reserve, and Mike Evans then exited Week 3 with a rib injury. Purdy’s first touchdown also came on an unusual play where Evans caught the initial pass before lateraling to Deebo Samuel, but it officially counts as one of Purdy’s four passing scores. Despite the constantly changing group around him, Purdy continues producing. If this is what he’s doing without a healthy receiving corps, I’m extremely comfortable treating him as an every-week QB1 with legitimate top-five upside moving forward.
Jeremiyah Love may have finally taken control of Arizona’s backfield
This is the Jeremiyah Love workload fantasy managers have been waiting to see. Love handled 25 touches in Week 3 after spending the first two games sharing considerably more work with Tyler Allgeier. I’ve never been particularly concerned about Love’s talent; the question was whether Arizona would actually give him enough opportunities to turn that talent into high-end fantasy production. Twenty-five touches changes that conversation completely.
The important thing now is determining whether Week 3 represents a permanent shift or one unusually heavy workload. I don’t need Love to get 25 touches every week, either. If he can consistently settle into the 17-to-20 opportunity range while maintaining the explosive ability that made him such an intriguing fantasy player entering the season, his ceiling rises considerably. I’m treating Week 3 as the first real sign that Love could be separating from Allgeier, and I’d rather buy into that possibility now than wait until another game confirms it and the price becomes significantly higher.
Omarion Hampton’s backfield is becoming a legitimate concern
Omarion Hampton’s Week 2 performance made it look like the Chargers were finally ready to build their backfield around him. He handled 25 opportunities for 115 yards and a touchdown, and the combination of workload and production was exactly what fantasy managers wanted to see. Week 3 moved us in the opposite direction. Hampton carried 15 times for 56 yards in Los Angeles’ 24-16 loss to Buffalo, and this was much closer to a legitimate committee than the final carry totals suggest. Hampton played 29 snaps compared with 26 for Keaton Mitchell, while PFF charted all three Chargers running backs between 24% and 42% of the offensive snaps.
Mitchell is the player I’m most worried about because this isn’t simply a backup stealing a few meaningless snaps. He received eight carries and has shown enough efficiency to give Los Angeles a reason to continue using him, while Kimani Vidal has also been involved in passing situations. Hampton still led the backfield 15-8 in carries, so I’m not pretending he suddenly lost his starting job. The problem is that we’re no longer looking at the clean feature-back role Week 2 seemed to suggest. Hampton remains the back I want from this offense, but until one of these roles changes, I’m treating him much more like an RB2 than a locked-in RB1.
Harold Fannin Jr. reminded everyone about his ceiling
Harold Fannin Jr. finally delivered the type of game we’ve been waiting for, catching seven of nine targets for 51 yards and two touchdowns in Cleveland’s 21-18 win over Carolina. The touchdowns will obviously grab most of the attention, but the nine targets are considerably more important for how I’m valuing him going forward. Touchdowns can disappear from one week to the next. A tight end consistently earning significant volume has a much more sustainable path toward becoming a weekly fantasy starter.
This also didn’t completely come out of nowhere. Fannin had already shown signs of life in Week 2 with five receptions for 54 yards, and now we’ve seen that increased involvement turn into a legitimate breakout. I’m not going to project two touchdowns every week or suddenly rank him alongside the established elite tight ends, but the position becomes extremely valuable once you find someone capable of commanding seven-to-nine targets. Fannin has put himself right back into the weekly TE1 conversation.
Jaylen Warren just made his case for a much larger role
Jaylen Warren finally got the backfield to himself with Rico Dowdle unavailable, and he did almost everything Pittsburgh could have asked. Warren carried 17 times for 127 yards and caught three passes for another 49, giving him 176 yards from scrimmage in Pittsburgh’s 30-27 win over Cincinnati. According to PFF, he played 90.3% of Pittsburgh’s offensive snaps and remained above an 85% snap rate across essentially every situation. Warren has spent most of his career operating in committees, so this was our best opportunity to see what his fantasy profile could look like with true feature-back usage.
I’m not expecting Pittsburgh to completely eliminate Dowdle once he’s healthy, but Warren just gave the coaching staff a very strong argument for keeping him heavily involved. The receiving ability has always given Warren a valuable PPR floor; the question has been whether he’d ever get enough rushing volume to pair with it. Week 3 showed us the ceiling if those two roles are consolidated. The one blemish was Kenneth Gainwell getting the goal-line opportunity that produced a touchdown, but that’s not enough to overshadow what Warren did with his workload. His rest-of-season value is moving up for me.
I’m done trusting the Titans offense until something changes
There reaches a point where we have to stop looking for the breakout and accept what an offense is showing us. Tennessee entered Week 3 with Cam Ward averaging only 161.5 passing yards per game, and the Titans followed that by scoring seven points in a 12-7 loss to the Giants. Ward threw a late interception while Tennessee struggled to consistently sustain offense for most of the afternoon. This isn’t just a quarterback problem anymore. An offense that struggles to create drives and touchdowns lowers the weekly ceiling of essentially every fantasy player attached to it.
The backfield isn’t giving us much confidence either. According to PFF, Tony Pollard handled 80% of Tennessee’s early-down snaps in Week 3, leading to 17 carries for 74 yards, while Tyjae Spears received only three carries for five yards and briefly left with a knee issue. Pollard’s overall snap rate remained around 53%, however, because Spears continued handling passing situations. That leaves us with an offense producing very few scoring opportunities while still dividing valuable backfield snaps. Pollard can remain usable in favorable game scripts, but I’m avoiding Titans wherever I have comparable alternatives until this offense proves it can consistently score.
Josh Downs continues to demand targets
Josh Downs continues to be one of those players whose fantasy value looks considerably better when we focus on opportunity rather than touchdowns. He caught five of 11 targets for 77 yards against Houston, leading Indianapolis in both targets and receiving yards. That followed seven receptions for 72 yards against Kansas City in Week 2. The production hasn’t been driven by one long touchdown or an unsustainable scoring streak. Downs is consistently getting opportunities, and that’s one of the most important things we can ask for from a fantasy receiver.
There is some context we need to acknowledge before automatically projecting another 11-target game. Alec Pierce’s heel injury contributed to Downs seeing additional opportunities, so his Week 3 volume isn’t necessarily his new weekly baseline. That doesn’t erase what Downs has done, especially after he was already heavily involved in Week 2. It’s just something we need to account for when projecting him forward. I don’t necessarily think we’re looking at a sudden high-end WR1 breakout, but a receiver capable of regularly pushing toward eight targets has a valuable PPR floor. Downs is becoming increasingly difficult to leave on fantasy benches.
Drake Maye needs to hit fantasy benches
I’m done forcing Drake Maye into one-quarterback fantasy lineups right now. Maye completed 14-of-25 passes for 199 yards with zero touchdowns and two interceptions in New England’s 35-6 loss to Jacksonville. He also carried four times for 18 yards and lost a fumble, giving him three turnovers without producing a touchdown. The Patriots eventually pulled Maye and several other starters for the final 10 offensive snaps, so I’m not interpreting that decision as Maye individually being benched. The performance before garbage time is concerning enough on its own.
Maye now has just one passing touchdown against six interceptions through three games. His rushing ability will always create another path toward fantasy production, and I’m certainly not dropping him in Superflex or deeper formats, but rushing upside doesn’t automatically make a quarterback startable when the passing production is this poor and turnovers are repeatedly wiping away points. We now have three games rather than one ugly afternoon. Until New England shows us something substantially different offensively, Maye belongs on fantasy benches in normal one-quarterback leagues.
Seattle’s backfield has become impossible to trust
Seattle might have the most frustrating fantasy backfield in football right now. Emanuel Wilson led the Seahawks with nine carries in Week 3, but those attempts produced only 14 yards. Jadarian Price carried five times for 15 yards, while George Holani continued to have his own role. More importantly, PFF charted Wilson at 47.7% of Seattle’s early-down snaps while Holani also cut into Price’s workload. Price, a first-round rookie, played only 10 of Seattle’s first 52 offensive snaps before getting additional work late.
That’s not a situation where I want to guess correctly every Sunday. The problem isn’t simply that three backs are receiving touches; it’s that no one is consolidating enough of the valuable opportunities to give us a dependable fantasy floor. Price still has the talent and draft capital that made him appealing, but Seattle’s upcoming schedule doesn’t make betting on a messy committee any easier, and Zach Charbonnet could eventually add another body to the rotation. Until someone clearly separates, I’m treating Seattle’s running backs as matchup-dependent options rather than automatic starters.
Kenyon Sadiq needs to be one of the top Week 4 waiver targets
Kenyon Sadiq’s seven-reception, 105-yard, one-touchdown breakout is going to make him one of the most popular waiver additions of the week, and he deserves the attention. The Jets had been using a four-tight-end rotation before Mason Taylor suffered a thumb injury, opening the door for their first-round rookie to receive more meaningful opportunities. Sadiq took advantage immediately in New York’s 31-24 loss to Detroit, and producing more than 100 yards the first time your role meaningfully expands is exactly the type of performance fantasy managers should react to.
There is an important warning underneath the box score. According to PFF, Sadiq still ran a route on only 58.1% of New York’s passing plays and was targeted on an enormous 32% of those routes. That target rate isn’t something we should expect him to maintain, so he’ll need his playing time to increase for this production to become sustainable. New York’s massive number of wide receiver injuries also contributed to the opportunity. Still, talented rookie tight ends who immediately produce when given more work are exactly the players I want to stash before their role fully develops. Sadiq should be one of the priority tight-end additions entering Week 4.
Tampa Bay’s offense is holding back Emeka Egbuka
I’m considerably more concerned about Emeka Egbuka’s environment than I am about Egbuka himself. The talent hasn’t suddenly disappeared, but Tampa Bay hasn’t consistently created the passing volume, sustained drives, and scoring opportunities necessary to support the immediate breakout fantasy managers were hoping to get. That’s particularly problematic for a young receiver because even encouraging underlying usage becomes difficult to turn into consistent fantasy points when the entire offense is struggling.
The situation became even more complicated Sunday when Baker Mayfield injured his thumb late in the game and couldn’t return. We need more information before projecting what that means going forward, so I’m not making any assumptions about his Week 4 availability. I’m also nowhere close to dropping Egbuka after three games. What I am doing is lowering expectations until Tampa Bay gives us evidence this passing offense can consistently create enough volume and scoring opportunities to support him as a high-end weekly fantasy starter.
Kyler Murray’s Minnesota debut is something to monitor, not panic about
Kyler Murray’s first game with Minnesota wasn’t the immediate fantasy explosion managers may have envisioned, but I’m not making a major rest-of-season judgment from one start in a completely new offense. Murray was also returning after missing Week 2 with a concussion, giving us even more reason to avoid overreacting to one performance. Changing teams, learning a new system, and developing timing with an entirely new group of receivers isn’t something I expect to immediately look perfect.
The two things I care about most going forward are his connection with Justin Jefferson and how aggressively Minnesota uses Murray as a runner. The rushing production has historically been one of the biggest reasons Murray can separate himself from pocket-only fantasy quarterbacks. If Minnesota allows him to use his legs and the passing connection with Jefferson develops, the ceiling remains extremely attractive. I’m holding Murray and watching closely over the next couple of weeks rather than reacting aggressively to his Vikings debut.
Brock Bowers is officially back
Brock Bowers couldn’t have done much more in his first game of the 2026 season. He caught 10 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown in Las Vegas’ 35-27 win over New Orleans, immediately reminding us why he entered the season with an argument to be the first tight end off fantasy draft boards. This wasn’t Bowers working his way back into the offense with a limited role. He immediately returned and functioned like one of Las Vegas’ primary receiving weapons.
That’s what separates Bowers from most of the position. We’re not hoping for four catches, 45 yards and a touchdown to save the week. When he’s healthy, he can command the type of receiving volume we normally associate with high-end wide receivers. Missing the first two games created understandable uncertainty entering Week 3, but 10 catches and 116 yards in his season debut erased most of that concern immediately. Overall TE1 upside is firmly back in play.
The Packers’ backfield is a complete mess
I want nothing to do with Green Bay’s backfield right now. With Josh Jacobs unavailable, the Packers again used MarShawn Lloyd, Kaleb Johnson, and Chris Brooks against Atlanta. According to PFF, Lloyd and Johnson spent most of the game in a near-even split, while Brooks remained the primary passing-down option. Green Bay also entered Week 3 as a bottom-three team in PFF run-blocking grade and largely abandoned the rushing attack against the Falcons. That’s essentially the worst combination we can have for fantasy: three backs dividing work behind a struggling run-blocking unit.
There was one potentially meaningful development late in the game. Johnson and Brooks handled the fourth-quarter work instead of Lloyd, although PFF specifically cautioned that it’s unclear whether Johnson actually moved ahead of Lloyd or whether the change was related to the game situation. I’m not guessing. Until Lloyd or Johnson clearly takes control of the early-down role, or Jacobs returns and immediately takes the backfield back, there isn’t enough concentrated volume for me to trust any of these players in normal fantasy lineups.
Kyle Pitts’ role is becoming a legitimate fantasy problem
This is no longer about Kyle Pitts simply having a couple of disappointing box scores. The role itself has changed. According to PFF, Pitts played only 49.6% of Atlanta’s offensive snaps over the first two weeks, with that number increasing to 55.2% if we remove garbage time. His route participation had fallen to 56.9% after sitting at 86.1% last season. The good news is that his route participation climbed back into the 70% range against Green Bay. The bad news is that even that remains below his previous role, and the targets still aren’t following. Pitts has now caught only two passes through Atlanta’s first three games.
That’s especially problematic when Bijan Robinson and Drake London are dominating Atlanta’s offense. Robinson carried 29 times for 194 yards and two touchdowns against Green Bay, while London caught nine of 10 targets for 194 yards in Atlanta’s 35-14 win. There simply aren’t many premium opportunities left when Pitts is simultaneously losing routes and competing with two players commanding that much of the offense. Pitts is too talented to drop after three weeks, and he’s only had one game with Atlanta’s usual starting quarterback, but I don’t think fantasy managers should keep automatically putting him into starting lineups. I want to see the routes and targets return first.
Week 3 was the perfect reminder to roster your running back handcuffs
Week 3 was brutal for running back injuries, and it’s exactly why I want high-upside backups on my bench before an injury happens rather than fighting for them afterward. Breece Hall left with a thigh injury, De’Von Achane exited early, and Travis Etienne Jr. suffered a hamstring injury after producing 57 rushing yards and another 13 through the air. We don’t know the full timetable for all three yet, so there’s no reason to speculate about how much time anyone will miss. The following three players would be the top pickups for each backfield.
Braelon Allen
Braelon Allen is one of the clearest examples. Hall held a 24-to-14 snap advantage over Allen through the first three quarters against Detroit and had a 10-to-one advantage in carries before suffering the thigh injury. Once Hall exited early in the fourth quarter, Allen handled every remaining Jets backfield snap. According to PFF, Isaiah Davis would likely mix in as a receiving option if Hall misses time, but Allen would be positioned to lead the backfield.
Ollie Gordon II
The Miami situation may be even more important. Achane entered Week 3 playing 80.7% of the Dolphins’ offensive snaps through two weeks before leaving four snaps into Sunday’s game. With Jaylen Wright also unavailable, Ollie Gordon II was essentially the last traditional running back standing and ended up playing 61 snaps after Achane exited.
That makes Gordon one of the biggest names to monitor entering Week 4, but there’s an important caveat. Wright had begun moving ahead of Gordon late last season and could re-enter the equation once healthy, so I’m not automatically projecting Gordon into Achane’s enormous workload beyond the immediate future.
Alvin Kamara
Travis Etienne’s injury is a little different because New Orleans already has multiple backs involved. The encouraging part for Etienne managers before the injury was that his role was actually moving in the right direction. He finished with 13 carries for 57 yards and two receptions for 13 yards before leaving with the hamstring issue. According to PFF, Etienne played 22 of New Orleans’ 30 first-half snaps against Las Vegas, including 10 of the 12 rushing plays. Alvin Kamara played only four first-half snaps, while CJ Donaldson maintained the third-down role.
Once Etienne exited in the third quarter, Kamara became the lead back. He ultimately finished with nine carries for 36 yards, and PFF charted him with 20 second-half snaps compared with 14 for Kendre Miller while receiving twice as many carries. If Etienne misses Week 4, Kamara becomes the immediate fantasy beneficiary and could push into starting consideration depending on the matchup. Donaldson remains an interesting deeper stash because his passing-down role gives him another path to playing time, but this isn’t as simple as one backup automatically inheriting every Etienne touch.
