Buffalo Bills fantasy football preview, Week 6: Defense wins championships

The Buffalo Bills are 2-3, having won a pair of games that most prognosticators expected them to lose. Their roster is full of players whose fantasy-football prospects are not exactly solid. With a running back averaging only 43 rushing yards per game, a quarterback throwing for 150 yards per game, and a top wide receiver (Zay Jones) averaging 33 yards per game, Buffalo isn’t exactly a hotbed of fantasy-football activity.

However, each week brings different situations, and this weekend’s match-up with the Houston Texans provides some possible plays for risk-seeking fantasy football owners and homers alike. If you’re still trying to win in fantasy football with Bills players, I admire your faith. Here are a few options that could help you this week.

Bills D/ST

This one seems pretty surreal given the start of the season, but Buffalo’s defense has very quietly put together a fantastic 14-quarter stretch. After allowing 75 points in the season’s first six quarters, the Bills have only allowed 43 since Vontae Davis retired at halftime of the home opener against the Los Angeles Chargers. For the season, the Bills have 12 sacks, three interceptions, and six fumble recoveries. After totaling 1 point through the season’s first two weeks, the Bills’ defense has scored 17, 6, and 12 over the last three—giving them the 15th-best total for the season at the position. Buffalo’s defense is available in 98% of Yahoo! leagues, and they could be a great option this week given the uncertainty surrounding Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson. Even if Watson plays, he’s taken 18 sacks on the year, second only to Josh Allen.

QB Josh Allen

Speaking of Allen, the Bills’ highest fantasy scorer is still a low-end (read: not startable in most leagues) option at his position, but if you’re feeling frisky or your league allows you to deploy multiple quarterbacks, you could certainly do worse than Allen. Nearly all of his fantasy value right now is in his legs, a situation Bills fans are more than accustomed to with their quarterback. Allen has 3 rushing touchdowns on the year to go with 135 rushing yards, buoying his dreadful passing stats (748 yards, 2 touchdowns, 5 interceptions). Yahoo! projects Allen to score 16.2 points this week, making him QB22 in their projections. Houston has allowed three quarterbacks to score at least 19.8 points on the year, but all three of them (Tom Brady, Eli Manning, and Andrew Luck) are experienced veterans who are far better than Allen. Buffalo’s signal caller is a risky play.

RB LeSean McCoy

If it’s volume you want, you’ll have exactly that with McCoy, who saw 24 of his 45 carries in 2018 during Sunday’s 13-12 win over the Tennessee Titans. McCoy did not appear to be at all affected by the rib injury he suffered in Week 2. If offensive coordinator Brian Daboll follows a similar game plan to the one used last week, where Buffalo ran the ball on 43 of 63 plays from scrimmage, then we can expect McCoy to have another week of 25 touches. That doesn’t guarantee efficiency or success, but it guarantees opportunity—which is all you can really ask for in setting a lineup.