All right, all right, all right. I know Sam Bradford would seemingly break with the "You don't have to use bad players" narrative pushed at the beginning. But he and his pass catchers may be just good enough to excel against the wretched Detroit Lions pass defense.
The Lions don't just have the worst Adjusted Defensive Passing NEP per play. They have the worst Adjusted Defensive Passing NEP per play in our databases, which date back to the 2000 season. Yes, this means they are currently worse than the 2015 Saints. No, that is not good.
The quick rebuttal here would be that we were in a similar spot just last week with Brock Osweiler. He did Osweiler things and finished the day with a whopping 10.1 fantasy points. If Osweiler couldn't succeed against them, why should we expect Bradford to do so?
The answer is that Bradford -- quite simply -- has been better than Osweiler this year. Bradford ranks 18th in Passing NEP per dropback for the season while Osweiler is all the way down in 32nd. This includes all expected points lost due to sacks, so it is factoring in the Minnesota Vikings' vomit-inducing offensive line.
Speaking of sacks, the Vikings have managed to lose 23.21 Passing NEP on sacks the past two weeks, more than 10 teams have lost this entire season. That would have an effect on Bradford's fantasy outlook because sacks lower the odds a team scores a touchdown on that drive, but Bradford's task will be easier this week than it has been the past two.
In those two games, the Vikings have faced the Eagles and the Chicago Bears. Those two teams are currently first and seventh, respectively, in Defensive Sack NEP per dropback. To find the Lions, you have to go all the way to 19th. The big uglies will likely still struggle, but this is a definite improvement for Bradford and company.
It's understandable if you don't want to use Bradford given his somewhat lofty price of $7,400 on FanDuel, but you absolutely cannot ignore his pass catchers.
We'll start the only place we truly can start against the Lions, and that's at the tight end position. They've -- somehow -- already allowed eight touchdowns to tight ends this season. Kyle Rudolph, meanwhile, has 38.9% of the team's red-zone targets this season and a 23.1% market share overall. He's one of the top tight ends on the board this week, and you can snag him for just $5,000.
Then there's Stefon Diggs. Before last week, he hadn't been fully healthy since Week 4. He rebounded with 13 targets in Week 8, turning them into 76 yards and a score. He has been a target monster when active this year, and even if Darius Slay is back, you could do much worse than Diggs for the price of $6,500.