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Should I start Ricky Pearsall, DeVonta Smith, Jakobi Meyers for Week 3? Fantasy football start 'em, sit 'em picks and recommendations for the 2025 NFL season.
San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, Philadelphia Eagles WR DeVonta Smith, and Las Vegas Raiders wideout Jakobi Meyers were all mid-round picks in fantasy football leagues for the 2025 NFL season.
Though fantasy managers used decent draft capital to pick them up, that doesn't mean they're guaranteed to lock them in their lineups all season. In fact, players like these can often present tricky start/sit decisions.
Still, you should always make the best effort possible to put the right players in your lineup, and hopefully, some of the analysis below can help you with that effort. So let's dive in!
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Should I Start Ricky Pearsall for Fantasy Football?
While the general consensus was that Pearsall would ascend to become the clear No. 1 wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers this season, we haven't really seen that become the case. Instead, it's been veteran WR Jauan Jennings (ankle) who's led the team in targets so far.
Jennings easily outproduced Pearsall in Week 2, catching five of his 10 targets for 89 yards and a touchdown, and racking up 19.9 PPR fantasy points. Pearsall caught just four passes for 56 yards and has yet to score a touchdown. With Pearsall in his second year in the league, you'd think he'd be able to beat out Jennings.
On the broadcast this looked like Mac Jones way overthrew Ricky Pearsall on a deep shot. Ricky slowed down. Not sure if he's either giving up on the route early or if it was a read route and he got indecisive about whether he was gonna sit it down or keep running. Either way,… pic.twitter.com/zLNwF1FaNf
— JonnydelsFA (@jonnydels) September 15, 2025
Pearsall made some mental errors in his game, like on the play above. But he's also struggled against physical defensive backs. On one play in Week 2, New Orleans Saints safety Justin Reid stonewalled Pearsall on one of his routes and shoved him to the ground, effectively completely taking him out of the play.
Pearsall is a good route-runner with excellent speed. A few preseason plays likely pushed up his ADP, though, and expectations were that things would be smoother than this. But Jennings isn't going anywhere, and Purdy still being injured isn't great news.
John Lynch on Brock Purdy:
"I can tell you that it was encouraging to see him practice. He was limited yesterday...the key now is how does he respond to that...We will make an organizational decision on where Brock's at later in the week, but it's encouraging to see him out… pic.twitter.com/HmOToLOO8N
— KNBR (@KNBR) September 18, 2025
Purdy has a chance of returning for Week 3, but it's notable that he was third in line for reps at quarterback, signifying that the team is still giving the priority reps to backup QB Mac Jones, who started in Week 2. That hurts Pearsall's value for Week 3.
Overall, he's a fine flex player to start in leagues that have 12 or more teams or deep rosters. Otherwise, you should hope you have better players to fill in your lineups.
Should I Start DeVonta Smith for Fantasy Football?
Smith hasn't produced much in his first two games. He's managed just seven catches on nine targets for 69 yards, not being startable in either of his games. But the Eagles' passing offense has been virtually nonexistent since the start of the season.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has thrown for just 253 passing yards through three games, the worst of any quarterback that's started and finished in both Week 1 and Week 2. Philadelphia's offense has played ultra-conservative football, and it's worked so far, as they're undefeated.
Jalen Hurts to DeVonta Smith on the sidelines prior to their big play:
“I’m going to throw the go ball this time. Gotta take when they’ve giving us.”
The results of taking what the defense gave them: pic.twitter.com/ns5kpobaLo
— Fly Eagles Fly Bets (@Fly_EaglesBets) September 18, 2025
It's not like Hurts' play just fell off a cliff or Smith is suddenly much worse than he was before. It's just that the Eagles offense is a product more of necessity than luxury. They're not taking many risks. With their defense playing at such a high level, they haven't needed to.
Hopefully, Week 3 will present a shift on that front. The Eagles will face the Los Angeles Rams, who, though they lack a run game, have an elite wide receiver duo in Puka Nacua and Davante Adams and a quarterback in Matthew Stafford who's still playing very well.
The hope here is that Hurts is forced to pass the ball more. That's far from a guarantee, as the Rams' offensive line was already playing poorly in pass-protection and had even more injuries, but L.A. does have a very bad pass defense, so Smith is worth starting in your flex spots for now. He's risky, though.
Should I Start Jakobi Meyers for Fantasy Football?
Though in most fantasy leagues, you had to use a second or third-round pick to take tight end Brock Bowers (knee), it's been the receiver, Meyers, who's led the team in receptions, yards, and fantasy points through two weeks. Meyers has been targeted 22 times, catching 14 passes for 165 yards.
That's amounted to 17.7 PPR fantasy points in Week 1 and 12.8 in Week 2, making him the WR18 overall through two contests. It's obvious who the priority in the passing game is for Raiders quarterback Geno Smith, and the seventh-year pro wideout looks like a steal in fantasy leagues so far.
Geno Smith makes one of the better throws I’ve ever seen from him, threading the needle to Jakobi Meyers
Geno in Las Vegas is already starting to cook and Meyers is getting the ball early.
LV! pic.twitter.com/YC8m1oUHAB
— SM Highlights (@SMHighlights1) September 7, 2025
So far, the two rookie receivers Vegas drafted in the 2025 NFL Draft, Jack Bech and Dont'e Thornton Jr., haven't made much of an impact. They're targeted at much lower rates than Meyers is, and Tre Tucker, a third-year pro wideout, has just 66 receiving yards through two games.
The Raiders' defense hasn't played well, and their run game has been virtually nonexistent, leading me to believe that they'll continue to operate in negative game scripts. Those situations force teams to pass the ball heavily. All these facts combined make Meyers a good player to start in Week 3 in all formats.
Who Should I Start Tool
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Who Should I Start? Who Should I Sit? Some common Week 3 fantasy football lineup decisions are regarding players like Ricky Pearsall, DeVonta Smith, and Jakobi Meyers. But not to worry, we are here to help make these decisions and build winning lineups in Week 3. Set your optimal fantasy football lineups for Week 3 of the 2025 NFL season. Our free Who Should I Start? tool will help make your fantasy football lineup decisions. Compare up to four NFL players, and we tell you who to start... all free! Get your winning lineups set, and make the right decisions.
Week 3 Player Decisions. Today's focus is on specific players - Ricky Pearsall, DeVonta Smith, and Jakobi Meyers. These are some of the most common searches for fantasy football lineups in Week 3.
Using The Tool. This is a simple tool but very powerful. The first step is to enter the player names that you want to compare. In the first box, search for the first player's name. In the second box, search for the second player's name. Compare up to four NFL players at once, and then click the Who To Start? button to see who the recommended starts are based on weekly fantasy football matchups.
Improvements For Who Should I Start? You may have noticed that our Who Should I Start? tool has gotten an overhaul. We've added lots of great features for you to give you as much information as possible to win your fantasy football matchups each week. You'll see NFL player tiles with headshots and bye weeks, enhanced search results with data to compare, and a slick new interface. We hope you enjoy!
How It Works. Each week, our RotoBaller staff puts together their weekly fantasy football rankings and projections based on their research. That information is the core data that is powering the decision-making in this tool. When you search for player names, you will only see those players who are ranked. If someone is out for the week, they will not appear in the search results.
Scoring Formats. Fantasy football managers play in various types of leagues, and this tool allows you to choose whether it's PPR scoring, Half-PPR scoring, or Standard (Non-PPR) scoring. The second thing you want to do is to select the scoring format. There are three small radio buttons (small circles), so click on the scoring format you prefer. The results may vary based on the scoring format you select.
Popular Week 3 Searches. Curious to see some tough lineup decisions for Week 3 (2025)? Below you will find a list of some popular Who Should I Start? searches that RotoBaller readers are looking at this week. Click any of the links to see the result and recommendation.
Popular Week 3 Searches - Start/Sit Player Comparisons
Below are some popular Week 3 searches and comparisons from our 'Who To Start' tool for Ricky Pearsall, DeVonta Smith, and Jakobi Meyers compared to others:
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