Week 2 of the NFL season concludes with a Monday Night Football doubleheader featuring Titans vs. Bills and Vikings vs. Eagles.
I have four primetime plays – one from each team! – to consider. These players aren’t the flashiest of names and are more bargain-bin plays who could surprise.
RB Zack Moss, Bills
Throughout the offseason, we heard that Moss would be a bigger part of Buffalo's plans. In Week 1, he played 37% of the snaps and handled 12 touches.
In last year’s meeting between these two teams, Moss got 12 combined carries and targets to Devin Singletary’s 10. The Titans gave up 218 scrimmage yards and a TD to Saquon Barkley and company last week.
TE Austin Hooper, Titans
This is a nice buy-low spot on Hooper, who was second on the Titans in routes ran in Week 1. The matchup is a lot better this time around, as the Bills played almost exclusively zone in Week 1 while the Giants played man at a top-six rate.
According to data from PFF, Hooper’s career average in yards per route run versus zone (1.68) is nearly twice as high as it is against man (0.94). The Bills ended up funneling 11 targets to Tyler Higbee last week.
FB C.J. Ham, Vikings
Trying to find a dart throw on the Vikings is no fun because Kevin O’Connell is so good at scheming the ball to his top players and doesn’t give many snaps to backups.
With that said, Ham saw 14 snaps last week — just as many as Alexander Mattison. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned about primetime games, it’s that coaches seem to have a weird infatuation with putting the ball in the hands of seldom-used fullbacks (Andrew Beck, Zander Horvath, etc.).
RB Kenneth Gainwell, Eagles
The Lions blitzed Philly a ton last week, resulting in Detroit playing the highest rate of man coverage in the league. Minnesota is likely to sit back in zone more often, which always leads to increased checkdowns to RBs.
Per PFF, Gainwell averages a 20.9% target rate and 0.94 yards per route versus man coverage, but a 29.9% target rate and 1.86 yards per route run versus zone coverage. The Vikings allowed eight catches for 73 yards to Green Bay's backfield in Week 1.
