Ultimate Fantasy Runningback - Week 1 Greg Allen, Fantasy Football Staff Writer Sep 15, 2004 | More

The top fantasy draft picks did not disappoint this week with Priest Holmes leading the way with 3 rushing touchdowns.  Although Priest had a typical week for him, the Chiefs got off to a tough start to this season losing to the Broncos. 

Ladainian Tomlinson had an okay week by his standards rushing for 121 yards and 1 TD.  He continues to amaze me with the stats he puts up while rushing for what could very easily be the worst team in football.  Did the Chargers really think that Eric Parker and Reche Caldwell are good enough at receiver that they could afford to release Kevin Dyson? 

Shaun Alexander was running like a man possessed but then gave his fantasy owners a scare when he went down with a knee injury early in the fourth quarter.  At the time the injury looked very serious but the latest reports out of Seattle have Alexander listed as day-to-day and could still play in week 2.  Either way, picking up Maurice Morris off the waiver wire would be a good move.

How’s this for a stat line in the box score:

5 carries, 1 yard rushing, and 3 touchdowns

Jerome Bettis didn’t have to work too hard this week did he?  Duce Staley rushes for 91 yards and  Bettis steals all the touchdowns, ouch.  Oh and the stats came from three 1-yard touchdowns and one rush for –2 yards.  I don’t expect that he’ll be doing that every week, but he could become this season’s Moe Williams.

Quick Hits

Ahman Green lit it up on Monday night and led the Packers to a win over the Panthers. 

Quentin Griffin made Mike Shanahan and the Broncos’ front office to look like geniuses by rushing for 156 yards and scoring 3 TDs.  Clinton who?

Is Curtis Martin really back?  He rushed for 196 yards looked like the back the Jets stole from the Patriots 8 years ago.

Now onto the nominees for this week’s Ultimate Fantasy voting.

Current contestant list:

Shaun Alexander       Tiki Barber                         Kevan Barlow

Domanick Davis        Stephen Davis                    Corey Dillon            

Marshall Faulk          Ahman Green                     Travis Henry

Priest Holmes           Edgerrin James                   Rudi Johnson

Jamal Lewis             Duece McAllister                 Clinton Portis

Fred Taylor              LaDainian Tomlinson            Brian Westbrook

Each week we’ll take the 2 lowest fantasy producers based on the Fantasy Sharks scoring system and put them up for an elimination vote.

In week 1 we have two venerable backs who had truly horrible weeks.  First is Jamal Lewis who carried the ball 20 times for only 57 yards.  The Ravens couldn’t do anything right on either side of the ball.

Stinking the joint out even worse was Stephen Davis who only carried the ball 9 times for 26 yards.  The Panthers got behind early on Monday night and didn’t get much of anything going.

So there you have it, the two nominees are up for elimination and you have the opportunity to vote for one of them to leave the competition.