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Just a few of my thoughts on Week 2 fantasy play.  In no particular order:

If he plays, Antonio Gates (currently listed as probable) will have a huge week.  Denver has a great offense this year and I think San Diego will be playing catchup all day.  Since Denver also has some pretty good shut down corners, Rivers is going to be hard pressed to find open receivers.  Gates and Tomlinson (who is currently listed as questionable) will be the ones he finds open.

Chris Johnson will go off against Cincy.  I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to see him play or not, but everyone else looks like they’re in slow motion when he gets the ball.  He’s the real deal.  The Bengals gave up a lot of rushing yards to Baltimore last week - despite the fact that the Ravens had a rookie QB so everyone knew they’d be running.  The only thing that might hold Johnson down this week is the weather - it might be a muddy track in Cincinnati.

Since Vince Young is out for a few weeks, Collins is starting.  He’s a much better passer than Young - though not good enough to matter in fantasy - so some of Titans WR’s and TE’s may be worth using for a few weeks.  I think Gage and Scaife are the two most likely to get enough receptions to be relevant.

Sleeper of the week has got to be TE John Carlson of Seattle.  Hasselbeck is basically out of receivers.  Seattle isn’t going to be able to run very much (unless you think Julius Jones is a good RB) so they’ll have to pass in this game.  They gotta throw to someone and Carlson is a good looking rookie TE.  I’m thinking he gets 7 or 8 catches, 60 or 70 yards, and at least 1 TD.

I have both Gates and Carlson in a league, so I keep flip flopping on which to start.  If Gates looks like he’s playing, I’ll go with him, but you won’t go wrong with Carlson in your starting lineup this week.

Calvin Johnson (Megatron) is a stud.  I won’t be surprised if he ends up being the #1 receiver in the league this year - and I’ll be very surprised if he’s not in the top 10.

McNabb isn’t as good as he looked in week 1 against a pitiful Rams defense - and offense.  For that matter the rest of the Eagles (other than Westbrook) aren’t that good either.   Their defense is solid, but they won’t be able to put up that many points each week.  Everyone will see it this week when the Cowboys beat up on them.  (I hate the Cowboys, so it pains me to say that, but it’s true.)  The Eagles are maybe a 9-7 team.

It’ll be a big week for the Green Bay offense.  Rodgers is good, maybe not Farve good, but he’s good.  Since they’re playing the Lions (who got beat up by Atlanta last week) I expect big numbers from Jennings, Driver, Grant, and Lee.  Rodgers will be good, but the running game should limit how much he’ll need to throw.  He’ll end up with about 200 yards and 1 TD.

If you don’t have Sammy Morris on your fantasy team, you’ll wish you did after this week.  Brady is gone, so the Patriots will be going very conservative this year.  Maroney can’t handle the load, and Morris will get a lot of carries.  Maybe more than Maroney.  Even if he doesn’t get the majority of the carries, Morris will make his count.  Start him if you’ve got him.

With Croyle out in KC, Huard is now the QB.  That means Gonzalez and Bowe will get more looks.  Especially this week against the Raiders.  Larry Johnson ain’t gonna cut it in the running game.  I think he’s very overrated this year.

With Colston out for 4 to 6 weeks, look for Bush (Reggie, not the idiot George!) to become even more involved in the passing game.  Patten will also have some good games.

Turner isn’t that good.  Neither is Atlanta.

When will Adrian Peterson get hurt?  You know it’s gonna happen - he hasn’t played a full year since his freshman year at Oklahoma.

Braylon Edwards is a great receiver.  He’d better be, because the rest of his team pretty much sucks.  Except Winslow.   Cleveland won’t surprise anyone this year, and no way Anderson repeats his numbers from last year.  So Edwards numbers will go down from last year.  He’s good, and he’ll get his points, but keep your expectations reasonable.

Jamal Lewis is done.  You may not realize it yet, but you will before the end of this year.  With a tougher schedule this year, Cleveland may finish 8 and 8 - or worse.

Jay Cutler is the real deal, and Marshall returns this week.  I don’t think the San Diego defense will be able to stop them.  And with both Gates and Tomlinson hurting this week, the Chargers won’t be able to keep up.  That means lots of trash time points for the Denver running backs - the problem is that there’s no way to tell which one will get the carries.

Addai is a bit dinged up this week, and he’s playing at Minnesota.  I don’t think he’ll play much and he won’t do much while he’s in there.  Rhodes will get a lot of carries, but he won’t do much either.  The Indy O line isn’t what it used to be.

There’s a great class of rookie RB’s this year, but Forte, Chris Johnson, McFadden, and Stewart are the only ones fantasy relevant right now in my opinion.  Kevin Smith is a starter for now, but he doesn’t look good to me.  And the Lions aren’t exactly a running team.

Other rookie RB’s who will be putting up points this year are Ray Rice, Hightower, and Felix Jones.  Hightower should be starting now (James looked awful last week) and it’s just a matter of time until McGahee goes down and Rice gets a few starts to show what he can do.  Jones has it a bit rougher behind Barber, but he’ll get his carries.

That’s it for now.  Good luck in Week 2!

gk