Week one is over and hopefully your team avoided some of the big injuries from week one (Fred Jackson, Greg Jennings, Pierre Garcon). While the latter two should be ok long-term, their short-term status is in question causing a major rush to the waiver wire. Alfred Morris was the clear-cut #1 pickup this week followed by Ogletree and Stephen Hill who had solid week one performances. If you tried to land of one these guys and didn’t get them don’t worry, there’s probably still valuable players available.
I’m not talking about James Jones or Mark Sánchez, I’m talking about the players teams had to drop in order to make those Morris and Ogletree pickups along with a few others.
In reviewing the most dropped players as of Wednesday morning there are two very enticing players that stick out. The first is Toby Gerhart. He was dropped by over 38,000 managers on one website alone. Look, Adrian Peterson looked great in his first game but it was just that, his FIRST GAME back from ACL surgery only 8 months ago! There’s no arguing Peterson is a special player but no one in the history of the NFL has come back that quickly and been as productive as before their surgery.
Not to mention it’s very common for players to develop other injuries during the recovery period due to favoring one leg versus the other. I’m all in on Peterson and wish him the best but if I can land Gerhart without spending any FAAB because some other owner doesn’t want him, I’m buying that insurance policy since a set back is very foreseeable in Peterson’s future.
Another player ranking extremely high on the ‘drop’ list Wednesday morning with over 34,000 drops was Titus Young. How quickly the hype dies after a poor week one performance. Here’s what people missed, Young was benched for part of the game after head-butting CB Janoris Jenkins in the second quarter. While Young only had 1 catch for 14 yards on 3 targets, he’s still head and shoulders above Burleson who landed 6 catches on 8 targets for 69 yards. The next 15 games will see either Burleson or Young with a lot of single coverage as teams scheme to remove Megatron from the Lions list of weapons. Young had a great training camp and preseason and more importantly, we all know what Burleson is. Last year Burleson had 73 receptions for 757 yards and 3 TDs. While respectable numbers and better in a PPR format, give me Young, the player poised to break out and break the 1,000 yard mark. I could also see Young topping 6 or 7 TDs this season. When it comes to players like this, you’re swinging for the fence, so go for it, take a shot at the home run.
The last nugget here is one most managers aren’t thinking about, defenses. Yes, its week two and I’m already talking about picking up a defense but hear me out. Several of the preseason top ranked defenses have tough matchups this week, namely San Fran vs Detroit’s high powered offense, Chicago going to Lambo facing Rodgers, Baltimore headed to Philly in what should be a shoot out and the Jets headed west to Pittsburgh with Wallace and Big Ben. Not mention Atlanta is at home against the revamped Denver offenseand some guy named Peyton. That’s 7 of the top ten defenses with bad matchups so why not scour the wire and play a match up? I’m not suggesting you drop these good defenses, but check out these available defenses and their matchups.
New England is only owned in roughly 30% of leagues and appears to have found their running game in Steven Ridley. This week they play at him against, wait for it, Kevin Kolb. There’s no chance the Cardinals can stop New England who will be playing with a lead from the 1st quarter on. Look for New England to have several picks and sacks as they pin their ears back and pressure the flappable Kolb.
The Bengals are only at about 20% ownership and they play the hapless Browns in Cincy. The Bengals were embarrassed Monday night and will be looking for revenge. Something tells me Brandon Weeden and his week one 12 of 35 with 4 interceptions performance will oblige.
Oakland is practically unowned and was able to hold San Diego’s offense mostly in check Monday night and now they head to Miami. Nothing like a rookie QB who already has 3 picks on the season and no one to throw the ball to for some fantasy goodness. Miami always plays better at home but look for Oakland to thrown the ball deeper than 4 yards to McFadden every play and get ahead. Once they have the lead Weeden will likely make the same mistakes as last week which could very easily result in a pick 6 or a sack fumble.
Follow me on twitter @tmcdannell and good luck in your week 2 matchups!
-Todd McDannell
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great info however weeden plays for the browns – I believe tennihil is dolphins qb