Weekly Bender: Week 1 Brings Panic to the Fantasy Streets

Mon Sep 8 3:57pm ET
By HOWARD BENDER
Fantasy Writer

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Nothing is certain in life except death and taxes.” Obviously, the guy on the C-note never ponied one up for a fantasy football league, amirite? It’s death, it’s taxes and it’s panic and overreaction to what we saw during the Week 1 games.

Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase stink it up against the lowly Browns? It’s a disaster. Jacory Croskey-Merritt and Braelon Allen score touchdowns? They’re league-winners. The Ravens score 40 points and Mark Andrews sees just one target? Cast him off to the waiver wire. Back and forth we go, each and every year, where fantasy owners freak out over just one game.

I get it. You’re excited. The NFL gets you amped up in April with the draft, you get hype reports from the league during OTAs in May, mini-camps in June put the rookies center-stage and you spend your entire summer researching players, doing mocks and drafting best ball teams. By the time Week 1 rolls around, if your fantasy team doesn’t win 263 to 68, your season is in shambles and everything you did up until game-time was all for naught. But it doesn’t have to be that way, people. It’s going to be okay. I promise you.

I’d say learn from your mistakes, but no one ever does. Year after year, I get the same panic-stricken messages from the same people. Did the fantasy managers who invested in Burrow and Chase not see the start of last season? Or the year before that? Over the last two seasons, Burrow averaged 123 passing yards and zero touchdowns. Why was this year going to be different when none of the starters played in the preseason? Does it all just magically happen?

But rather than sit here and berate people for making the same mistakes over and over and over again, I want to try and be helpful. Instead of using this space to sarcastically demean the noobs who will rage drop top players and waste their waiver priority and bid dollars on some one-game wonder, I’ll give you some of my thoughts on what we saw in Week 1. I can’t guarantee that I won’t be mean and sarcastic since I’m all about the tough love, but I’ll do my best. Let’s get started.

Daniel Jones is not the next Saquon Barkley

Kudos to Jones for being the first quarterback in NFL history (recent history, that is) to lead his team to a score on every possession in a game. That’s right, since the start of keeping such detailed game logs and statistics, no other quarterback has done that. He was 7-for-7 this week. But let’s cool our jets on the talk of Danny Dimes being the next Barkley – guy gets out of the Giants clubhouse and posts a career-best season.

Did you all watch that game? It was tough to do given just how bad Miami played, but I managed to stomach my way through it. And while yes, I can be happy for Jones and relish in the fact that I drafted him in the closing rounds of a best ball tournament to be my QB3, I am not jumping out of my chair to run to the waiver wire to add him. Miami is terrible and on both sides of the ball. There is something wrong in that clubhouse and it needs to be sorted out. Let’s see what Dimes looks like next week when Patrick Surtain and the Denver Broncos come to town.

Oh, and one more thing before I move on – Jone sis not Anthony Richardson. Yes, he was feeling it on Sunday, but he is not going to ruin Jonathan Taylor’s value by poaching all the goal-line work. You folks panicking about Taylor’s lack of touchdowns need to take a time-out and reassess your true fears.

Jacory Croskey-Merrit is not a league-winner.

First and foremost, I’m not calling him Bill. His mom named him Jacory and until he shows me more than 10 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown against a tomato can team like the Giants, I’m going to call him by his given name. Dominate in Week 2 against Micah Parsons and the Packers and we can talk.

I’m happy to sign off on him as a smart pick-up during draft season, but I need to see more. Let’s not forget that Chris Rodriguez was a healthy scratch. If Croskey-Merrit is the early-down back with Austin Ekeler and Jeremy McNichols serving as the complements and pass-catchers, then great, but Week 2 is a Thursday game and how many times have we seen running backs receive a full workload on Sunday and then struggle for touches on Thursday? Kliff Kingsbury has a plan for this backfield. The team never would have traded Brian Robinson if they didn’t and neither you nor I are privy to that information. The Commanders beat-writers aren’t privy to it either or they would have reported it. Croskey-Merrit is, obviously, someone you hold onto, especially if you need running back depth, but let’s pump the brakes on the league-winner nonsense after one game.

Some backfields just need more time.

Might as well stick with the running backs and figure out what to do, right? Like that split we saw in Seattle? Like Braelon Allen poaching a touchdown? Like Omarion Hampton getting ALL of the work? Like Dylan Sampson out-performing Jerome Ford? Let’s go through some things.

Seahawks – Zach Charbonnet saw the majority of work in the preseason and Klint Kubiak wanted to keep his momentum going. He also wanted to ease Kenneth Walker back into the fray after missing so much time due to injury. We saw a 60/40 split on snaps in favor of Charbs, but we also saw Walker out-touch him as he was the guy on the field for the passing downs. Hold tightly onto both and follow the snaps and touches in Week 2 against the Steelers, the team Breece Hall just posted a 100-yard effort against.

Jets – As a Hall owner, I was also very upset when Allen poached that touchdown and Justin Fields poached two more. I expect Fields to do that throughout the season, but focus on the near-60-percent snap share for Hall and the dominant advantage in touches.

Chargers – Of course, Hampton was going to get the bulk of the work. Najee Harris spent all of July and August recovering from an eye injury. The fact that he made it back was great and moving forward, I expect him to take on a bigger workload. Hampton looked great at times, but again, follow the money – the Chargers guaranteed Harris $5M of the $9.5M they’re paying him for this season. Remember, both Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman said that if Najee was out, they were still going to give a chunk of work to Hassan Haskins.

Browns – That was a tremendous effort for Sampson and I expect him to continue carving out a role for himself as a third-down pass-catcher. But once Quinshon Judkins, who signed over the weekend, is ready to go, Sampson’s role will reduce and Ford will fall into a complementary role.

Wide Receivers on milk cartons is a funny meme but that’s as far as it goes.

Ja’Marr Chase, A.J. Brown, Terry McLaurin and Nico Collins were all huge disappointments, but it’s just one game. I get that most of you need to lash out with your tweets and clever memes, but that should be about as far as it goes. The savvy fantasy owner knows this and will immediately come to you with all sorts of offers for these guys and prey upon your fears and insecurities. If you bite, you’re going to regret it. You may think you saved your season by acquiring Quentin Johnston and Dylan Sampson for Chase or Collins, but let me assure you that you are not.

Quick Hits:

Aaron Rodgers looked fine against the Jets in Week 1 but that is not going to last. He and the team were amped up for his revenge game, but beyond that, he’s going to show you why he should have retired.

Emeka Egbuka is going to carve a nice role out for himself that even when Chris Godwin returns, he’s going to command enough targets to continue providing value (see? I’m not just some negative a-hole trolling).

Keon Coleman is going to continue this breakout. He’s literally the only pass-catcher in Buffalo who can stretch the field and come down with contested catches.

Mark Andrews was simply game-flowed out. With Derrick Henry running so well, Charlie Kolar saw a 61-percent snap-share because he’s the better blocker. We went through this last year with Isaiah Likely. Don’t fall for the banana in the tailpipe again.

Harold Fanin is not going to replace David Njoku. He had a nice preseason and the coaches wanted to give him more opportunities. But Njoku played more snaps and will continue to be the dominant tight end for the Browns.

Juwan Johnson should be an add from the waiver wire this week unless you have a strong, secure tight end. If you waited on the position and have someone worse than Hunter Henry, Johnson should be a priority. Spencer Rattler is going to continue leaning on him.

Tank Bigsby’s usage was a massive disappointment but I’m still going to hold out hope that he eventually pushes Travis Etienne into more of a pass-catching, third-down role. A boy can dream, can’t he?

Don’t panic, people! Everything is going to be all right!

Bender out.

Weekly Bender: Week 1 Brings Panic to the Fantasy Streets

The Paur Report