Kenny Britt Daily Fantasy News, Rankings, Projections

Jordan Matthews has been released from the Patriots, proving not all that comes out of Vanderbilt is pure gold. NFL guru Evan Silva speculates that Kenny Britt could open the season starting across from Chris Hogan. With Julian Edelman suspended the first 4 games of the season, we could be seeing some value open up already. Week 1 gives us a 2017 rematch of the Houston at New England shootout that saw Brandin Cooks and Chris Hogan combine for 199 yards and 4 TD’s. With Edelman out and Cooks playing with the Rams now, this is a depth chart battle to monitor this preseason.

The emergence of Josh Gordon in a Cleveland Browns uniform made it easy for the team to part ways with the veteran Britt. Gordon converted 11 targets against the Chargers into 4 catches and 85 yards last week and is quickly asserting himself as the main target of Deshone Kizer moving forward. Britt should clear waivers thus making him a free agent to sign with any team that has interest.

Britt was removed from the injury report ahead of Cleveland's game against the Vikings. He's not guaranteed a starting role though, as coach Hue Jackson remains non-committal regarding Britt's role in the offense going forward. He's now caught 10-of-28 targets and with the Browns not playing for anything besides a draft pick, the big free agent acquisition is nothing but a sunk cost at this point. Britt doesn't appear to be a fantasy option against a solid Vikings pass defense.

Britt is expected to be active for today's game against the Tennessee Titans after previously being listed as questionable on the Cleveland Browns' injury report with separate knee and groin injuries that forced him to miss last week's contest. Britt and Ricardo Louis are expected to be the Browns' starting wide receivers with Rashard Higgins handling the slot duties, but it's difficult to get behind any of them given their inconsistent target shares and being on the receiving end of DeShone Kizer passes, who has already been benched for Kevin Hogan once this season for his poor play.

The receiver has been inactive the past two games as he rehabs knee and groin issues. He suffered a midweek setback heading into Cleveland's Week 6 matchup but he should be able to return for this Sunday against the Titans. Although they've allowed the tenth-most PPR points to receivers and rank 25th in pass DVOA, they've earned the tenth-best mark in WR1 DVOA (per FO). Of course, Britt's place as the number one receiver is up for debate considering his poor start to the season - he's only hauled in eight of his 23 targets. While there aren't many other pass-catching weapons to compete with on the Browns offense, Britt will have an inefficient DeShone Kizer throwing to him. The rookie quarterback is completing 51% of his passes and he's tossed nine picks including four in the red zone. It'll be tough to trust Britt to produce a strong fantasy performance if he plays this weekend.

Britt suffered a mid-week setback to the groin injury that held him out of last week's game. He's performed poorly since joining the Browns, catching just 8-of-23 targets over four games. Perhaps he will come out motivated if he plays or maybe Kevin Hogan under center can help his bottom line, but he's far from reliable at this point. That said, it looks like he'd at least have a favorable matchup against Johnthan Banks, who's allowed the fifth-most yards per cover snap since he signed with the Texans three weeks ago (2.29, per PFF). Ricardo Louis would be the de facto number one receiver if Britt is out. He'll primarily go up against Jonathan Joseph, PFF's 61st cover corner. This cornerback group isn't anything to fear as their slot guy, Kareem Jackson, rounds out their top trio with PFF's 103rd cover grade. When in the slot this season, Jackson has led the league with 2.3 yards per cover snap (2.3) and he's second-worst in both passer rating (123.9) and cover snaps per reception (6.4). Rashard Higgins has been quiet for three weeks after blowing up for a 7/11/95/0 line but he could be a sneaky GPP gamble. The added risk there is his playing time, after topping 50 snaps for three straight games, Higgins only earned 37 last week against the Jets while newcomer Bryce Treggs beat him with 42. Tight end David Njoku has a team-high three touchdowns and two of them came from Kevin Hogan. There's some chemistry between the two and Houston has allowed the fourth-most yards to the position and eighth-most PPR points despite ranking sixth in TE DVOA. All of these solid matchups signal an opportunity for Hogan to beat his cheap salary. The Texans are allowing the seventh-most fantasy points to QBs and Hogan comes with a decent floor boost from his running ability. In the lone game he received significant playing time in 2016, he ran for 104 yards and a score on seven attempts. In just one half against the Jets last week, he added 30 yards on four carries. He was also very efficient through the air, completing 16-of-19 passes for 194 yards and two scores. He won't exactly be sneaky though, we're projecting 10% ownership on DraftKings, the third-highest among QBs on the slate.