Who Should I Start? Michael Thomas or Zay Flowers

Wednesday, September 11, 8:40 PM

The National Football League on Wednesday announced that it has lifted the suspension of free-agent wide receiver Michael Thomas. Thomas was suspended for the first game of the 2024 NFL season for an incident with a construction worker near his home last year. The fact that the 31-year-old remained without a team all offseason is a sign that he may struggle to latch on with an organization despite the fact that he's past his one-game suspension. Just several years ago, Thomas was the best receiver in the league, but injuries have limited him to 20 games since the start of the 2020 campaign, and he played in just 10 games with the New Orleans Saints last year before a knee injury ended his season. He caught 39 passes for 448 yards and one touchdown in 2023. Thomas belongs on the waiver wire in all leagues and is unlikely to be on the fantasy radar in 2024.

Friday, September 12, 10:53 PM

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers put up the second-highest fantasy points of his career in the Week 1 loss to the Buffalo Bills. In half-PPR formats, that rates second to only his game against the Denver Broncos in Week 9 last season. Now, he'll try to carry that momentum into the first divisional matchup with the Cleveland Browns, who seem to have a lot of confidence. The speedy wideout didn't score in either of their meetings last season, in part due to their second matchup came in Week 18 when the Ravens rested a lot of starters. In Week 8 last year, Flowers finished as the WR17 against the Browns with seven receptions for 115 yards on 12 targets. He's hovering right around WR2 value again this week, but can always pop off into WR1 territory.