Fantasy Football: Week 2 WR/CB matchups and TE breakdown

We're on to Week 2! I'll be breaking down the WR/CB matchups all season long with a focus on figuring out who could be facing shadow coverage as well as the best and worst overall situations. We'll also briefly touch on each team's TE group.

The following tables denote snap rate data by alignment, target share, air yard market share, yards per route run and yards allowed per coverage snap.

Cincinnati Bengals at Cleveland Browns

Bengals Offense

WR	Player	Height	Weight	40	YPRR	CB	Height	Weight	40	YPRR
L	A.J. Green	76	210	4.48	1.7	Terrance Mitchell	71	191	4.63	1.03
R	John Ross	71	190	4.22	0.46	Denzel Ward	71	190	4.32	1.23
S	Tyler Boyd	74	203	4.58	0.85	Tavierre Thomas	70	205	N/A	3.44

Projected shadow matchups: None

WR/CB breakdown: Joe Burrow’s target distribution in his first career start was as follows:

A.J. Green (9 targets)
John Ross (5)
Tyler Boyd (5)
C.J. Uzomah (5)
Giovani Bernard (5)
Mike Thomas (3)
Drew Sample (1)
Joe Mixon (1)

AJG looked plenty healthy in his first game since 2018 and is deserving of consistent WR2 treatment moving forward. Ross’ status as a near every-down player is exciting for his future boom-week potential. Boyd’s 4-33-0 start wasn’t exactly what fantasy investors were hoping for, but a spot in the slot of three-WR sets should yield positive results sooner rather than later inside of this budding passing attack.

CB Greedy Williams (shoulder), Robert Jackson (finger) and Kevin Johnson (liver) should each be considered questionable at best to suit up this week. This offense sputtered against the Chargers’ high-end combination of pass-rush and coverage; Week 2 should be an easier time for everyone involved.

TE breakdown: Uzomah worked as the offense’s featured TE without Tyler Eifert in the fold. His 4-45-0 line wasn’t all that impressive, but finishing among the week’s top-five targets is a solid step after ranking eighth on the Bengals in 2019. We should still expected this passing game to usually flow through the WRs and RBs first, although Uzomah could carve out some consistent TE2 value with this sort of featured role.

Browns Offense

WR	Player	Height	Weight	40	YPRR	CB	Height	Weight	40	YPRR
L	Odell Beckham Jr.	71	198	4.43	0.67	William Jackson III	72	196	4.37	0.94
R	KhaDarel Hodge	74	205	N/A	0.57	Darius Phillips	70	190	4.54	1.53
S	Jarvis Landry	71	196	4.77	1.85	Mackensie Alexander	70	192	N/A	0

Projected shadow matchups: None

WR/CB breakdown: Landry (71% snaps in Week 1) was supposed to be limited, but he ultimately was on the field nearly as often as OBJ (75%). Neither managed to get too much going in Week 1’s tough draw against the Ravens’ loaded CB room, but better days should be ahead against the Bengals’ relatively mediocre group.