Fantasy Madness: Week 2 Recap and Week 3 Preview

Jack Merlino

This week saw just about every imaginable progression play out, from big turnarounds by Week 1 busts, to Week 1 studs presumably failing to wake up in time for the team bus to bring them to the stadium.


As far as the 30 Minutes of Madness Fantasy League went, well...there were a few surprises here and there. First, JT Volpe and the 'Philly Frontrunners' were handed a tough loss by Larry Rooney's creatively-named 'Larry Rooney' squad. JT was done in after the best fantasy quarterback of the year, Sam Bradford, stunk it up against the Dallas Cowboys to the tune of 6 points. His team did feature big games from Rob Gronkowski and Donte Moncrief. On the other side, Larry was aided by a dominant performance by Ben Roethlisberger and a surprise showing by the Browns D/ST.

Matt Kress dropped to 0-2, bless his heart, after no-shows by Jeremy Hill, Martellus Bennett, and the Panthers D/ST. This was despite monstrous efforts from Antonio Brown and Allen Robinson, who scored 27 points apiece. David Powis earned the victory after solid games from Emmanuel Sanders, Brandon Marshall, and Russell Wilson.

Jack Merlino's "St. Joe's Football Team" dropped Sean Maliga's "Gotham City Rogues" to 0-2 after a big bounce-back by Peyton Manning and a huge game from New England kicker Stephen Gostkowski. Sean's biggest mistake was perhaps leaving an inactive Alshon Jeffery in the lineup while Amari Cooper put up a 16-spot for the bench squad. Cam Newton, who also rode the bench in favor of Andrew Luck, scored the most out of any of the two teams' players with 26.

Rob Dunning dominated Jonathan DiMascio after Carson Palmer turned in his 2nd-straight good game, and DeAngelo Williams followed a decent season debut with an excellent effort against a hapless 49ers defense. Rob held a comfortable lead even with Larry Fitzgerald's 29 points being wasted on the bench. Baltimore kicker Justin Tucker paced the rest of Jonathan's team with 15 points.

Finally, Nick Mandarano rounded out the week by dropping Matt McCullers, aided by strong games from Aaron Rodgers and Julian Edelman. For Matt, Odell Beckham Jr. had his first dominant week of the year, finishing with 20 points.

Week 2 Top Performers:

Ben Roethlisberger, QB: Big Ben picked apart a miserable-looking 49ers defense and should continue to have good games, especially with his weapons slowly filtering back into the picture following their suspensions.

Others: Tom Brady, & Cam Newton

DeAngelo Williams, RB: the longtime Carolina Panther seems to have found a good home in Pittsburgh, with 3 TDs last week against the same worthless 49ers D that his quarterback assaulted. Even though Le'Veon Bell is back, resist the urge to dump Williams on the waiver wire.

Others: Matt Jones, & Dion Lewis

Larry Fitzgerald, WR: Fitz seemed to turn back time last week, hauling in 3 TD passes from a healthy Carson Palmer. This was against a non-Eagles defense, no less! It's performances like these that should keep you from stupidly dropping him on the grounds that "he's old."

Others: Travis Benjamin, & Antonio Brown

Crockett Gillmore, TE: he scored 25.8 points last week after scoring 4.3 points in Week 1. Until he does something of significance this week, wait and see before you snag him.

Others: Rob Gronkowski, & Anthony Fassano

Browns, D/ST: this team should be on your roster solely because of that week's matchup, not to be a week-to-week mainstay. If you don't think the Raiders offense is legit, go for it.

Others: Broncos, Cardinals

Stephen Gostkowski, K: he's the best in the business.

Others: Mason Crosby, & Justin Tucker

Week 2 Busts:

Sam Bradford, QB: he has 6+ different weapons at his disposal and he mustered up 6 points against a Dallas defense that using cardboard cutouts in the secondary. Drop him in favor of a QB you just don't like in fantasy for some reason, like Joe Flacco (44.2% owned).

Others: Tony Romo, & Andrew Luck

C.J. Anderson, RB: At this point even the Eagles wouldn't take Anderson's production. To paraphrase an Animal House quote, "5 points through two fantasy games is no way to go through life, son."

Others: Eddie Lacy, & Jeremy Hill

Keenan Allen, WR: 16 yards on two targets plus a turnover netted Allen -1 points. There are probably better options on the waiver wire. If nothing else, bench him.

Others: Mike Evans, & Roddy White

Jimmy Graham, TE: I've never wanted anything to do with Seattle's receivers, and that includes tight ends too. Being separated from Drew Brees was the worst thing that could happen to Graham's production.

Others: Martellus Bennett, Jason Witten

Miami, D/ST: the Jaguars have stunk so long, they were bound to erupt against a decent defense sooner or later. Playing Buffalo should right this ship.

Others: Baltimore, Buffalo

Adam Vinatieri, K: every kicker should dream of having Vinatieri's career. Shake last week off and keep him in your lineup.

Others: Dan Carpenter, Zach Hocker

Add/Drops for Week 3:

Add

Dion Lewis, RB: if you didn't take Rob's advice and do it last week, just do it already. Two straight productive weeks to start the season will earn him playing time from Bill Belichick.

Drop

Drew Brees, QB: I personally like him as a quarterback and frankly would take him in real life over Sam Bradford right now as an Eagles fan, but look at the facts; he's injured, he's a fossil, and his general manager has conspired to take away half of his legitimate offensive weapons in the past 2 years. It's time to drop this football great.

Favorable Week 3 Matchups:

Jets D/ST (Philadelphia): Philly's offense looks like they're playing with each other for the first time. The Jets have 10 takeaways in two weeks. You figure this out.

Seahawks D/ST (Chicago): there should be college kids complaining that whoever came up with this matchup is bullying Chicago. Seattle should have their first good game of the season against Chicago and its backup quarterback.

Matt Ryan QB (Dallas): Ryan should do to Dallas' defense what the Eagles were supposed to do last Sunday. Which is tear it into a dozen angry, dysfunctional pieces.

Week 3 Sleepers:

Eric Ebron (20.2% owned & climbing), Lions TE: he's getting some noticeable target numbers from Stafford, who has hopefully learned that even Megatron shouldn't be targeted in triple coverage. Ebron has 2 TDs in two weeks.

Travis Benjamin (7% owned; up 6.6% from last week), Browns WR: he shouldn't be your #1 WR given who is throwing to him, but 3 TDs in two weeks is a crime to ignore. At least grab him and stash him on your bench to see if he's a legitimate week-to-week Flex/WR3 option.

Week 3 Anti-Sleepers:

Brandon Weeden, Cowboys QB: Don't be THAT guy. Looking at you, JT.  Even if Dez wasn't missing a foot, this guy is a Cleveland Browns failure. What, are you gonna snatch up Colt McCoy too after Kirk Cousins gets hurt?

Injury Report for Week 3:

Tony Romo (DAL): Broken clavicle, out 8-10 weeks. This is beyond comedy. Even as an Eagles fan I have to pity this man.

Drew Brees (NO): Rotator Cuff injury, questionable for Sunday. He thinks he can play this week. God bless him. I wish him nothing but the best.

Eric Decker (NYJ): Knee injury, status unknown for Sunday. It didn't look good Monday night when he had to leave.  However, Decker says he won't need surgery, so don't shoot this horse in the head just yet.



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