The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:
Fantasy Football Week 2

By James Collier

Week 2 saw several teams shake off the off-season rust with 140 more points scored across the league than in opening week. That led to a more “normal” week in fantasy football but as usual it was not necessarily the players we expected at the start of September scoring all of the points. 

Let’s dive into The Good, the Bad and the Ugly fantasy football storylines from Week 2.

The Good

Seahawks vs Lions Games

Two of our six “Must Start” selections for Week 2 came from this game, and for good reason. Including this matchup, the last three times these teams have met has yielded an average of over 80 points per game. Jared Goff and Geno Smith both passed for over 320 yards with the offenses scoring four touchdowns each. These teams should continue to be fruitful for fantasy football with defenses that look as though they will struggle to stop the opposition from putting up points.

Rookie Wide Receivers

The rookie wide receiver breakout seems to have come earlier than usual this year. Through two weeks of the season five of the top 36 PPR wide receivers are from the 2023 draft, beaten only by the 2020 draft with six. The best thing about this group is that it is not just the names we would expect with fifth round pick Puka Nacua, the current WR2, leading the group. Nacua has obviously been taking all of the headlines with his record breaking start to his career but Tank Dell and Jayden Reed both had solid weeks and will be hot waiver wire adds. 

The Bad

Quarterbacks from 2021 NFL Draft

There are obviously levels to this, but it wasn’t a particularly good week for quarterbacks from this class. For Trevor Lawrence it was disappointing to see him and the Jaguars fail to score a touchdown in a highly anticipated matchup with the Chiefs. Lawrence himself finished as the QB32 on the week. 

Justin Fields had an ok fantasy day but looks a long way from making that leap as a passer that many had hoped for. He was drafted as a top seven Quarterback with the prospect of that improvement and a steady rushing floor in mind, but had just four attempts for three yards on the ground in this game. 

Mac Jones is actually the QB7 on the year but after a promising Week 1, looked like the quarterback we saw last year. And Zach Wilson showed that a training camp learning from Aaron Rodgers was not enough to turn him into a competent quarterback. It would be a surprise if he was still starting games beyond the week 7 bye.

The Ugly

Veteran Running Backs and Handcuffs

This week was a bit of a mess at running back with multiple instances of running backs not even remotely on our fantasy radars coming off the bench to score double digit fantasy points. But most disappointing was a pair of running back handcuffs that thoroughly underwhelmed. 

Aaron Jones and Austin Ekeler topped the running back charts in Week 1, scoring over 26 points each. They both picked up injuries though and missed this week’s games. Josh Kelley and AJ Dillon were their deputies but neither managed to crack the top 30 fantasy scorers on the week. Kelley was shut down by a stout Titans run defense and Dillon trudged to just 0.5 fantasy points per touch. 

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It was also upsetting to see some veteran backs continue to steal work from younger, more explosive players with differing success.

In a week where the New York Jets were always going to need some explosiveness from their backfield, they gave just four carries to a guy who averaged almost 13 yards per attempt in Week 1. Breece Hall was on the field for one less snap than Dalvin Cook and just one more than Michael Carter. Between them the vets have managed just 2.7 yards per carry through the first two weeks of the season and surely can’t continue to take work from Hall. 

There is a similarly annoying and yet different situation for another New York team, the Bills. James Cook was electric against the Raiders, rushing for 123 yards on just 17 carries. But he looks to be third on the depth chart when it comes to goal line carries with both Damien Harris and Latavius Murray scoring from carries inside the five yard line.

Feature image credit: Icon Sportswire

JAMES COLLIER

Lead Fantasy Football Analyst

A Washington fan since the early 2010’s, James had no choice but to turn to fantasy football in search of happiness – and it wasn’t long until it became an obsession. You can follow him on Twitter @jamesc294.

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