The start of the NFL season is still four months away, but things are starting to take shape. The NFL Draft and free agency told us where everyone will be playing in 2020, and with the schedule release Thursday night, now we know when and who everyone will be playing.
Dave Richard has a full breakdown of the schedule, ranking every team from best to worst for Fantasy, including a breakdown of the first four weeks of the season — the time when we can be most confident of what teams are going to look like, before injuries and other shocks change the landscape. That 30,000-foot view has value, and can help you break ties when trying to figure out who to draft for your starting lineup, but the schedule release might matter even more for determining those late-round picks.
You’re never going to avoid Michael Thomas or Dalvin Cook because of a tough matchup, but the right matchup absolutely matters when it comes to identifying streaming options. And, if you want to load up on running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends to build contingencies upon contingencies (and you should), you’ll probably end up streaming at quarterback, DST, and kicker.
It’s a viable strategy, and here are the top options to target in the later rounds on Draft Day for 2020, based on their early-season schedules:
QB to stream
- Teddy Bridgewater – vs. LV, @TB: Bridgewater opens his Panthers career with two bottom-10 defenses against quarterbacks from 2020, and a bevy of weapons to put to use in the offense Joe Brady set records with at LSU. A gunslinger, he’s not, but Bridgewater should find plenty of room for success in both games. And, if you can find a streamer for Week 3 (Bridgewater has the Chargers), matchups against the Cardinals and Falcons in Weeks 4 and 5 could have Bridgewater looking like a top-12 QB nearly one-third of the way through the season.
- Ben Roethlisberger – @NYG, vs. DEN: A lot is going to depend on how Roethlisberger returns from his elbow injury, but if he comes back fine, the opening…