It’s probably fairly obvious, but here’s why Lions wide receiver Amon St Brown is an absolute must-start in fantasy football for Week 2 against the Washington Commanders.
In Week 1 against the Philadelphia Eagles, with running back D’Andre Swift and tight end T.J. Hockenson playing, Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown had eight receptions for 64 yards and a touchown. He also had a late last season-esque 32.4 percent target share (12 targets on Jared Goff’s 37 pass attempts).
So the rumors of St. Brown’s fantasy football demise if and when Swift and Hockenson were healthy, at least for a week, were greatly exaggerated. He was WR11 in full PPR for Week 1, and a top-20 wide receiver for the week regardless of scoring format.
Week 2’s matchup might be even better for the Lions’ No. 1 wide receiver, against the Washington Commanders.
Amon-Ra St. Brown is a no-brainer must start in Week 2 vs. the Commanders
The subheadline fully gave away the conclusion, but let’s dive into the process to get there for St. Brown as a must-start in fantasy this week.
The Commanders allowed the fourth-most yards to wide receivers in Week 1 (226). Of the 31.7 fantasy points they allowed to the Jaguars’ receivers (0.5 point PPR), Christian Kirk had 14.7 (six catches for 117 yards).
St. Brown, primarily working out of the slot, will also get a favorable-looking matchup against Commanders’ second-year cornerback Benjamin St.-Juste. St. Juste was not tested a lot in Week 1 (four targets), but in nine games as a rookie last year he allowed a 112.9 passer rating, nearly a 65 percent completion rate and 9.3 yards per target in his coverage.
St. Brown’s can be bumped down a little in non-PPR formats, as usual. But his fantasy managers would have to have two, if not three with taking a flex spot into account, better wide receiver options to bench him at this point. That’s practically guaranteed not to be the case in Week 2, in what projects to be a fairly high-scoring game and a favorable individual matchup on the slate.