Week 2: Fantasy Football In-Review - a podcast by Jonny and Donny

Welcome back boys and girls. What an excitement packed week two in the NFL linked with several HUGE fantasy performances. I would like to start off by publicly admitting that I was totally wrong about Cam Newton. I, along with many others, was a big Cam Newton doubter when he was drafted back in April by the Carolina Panthers. I have never been a big believer of the "mobile quarterback" in the present day of the NFL. I do however excuse Michael Vick from this group because at the top of his game, in my eyes, he is the most athletically gifted player on a football field (Yes he can be fumble prone but that is considered more of a fundamental). My predominant and ongoing reason for disregarding this "group" of quarterbacks is backed by these example QB's that were initially tagged with the label of "mobile quarterback": Tim Tebow, Pat White, JaMarcus Russell, Tavaris Jackson and Vince Young (extremely overrated in my opinion). Now I understand some of these guys have not had a real chance to prove themselves, but when they have the outcome has not been all that positive. Nor are their mechanics and skills passing the ball have not been something to write home about (I do not claim to have or know the skills of a professional quarterback, I am just going by opinion, personal viewing and comparison). My point behind all of this is to claim that I am now a believer in Cam Newton seeing as how he obviously has decided to focus more on the passing skills he can offer, and not so much the running. The success he has had so far is phenomenal and the future looks bright for him and the Carolina Panthers.

Now that I have got that out of the way, lets dive into the action week two presented us this past weekend.

Let us start off with what I thought was the game of the weekend, Oakland at Buffalo. What a barn burner this game turned out to be. A couple of my buddies kept saying to me how choked they were that this was the only game they got on cable television. I proceeded to tell them that it is the games between these 2 types of teams that always ends up being the head of the class for excitement and this one lived up to all of its "hype". The game really came down to the last 3 drives of the game. With under 4 minutes to go in the fourth quarter Jason Campbell tossed a 50-yard touchdown pass to Denarius Moore (Who? Exactly). He was only to be trumped the following drive by Ryan Fitzpatrick leading the team down the field in the last 2 minutes of the game where he found David Nelson in the endzone to put the Bills up 38-25 and remain undefeated on the season. The Raiders had a chance to put Sea Bass in for a game tying 73-yard field goal, but unfortunately the game was not being played in Denver. Ryan Fitzpatrick continued to add to his legacy by completing 28 passes for 264 yards and 3 TD's which included the game winner. We all know the Raiders have an extremely spotty defense but we are talking about a Buffalo Bills quarterback here. Their recent history of quarterbacks have not been to pretty *cough* Trent Edwards *cough*. Fitzpatrick began to prove himself last year and has continued that trend so far this year. I believe that by the last quarter of season, at the latest, Fitzpatrick will be a clear-cut starting fantasy football quarterback. Oh yeah, and Darren McFadden had 143 all-purpose yards, 7 catches and 2 TD's, no big deal.

In our Yahoo! league Jon and myself were at opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to our respective match-ups. I put up massive numbers with the help of guys like Darren McFadden, Vincent Jasckson (10 REC, 172 YDS, 2 TD) and not Plaxico Burress (ZEROS ACROSS THE BOARD) winning my match-up 173.08-105.68. Jon on the other hand fell short 155.72-138.40 to Jared (@JPDClinton). The fact that Jon was facing the likes of Larry Fitzgerald (7 REC, 133 YDS, 1 TD), Kenny Britt (9 REC, 135 YDS, 1 TD) and Jahvid Best (6 REC, 133 TOTAL YDS, 2 TD) did not help his chances a whole lot. Here's to next week and Jon starting Ryan Fitzpatrick over Romo. Never been so confident in a Bills player in my life.

Also to pick up where I left off last week with my mini Rashard Mendenhall (2 REC, 88 TOTAL YDS, 1 TD) rants, I was satisfied with the numbers he put up this week versus the Seattle Seahawks compared to his lackluster week one performance. We all know Mendenhall is much more capable than what he has done this year to date and I believe his next week match-up against Indianapolis could turn out to be a big one. I cry a little inside every time I think about the Colts run defense. All that aside, this week I made a corporate decision to trade Mendenhall. Outside of Vincent Jackson and Wes Welker, my WR depth is extremely pathetic (Plaxico Burress and Steve Breaston). So, I proceeded to complete a trade with Mr. Allard (@ZacharyAllard). He was in desperate need of a star running back so we swapped Mendenhall and Calvin Johnson. I feel I am set at RB with McFadden, Beanie Wells and Starks and am looking forward to inserting Calvin Johnson into my starting lineup next week.

Now enough about our league, time to help you with yours. Here are my Booms, Bums and Waiver Wire Pickups of the week.

BOOMS:
This week I have selected a tri-fecta of WRs that are impossible not to mention...

MILES AUSTIN (DAL-WR), JEREMY MACLIN (PHI-WR) and VINCENT JACKSON (SD-WR): While I have already mentioned Vincent Jackson, Miles Austin (9 REC, 143 YDS, 3 TD) and Jeremy Maclin (13 REC, 171 YDS, 2 TDS) went on to put up even bigger numbers than Jackson thus making them a "must-have" commodity for weeks to come (this is assuming Miles Austin's hamstring holds up).

Honorable Mentions: Tom Brady (NE-QB) (I mentioned him last week, give me a break), Adrian Peterson (Min-RB), Tony Gonzalez (Atl-TE) (This is simply due to the catch he made Sunday night:CLICK HERE TO VIEW)

BUMS:
ANTONIO GATES (SD-TE): The Chargers played the New England Patriots this weekend, a team that is notoriously bad for their defense against the tight-end position. Antonio Gates finished the game with 0 catches for 0 yards and 0 TDs. No, you do not detect a typing error. Gates actually did finish the game with 0 catches for the first time since 2008. In fact, he was only targeted by Philip Rivers once in the whole game in comparison to being targeted a team-high 13 times in week one against the Vikings. Gates was the top projected TE at the beginning of the season, no one could have projected this. In fact, its Plaxico like. Minus the whole gun in the sweat pants thing.

REGGIE BUSH (MIA-RB): Not that I would have ranked this punt returner... er, I mean running back high at the beginning of the season in the first place, but Reggie Bush was almost as ineffective as Antonio Gates was this past weekend. Barring any other setbacks it seems clear to me that Daniel Thomas will be the feature back there in Miami this year and hopefully into the future. And I know it is hard to make a claim that someone is a bust when they do not get playing time, but this is a guy that was projected (Yahoo! leagues) to be the 35th most productive player in the league this weekend. Not mention is owned in 87% of leagues. At this point, I find more value in Ted Ginn Jr. over Reggie Bush. Not that that is a hard decision to make.

Honorable Mentions: Joe Flacco (Bal-QB), Carnell "Cadillac" Williams (STL-RB), LaDainian Tomlinson (NYJ-RB)

WAIVER WIRE PICK-UPS:
DEXTER MCCLUSTER (KC-WR/RB): This seems to be a re-occurring trend, pick up the back-up running back of a guy that just went down with an injury. In this case it is Jamaal Charles (knee). After suffering a season ending injury someone has to step up into the Chiefs backfield in Charles' spot. The leading candidate for now seems to be the veteran Thomas Jones but I believe in the long run McCluster has way more upside and much better pass catching skills thus making his value so much higher. Not to mention in most, if not all leagues he has dual eligibility at the wideout and running back position. Starting a running back at your wide receiver spot? A gold mine waiting to be discovered.

DEMARCO MURRAY (DAL-RB): I will stick with the trend and choose the Dallas Cowboys' back-up running back. This choice is based solely on the near-future health of Felix Jones. Jones seperated his shoulder against the 49ers on Sunday and there currently is no timetable set in stone for his return. If and only IF Jones cannot go next week or even the future weeks to come, Demarco Murray will be in line for a decent amount of touches. It also only helps his value that Miles Austin tweaked his hamstring in that game as well and is currently questionable for next weeks game against the Redskins. Murray could have the rock in his hands quite a bit Monday night.

Honorable Mentions: Eric Decker (Den-WR), Nate Washington (Ten-WR), Mike Kafka (Phi-QB) (Yeah, I just did that)

Well, I believe a Mike Kafka reference is the only fitting way to wrap this baby up. You can check us out and send us any questions on Twitter (@thesportsreps or @DBraemer), on Facebook under the name J.d. Reps, or send us an email to thesportsreps@yahoo.ca. Our podcasts are also available on iTunes if you have not already been listening to them on there. We are working on getting another up soon. Good luck in week three.

Shout-out to those bigger fantasy names (and everyone else, I'm not a jerk) that got hurt this past week and a speedy recovery.

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