Seth Vigdor
I’m still trying to recover from an unpredictable weekend in Fantasy Football and as an Eagles fan. This was just one of those weeks where nothing seemed to go right and that’s what makes Fantasy so great. You never know what’s going to happen regardless of how much research you do. Some days just don’t go your way, so let’s take a look at my 5 key storylines from this past week.
Five Key Storylines from Week 2
1. #WhyEaglesWhy
You would’ve thought that the Eagles had won week 1 with ease. While their defense was strong for the most part against the Cowboys, Chip’s magical offense looked like trash again. The Cowboys improved to 2-0 as they beat the Eagles 20-10. There are many offensive reasons the Eagles looked hideous on Sunday and we’ll get to some of those reasons within this article. However, let this sink in, Eagles Fans. Though it’s early in the season, the Washington Redskins have a better than the Eagles. How does that sound?
As if that’s not bad enough, the Eagles have this to look forward to this week…
https://vine.co/v/ePgiZt99p6t
Get pumped Eagles Fans!!!
2. Injuries – Will any man be left standing at the end of the year?
This season so far is like a Last Man Standing match in the WWE. Injury after injury. Superstar after Superstar, they all seem to be falling down. Below is the list of Offensive players that were injured this weekend.
• Jay Cutler (CHI) – Hamstring Injury
• Tony Romo (DAL) – Broken Left Clavicle (Out 8-10 Weeks)
• Eddie Lacy (GB) – Ankle Injury
• Matt Stafford (DET) – Hand & Ribs
• Tevin Coleman (ATL) – Rib Injury
• Carlos Hyde (SF) – Leg Contusion
• Jordan Cameron (MIA) – Groin
Those Injuries have huge Fantasy implications, as well as huge implications to their respective team’s seasons. The Cowboys will now be without Tony Romo and Dez Bryant for a long time. While they’re 2-0 on the season, it’s hard to imagine them winning the division with a Brandon Weeden and Terrence Williams led team. Like the Cowboys, the Packers are starting to rack up injuries. They already lost star WR, Jordy Nelson for the year to a torn ACL, but if this Lacy injury turns out to be serious, there will be huge problems in Cheeseland. Injuries are a huge part of a physical game like football, but it seems to me that this year more than ever, we’re going to see some major stars fall victim to the injury bug.
3. The Arizona Cardinals Look Super (Bowl-ish?)
I had no clue that the Arizona Cardinals would look this good to start the season. Mind you, the Chicago Bears came into this game hobbled, but the Cardinals at this point look like they might be the real deal. I’ll get into their individual stats further into this article, but between Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald and the youngster David Johnson, the Cardinals appear ready to make a playoff push. They have a balanced offense and their defense does just enough to win games. Time will tell if the Cardinals can keep the momentum going.
4. It’s Johnny Time!!! (Maybe)
The Browns turned to Johnny Manziel this week against the Titans with Josh McCown suffering a concussion. Manziel made the most of things in leading the Browns to a 28-14 victory against the Titans. There was some good and some bad mixed into this Browns win, but Manziel put up solid numbers and seems to have found a new toy to play with. Manziel threw for 172 yards, while throwing for 2 TD’s and running for 1. He seems to have found some chemistry with Travis Benjamin, but don’t get too comfortable with this duo because the Browns have committed to McCown, once he returns from injury. However, for a City that doesn’t see much positive when it comes to their Sports teams, they now have something to look forward to down the road.
https://vine.co/v/ePK35LUBmTH
5. The Patriots – All they do is Win
When I think of the Patriots, besides cheating, I think of the song “All I do is Win” by DJ Khaled (for all you youngsters out there) because that’s all the Patriots do. Somehow, someway, they find a way to motivate themselves each year to be the best team in the league and though they don’t always win the Super Bowl, they’re always in the topic of elite teams in the league. This week the Patriots went up to Buffalo to play Rex Ryan’s Bills and they gave them a nice punch to the gut with a 40-32 win. The Bills looked good early, but the usual suspects, Brady, Gronkowski & Edelman led the Patriots back for the W. I know it’s early, but it’s hard envisioning the Patriots not at the very least be in the AFC title game.
Waiver Wire Watch (*Keep an eye on, **Time to consider it, *** MUST Grab)
Each week, I will supply you with a list of players that you should consider adding from the waiver wire. Above, I list the 3 tiers of players they are. So let’s take a look at the guys that you should be paying attention to. To qualify as a Waiver Wire guy, I’ll only consider those players that are owned in less than 60% of Yahoo leagues at the time of this writing.
***Matt Jones (WAS) – He needs to be taken seriously, as he’s emerging as a legit threat to the job of Alfred Morris.
***David Johnson (ARI) – Should start seeing an increase in touches as the season progresses. Strike now, while you still have the chance.
*Travis Benjamin (CLE) – May be the hot favor of the week, but I’m not too convinced of his long term success.
*Crockett Gillmore (BAL) –The number two passing option behind Steve Smith at the moment, but don’t expect too many big weeks from him.
**DeVonta Freeman (ATL) – Needs to be owned while the severity of Tevin Coleman’s injury is determined. However, he’ll be limited in the production that he can supply you with.
***Dion Lewis (NE) – It’s tough to predict how a RB situation in New England will play out, but Dion Lewis needs to be owned, so that you can try to ride this hot streak out and reap all of the rewards from the pickup.
Here are Week 2’s Studs:
Quarterbacks
Carson Palmer (ARI) – 17/24 for 185 yards and 4 touchdowns – Didn’t throw for a lot of yardage, but who cares? He was accurate and threw 4 Touchdowns.
Tom Brady (NE) – 38/59 for 466 yards and 3 touchdowns – Tom Terrific does it again and does it against a tough Bills defense. All teams in the league are on notice.
Derek Carr (OAK) – 30/46 for 351 yards and 3 touchdowns with 1 Interception – The Raiders won. Carr deserves the credit here because he certainly gets killed when his team sucks.
Running Backs
DeAngelo Williams (PIT) – 20 carries for 77 yards and 3 touchdowns –What year is this? In any event, enjoy this while it lasted. King Le’Veon Bell returns from suspension in Week 3.
Matt Jones (WAS) – 19 carries for 123 yards and 2 touchdowns – He’s handpicked by his coaching staff, so Alfred Morris and his owners should be scared to death.
Adrian Peterson (MIN) – 29 carries for 134 yards – Had 1 touchdown called back, but the 29 carries is what you want to see. Peterson is going to get his this year, so don’t worry.
Wide Receivers
Larry Fitzgerald (ARI) – 8 receptions, 112 yards and 3 touchdowns – He was a man amongst boys against the Bears.
Emmanuel Sanders (DEN) – 8 receptions, 87 yards and 2 touchdowns – He’s earned Peyton Manning’s trust and that goes a long way.
Antonio Brown (PIT) – 9 receptions, 195 yards and 1 touchdown – Dude is straight nasty with it every week.
Tight Ends
Rob Gronkowski (NE) – 7 receptions, 113 yards and 1 touchdown – He’ll be on this list every week.
Jordan Reed (WAS) – 6 receptions for 82 yards – He didn’t get injured and that’s a win for him and his owners.
Tyler Eifert (CIN) – 4 receptions, 49 yards and 1 touchdown. Nothing flashy from him this week, but still managed to find the end zone. I’ll take it.
Defense
Dallas (vs PHI) – It wasn’t pretty, but the Cowboys got it done. If not for a late touchdown, the Cowboys would’ve held Chip’s Eagles to just a field goal. Not too shabby.
Kickers
Stephen Gostkowski (NE) – 4 FG’s (1 from 50+) and 4 XP’s
Here are Week 2’s Duds:
Quarterbacks
Sam Bradford (PHI) – 23/37 for 224 yards and 1 touchdown – These numbers look better than they actually were. He was horrendous against the Cowboys and if this is what it’s going to be for the Eagles, the Eagles and their fans are going to have a loooong season.
https://vine.co/v/ePb5pYxBUng
And that my friends sums up Bradford’s day…
Drew Brees (N.O.) – 24/38 for 255 yards and 1 touchdown – His stats are eerily similar to Bradford’s and much like Bradford, Brees hasn’t been very good this year. There’s rumblings that there may be a shoulder injury involved, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Nick Foles (STL) – 17/32 for 150 yards and 1 touchdown – I bet this isn’t what the Rams were expecting when they traded for him with the Eagles.
Running Backs
Jeremy Hill (CIN) – 10 carries for 39 yards with 2 fumbles as was benched for Giovanni Bernard. That’s simply unacceptable. He’ll look to regroup next week against the Ravens.
https://vine.co/v/ePATvKW0H3I
Matt Forte (CHI) – 15 carries for 61 yards and 0 touchdowns – Not the worst considering the Cardinals blew the Bears out. But, with no Alshon, he’s gotta do better than that.
DeMarco Murray (PHI) – 13 carries for 2 yards. It wasn’t his fault that he wasn’t used properly, but those numbers are nauseating.
Wide Receivers
Jordan Matthews – 6 receptions, 80 yards and 1 garbage time touchdown – Butterfingers didn’t deserve that score. He stunk.
Keenan Allen – 2 receptions for 16 yards – He was my projected bust of the week – I’m just not that into him.
Mike Evans – 0 catches – Wow! His hamstring must be an issue because otherwise this makes no sense.
Tight Ends
Jimmy Graham (SEA) – 1 reception for 11 yards – Why in the world would the Seahawks acquire Graham if they weren’t going to the feed the ball to him? It’s almost as perplexing as the final play call in the Super Bowl.
Sorry Seahawks fans…
Defense
San Francisco 49ers (vs PIT) – Gave up 43 points in Pittsburgh to the Steelers, which was good for -8 Fantasy points. No Bueno!
Kickers
Zach Hocker (N.O.) – 0/1 in FG attempts and 1 XPM, which was good for a whopping 0 points. The Saints are in trouble.
Here’s a brief look at the results of Week 2 in the PhillyInfluencer.com Fantasy Football league.
The only remaining undefeated teams in this league are Chip Kelly Rejects, Team Marino and Minitron’s Juice Stand. Minitron (PI’s Anthony DiBona) won the battle of the powerhouses when he took out Victorious Secret 138-121. Our talented editor took his first loss of the season (Editor’s note: thanks for pointing this out, jerk), while yours truly and 215 Sean (Sean Brace – The Man, The Myth & The Legend) find ourselves in quite the pickle at 0-2 at the bottom of the standings. We need to do better obviously and we will going forward.
It was a pretty ugly week in Fantasy, but as the saying goes, there’s always tomorrow. Two weeks have completed, so it’s time to start taking a good look at your team’s strengths and weaknesses, along with the landscape of your league. If you’re team is 0-2, it’s time to start thinking about ways to improve your team. The last thing that you want to do is fall to 0-3.
You can stay up to date with everything Fantasy Football related by following me on Twitter (@ViggieSmalls765) and Instagram. I’ll be available on Twitter for upcoming Twitter Chats and to give out advice to help guide you through your fantasy season.