Fantasy Football: Week one dudes, duds, and deceivers

Fantasy Football: Week One Deceivers

Davante Adams/Aaron Jones, Wide Receiver/Running Back, Green Bay Packers

What a way to kick off the 100th NFL season! A classic defensive battle between two longtime rivals, the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. A final score of 10-3 is rarely a good thing to see for fantasy owners who have players in that particular game. Solid fantasy performances were hard to come by on Thursday, and it showed with some of the higher drafted players in fantasy.

The consensus second-ranked receiver coming into the year was Davante Adams. With a healthy Aaron Rodgers throwing to him, Adams has been a touchdown machine. Well, this week that machine put up just 36 yards on four catches for only 7.6 PPR fantasy points.

Also, the starting running back for the Packers, Aaron Jones carried the ball 13 times, mustering just 39 yards, scoring only 4.9 fantasy points. Despite the victory, it was a tough night for some of the Packers best playmakers.

But don’t you worry! If you have one of these guys, you should be just fine. Like I said before, the Bears have the best all-around defense in the league. It was an incredibly tough match-up in Chicago that they have now gotten out of the way. The Packers and new offensive-minded head coach Matt LaFleur will surely get things going sooner rather than later, and these guys will have a chance to prove that they deserved to be drafted where they were.

Dak Prescott, Quarterback, Dallas Cowboys

Three words for you: money, money, money. Another three words: New York Giants. That pretty much sums up Dak’s career day in my mind. Prescott threw for 405 yards and four touchdowns in the Cowboys week one victory over the Giants.

Dak looked good and those stats are impressive. You can’t take that away from him. He went out and played one heck of a football game. But I really feel like, in the midst of a contract negotiation, Prescott went out there with the green light to put up crazy numbers to help him show that he deserves a big payday.

Also, Zeke Elliott just returned to the team a few days before the game after a contract holdout of his own, so a day dominated by Dak’s air attack should have been beneficial in allowing Zeke to get his feet back under him and not being relied on too heavily to carry the load for the offense.

And again, they were playing the Giants, who have been less than stellar for a while now. While Dak proved that he is capable of such a performance, I wouldn’t expect that out of him on a regular basis. I expect the Cowboys to get back to more of a run-first offense and Dak’s number will see a pretty solid dip from his week one output.

Joe Mixon, Running Back, Cincinnati Bengals

Looking at the box score for this game, you would wonder how in the world Joe Mixon only got six carries. Well, that’s because he went out early in the game with an ankle injury and did not return. However, the injury does not appear to be serious as there is a decent chance that Mixon returns to action this week.

Mixon has dealt with some injuries already in his NFL career, so a week one injury is not something that fantasy owners wanted to see. But it’s certainly not time to panic. Give him a week to get back to 100% and we’ll see what Mixon can do when fully healthy for a full game in the Bengals new offense.

Derrick Henry, Running Back, Tennessee Titans

I’ll admit right off the bat, this one might be a little personal. I carried Derrick Henry on my roster for a decent chunk of the season last year after someone dropped him due to his rocky start. I thought he might get it together, but was still very unreliable when he entered the lineup. So I move on to another option at running back, and of course, he has those two monster games as soon as he’s off my team.

Enough about last year. Henry had one of the best days among running backs on Sunday scoring 28.9 PPR fantasy points. He ran 19 times for 84 yards and a touchdown and added a 75-yard touchdown reception in the Titans blowout victory in Cleveland.

Henry may be the real deal and become a top fantasy back this season, but I think he’s just too inconsistent to be that type of guy. His fantasy total was inflated greatly by that 75-yard screen pass for a touchdown. That was just a complete defensive breakdown by the Browns that allowed him to pretty much waltz 80 yards untouched into the end zone. Those types of plays don’t happen all that often.

His rushing numbers are very solid, but the Titans took control of that game and could afford to just hand it off to Henry a bunch towards the end. The Browns effort at the end of the game looked suspect, so Henry may face tougher scenarios when it comes to fantasy production.

The Titans may not always be ahead in games. They may not get easy long touchdowns. That would completely change the landscape of Henry’s fantasy day. We saw it last year. Henry was pretty much feast or famine.

He’d put up a monster game like this one, and he’d have runs of single-digit fantasy point games. I’d be wary of buying high on Henry until we see how well he can sustain this type of output over multiple weeks.

Miles Sanders, Running Back, Philadelphia Eagles

After a ton of hype in the offseason and preseason, Miles Sanders had a rather quiet NFL debut. He received 11 carries but managed just 25 rushing yards and caught just one pass for two yards for 3.7 fantasy pointsin his first NFL game.

However, the Eagles were down early in this game and needed to use big plays through the air to work their way back. Despite Darren Sproles being used a lot in those passing situations, Sanders was on the field for more snaps than the other backs, 36 to Sproles’ 20 and Howard’s 16.

He also received the most carries of the backs, so there are signs that he is already the guy to own in the backfield, and should continue to grow as a fantasy asset as his role grows within the Eagles offense.

Jameis Winston/Mike Evans, Quarterback/Wide Receiver, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

After a pitiful performance against the 49ers in week one, Jameis Winston almost ended up as a dud in this article. But I think we need to give him a little more time before coming to that sort of conclusion.

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Against San Francisco, Winston through for just 194 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions. While they haven’t been the greatest of teams over the past few years, the Niners have put together quite the defense at all three levels.

Their front four was able to get pressure on Winston early, forcing a couple of mistakes. Then once the game got out of hand, Winston had to try to get his team back into the game and may have forced some throws.

In this poor performance, Winston found his star receiver, Mike Evans, just two times for 28 yards. If you drafted Evans early in your draft, you have to be upset with how things played out.

If you selected Winston as a high-end, high-upside back-up you’re probably a little concerned. Both for good reason.

Again, I think we just need to give them time. Bruce Arians is the new head coach in Tampa, and has a good track record as an offensive mind in the NFL. The more Winston plays and learns from experience, the better he and the entire offense will be.

As for Evans, he was battling an illness in the days leading up to the game, and even though he played, I doubt he was 100%. A healthy Evans and a learning Winston is what this offense needs to get back to where they were last season, where Buc QBs were throwing for 300 yards and three touchdowns with regularity.

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