Brandon Marshall and Dez Bryant have long been amongst the top wide receivers in the NFL from a statistical standpoint. The Dallas Cowboys and New York Jets both need their top targets to be in fine form on Saturday when they go for a 'W' against each other, and the winner of this fantasy matchup at BookMaker could end up being a big tell as to who is going to win this game.
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There certainly is an easy answer here for who should win this fantasy battle. Marshall now has posted 1,000 yards for his fourth different team in his illustrious career, and he's arguably having his greatest season yet at 31 years old.
He UCF product has at least 125 receiving yards in three straight games, and he's found the end zone in all three. Last week against Tennessee was his least productive of the three games from a fantasy perspective with 18.3 points, and clearly, if that's the unproductive week, the productive ones have been even more remarkable.
There seems to be this great synergy between Marshall and Ryan Fitzpatrick that isn't being broken. The ground game is working for New York, and with that being the primary focus, it's tough to find a way to cover both Marshall and Eric Decker. Sure, the red zone targets are relatively split between those two, and it'll frustrate bettors from time to time when Decker is the man celebrating the six instead of Marshall, but there's plenty of targets to go around.
Dallas' secondary might be holding teams to just 221.1 yards per game, but just looking at the talent on the field, there isn't a man who should be matching up with Marshall.
There are certainly other factors as well that play into Marshall's hands. He's the healthier of the two receivers, knowing the Bryant is dealing with knee and ankle issues at the moment. He's also not going to have Darrelle Revis trailing him like Bryant will. Furthermore, Fitzpatrick might not be the best quarterback on the face of the earth, but he laughs in the face of Matt Cassel.
That said, as an underdog in this fantasy football matchup, we're still willing to take a stab on Dez here.
Go back and look at what some of the huge receivers have done to the Jets lately. Sure, Revis Island hasn't been out on the field, nor has he been playing all that effectively even when he has been out there. Odell Beckham Jr. has been tearing it up all season long, but he really torched the Jets for six catches, 149 yards and a score. Jarvis Landry went for 165, albeit mostly in garbage time. Andre Hopkins had five catches for 118 yards and two TDs.
Now, it's easy to be a naysayer and suggest that Bryant had just six yards on one catch last week. He hasn't had more than five catches in a game this year, and his average game of 7.1 fantasy points per game suggests that he's turned into a scrub more than anything else.
Bryant though, is always one play from a big one. He had six targets last week, and two of those came inside the scoring zone. No. 88 is always a red zone threat on a team which really doesn't have a ton of options from down close.
Somewhere down the line, Jason Garrett is going to have to let Cassel air it out. Jerry Jones stated in several interviews this week that the Cowboys aren't going to rest Bryant at the end of the year with his leg ailments and even suggested that he needs to get the ball in his hands more.
Yes, if Marshall does what he's done in these last few games, Bryant isn't beating him from a fantasy perspective. However, we see two touchdown potential out of Bryant in this one, and that's why we're tipping him as a big underdog against Marshall.
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