Fantasy Studs 'N Duds - Week 1

Welcome to Fantasy Football!  If you are like me, this weekend was AWESOME whether you won or lost.

I've got six teams this year, five are head-to-head leagues and one is simply total points. I won 4 of my 5 match-ups and yes, the one I lost was against Peyton Manning.  I'm pretty sure NO ONE beat a team led by Peyton this week.  HA.

Each Tuesday, I will give you any injury news I can find that may affect your FFL team. And I'll tell you who I think are the Studs 'N Duds. Two things to remember:  positions are QB RB WR & TE. I'm not bothering with Kickers or Defenses. Deal with it. As for the math, using a basic FFL scoring system that includes PPR, I'll tell you who really over shot their projected points and who really blew it. These are not necessarily the "hot" names in the NFL, but they are guys who the experts didn't expect to play this way and it could be a trend worth watching for both owners and waiver wire pickups.



September 5-9, 2013

Injuries:

• QB Blaine Gabbert - hand laceration, requires surgery. Chad Henne will start. If either of these guys is on your roster, we need to have a serious chat about how you draft.
• TE Zach Sudfeld - hamstring. RB Shane Vereen - broken hand, surgery. WR Danny Amendola - groin. Tom Brady is running out of targets. If someone doesn't step up to replac
  
  e them, this could be a really bad year for him. Amendola may play this week but who knows how these aches/pains will affect them. UPDATE: Team confirms Vereen placed on IR/will return, he's out until Week 11.
• RB LaRod Stephens-Howling, ACL. RB Shonn Greene, sore knee, RB Reggie Bush, dislocated thumb, groin.  So LaRod is out for the year. Greene and Bush are sore but should play. Keep an eye out for updates this week... 
• WR Jeremy Kerley, concussion.  WR Dez Bryant, foot sprain. Neither team can afford to lose these guys but both could see limited time if they play at all this week.

Studs 

• +31 QB Peyton Manning.  Period. You all saw what he did. Can he do that all year? No.  But he CAN do that for 14 weeks which is really all we care about. With the weapons at his disposal, he's gotta be owned in 100% of leagues.
• +30 WR Anquan Boldin. Hey Baltimore - I guess he isn't done playing football yet! He's owned in around 90% of leagues... if he's available in your league, Go. Get. Him.
• +25 TE Jared Cook.  +20 Julius Thomas +18 Jordan Cameron +17 Vernon Davis.  These guys all had great weeks. Davis is owned in 100% of leagues, but you might want to check on these guys if you are waiver hunting this week.
• +20 RB Joique Bell. Yes, the Lions have Reggie Bush and yes, Reggie looked good this week. However. He is injury prone and
  
  they did share the load this week with Bell getting 2 TDs and 5 receptions which racked up some quick points. If you have Bush, I'd be looking to see if Bell is available. Just in case.
• +25 WR AJ Green. +22 Victor Cruz +20 Julian Edelman +19 Demaryius Thomas. All these guys had great weeks but I'm not sure you can expect them to blow up like this very often. Cincy & Giants both had uncharacteristic games resulting in losses. Thomas greatly benefited from Manning's insane 7 TD game. But Edelman may be one of the few targets Brady has left in New England.

Duds

• -13 RB David Wilson. The NYG not only don't like Wilson anymore, they signed Brandon Jacobs today. Yeah, the same one who played for them last year. I'd drop Wilson like a bad habit and go get Jacobs off waivers.
• -11 RB Lamar Miller -10 Stevan Ridley -10 Maurice Jones-Drew -9 Mark Ingram. Rookie Miller you should keep an eye on. If Miami doesn't fix their O-Line issues, he'll keep averaging -1 yard per carry.  But the other three guys should turn things around. No need to panic. Yet.
• -10 WR Roddy White -9 Calvin Johnson. Rumors of the ankle injury weren't exaggerated... I would keep White on my bench until he shows he can play the way he used to. Megatron is another player who just had a off week.  Mostly because the Lions just kept running the ball, and because the Vikings let them. Now, that may be because the Vikes were worried about covering CJ but no one keeps him in a corner. He'll get his numbers. Be patient.
• -9 QB Jake Locker. OK he's a nice guy but really? He's your starting QB?  And it's not a Bye Week? Oy. 125 yards and 0 TDs against a pathetic excuse for the Steelers does not bode well for the rest of Jake's season. 

That's it for me this week.... feel free to send me questions via twitter @ClvlndK8!

Respectfully Submitted,

Cleveland Kate