After Week 1, fantasy football fans and regular fans alike were wondering if Tom Brady was finished. Following his team’s big loss on the NFL’s opening night, was this the year Brady faded into oblivion?
Well, looking at Week 2’s fantasy football numbers, it’s clear to see the answer is no.
The Patriots longtime quarterback led all of his peers with more than 30 points against the New Orleans Saints.
Granted, not the same level of competition as he faced in Kansas City, but still, the doomsayers can calm down for at least a week or so.
Leading all running backs was Denver’s undervalued and under-drafted C.J. Anderson. He found more than 30 points himself against Dallas’ defense in a big win. While he invigorated the Broncos’ playoff aspirations, he probably also gave life to your team if you had him in there.
At wide receiver, Michael Crabtree of the Oakland Raiders certainly made me happy in my league of record (this means I paid money to be in it), and his three touchdowns put him on top of the entire NFL’s offerings.
Defensively, the Buccaneers made their presence known on their opening weekend by intercepting former teammate Mike Glennon twice and getting a fumble recovery to go with it. Robert McClain’s touchdown return boosted the points, and gave Tampa Bay the top fantasy football defense in Week 2.
As for my own advice? Derek Carr was one of the most underrated players in all of fantasy football entering the season if you ask me. If you listened to me in Week 2, you got a Top-5 performance out of the Raiders’ leading man. This makes two straight weeks to open 2017 where Carr has landed as a Top-10 quarterback, so unless you play in a six-team league, he’s a starter all day.
Alternately, Carson Wentz saw my bulletin board material and put over 300-yards with two touchdowns on the Chiefs despite being sacked six times. He did fumble twice, which would have dropped his score significantly, but he was fortunate to have a teammate pick it up for him. The Eagles lost, but Wentz still came in as the second-highest quarterback in Week 2 with 24.8 points. Interesting to note, he’s thrown for over 300-yards in each of his first two games, and has attempted at least 39 passes in both.
Finally, I told you not to roll with any Bengals’ running backs, and boy was I right on that one. I also said Joe Mixon was the only one with potential here, and he did the best of all of them. However, he finished 49th among NFL running backs in Week 2. Notably, coming in behind names like Andre Ellington, CJ Ham, Jalston Fowler – the same Fowler who plays for Tennessee and had a career high 13 rushing yards in 2015. No big deal.
Nobody’s perfect, but I can’t be much more right than that one.
On to Week 3, and who you should lean on or avoid to find fantasy football success!