Let Thielen go because the Vikings will have to pay him more? That's pretty whack.
No, it's because the Viking put Thielen in the slot, where defenses rarely have a corner able to match up with him. In almost every defense, the best corners are on the outside (Peterson, Lattimore, Rhodes, Hayward, Norman) and they never travel inside regardless of who the receiver is. And so when you have a big, fast, premier receiver lining up in the slot like the Vikings do (Pittsburgh with JuJu is another) it creates a huge mismatch.
Lions game should be another big game for Thielen as the Lions are one of the league's worst defenses against the slot. For more insight, here's what the Lions game looks like from a fantasy perspective from the guy I listen to most, Mike Tagliere.
Adam Thielen: Just what the No. 1 receiver in fantasy football needs, a matchup with one of the league’s worst defenses against slot receivers. Defending the slot as a team, they’ve allowed 40-of-53 passing for 598 yards and five touchdowns. It’s clearly been a problem for Lions, because they’ve allowed four wide receivers to score 18-plus PPR points against them, and three of them were slot-heavy receivers (
Danny Amendola,
Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and
Quincy Enunwa). You don’t need me to tell you to start Thielen every single week. He’s safe for DFS lineups as well, as he goes for an NFL record nine straight games of 100-plus receiving yards. He’s currently tied at eight games with Calvin Johnson.
Stefon Diggs: With the attention that Thielen is starting to get, it was only a matter of time before Diggs started to deliver. Running man-coverage against him will end poorly for the defensive back, and in this case, it’s
Darius Slay. The combination of the two is somewhat magical, as most look at Slay as a top-tier cornerback and one to avoid in matchups. But here’s the thing… When in man coverage this year, he’s allowing a near perfect passer rating (151.0), while Diggs has posted a 122.7 WR Rating when the defensive back is in man coverage, compared to just 76.8 against zone coverage. The Vikings can kind of pick their poison in this game, so it does present some risk for cash game purposes, but Diggs should be looked at as a low-end WR1/high-end WR2 for this contest. The Lions have allowed a wide receiver touchdown once every 11.1 targets this year, which ranks as the second-worst mark in the NFL.
