Week 2 of NFL play provided some amazing moments, big letdowns, and of course, a fantasy football smorgasbord of action. Let’s break down some of the noteworthy news!
The Return of the King
Derrick Henry rushed 35 times for 182 yards, scoring three touchdowns, all while adding a career-high six catches for 55 yards. That is it. That’s the paragraph.
The NFC West is scary good.
The Seattle Seahawks were up 24-9 at halftime over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. The aforementioned Henry took that personally. 150 yards and three touchdowns later, the Seahawks found themselves on the wrong side of a 33-30 overtime loss to the Titans and a division worst 1-1 record. The other NFC West tenants are all 2-0. Care to guess how many points this division has scored as a collective thus far? That total would be 249. That translates to over 31 points per game, per team in the division. Look west to bolster your fantasy football rosters.
Tom Brady is planting his flag for league MVP….again.
Father Time is a Tom Brady fan. At the age of 44, Brady has his Bucs atop the division at 2-0 with stats straight out of Madden. He has completed 65% of his passes for 655 yards and nine touchdowns. In standard fantasy football scoring, that is over 28 PPG, ranking him third overall at the QB position. Can this trend continue? I learned my lesson a long time ago. Of course, it can.
And Kyler Murray is right behind Brady.
Speaking of MVP aspirations, how about Kyler Murray? He has his Arizona Cardinals tied atop the division at 2-0 throwing for 689 yards, seven touchdowns, and rushing for an additional 51 yards and two touchdowns. That’s a whopping 33 fantasy PPG, the league leader at the QB position. Trade for him in all formats if you can in season-long fantasy football leagues.
The 49ers and pounding their way to victories.
Even with all the injuries to 49ers’ RBs, they sit tied atop the NFC “Wild” West at 2-0. It’s not so much the volume of rushing attempts in San Francisco (their 66 attempts rank them third in the NFL) but rather the personnel they are doing it with. This list is impressive in length: Mitchell, Garoppolo, Hasty, Lance, Samuel, Mostert, Jusczyk, Cannon, and Sermon. And you thought your RB1 was a victim of running back by committee.
Backup QBs will have a fantasy football impact in 2021.
I drafted Jacoby Brissett in a few deep leagues this year and the jeering was incessant. It wasn’t in anticipation of Tagovailoa getting injured but rather a hedge on his effectiveness.
Regardless of the reasons, fantasy owners that gambled a roster spot on backup or free agent QBs (might Cam Newton get a call soon?) just might have that faith rewarded. The NFL is a war of attrition and does not differentiate between its stars or trench warriors. Four starting quarterbacks were knocked out of their respective games this weekend and their availability for the foreseeable future is in doubt.
Brissett, Eason, Mills, and most definitely Fields look to be trending upward in the upcoming weeks and could be a difference-maker in your lineups.
Check out our Surprising Fantasy Trends from Week 1 too!
