Every Week 2 Matchup to Exploit and Avoid | 2026 Fantasy Football

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

There is so much NFL on ESPN right now.

Monday Night Football, plus pregame and postgame. NFL Live, NFL Primetime. Everything you need to stay on top of every game, every week.

SPEAKER_2 (0:14)

Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_1 (0:16)

And now, NFL Network is on the ESPN app. More football, more coverage, more ways to watch. Football's on, all season long, on ESPN and streaming on the ESPN app.

SPEAKER_2 (0:31)

Hey, Spotify listeners. When you travel with American Airlines, you'll enjoy comfort and convenience at every altitude. Before takeoff, unwind in the Admiral's Club Lounge with curated self-serve offerings of hearty bites and refreshments. In-flight, stay connected with high-speed Wi-Fi, sponsored by AT&T. Your journey is designed to feel easy from the moment you check in to the moment you arrive. No matter where you're going, American gets you there. Book now at aa.com.

SPEAKER_3 (0:57)

This episode is brought to you by Tic-Tac. Lace up and get your game on, because the Tic-Tac lineup just got a new teammate. Dr. Pepper Tic-Tac. This new double threat puts two of your favorite flavors into one box of mints. And when two iconic flavors come together, the result can only be iconic.

Score big. Try Dr. Pepper Tic-Tac today.

John Hansen (1:20)

Hey, what's up? It's me, John Hansen, hosting the Fantasy Points Podcast solo this week. A week to preview. I bang it out in about 35 minutes covering all the upcoming matchups, isolating one player and matchup to exploit and one matchup to avoid. So there it is. Thanks for liking and subscribing as always. Good luck with all your plays and decisions in week two. And you're welcome.

All across the fantasy universe, Brian Drake's not here. I'm John Hansen. You got me flying solo for this latest edition of The Fantasy Points Podcast. The pod drops on Friday. It is our opportunity to offer up a small preview of the upcoming week, week number two, as we did last week. We'll take all the matchups. We'll pop out one to exploit and one to avoid. And if you are not a subscriber to fantasypoints.com and you're interested, you can use the promo code fantasy and save 10% off your subscription. Well, without any further ado, let's just dive right into it. I'm recording this on Thursday night, by the way, right before the Thursday night football game. So I might go a little quicker here. We might get out of here in about 40 minutes, but we shall see. I do tend to go on and on sometimes. Anywho, let's get into the week two slate here, popping out one matchup to exploit and one to avoid. And we start with the Carolina Panthers at the Atlanta Falcons.

I'm certainly going to go right to B. John Robinson. It is a very good schematic matchup for B. John. The Panthers last week gave up 112 rushing yards on zone concept runs, the third most in 5.3 YPC. Seventy-seven percent of B. John's runs last week were on those zone runs, 4.27 yards per carry. He may not go off here in the passing attack, as the Panthers somehow give up the 13th fewest receiving yards to running backs per game last year. But B. John had 23 touches per game in the matchup last year. He had 36 carries for $1.76 and a couple of tutties. He did actually catch nine balls for $78. I was tempted, by the way, to go with Drake London, but as I record this, he does have a good schematic matchup. I do not know, though, about Michael Pennex as we record this on Thursday night. And to that point, somewhat, we're gonna go with Kyle Pitts as a matchup to avoid. Carolina gave up the 11th fewest receptions per game to tight in since 2025, and Pitts was the Pitts in this matchup. Now, keep in mind, this was a breakout season for him last year. He only had four grabs for 39 in one game and two for 14 So that is not good. He didn't get a single catch last week. One target, even though he was out there for an 81% route share, that was with Cooper Rush. And it's not an ideal schematic matchup. Panthers using cover three, cover two, 73.7% of the time last week. And Pitts is at a so-so 1.67 yards per route run against those coverages since 2025 Let's head on over to the Baltimore Ravens hosting the New Orleans Saints. Oh, by the way, I should probably talk about point totals. We got a total of 46.5 last I checked, but that could go down if Zay Flowers is ruled out basically. Baltimore favored by eight and a half points, an applied total of 27 It all bows really, really well for Derrick Henry. The Saints got run on last week by Jameer Gibbs, 29 carries, a buck 56 The schematic matchup looks really good. 67% of Henry's runs last week were on zone concept. Bronzy averaged 6.75 yards per carry with a 62.5% success rate. Saints last week gave up 16 carries for 94 on zone runs, 5.88 yards per carry, 56.3% success rate. And most importantly, they are that 8.5 point favorite. And since the start of last season, Derek Henry gets a 29% boost to his fantasy points per game and wins 20 fantasy points per game compared to 16.7 in losses. Now, I will stay with the same team for, I'm going to say avoid, we got to start Lamar Jackson in regular fantasy season long leagues, most likely. But in any other environment, I would probably avoid him because it'll be a lot of handing off. I do believe now he looks healthy, he looks great. By the way, I think Lamar, his new found threat on the ground is only going to help Derek Henry. I lost a couple of props on Henry late last year by a handful of yards. The game script always worked out and he got the carries, but man, defenses were really loading up on him. And we didn't see that as much last week, that's for sure. It is a good schematic matchup for Lamar with the cover three and the cover six.