Fantasy football 2024 rankings, sleepers, streamers, cheat sheets for Week 3 for standard and PPR leagues

The early portion of every Fantasy football season is rife with uncertainty, but each player's upside should become clearer as you put together your Week 3 Fantasy football rankings. Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak has transformed the Saints' offense and breathed life into quarterback Derek Carr and receiver Rashid Shaheed while helping return running back Alvin Kamara to Fantasy glory. Should you continue riding the red-hot Saints or is now a time to sell-high after a pair of 40-point outbursts? With a reliable set of Week 3 Fantasy football rankings, you can nail any difficult Fantasy football start-sit decisions.

You can also identify potential Fantasy football waiver wire pickups and help improve your Fantasy football picks. Before you lock in your Fantasy football lineups, be sure to check out the Week 3 Fantasy football rankings from the advanced computer model at SportsLine .

When it comes to ranking players, SportsLine's model beat human experts in Fantasy football for the past several seasons, especially when there were big differences in ranking. Over the course of a season, that could literally be the difference between winning your league or going home emptyhanded.

The same model has a proven track record providing Fantasy football tips, including being ahead of the curve on players like A.J. Brown , Jonathan Taylor , Derrick Henry , Christian McCaffrey , Alvin Kamara , and Jahmyr Gibbs . Anybody who banked on players like those made a run at their league title.

Now, the model, which simulates every NFL game 10,000 times, has revealed its Fantasy football rankings for Week 3 of the 2024 NFL season. Head to SportsLine now to see them .

Top Week 3 Fantasy football picks

One surprise in Week 3: The model is fading Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud , the 2023 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. The No. 2 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft threw for 4,108 yards and 23 touchdowns with only five interceptions over 15 games in his first season while averaging an impressive 8.2 yards per pass attempt.

However, he's only averaged 7.3 yards per pass attempt so far in 2024 and he'll draw another tough matchup in Week 3 against the Vikings . Minnesota ranks third in the NFL in points allowed through two weeks and is coming off an impressive performance against a dynamic 49ers offense. That's a big reason why the model barely ranks Stroud inside its top 20 this week, preferring Geno Smith , Deshaun Watson and even Sam Darnold .

A curveball: The model is high on Seahawks wide receiver Jaxon Smith Njigba. The No. 20 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft is coming off his first career 100-yard receiving game and he looks like he's going to be a big part of Ryan Grubb's offense moving forward.

Smith-Njigba was targeted 16 times in an overtime win over the Patriots in Week 2 and he finished with 12 catches for 117 yards. His average depth of target has improved from 6.1 yards as a rookie to 9.9 yards over the first two weeks and a more aggressive offensive approach is a big reason why the model ranks Smith-Njigba as a top-10 wide receiver in Week 3 despite the fact that he was only started in 7% of leagues last week. For more start/sit Fantasy football advice, be sure to check out the rest of the Week 2 Fantasy football rankings .

How to set Week 3 Fantasy football rankings

The model is also calling for a surprising quarterback owned in less than half of CBS Sports PPR leagues to finish in the top 10 of its Week 3 Fantasy football rankings. This pick could be the difference between winning big and going home with nothing. See the model's entire Week 3 Fantasy football rankings for PPR and standard leagues here .

So who should you start and sit this week? And which surprising quarterback could lead you to victory? Visit SportsLine now to get Week 3 Fantasy football rankings for every position, plus see which RB comes out of nowhere to crack the top five, all from the model that has outperformed experts big-time .