Friday, September 13, 2013

FANTASY FOOTBALL WRAPUP: JETS-PATRIOTS

Fantasy football Week 2 went underway Thursday night when the New York Jets visited the New England Patriots in the rain. Here are some of the storylines coming out of the outing.

 -Things are not looking good at all in the short-term for Patriots QB Tom Brady who was beside himself with frustration at his very raw receiving corps throughout Thursday's game. With both Danny Amendola and Rob Gronkowski out, in addition to seeing Aaron Hernandez land in jail and Wes Welker defect to Denver, Brady is left with a ragtag batch of wideouts led by a former college QB in Julian Edelman. With rookies Kenbrell Thompkins and Aaron Dobson stuggling badly for the second week in a row, Brady forced the ball all night to Edelman to the tune of 18 targets and 13 completions. Overall Brady finished a woeful 13-of-39 for only 185 yards with 1 TD. With Amendola now possibly out until as long as Week 6 and no word yet on how soon Gronkowski will get back, these are bad times for Brady and his fantasy football owners. It was the concerns about Brady's receiving corps that had me dropping Brady down in the QB rankings heading into this season, putting him squarely behind Matt Ryan, Andrew Luck, and Cam Newton who he easily would have been ahead with even decent weapons. Right now with the very good Tampa Bay Buccaneers secondary on tap next week, Brady could be argued as guy who shoukd be benched. Seriously.

-Speaking of Edelman, he was the prize of the waiver wire this week as it was expected he would see a ton of work playing the Welker role and serving as the only experienced receiver on the team who is active. The 13 catches were a huge tally for those in PPR formats but in standard leagues not so much as Edelman got only 78 yards out of those catches with zero touchdowns. In other words an almost useless night in standard leagues. However with no end in sight with Amendola's return, Edelman needs to be continally put into the lineup no matter the format due to the high volume of attention he will get. As far as Dobson and Thompkins, well both guys clearly are not ready for this yet. Sure Dobson caught the TD pass but he also was screamed at by Brady on a number of occasions for running the wrong route and he also had the dropsies. Thompkins was a non-factor once again himself. Both guys should be benched in all leagues nad I can't voice opposition if you want to cut them outright. We have reached the point where that is all right.

-Stevan Ridley is absolutely killing his fantasy football owners now off his Week 1 benching in Buffalo for fumbling. With Shane Vereen out until Week 9 after wrist surgery, Ridley was given another prime opportunity to remind us all of his 1,200-plus 2012 campaign. Instead Ridley churned out all of 40 yards on 16 carries which was horrific on a night the Pats needed help with the run game since the weather was rough. In PPR leagues you need to plant Ridley on the bench and standard formats could give him one more shot. Ugly all around though.

-Nothing doing at all with the Jets offense. Geno Smith threw 13 interceptions in a brutal night. Chris Ivory was all right with 52 rushing yards on 12 carries but unless he scored he is pretty worthless. Stephen Hill caught 4 passes for 86 yards but that is the extent of the offense. There you have it. As always let us hear what you think.

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