As promised, let’s pay our respects to the kickers and defense/special teams units that help us decide our fantasy fates each and every season…once again, these are 15-game projections.

Let’s revisit the color-coding system before we start:

Red – A very difficult matchup. For lower-level players, a red matchup means they should not be used in fantasy that week. For a second- or third-tier player, drop your expectations for them at least one grade that week (i.e. from WR2 to WR3). For elite players, expect them to perform one level lower than their usual status (i.e. RB1 performs like a RB2).

Yellow – Keep expectations fairly low in this matchup. For lower-level players, a yellow matchup is a borderline start at best. For a second- or third-tier player, they can probably overcome the matchup if things fall right. For the elite players, expect slightly better than average production.

White – Basically, this matchup is one that could go either way. In some cases, I just don’t feel like I have a good feel yet for this defense. Generally speaking, these matchups are winnable matchups for all levels of players.

Green – It doesn’t get much better than this. For non-elite players, the stage is basically set for said player to exploit the matchup. For the elite player, this matchup should produce special numbers..

And now the defenses…

Just to be clear, “TD” refers to the point total of the defensive or return scores…

Bonus determined by the following benchmarks:
10 points for shutout or held to 2 points
7 points if held from 3-6 points
4 points if held from 7-12 points
2 points if held from 13-16 points
1 points if held from 17-20 points
0 points if held from 21-28 points
-1 point if give up 29-34 points
-3 points if give up 35+ points

Like I have for the past few years, I’m going to provide a list of second- and third-string players who impressed me in the previous week of preseason action. Since I don’t make it a habit to watch all 16 exhibition games in the final week of the preseason, I will start with Week 1’s “standouts” this week and continue on over the next two weeks. This collection of names isn’t so much about who lit up the box score, but more about skill-position players who did their job well or impressed me. If nothing else, don’t hesitate to queue these players on your dynasty watch list (in no particular order):

Week 1: Juwan Thompson, RB Denver; Branden Oliver, RB San Diego; Matt Scott, QB Cincinnati; Logan Thomas, QB Arizona; Brian Tyms, WR New England; Jimmy Garoppolo, QB New England

Next: PPR Big Board | .5 PPR Big Board | Non-PPR Big Board

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