Buccaneers vs. Broncos Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 3

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 3 matchup between the Buccaneers and Broncos.

Find a breakdown of every Week 3 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Baker Mayfield: Mayfield is living his best life right now, sitting as the QB1 in overall fantasy scoring through two weeks.

After closing Week 1 as the QB1 (29.7 points), Mayfield was the QB5 (18.3 points) in Week 2.

He threw for 9.7 yards per pass attempt in Detroit on Sunday but got there in a different fashion for fantasy compared to Week 1 when he tossed 4 touchdowns.

Mayfield only threw the ball 19 times on Sunday with 9.4 passing points (QB19 on the week) but added 34 yards and a touchdown on the ground. 

That included a perfectly timed quarterback draw for an 11-yard touchdown run that put Tampa Bay ahead for good.

Mayfield opened up last season with a smattering of rushing yards before his career rates caught up to him, but this is the first time in his career that he has had back-to-back games with 20 or more rushing yards.

Something we will keep tabs on moving forward.

Mayfield has a running sample now, going back to last season, where he can be streamed in 1QB leagues in favorable spots while serving as a floor-based QB2 in 2QB formats.

This Denver defense (and offense) has Mayfield in that latter bucket for me this weekend.

The Broncos have faced Geno Smith and Justin Fields to open the year, but they have opened the season 10th in passing points allowed and 10th in yards allowed per pass attempt (6.4 Y/A).

Denver has been much more aggressive defensively this season, blitzing on a league-high 51.0% of passing plays. The next closest team is at 35.0%.

That could be opponent-driven, but Mayfield has opened the year hot against the blitz, connecting on 18-of-23 (78.3%) passes for 232 yards (10.1 Y/A) with two touchdowns. 

While an aggressive Denver defense can create some big-play opportunities in the passing game, there is concern that the Denver offense will need to fight back more to allow a prime runout of passing volume.

Bo Nix: Nix has opened his career with QB20 (11.0 points) and QB28 (6.6 points) scoring weeks.

After throwing for 3.3 yards per attempt in his debut, Nix did get to 7.0 Y/A last week, but he currently has zero passing touchdowns and four interceptions through two games.

Downfield passing has been an issue for this passing game.

On throws 10 or more yards downfield, Nix is now 6-of-24 (25%) with 3 interceptions.

He does have a 75.5% completion rate on shorter throws than that (QB14) but has only averaged 4.3 Y/A on those short targets (QB26).

To give Nix some benefit of the doubt if you are pushing him out as back-end QB2 out of necessity, he has had a tough draw going to Seattle and then facing Pittsburgh to open his career.

Tampa Bay rallied around its defensive injuries last week, but this unit is expected to miss multiple starters. 

He also has run for 35 and 25 yards to offer some mobility.

But Denver will be without Mike McGlinchey here, which is a concern against Todd Bowles, who will be ready to send what he can at Nix.

Under pressure through two games, Nix is 14-of-29 (48.3%) for 5.3 Y/A with 2 interceptions.

Running Back

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