Fantasy Football: Week one dudes, duds, and deceivers
Fantasy Football: Week one dudes, duds, and deceivers
Dude of the Week
Christian McCaffrey, Running Back, Carolina Panthers
Saquon Barkley was taken first overall in the vast majority of fantasy football leagues. Christian McCaffrey is already trying to prove that he should have been the first player off the board in 2019.
Picking up right where he left off last year, CMC showed his dynamic versatility, dominating in both the run and the passing game. On the ground, McCaffrey had 19 carries for 128 yards and two touchdowns. Through the air, he hauled in 10 of 11 targets for 81 yards. All together, CMC racked up a whopping 42.9 fantasy points in ESPN standard PPR scoring.
McCaffrey is clearly still the focal point of the offense in Carolina. The Panthers know it, I know it, you know it, and the opposing defense knows it. But they still can’t stop him or even contain him. McCaffrey put up these numbers against a Rams defense that is regarded as one of the best in the league.
The crazy thing is, it’s not unrealistic for McCaffrey to keep up at least a similar production for the rest of the season. Sure, he may not score quite as many points in every single game, but he shouldn’t be far off.
Many people expected CMC to flirt with 1,000 both rushing and receiving this year and he is certainly off to a great start. At this pace, he would end up with 2,048 rushing yards and 1,296 receiving yards. Now that may not be a realistic ending for McCaffrey’s season, but he’s well on his way to a career year once again if he can maintain at least a similar output.
Now I doubt whoever owns McCaffrey in your fantasy league would give him up for anything at this point, so just be happy if you were lucky enough to have an early pick in your draft and could draft the dynamic back.
CMC and the Panthers will take on the Buccaneers this week on Thursday night, and although the 49er running backs didn’t have a great showing against them in week one, none of those guys are in the same league as Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey is a must-start this week and all weeks, and if you can somehow pry him away from his current owner in your league in the coming weeks, I’d give up a lot to get this dude.