Week two is all over in the NFL, and I have to say the general level of sucky play was drastically down on the offensive side of the ball. With of course the notable exception of the Minnesota Vikings. Even the 49ers put on a strong showing against the reigning Super Bowl champs Monday night, signaling they’re not ready to be written off as dead just yet.
But back to those Vikings, and Ole Gunslinger, Brett Favre, whose performance these last two weeks is a distant cry from what he gave owners last season. He looks almost unable to throw out there, hell he barely looked like he could walk into the stadium. The receiving doesn’t seem to be much better, but who’s to say Percy Harvin and Bernard Berrian couldn’t catch competently thrown passes?
Favre was rusty coming back last year, and older players almost always are. They just need a longer warm-up period once the season is starts. Take David Ortiz, he needed two and half months just to get going, but he’s had a good year since. As such, don’t sell Favre just yet, but do have one or possibly two backups on your bench to take his place week to week. A lot of owners cut Kevin Kolb, if he’s still on the waiver wire, steal him today before his old owner can get him back. And if you have the roster spot Michael Vick is a good player to keep around in case he steals the starting job a month from now in Philadelphia.
Also Kyle Orton, Matt Ryan and Vince Young are decent spot starters at this point. Keep Favre off your starting roster if you can until he proves he’s back to form. Percy Harvin and Bernard Berrian basically have no value until he does. You can keep them on your roster certainly, but don’t feel guilty about cutting them if there’s an opportunity for a worthwhile free agent. And at the very least, Adrian Peterson is only going to take on more responsibility in carrying this team. So if you own him, good for you.
I know a lot of people who got stuck with Jay Cutler at the start of the season were worried and upset about it, but he’s proven every doubter wrong thus far. He’s a definite starter for your team. The guy is an over 4,000 yard QB, and he’s taking much better care of the ball this year.
After the first week a lot of clever fantasy analysts were quick to point out Jahvid Best actually had a poor running game against the Bears, averaging only 1.4 yards per carry. Well stop listening to analysts. This guy is The Man at running back on a team that believes in having a single starting back. Have his fantasy points been padded by touchdowns these first two weeks? Absolutely! He has been the go to scoring option for this Lions team. I say start him with confidence and be happy that you can.
The Colts are back on track after getting manhandled week one by the Texans. They stomped the Giants, especially under the feet of Joseph Addai and Donald Brown. Peyton Manning looks like he could have another monster year and Reggie Wayne will be right beside him as usual. The young Austin Collie could really be stealing Pierre Garcon’s spot as second most relevant wide receiver on this team. Good speculative pick-up if he’s still available.
Meanwhile the Dallas Cowboys only managed to go further off the tracks. The Bears are clearly better than expected, but this Cowboys team is just not working. They’ve got a lot of talent and I suspect it’s only a matter of time until they start looking good, but thus far they suck. Fortunately their fantasy value is a lot better than their real value, Tony Romo remains a definite starter, Miles Austin remains a #1 WR. Sadly Barber and Jones should remain on your bench for the time being. However, if this Dallas team plans on getting any success this year, one or both of those guys is going to have to start getting good numbers on the ground.
I was genuinely blown away by the Jets win over the Patriots. I think the jury is still out on whether or not they beat last year’s underwhelming 9 and 7 record, but they looked like a real football team this week. Fantasy-wise, they’re still no good. I wouldn’t trust using Mark Sanchez as a spot start yet, none of his receivers are standing out, and then there’s the unfortunateness with Shonn Greene. So far he’s a huge disappointment and Rex Ryan looks committed to splitting his time with LT. If LT was any good, this would be awesome, but he’s never going to be worth starting if you haven’t blown it at running back with your roster. And yet he’s probably going to keep out gaining Greene. Wait and see.
Greene’s preseason counterpart Jamaal Charles seems to be in the opposite, yet exactly same situation. He’s done nothing but been explosive and elusive. But he’s the backup to Thomas Jones. Who looks like garbage. You have to hope the Chiefs start losing (they will) to the point where the coach has no choice but to lean his team’s future on Charles. Because the Chiefs have no other offensive talent; Thomas Jones will continue to be no good, Cassel will continue to be no good, Bowe will continue to be no good. But until that time comes (if it ever comes) all you can do is hope Jamaal makes the most of his 12 carries every game.
Finally, the Green Bay Packers are looking good, especially Aaron Rodgers. You paid big to get Rodgers in a draft and so far he hasn’t disappointed. Ryan Grant unfortunately is gone for the season, but I have a feeling Jackson will fill in nicely if they don’t replace him in a trade. Green Bay just needs a big running back to fill that starting spot, any big running back will probably have a decent season doing the job. I think Greg Jennings’ value is probably down a little bit while Donald Driver’s is up. Rodgers looks content to spread to ball around to whoever is open, so at this point, you have to prepared for Jennings or Driver to have good weeks where they get the ball in the endzone and bad weeks where they don’t.
As a side note, fantasy basketball season is only a little over a month away! This week I will be opening a fantasy basketball homepage and starting an article series to get you started in this fantasy sport if you’ve never tried it. So look for those things and in the meantime get out there, and good luck!
