THE SHADOW KNOWS Week 2 2020

By Gary Davenport
Gary Davenport The Houston Texans are cursed. Either that, or Bill O' Brien owes the guy who draws up the NFL's schedule money.

Whatever the reason, Houston's schedule to open 2020 is beyond brutal. After facing the defensing Super Bowl champions on the road (and losing by two scores), the Texans get to come home and take in a 14-2 Baltimore Ravens team that destroyed the Cleveland Browns 38-6 in Week 1-the same Ravens who annihilated the Texans 41-7 last year.

That also means that both Texans wideouts face a grueling Week 2 matchup-Will Fuller and Brandin Cooks will lock horns with a pair of Pro Bowl cornerbacks in Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters.

Fuller was one of the few bright spots for the Texans in their loss to the Kansas City Chiefs-he reeled in eight of his 10 targets for 112 yards, and one of the misfires was an overthrow from Deshaun Watson. Per ESPN's Sarah Barshop, Fuller said it felt good to get back on the field after another injury-marred season.

"Being injured sucks, but I'm confident," Fuller said. "Every time I go back out on the field, I don't think about what happened last week or if I was injured last week. I always feel like I'm going to have a big game or whatever. I don't really dwell on injuries. I know they happen, but I always stay confident and just try to do my best to help the team win."

With Fuller healthy, he's all but a must-start in fantasy leagues, despite facing a cornerback in Humphrey whose passer rating against in 2019 was just 68.4. Fuller and Watson have some serious Vulcan mind-meld action going on.

Cooks, on the other hand, is another story. The 26-year-old played just over half the snaps in Week 1 as he works back from a quad injury, catching just two passes for 20 yards. Now, a banged-up Cooks gets of the NFL's best man coverage corners in Peters.

No. Just no. Benchapalooza. Front row.

Now here's a look around the rest of the league at the rest of the biggest CB vs. WR matchups of Week 2.

Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins (Tre'Davious White vs. DeVante Parker)

White is one of the best young cover men in the NFL-a player more than capable of shutting down just about any wide receiver in the league. But in 2019 at least, DeVante Parker had his number-in two meetings Parker racked up 12 catches for 190 yards and a score-numbers that equate to an average of 18.5 PPR fantasy points per game.

There's one problem though-that was with Parker healthy. He's not at the moment after pulling his hammy last week against the Patriots. Parker has practiced in a limited fashion this week, but a dinged-up receiver facing White is far from an ideal situation.

Even if you take Parker's success against White in 2019 into consideration, his 4/47 line against Stephon Gilmore in Week 1 serves as a reminder that he's a risky play in Week 2. If Parker is sidelined this week, then Preston Williams would draw White in coverage.

And land in the pit at Benchapalooza right next to Cooks.

Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins (Stefon Diggs vs. Xavien Howard)

The Buffalo debut for Stefon Diggs was a good one-eight catches for 86 yards on nine targets in the win over the New York Jets. He told Matt Parrino of Syracuse.com that he intends to build on that Sunday in Miami-despite a tough matchup with two high-priced cornerbacks in Byron Jones and Xavien Howard.

"They're an athletic group, fast group. You're gonna see press man-to-man," Diggs said. "Went against Byron Jones a little bit in Dallas, but in this current system they gonna play a lot of man. You gotta beat man-to-man coverage. You gotta just execute at a high level as far as like doing everything you need to do to get open for your quarterback and (then) catch the ball. ... That defense ... I think they're a good group. They're active and they fly around."

It's not unreasonable to bump Diggs down a few spots---Howard and Jones have the bank account they do for a reason. But there are a lot of new pieces on both teams, and one week isn't necessarily enough time to see how they all fit together. And Diggs And Allen appeared to click in the opener.

Glad I could clear that up. I'm a helper.

Detroit Lions at Green Bay Packers (Marvin Jones vs. Jaire Alexander)

Fantasy managers hoping for increased output from Marvin Jones in Detroit's season opener against the Chicago Bears with Kenny Golladay out with a hamstring injury were left holding the proverbial bag-Jones caught four passes for 55 yards, while Quintez Cephus led the Lions with nine targets.

Week 1 can be cruel like that.

Golladay is looking iffy at best for Sunday's trip to Green Bay-he didn't practice on Wednesday or Thursday. The Cephus bandwagon is going to have to get by without me-I'm not buying that he'll lead the Lions in looks two weeks in a row. That makes Jones (again) the de facto No. 1 receiver for the Lions-and means coverage from Green Bay's best corner in Jaire Alexander.

However, while Alexander is a solid young player, he hasn't fared especially well in the recent past in shadow coverage. Amari Cooper, Terry McLaurin and Stefon Diggs all had big days against Alexander last season, and we just watched Adam Thielen roast Alexander and the Green Bay secondary to the tune of six grabs for 110 yards and two touchdowns.

Kansas City Chiefs at Los Angeles Chargers (Tyreek Hill vs. Casey Hayward)

Fun fact No. 1: As Ian Hartitz wrote at Pro Football Focus, Tyreek Hill hasn't had 100 receiving yards and a score in the same week in 10 games. Fun fact No. 2: Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Casey Hayward was named Defensive Player of the Week in Week 1 for the first time in his nine-year career after the job he did against A.J. Green of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Fun fact No. 3: None of that matters even a little, because it's Tyreek Hill. Hayward and batterymate Chris Harris are both excellent cornerbacks with impressive resumes. But given how long both have played in the AFC West, both have also watched Hill fly past them like the Road Runner on the way to a long touchdown.

Meep meep.

While we're on the subject, allow me to say something about Sammy Watkins that I already regret-he's an upside WR3 at this point-even in a bad matchup. He was one of two Chiefs receivers (with Hill) who were on the field full-time against the Texans-Mecole Hardman wasn't even on the field 30 percent of the snaps last week.

Washington Football Team at Arizona Cardinals (Terry McLaurin vs. Patrick Peterson)

Washington was one of the bigger surprise winners of the first weekend of the NFL season, stunning the Eagles after falling behind 17-0. Terry McLaurin had a relatively modest 5 catches for 61 yards in that game, but per Ryan Homler of NBC Sports Washington, former NFL burner Torrey Smith thinks that the best is yet to come for the second-year pro from Ohio State.

"You're talking about a guy that's gonna see well over 100 targets this year, so he will have his first 1,000-yard season," Smith said on Washington Football Kickoff Live. "You can basically take that to the bank. With the ability to make tough catches, he's a burner as well. Oftentimes when you see fast guys, they aren't moved around a lot, right? He's a weapon in the slot, he's a weapon outside."

At first glance, this week's go-round with Patrick Peterson and the Cardinals might not appear a favorable matchup. But McLaurin has demonstrated already that he can hold his own against high-end cornerbacks. It's also debatable whether Peterson really was one in 2019-in 10 games last year he allowed over 65 percent of the passes thrown his way to be completed and had a passer rating against of almost 100.


New England Patriots at Seattle Seahawks (Stephon Gilmore vs. DK Metcalf)

Stephon Gilmore got a nice little raise from the Patriots after winning Defensive Player of the Year honors last year. But last week Albert Breer of NBC Sports dropped something of a bombshell when he reported that Gilmore very nearly got something else.

The gate.

"I'm told that on least two separate occasions, the Patriots floated his name in trade talks, both before the (NFL) Draft and during training camp," Breer said. "There was a point where they had less than $1 million underneath the salary cap. Stephon Gilmore was one of the few people they could go to who could make a significant difference there, and I can tell you this: He wasn't going to renegotiate his contract."

With that said, Gilmore's still in New England, and using him on Metcalf (who rarely plays in the slot) would be a very Bill Belichick thing to do while proverbial village it takes covers Tyler Lockett. Metcalf has the natural ability to bring in a TD catch regardless of who is covering him, but he's more WR3 than WR2 in Week 2.