Kansas City matches up with a measly Chicago Bears team in Arrowhead. The Chiefs have looked virtually unbeatable at home in recent years and had a last minute fumble in week 2 not happened, the Chiefs would arguably be 2-2. For fantasy owners the Chiefs have been a great offense so far this season but an awful defense. As far as Smith goes, he has been playing average this season. This matchup certainly favors Alex Smith due to Chicago’s lack of a pass defense.
Streaming Overview
For fantasy veterans the concept of streaming is simple and makes sense but for newer players, streaming may seem complicated or harder to understand. For those of you that do not know, the term “streaming” when being used in fantasy means to start different players each week based on matchup. For example if you have Andy Dalton and Carson Palmer (Dalton has scored 86 fantasy points, Palmer has scored 80 points). Dalton matches up with the Seahawks who are certainly a top pass defense. Palmer plays the 0-4 Lions who have not looked great against the pass so far. Essentially streaming is the concept that you start Palmer simply because he has the better matchup. Another form of streaming is sleeper streaming. For example take Dalton and Blake Bortles. Dalton has played much better this season but Bortles has the far better matchup this week since Bortles plays Tampa Bay. Sleeper streaming is popular in daily fantasy because in general Bortles would be considerably cheaper than Dalton and has the higher ceiling.
Alex Smith
Smith is an easy pick for both daily fantasy and season long fantasy. Smith matches up with the Bears who have one of the worst pass defenses in the league. Smith has had a good fantasy season so far, scoring efficiently in 3 of 4 games so far. Smith’s fantasy stat lines go like this {22, 4, 18, 17} and the Bears against quarterbacks have not scored well {22, 21, 15, 13}. Every quarterback that has played the Bears so far has gotten at least 1 touchdown and 3 of the 4 got 2 or more. This one looks easy on paper to pick, Smith is a decent fantasy quarterback that is by no means viewed in a high regard. The Bears pass defense has looked dismal all season and the Chiefs have multiple threats to score with.
Legit Scoring Threat
The Chiefs finally broke they’re lethal streak of games without a wide receiver touchdown. Jeremy Maclin finally got a ball in the endzone for the Chiefs receivers. Travis Kelce has looked great all season and is currently second among tight ends as far as fantasy points go. This is compliments of Alex Smith and his ability to find the open receivers and get the ball into the endzone. The addition of Jeremy Maclin this offseason was certainly overlooked because the Chiefs were not known for using wide receivers in the pass game. Jeremy Maclin was a top 10 receiver last season and is again in the right around the top 10. Alex Smith is effectively using Jeremy Maclin in the pass game and is willing to toss deep balls to him. Smith has to be the stream of the week simply because the Chiefs offense is a top scoring offense in the NFL and Smith has been orchestrating the offense with the help of Jamaal Charles, Jeremy Maclin, and Travis Kelce.
Verdict
Between the combination of the matchup and Smith’s newfound wide receiver, he is certainly my stream of the week. Smith is currently priced at $6,900 on FanDuel which is shockingly cheap for a quarterback with such a great matchup. I can not say it enough, you need to start Alex Smith especially in daily fantasy since he is a cheap alternative to a top guy and can keep up with the top scorers.