Weekend Recap

Cam Newton laughs in the face of his critics.

The first weekend of football could not have been more exciting, from the offensive explosion on Thursday Night to the Jets comeback on Sunday night. We'll share all the free agent adds by Tuesday morning, and discuss the games in more detail in the podcast Monday Night, but for now, here are some quick hitters:

Green Bay v. New Orleans
Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers can chuck a football. More importantly, Marques Colston is likely out several weeks with a broken collarbone. This opens the door for an FFMVP Darling, Robert Meachem, to be the number one receiver in New Orleans - a dream gig, if ever there was one. When Lance Moore is back, he will likely be a solid starting WR, but until then, Devery Henderson will be a hot add. Jimmy Graham was not utilized much in the first half, but when Brees was running the hurry-up offense, Graham pulled through in a major way, earning favor in Drew's book. Graham will be a top 5 fantasy TE.

Jordy Nelson seems to have beaten James Jones for the #3 job in Green Bay, meaning he's likely a decent flex play moving forward. And James Starks significantly outplayed Ryan Grant in this game. He will surely be on the right side of this time share moving forward. But before we anoint Starks an every-week starter, I should tell you that Grant will still take plenty of carries, John Kuhn will take some goalline opportunities, and Aaron Rodgers will be throwing the ball 60% of the time. This doesn't leave much leftover for the "main guy" in the backfield. I'm very happy to have drafted Starks and not Grant, but at the same time, he may be someone I shop around to see if I can get RB2 value for an RB3.

Tennessee v. Jacksonville
Kenny Britt, baby! Kenny Britt! I would tattoo "Brett Loves Britt" on my bicep, but it's not big enough. So instead I'll gush about him here. Britt led the team with 10 targets and hauled in 5 of them for 136 yards and 2 TDs. He was one of our "Hot Starts," and even though he can't face the Jags every week, he's still an every-week starter. Chris Johnson carried the ball just 9 times for 24 yards, and added 6 catches for 25 yards. He had a few bad games like this last year too. You're never taking him out of your lineup anyway, so you're just going to have to roll with it. Sorry, bro. 

Buffalo v. Kansas City
As predicted, Fred Jackson was the primary back for the Bills, with 20 carries for 112 yards. But it was CJ Spiller who got the TD and 5 carries for 16 yards. The Chiefs were overall weaksauce, but I don't mean to take away from FJax's talent. He's an every-week flex play in my opinion.

Philly v. St. Louis
Watching Vick, DeSean, and McCoy play today made two words come to mind - Hot Damn! And I'm not worried about Maclin. He's still shaking the rust off but should remain in lineups. On the other side of the ball, it looks like Danny Amendola is out for the year, while Steven Jackson and Sam Bradford sustained significant injuries of their own. The question is: next week, will A.J. Feely be checking down to Cadillac Williams or going deep to Brandon Gibson? Yikes. I want to get excited about the clarity in the receiver corp if Sims-Walker and Gibson become the main targets, but it's hard to be excited due to their potential supporting cast at this point. 

Indianapolis v. Houston
It looks like Kerry Collins will not destroy the value of Reggie Wayne after all, who hauled in 7 catches for 106 yards and the lone TD. Without Peyton, the Colts likely planned to emphasize the run game more than usual, but that very quickly became impossible when they fell behind so severely in the first quarter. It was surprising to see Delone Carter (our favorite deep sleeper) get 7 carries to Addai's 8. This may have been situational, but this could become more of a committee sooner than we thought.

In Arian Foster's absence, both Derrick Ward and Ben Tate punched in TDs, but Ward left with an injury, and Tate seized the opportunity to show off his explosiveness. I have nothing controversial to say here: If Foster is healthy next week, he will resume workhorse duties. If Foster misses another game and Ward does too, Tate is a must-start. And if Foster is out but Ward is in, you can expect a 50-50 split between the two with Tate having the higher upside.

Carolina v. Arizona
Cam Newton broke all kinds of records today. He even brought a dead career back to life - see Steve Smith's 178 yards and 2 TDs. He'll be a hot Waiver Add and for good reason. But at the same time, in running through my leagues, I don't know that he's a must-add. If I have Romo and Fitzpatrick as a backup, I'm not going to drop one of them for Newton, and I'm not going to carry 3 QBs. Where I only have one QB, I'd consider dropping my 5th WR for Newton, but that's Robert Meachem, so no thank you. My point is that Newton was incredible today and could have solid weeks, especially because of the extra points he'll get you on the ground, but at the same time, in only one of my ten leagues does it make any sense to add him. Also, I've been hating on DeAngelo Williams and Jon Stewart all summer, and I don't think today was a fluke. This could be a very disappointing year.

And Beanie Wells is legit. He had 18 carries for 90 yards (an impressive 5.0 yards-per-carry) and a TD, and added 4 catches for 12 yards.

Here's to hoping McFadden and Moreno run a train tomorrow night!