Week Two: Evaluating Your Squad

 

 

Did you hear that? The sound of thousands of beer bottles crashing on the floor as Tom Brady owners saw their 1^st round pick get sent to the IR. Everyone tells you not to draft a QB in the 1^st round, but then again, it could easily happen to any of your 1^st round picks. Brady’s injury will send owners scrambling for the waiver wire to pick up Joe Flacco or Matt Ryan. Even so, they may even be brave enough to take Matt Cassel. This goes to show you that no matter who you draft at QB, you still need to pick up a respectable backup. Imagine the horror on the owner’s face that had Brodie Croyle on the bench thinking he was safe with Brady and then saw him go down in the same game. Now that owner must replace two players and fight off the Vince Young owner for the remaining available QB’s. Even if Young is not out for the remainder of the year, you should think about dumping him because Young’s asset is his legs and he won’t be running much when he gets back into action.

 

Evaluation of your team

 

Week one was your first action with the team you drafted. Now that you have results, you need to look through the stats of each of your players and see where you did well and where you did poorly.

 

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Look to see if the matchups were in your favor or not.

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Take note of players that may have sustained injuries during the game. You may have known about Tom Brady’s injury, but there may be players that left the game late that have injuries revealed later on. On the other end, don’t jump the gun and drop a player just because he has an injury. It’s a long season and if a good player goes down early, you can stash them on the bench until he returns.

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Don’t overreact to one week of stats. I can not stress this enough. Many people will look on the waiver wire list for upgrades over injured players or players who started off poorly and will grab a guy just because he did well. Case in point: Devery Henderson had 84 ReYDs and a TD but he only had one catch. Another example is Santonio Holmes – he had two catches for 19 YDs. A crappy day but the Steelers ran over

Houston so bad, they didn’t need to throw it.

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Look to see what you have in reserve. You might have played one running back over the other and received a reverse outcome. Even though it sucks that you left DeSean Jackson on the bench for Chad Ocho Cinco, see what the matchups are and be ready to make adjustments.

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Keep an eye on upcoming bye weeks. You know to pay attention to it during your draft, but once the season starts you start adding and dropping players based on performance and sometimes neglect the bye weeks. For instance, if you have Carson Palmer and had Vince Young as your backup, don’t drop him for Kyle Orton as he has the same bye week. You’ll end up having to drop him and may not find a replacement to fill your bye week needs.

 

 

The Golden Mug Award

Awarded to the fantasy player who came through for their team.

Michael Turner – Turner took a great match-up and capitalize on his opportunity. He ran for 220 yards and two TDs.

 

 

Willie Parker– Parker was a first rounder last year only to slip in drafts in 2008. He went off with 138 yards and three TDs. The scores came inside the red zone where many thought he would be replaced.

 

The Urinal Cake Award

Awarded to the fantasy player who you would like to, well you know.

Carson

Palmer- 99 yards and zero TDs. The offense stunk and is a concern. If they can’t get things back on track, Palmer may need to be benched on your team.

 

Santonio Holmes– Holmes had two catches for 19 yards. Not exactly what you had in mind when you drafted him. The team threw only 18 passes while the running game took over.

 

 

MATCHUPS

The match-ups

I like this week for QB’s:

Ben Roethlisberger against the Browns. Big Ben has been selected in drafts this year as a Top 5 QB, and he put in an OK performance despite only passing 14 times. He now faces a Browns team that was lit up by the Cowboys.

Cleveland last year gave up 21.8 ppg (16^th) and 230.1 PaYDs (24^th). They continue giving up yards this season, where the Steelers will be more balanced on offense.

 

Eli Manning against the Rams. Manning must have been relaxing at home watching the Eagles manhandle the Rams defense and just started licking his chops. The Rams gave up 361 PaYDs and were coming off a 2007 season in which they gave up 27.4 ppg (31^st) and 225.8 PaYDs (21^st)

 

The matchups

I like this week for RB’s:

Frank Gore against the Seahawks. Last year the Seahawks were towards the bottom of the league in RuTDs allowed. They gave up 16 RuTDs (27^th) and in week one lost their only receiving threat Nate Burleson and RB Maurice Morris. Deion Branch is still not ready to go and this team has too many injuries to overcome. Gore played well in week one and will look to shoulder the load while the passing offense gets settled.

 

Larry Johnson against the Raiders. Johnson ran decent against the Patriots and will be called to carry the offense more with Brodye Croyle out. The Raiders gave up 142 RuYDs and three RuTDs on Monday night. Last year

Oakland’s defense ranked last with 24 RuTDs allowed and 30^th with 145.9 RuYDs per game.

 

 

The matchups

I don’t like this week for QB’s:

Carson

Palmer against the Titans. The Bengals have a lot of work to do to turn this team around. From all the offseason distractions with Chris Henry, Chad Ocho Cinco and Rudi Johnson to the sluggish start to the season, there are a lot of questions this team must answer. The Titans defense played well in week one keeping

Jacksonville to just 215 yards and one TD while getting two INTs from David Garrard who had just three INTs all last season. Last year

Tennessee finished 8^th with 18.6 ppg and allowed just 199.2 PaYDs per game (10^th)

 

Tarvaris Jackson against the Colts. Both teams didn’t win in week one and will be playing hard to avoid falling to 0-2.

Jackson used his feet most of the night to keep drives alive but did little with his arm passing for just 178 yards with a TD and an INT. The Colts defense gave up a ton of points but only surrendered 150 passing yards with no TDs. Last year

Indianapolis finished 1^st in points allowed with just 16.4 and just 178.2 PaYDs per game (2^nd).

 

The matchup

I don’t like this week for RB’s:

Ahman Green/Steve Slaton against the Ravens. Last week the Ravens proved they still have something left in the tank as they shut down the Bengals running backs allowing just 50 RuYDs and no TDs between Chris Perry and Kenny Watson.

Houston’s duo of Green and Slaton ran for just 71 RuYds and no TDs themselves. Look for the Texans to continue their struggles running the ball. Last year

Baltimore finished 7^th in RuTDs allowed with just nine and was 2^nd in the league allowing just 79.2 RuYDs per game.

 

Steven Jackson against the Giants. The Rams are like the Bengals in that they are struggling to get their team headed in the right direction. The team generated just 166 yds of total offense and put up just a field goal in the 4^th quarter.

Jackson ran for just 40 YDs and faces a Giants team coming off a good win over a division rival that held the Redskins to just 84 RuYDs and no TDs. The Giants continued to play the run well as last year they gave up just 12 RuTDs (17^th) and just 97.8 RuYDs per game (8^th). The Rams have injury concerns also and will have a long day at home.

 

Week two; the season is just getting started and there have been plenty of ups and downs for everyone already. Manage your team efficiently and always look for opportunities to arise with waiver wire gems and trade situations.

 

Good Luck to everyone in week two.

 

Cheers!