Last Place Wisdom: Early Season Disappointment

Week 1 is in the books, and it was an action filled week from beginning to end. 2 games went down to Monday Night, Curtis upsets the Champ, Stan blows Dawson out on the back of the 49ers, and everything I feared about my team going into week one came true. Of course, it’s never a good idea to overreact after one week because it’s a long season, but I’m sure I’m not the only manager who is having a panic attack (or alternatively, planning for a dominating season after the early performances).

Buster watching his starting Running Backs

All of my Week 1 thoughts should be taken with a huge grain of salt however, since I spent more time Sunday watching the CFL than what was going on in the NFL. In CFL Fantasy news, everyone relying on the Rider’s Offense was in trouble, while Justin Goltz picked up 2 rushing touchdowns to salvage his fantasy week.

 There were no injuries to my team to speak of at this point, which is just about the only thing I have going for me right now. Outside of Matt Stafford and Brandon Marshall, my team couldn’t have played more poorly. Most frustrating for me is the horrible game put on by David Wilson, who I had huge hopes for and felt was a key to me staying competitive. He’s someone I will have to watch, as his starting job will be in jeopardy if his play doesn’t improve. As much as I hated seeing Peyton Manning absolutely go off against my team, it makes the loss sting a little less knowing that I wouldn’t be beating anyone this week. Hopefully all my players had an off-game in one I wouldn’t be winning anyways, and they can start playing up to expectations going forward.

The only other piece of good news for me was being able to watch Vick and the Chip Kelly Offense on Monday night. Who knows if they can keep it up, but the first half was an incredible performance, with the offense running more plays than the Carolina Panthers did all game, and Vick putting up 20+ points in the half. After getting up big, they slowed down in the 2^nd half, but Vick/McCoy/Jackson could be up for a huge year.

Some of the fun of a Chip Kelly Offense

The other big news I wanted to discuss more in depth was watching What are the Chances upset the The War Boners in one of the shocks of the week. Texting John during the games, he commented that fantasy “can be a heartless wench”, which I know all about. It’s nice to know that even the best can have weeks where nothing goes right. While I still think my prediction of John struggling this year will play out, it appears I may have been wrong about Andrew Luck however, who was John’s biggest bright spot. To be fair, Curtis pulled off a big win against John Week 1 last year, and John won’t let us forget how it worked out for him in the end.

A heartless wench

Mr.Manager of the Week Award

We didn’t have too much managing going on this week, with a lack of waivers, trades or game film to assist in making lineup choices this week. I did want to highlight a few good moves of the week:

Shayne – Turns out drafting Adrian Peterson and Peyton Manning was a smart choice.

Stan – Starting Colin Kaepernick over Aaron Rodgers took balls, but paid off big time for Stan. Drafting most of the 49ers because the rest of the league hates them might have been a great move for him.

Steve (John) – Julius Thomas. All it took for John to get a fantasy boner for this guy was hearing the words “former college basketball player”. There are a lot of targets for Manning to throw to in Denver, but Thomas could be a star.

Waiver Wire

I don’t see any really big waiver wire names this week. There are some interesting names that might pay off this season, but I don’t see any Alfred Morris/Randall Cobb type adds that look to be sure things this week. Players who might be of particular interest include Joique Bell, Leonard Hankerson, Julian Edelman or Jerome Simpson.

Injuries

John receives more bad news, as his surprise star Shane Vereen breaks his wrist and will miss a few weeks. It goes to show John’s plan to hoard RBs was a good one, since he doesn’t have to rely on Vereen, although it may limit his trade options if he can’t come back quickly.

It also turned out that Roddy White played on a high ankle sprain, and was not effective at all. He needs to get healthy in a hurry to help John’s WR depth.

Danny Amendola got hurt, but returned to the game. It does sound like he may miss the game in Week 2 however. I debated about adding this to the report, since most of you probably assumed he was injured already.

Random Thoughts

 It was a bad week for early round draft picks, as Arian Foster, Alfred Morris, Marshawn Lynch, MJD, Doug Martin, Calvin Johnson, Stevan Ridley, Chris Johnson, CJ Spiller and Trent Richardson all disappointed owners greatly. No one should be freaked out about any of this at this point, but these are the guys who need to be much better.


It was a tough week for RB’s in general, as only 17 had double digit points, and of those 17, four weren’t started at all our league.

Young RB’s who fumbled got benched. David Wilson, Eddie Lacy, CJ Spiller, Stevan Ridley...all of these guys lost work partly due to fumbling early. It could quickly make for frustrating backfield situations if their backups continue to play well.
 
It was a huge week for QBs and their targets. 3 QBs had over 400 yards, 8 had 300, and their WRs and TEs benefitted greatly. If Defenses don’t catch up, this could be a year of shootouts for the better teams in the league, and will make having a good QB – Receiver combo a must have.
 
I had 6 or 7 TE’s rated pretty equally as a back-up in Gronk returns, and I chose the guy replacing him on the Patriots. Sticking with the way my week went, I picked the guy who got shut out, while every other guy on my list scored a Touchdown. 12 TE’s had 10 points or more, which is insane, but will be something to watch going forward.

Week 2 Preview

War Boners vs oh that’s nasty – One of these very solid rosters will be 0-2 after this week, and might create some panic in a manager that is not used to losing.

Sexy Sacks Men vs Sideliners – I will need my stars to turn it around after an absolutely pathetic Week 1. Steve has an overabundance of good wide receivers, so his biggest challenge will be choosing the right ones to start.

Reading Dwayne-Bowes vs What are the Chances – Two of the biggest surprise winners in Week 1 face off against each other. NFL projections have them scoring the exact same number of points, so we could be in for a close game. Curtis has a tough decision to make at QB in this game, as the Manning Brothers Showdown should be a high scoring game.

BISP vs Niners – Another surprise winner showdown with QB questions. Neither team has a clear cut starting QB, and either one of Newton/RG3 or Rodgers/Kaepernick could be started. Stan is looking to trade Rodgers already, but Kaepernick has an extremely tough matchup against the Seahawks.

NFL Owner vs The Godfather – Not a lot to say about this game, but if Shayne gets a similar performance from his Big 3 (Manning, Peterson, Fitzgerald) he will be tough to beat.

On the next Last Place Widsom:

• I recap Week 2, where everyone throws for 400 yards.
• After starting 0-2, John begins to question what would make an acceptable sacrifice to the Fantasy gods.
• The players who get cut after Week 1 go off to have a huge Week 2, because if we learned anything today, Fantasy Football is a heartless wench.