Week 2 Recap

Week 2 Recap - For Reals Guys

Top 5 Players

QB:

1. Ryan Fitzpatrick TB, 87 points.
• The man with the swag, the dude just having fun, Fitzmagic, the beard, however you want to know him as just remember that the objective fact in our league is that he is known as the QB1 right now.  Those weapons are electric, his play isn't hectic, no receivers feel dejected, are you all still skeptics?  Ryan Fitzpatrick is playing like a man that is totally relaxed and completely in sync and trusting his receivers.  Can Winston still come back and take the job?  Are we really seeing the renaissance of Harvard man?  It's a fun story at the very least.
2. Patrick Mahomes KC, 86 points.
• Has played LAC and PIT.  Both teams that have a high powered offense that can score and keep Mahomes throwing.  LAC was missing Bosa and PIT just looks like it has an absolutely awful defense.  I'm not saying its certain that we see Mahomes regress, but I think its more likely than not.  Remember KC last year?  Hunt blew up through the first half of the season and then dropped off significantly after their bye, it could also happen with Mahomes.  The excitement of Mahomes throwing 10 TDs through his first two games shouldn't overshadow the fact that Fitzpatrick is killing it.
3. Kirk Cousins MIN, 64 points.
• How about that throw to Thielen for a TD?  If you haven't seen it, go and find it.  The ball seems to just go through defenders and magically wind up in Thielen's hands.  Kirk has looked pretty good, but it is worth noting that he played through 5 full quarters before the game ended and that won't happen super often.  With weapons like Diggs, Thielen, and Rudolph Cousins has the weaponry to continue playing incredibly.
4. Philip Rivers LAC, 62 points.
• Bolo tie himself, Philip Rivers has the sweetest schedule for a QB through two weeks.  He has to keep up with KC and their terrible defense week 1, and then gets to just smack around BUF in week 2.  Rivers has weapons and we've seen him be consistent season after season, I think he's a bit ahead of where he'll end up at the end of the year, but Rivers is solid and looking to have more children.
5. Drew Brees NO, 58 points.
• Are the Browns actually a good defense?  They had Brees shut down through most of the day, it wasn't until nearly at the end that Brees actually put up some points.  With Thomas and Kamara balling out though, it is important to remember that their QB will probably feast as well, and Drew Brees might really benefit from a bad NO defense.

RB:

1. Alvin Kamara NO, 59 points.
• 46 yards rushing this last week, a two point conversion and pass catching has helped out quite a bit in keeping Kamara up here. Without giving too many spoilers, pay attention to the rushing yardage totals of the next RBs last week to get an idea of a strong trend in the NFL.  Kamara himself always manages to look fantastic and even against a strong Browns D got some points in without a TD.  Getting these points without a TD gives a strong idea of what Kamara can be capable of week-in week-out.
2. Melvin Gordon LAC, 58 points.
• 28 yards rushing this last week.  3 total TDs though against an awful awful BUF defense and he might have made a player retire by halftime.  Gordon is also getting it done through the air as opposed to on the ground, and it is clearly boosting the play of his QB too.  The top two RBs here are also couple with two top 5 QBs above, and I don't think that's an accident.  Melvin Gordon has been great thus far, and his backup looks great as well.
3. Todd Gurley III LAR, 54 points.
• 42 yards rushing.  42 yards on 19 carries.  Against the Cardinals.  That sounds just awful, but Gurley did what he does best and scored 3 TDs.  The thing about Gurley is he doesn't always get huge yardage totals but that Rams offense is so stacked with weaponry that I have no doubt that they will be able to get into the redzone consistently and that is what they did.  There is room for regression built into a guy that scores with TDs though, and unless you believe that he is going to score 32 TDs he is playing a bit out of his mind.
4. James Conner PIT, 51 points.
• 17 rushing yards.  I remember when an RB that had less than 50 yards rushing just had a bad day.  But instead we have these guys that are exploiting match ups with LBs and making it work.  He did not do as well as he had the week before and that's probably because PIT went down way early.  A couple things you have to face, Conner is not Bell.  At some point I believe that Conner will drop off because he just isn't as good as Bell.  Second, PIT has a very bad defense.  He can get scripted out of games against good offenses and unless he can keep scoring TDs his days will start to look a bit worse.  He's still a good play but I think as the season goes on we see more and more that Bell is as good a talent as his agent believes he is.
5. Chris Thompson WAS, 46 points.
• 1 yard rushing against IND.  1 yard!  22 points!  This is something else.  Thompson has never been a heavy rusher, but at what point do we just start calling him a WR?  13 receptions for 92 yards, that's a lot of volume and frankly just sounds like a real rushing number.  There's something to be discussed regarding how PPR makes these backs better than they actually are.

WR:

1. Michael Thomas NO, 68 points.
• 3 TDs through 2 games and 28 receptions.  Those don't sound particularly sustainable but even if he drops off a bit he is still doing wonderfully.  His QB is Brees and frankly there's no one on that team with the ability to steal receptions from him at any considerable rate.  Last week was against a sneaky good Browns D also, so it's not like he's just picking on PIT and BUF.  
2. Tyreek Hill KC, 61 points.
• After that huge boom game week 1 Tyreek had something of a down to earth week.  If his down-to-earth week looks like 5 receptions for 90 yards and a TD than Tyreek is probably a pretty safe bet.  If Mahomes regresses then we might see Tyreek regress a bit as well, but a regression is still going to make him underdrafted and a strong candidate for top 5 WR.  Last year though we saw a home/away split that stopped Tyreek from completely blowing up, and it's early in the season so we could see that start to develop again especially once KC starts playing more competent offenses.
3. DeSean Jackson TB, 53 points.
• Is it 2008?  Sometime last week was the anniversary of Jackson dropping the ball at the 1 yard line and celebrating before he crossed the goal line.  What a time that was.  Well DeSean is back and Fitzmagic is finding him down the field. His wardrobe looked pretty good too.  If DeSean can keep this up (I'm very doubtful) he could be THE STEAL of the draft.
4. Mike Evans TB, 49 points.
• Another TB receiver, and one that makes a bit more sense to be here.  Mike Evans is also benefitting from the stellar play of Fitzmagic and has actually looked active and buying completely into the offense.  Mike Evans always had the body for playing in the NFL and being elite, and if the motor starts showing up now he could be a stud once again.  
5. AJ Green CIN, 48 points.
• Thursday night games skew things for me.  How much of the game against the Ravens was actually Green being a super wonderful stud, and how much was it the Ravens D aching and sore and finding themselves going against an actual team.  Regardless AJ Green is solid and he always is, 3 TDs is a bit much but Green should be solid most of the time.

TE:

1. Jared Cook OAK, 35 points.
• A super standard game after the week 1 blowup, are we seeing the trend of Jared Cook continue?  He still made some big plays against the Broncos and arguably should have been a little more used as opposed to Cooper in some situations.  Cook looked good and Carr looked a little better, but I'm not sure a Carr that is throwing well is a Carr you want for Cook.  Side note:  lot's of names on Oakland start with a C.
2. Jesse James PIT, 33 points.
• If you've been playing Jesse James through the first two weeks (pro tip: you haven't) than you've done pretty well, hell better than the people below him (obviously).  If in the future you start playing Jesse James you're chasing points and will go down in flames...just like Jesse James (I apologize for Cher references).
3. Will Dissly SEA, 32 points.
• WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?  I know the names but just take a look at this top 3, that's asinine.   I don't think TEs are actually scoring points anymore and we should probably adjust expectations for the rest of the season.  He has a TD both weeks and honestly looks like he really might be the second coming of the Barn Dog.
4. Travis Kelce KC, 30 points.
• Alright this makes me feel more sane.  I dislike Kelce, I still think he's a jerk and his nickname is Baby Gronk.  I'd never say that to his face though because he is a mountain of a man and is playing like one.  After an awful first week he catapults right back into the top 5.
5. Zach Ertz PHI, 29 points.
• He had a great game this last week and Wentz is coming back now.  We could see a surge of points coming from Ertz, and with the complete and total lack of pass catchers on the Eagles Ertz could seriously eat.  

D/ST:

1. Jets D, 35 points.
• Dominates the Lions and then loses to the Dolphins, but loses respectfully.  This Jets D might be seriously underrated because everyone is talking about Darnold.  If Darnold keeps playing well too then we could see the offense stay on the field longer and keep this defense energetic.
2. Bears D, 32 points.
• Watching a Bears game is like rubbing salt-in-wounds for Raiders fans like myself.  MACK MACK MACK MACK MACK.  Listen to MACK grunt, listen to MACK yell, look at MACK as a child, look at MACK miss a tackle.  I love Mack but it is just incredibly hard to watch.
3. Rams D, 26 points.
• Maybe Carr wasn't bad week one, maybe the Rams D is just as good as advertised?  I'm actually surprised they don't have a higher score after curbstomping Arizona.
4. Dolphins D, 23 points.
• A competent and solid looking defense, there is not a lot of excitement here but there is a solid floor that won't kill you.  
5. Cowboys D, 21 points.
• Good until Sean Lee gets injured, the Cowboys benefited strongly from scheming free-runners into the Giants backfield.  That's sarcasm btw, that wasn't a scheme that was the Giants o-line being godawful and Eli literally looking scared out of his mind.

Head-to-Head Matchups!

Daniel Smith (Run N Hyde) versus Yuriy Yedinak (Mixon up Her Face)

Yuriy is showing exactly what he has shown in many of the last seasons, a huge and very capable team.  The highest score of the week, and for the second week in a row.  It doesn't hurt that his opponent didn't drop a huge total, but I know Yuriy is feeling good right now.  Just remember what happens to early season favorites if they get too confident in their team, they burn out.  Anyway, Yuriy wins 180 - 105.

Daniel: Gronk underperformed, Antonio Brown did *just* okay, Fitz got injured, and you went right into the early season star.  Look it does kind of look ugly, its cool to accept that but keep moving forward.  Brown is complaining to the team and press, Fitz was hurt and quite simply looks like Bradford has no ability anymore whatsoever, Lewis has an increasingly annoying Henry to deal with, and Lynch is running for a team that does not want to win.  There are upsides though, you have Bernard so you don't have to waste money on the rental, Flash going to the Pats will probably help out Gronk a lot, and Newton seems absolutely impervious to concussions.  It's week two so there probably isn't a lot of terrifying thoughts that need to be stifled, but remember you can make movements and hell it might help your team.

Yuriy: I know that while you're sitting in your place reading this you've got a little smug smile spread across your face.  Well, you deserve it man, a strong strong start to the points leader for the season and a wonderful start regardless.  So with that said, enjoy it, my job here is to probably bring you back down to Earth a bit.  Kirk Cousins won't likely get 5 quarters to score many times in the future, and while he did good before that it wouldn't be that gaudy 41 that it was.  Now let's ignore Lamar Miller for a second (easy, I know) and look at your other two RBs.  Let's see, James Conner with 17 yards rushing but saved by a TD and some receptions.  The way I see it that PIT D is bad and James Conner could easily have like 4 points, he isn't Bell despite the first two weeks.  Adrian Peterson is already trending down, I won't say I called it but I did defintiely say that exactly like last season Peterson would show up and then immediately disappear.  

Your WRs look good right now too, AJ Green with 3 TDs is not a regular occurrence, and with Mixon out guess who the D will focus on?  Mike Evans has definitely benefited from the ridiculous play by Fitzmagic, but how long can that continue, or will it make no difference if Winston comes in?  Engram was the garbage time king on Monday and Funchess is so uninspiring it hurts.  With all of that said Yuriy, my main point is this: don't get too comfortable.  You know what happens if you get too comfortable, you coast into the playoffs and then get smacked right out of them by a team that has been paying attention.

Andrew Gomez (1 'Tree Hills) versus Valeriy Shishkin (Greenbowl Packers)

A division rivalry as old as the league itself.  This one ended up being far closer than the score would have you believe.  Both teams lineups looked solid if not extraordinary.  In a close game that could mean a close division race, Val holds out and wins 146 - 126.

Andrew: Let's go ahead and address the elephant in the room, you could have won.  It would have been so easy to win this game, but I'll say to you welcome to being a Roethlisberger owner.  The frustration that you must have knowing that if you had just never swapped him out of your lineup you could have tied Val in the division and instead now you are down to him by two games.  That's got to be the worst.  So let's look at your RBs.  Lindsay looked pretty good and put up a respectable score for someone that was supposed to be simply the change-of-pace back.  Scary though that right now he looks like your best RB.  Barber had an awful game despite a good offense around him, Carson has some upside but that o-line is awful, and well David Johnson is stuck with Arizona and quite honestly I know he's not making you happy. Your WRs still look really good though, so you have that going for you.

Val: So tell me the truth, how hard were you laughing after you saw Andrew benched Big Ben?  I bet it was at least a little bit of laughter.  Luck isn't doing you any favors, he looks about what you would expect for a guy who has not played in a long while.  Chris Thompson has looked wonderful just as he did last year, but I do wonder if he's more durable now.  Clement was a great choice man, seriously I wouldn't have done that but it worked out really well for you.  Henry is exactly what I thought he would be, underutilized and completely full of untapped potential.  Theo Riddick is a good backup for now, probably will be until Kerryon makes his big splash game.  Your WRs all showed up, and to me that's hilarious because it means that Sammy Watkins actually had a good game and that's just about the last thing I would expect from Sammy Watkins.  Final words would be, you made it to 2-0 in the division matchups and I will see you next week punk.

Jake Yorke (DonCobbs Underdogs) versus Chris Cone (Fresno FaceCleaters)

Role reversal!  Last week Jake was one of the lowest scores in the league and Chris had one of the highest there was.  This week, well it seems to be quite the opposite.  That's the way fantasy football goes, and Jake wins this 144 - 92.

Jake: Welcome to Matt Stafford!  I hope you're having a good time so far, I remember you were excited to get him for the first time and well, this is what it is.  Alex Smith played you though, he made it appear as though he was actually still good and was going to go against Indy. I thought it was a pretty clever prank he played. Melvin Gordon has been an absolute beast for you, despite the fact that the dude apparently can't rush off a handoff very well.   Speaking of being unable to rush from a handoff, how about that CMC?  Dude doesn't run he just catches, which for all purposes is better for this fantasy league.  Some confidence is being made here, but this big day for CMC also has the caveat that Atlanta has been historically bad at covering pass catching RBs for a while.  Ajayi and Cobb didn't show up for you this week as opposed for the last, but out of nowhere comes a big day from Cooper and Golladay is proving to be a nice late round pickup. A solid team, and Melvin is looking like a potential game changing piece.

Chris: I wanted to avoid making the comment speaking about "thoroughbreds" but I couldn't help myself.  But that's as far as I'll go.  Poor showing from almost every single 100% owned player on your team man.  This will happen though from time to time.  Julio and Keenan didn't have awful games, you're just used to better games.  Thomas looked godawful and he looked godawful against the Raiders D, which if I'm too be trusted at all it's about how bad the Raiders D is.  Your bench looked really nice though, there is some pieces there I really like.  John Brown is seemingly proving he is consistent, Moncrief is getting TDs, and Paul Richardson seems to be getting more attention from Smith than Crowder.  The thing is though, your team kinda looks like it may have a logjam.  There's a lot of solid and must-start WRs but there are almost no startable RBs on your team.  Burkhead looks like he hurts, and he is not exactly reliable.  Coleman is doing well, but he has a shelf life on being a starting RB and it's about two more weeks.  Gore should not be started, and he should probably never be started so be careful!   One bad week does not mean your team is bad, but it does show that there are potentially some serious holes in your lineup.

Alex Gomez (Rivers Football Cream) versus Orest Yaslinkiy (Mustard Tigers .)

Alex and a good start in the season, it feels like these two things are the norm but I remember last year.  I always look forward to Alex versus Ory because it feels like the potential for shit talk is there, but I have yet to see it this season.  C'mon guys!  The first of two meetings, Alex gets the early advantage winning 164 - 141.

Alex: Man, those scored make me miss having Todd Gurley a lot.  He's fun to watch because he gets a ton of TDs and that offense continues to click and keep moving forward without pause. Here's the thing, when you rely on jumping on the "hot new thing" each week you're going to end up getting burned by it.  Kittle and Stills are exactly like that, and you have to wonder what the norm is.  This is how you play though, and I won't hold my breath and die by waiting for that to change.  Mixon got hurt as I'm sure you know, and your RB depth is looking pretty bad.  Mack is part of an ugly, ugly rbbc, Williams has looked pedestrian at best and Jones comes back next week, and Richard is fools gold (a good real life back, but not a fantasy back by any means).  Agholor and Juju have looked really good, which is interesting to me as they don't seem like world-beaters. I'm curious how that's going to look next week after Antonio Brown whined about his usage and Jeffery probably comes back with Wentz. Also one of these days we will see what Rivers looks like when he's not playing against an awful D, but maybe not super soon.  Enjoy the start, I'm sure you remember what happens later in the season.

Ory: Matt Ryan really ran for 2 TDs?  Really?  I like that despite our conversations you still played him against the Panthers and it worked out for you.  And by work out I mean he scored less than Blake Bortles.  Thielen is looking great, Barkley is looking awful in real life but great in fantasy, Hyde looks solid but unspectacular, Howard is complicated, and aside from that it's a bit ugly.  You made a joke earlier in the week, but I do actually wonder how much of a difference that Greg Zuerlein would have made.  Imagine this, if you will, that Greg the Leg is in full health and going at it.  He scores on each of the field goals and extra points, but more importantly some of those 4th down conversions that happened (with some going to Gurley) would not have happened and suddenly Gurley gets 21 and Greg gets 15 and well... I'll let you dive into frustration and despair imagining that on your own.  Your team doesn't have in glaring holes assuming that Edelman does actually come back and Gordon gets a start sometime in the near future, but it is a sad day when starting DeDe Westbrook would have gone super well and actually would have been the second best WR on your team.  Take that with a grain of salt though.

Chris Pender (Dog Don't Mind) versus Gary Meyer (Rip Lips)

Easily the game of the week, this one wasn't solved until the 4th quarter of the Monday Night Football game.  Both of these teams look like heavy hitters and both were in the top 4 scores of the week!  So like every other game, someone had to lose and in this case it was my dad, Gary that lost with Chris taking home the game 162 - 158.

Chris: What an ending man.  Talking to you before the game you never gave up hope, but you seemed to understand that the hope was small.  That small hope paid off and so did apparently dropping bucks for a defense, something that I strongly would have advised against.  But here we are and now your team looks great, and you essentially bought a win off the waiver wire.  I'm not 100% sure what to say about Mahomes, I dislike the Chiefs strongly and definitely suspect some regression will happen, but until then enjoy the ride.  Mahomes really made this week though, no one else on your team blew up.  There were a lot of good scores but nothing fantastic and outside of your D the only player that scored 20+ was on your bench in Adams.  Don't get me wrong, the team looks really solid but I do think you should expect that this is a bit of a team getting carried by a 50 point performance (50 points is really really rare).  Your Crowell and McCoy split appears to be the beginning of a headache, but Landry may have just gotten a boost from Gordon being traded.  RIP Browns btw.  James White and Pierre Garcon don't give me any feeling of hope though, I think they may be slightly playing above their means and will drop off, but I'm generally pessimistic when it's not my team.  You have solid team, but don't rest.

Dad/Gary: What a loss, that looked like a solid win standing up to Patty Mahomes and laughing in his face.  Instead the team in your new city decided to dash your hopes.  The Bears heard you were in town and knew that they had to do exactly enough to make sure you lost and that I could never hear the end of Khalil Mack's name when their games are on.  The good here is clearly Diggs and Thomas, they're playing out of their minds.  Zeke didn't actually look great but somehow he keeps going and keeps giving interviews in crop tops that look absolutely ridiculous.  Hooper really did show up this week, and Dissly might actually be the Baridge of the new generation.  Your RB2 slot looks like a nasty case of "not this week" though, I have faith that you can get the right back but I know I certainly wouldn't want to.  Your team looks good, you just happened to go against a guy playing the Bears in the MNF game, and Chicago will do that to you.

Nicholas Meyer (12 Bar Bruisers) versus Matt Burke (The Autobots)

There was some validation for me this week, that's my main takeaway from this game.  In a game that looked nasty from the Thursday night game, I came away with the win 124-106

Matt: Allen Robinson looks pretty legit this season, I think he could end up being a steal for you.  That Tom Brady guy also seems to be doing pretty well even against Saxonville's tough D. Some things I note from your team: your best two WRs aren't playing, and if they were playing this score could easily be very different.  Kareem Hunt hasn't looked spectacular, but with that offense being so potent now there may be some games where the passing offense isn't as strong and they actually have to run the ball.  Dalvin Cook looks good when he is playing but he isn't producing a ton, and he just got some strange injury.  This is important to your team because it is clear that Duke Johnson is not involved in the offense when Tyrod is playing QB.  That means your RB depth is Penny, Hines, and Duke.  Penny looked better than the score would suggest while going against what appears to be an incredibly deadly Bears D, but you might need some extra help in your RB slot.  Your WRs look covered for all intents and purposes though.  I don't think your team is bad by any means, just hurting right now, and if you can secure a better backup RB and your two WRs come back healthy you could put in some good high scoring games.

Nic: Hey!  Will Fuller showed up!  So did Enunwa!  So did Cooks!  I was most worried about my WRs after Beckham, and it appears that maybe Beckham is the biggest hole.  That's a joke btw, the Giants should realize that the reason they lost to the Cowboys was because they completely stopped pushing the ball down the field and instead decided Barkley could be 100% of their offense, and it turns out he cannot.  They moved the ball when they threw downfield to Engram, and I bet they take note of that and utilize their best player on the offensive side of the ball in Beckham.  Fournette should be back next week, and I'm really curious to see what he can actually do, that will probably be pretty cool to watch.  The 49ers RBs have value, but hopefully it makes a bit more sense soon and I don't just choose the wrong one each time.  Goodwin could come back soon and I would like that a lot, depth and the ability to play matchups sounds cool.  Drew Brees is awesome, and Kenyan Drake is holding down the RB2 slot.  I mean the score certainly didn't look pretty and I could have lost to most other teams in the league but that's with a -2 combined score from my Kicker and my D.  That won't happen all the time.

POWER RANKINGS WEEK 2

1. Yuriy Yedinak (349 PF) Previously 1.
2. Alex Gomez (318 PF) Previously 4.
3. Nic Meyer (270 PF) Previously 7.
4. Valeriy Shishkin (260 PF) Previously 10.
5. Gary Meyer (313 PF) Previously 3.
6. Chris Pender (310 PF) Previously 6.
7. Chris Cone (249 PF) PReviously 2.
8. Jake Yorke (243 PF) Previously 11.
9. Andrew Gomez (260 PF) Previously 8.
10. Orest Yaslinskiy (256 PF) Previously 9.
11. Daniel Smith (254 PF) Previously 5.
12. Matt Burke (186 PF) Previously 12.

GOOD LUCK NEXT WEEK!