Week 1 Studs & Duds + AB Reactions, The Secret Garden

You can't call a downfield passing offense without protection. It's impossible. So they were incredibly impressive to me. They have Washington coming up, Miami, New Orleans, Mike. What do you think about that? Dak, he was one of our values in the ultimate draft kit. And I am, I like Lamar, but I'm sad. I don't have Dak in more places. Like the impact of Kellyn Moore as the OC, this was not the Cowboys of the last three years. They have great pieces, but it just never.

pans out because your OC is living in 1980s football. There was motion all over the place. They're creating mismatches. The offensive line is dominant once again. I think DAC is going to be an incredible fantasy wide receiver. Yes, this was against the Giants. Even quarterback even. What did I call him? You did call him a wide receiver. Oh, I apologize. Which I doubt his wide receiver production will be what his quarterback production is. It was against the New York Giants. Yep. So.

We're taking it with a little bit of a grain of salt, but just like Lamar Jackson, let's look at the schedule. Washington, Miami. Those are the next two teams on the docket for Dak Prescott. It's going to be a great start. And he had only thrown for 300 yards and five of his 48 career starts before this. I expect more downfield passing from Kellyn Moore. And with a healthy Amari Cooper and Michael Gallup.

Both those players can win one-on-one matchups. Both those players can come down with the 50-50 ball. That's why I like it. Case Keeno, big week. Patrick Mahomes against Jacksonville. Jacksonville did not stop Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes, I believe, had the most passing yardage in his career in the first half. So he's pretty good. But now, without Tyreek, do you downgrade your expectations for Patrick Mahomes at all? Has Oakland, Baltimore, Detroit coming up.

No, considering he did this with basically without Tyree Kill. I mean... That's true. This is where we get to really see the second round draft pick, Nicole Hardman. Carson wins, Matthew Stafford, Tom Brady. Marcus Mariotta. Very efficient. Helps when a screen pass goes 75 to the house to Derek Henry. Probably an outlier to me. I wouldn't be leaning on Marioata in fantasy leagues. No, I would not, but let's...

Matthew Stafford to me, that was just, that was the matchup. And Stafford's a good quarterback. If he's in a plus matchup, he can do these types of things. He also had overtime to help pad some of his numbers. But Tom Brady, I didn't draft Tom Brady anywhere. I wanted nothing to do with him. He's probably on some waiver wires. He is probably on some waiver wires. What is your kind of gut reaction to that performance of 341 yards in three touchdowns for touchdown Tommy? He's a top 10 quarterback.

Okay. With Antonio Brown. That's what I think. It doesn't mean you're not, you've got volatility problems in New England at all times because they could run in four touchdowns on a certain week. And Tom Brady isn't the, you know, I don't think that they're building this offense for him to do, you know, to go 404 every week, like 2017. But the weapons are unbelievable. He's still got it and he gets to go play Miami next week. So if you have Tom Brady, you just start him up and smile.

Philip Rivers, big game. Mike, you said we didn't talk about Philip Rivers. He's in the Matthew Stanford, stream him in the right matchup category to me. And they play each other next week. So I would rather have Rivers next week than I would, Matthew Stafford. Is that fair? It's fair. Running backs with big games. Christian McCaffrey, you know he's good. He's one of the top 10 running backs that delivered in a big way for you. It's just funny. All that talk.

Out of Carolina. We got to get Christian McCaffrey some help. We got to get him some rest. No. They almost stole that game. No, no, you don't. Tim for 81 through the air, 11 targets. Yeah, and Cam was bad. Cam Newton, uh, I got a little nauseous watching to play football. Yeah. But not Christian McCaffrey. Monster game. Uh, how about this? Austin Ackler, three touchdowns. 12 for 58 and 1 on the ground. Six for 96 and 2 through the air.

He was the offense. He's the fourth player in the last 10 seasons with 150 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns in a season opener. Tyreek did it in 2018. Karim Hunt did it in 2017. Aryan Foster. This was my old friend, 2010. This was outstanding. My insane prediction of Austin Echler as a running back one off to a very hot start. How's Melvin Gordon feeling watching his teams having no problem?

on offense without him? Probably bad, Mike. Probably bad. He still didn't get paid, and there were reports he's coming back week six through eight this weekend. We'll see. That was reported. So he might want to scoot that time up. And that's the only part, that's the only danger of any Austin Echler or Justin Jackson hype. Sure. It's just the fact that the day that Melvin Gordon walks back into the building with his tail between his legs, he will hurt Austin Echler.

Yeah, and then Austin Echler, Justin Jackson, the snap counts that people were like, we had to see it, it was Austin Echler. They did what they've done in the past and what they did in the preseason. They did not do what they've said of this 50-50 stuff. It was Austin Echler. Big games. Derek Henry and Marlon Mac. Marlon Mac, 25 for 174 in one. Through one week, the Colts look like a very talented team.

which is not the same team we had in 2017 under Jacoby Brissette. Yes, they lost the game in overtime. But they came back 2424, good defense against the Chargers. Marlon Mack, 174, Mike. What is the truth of Marlon Mack? It's tough because Tennessee next week on the road. That should be a tougher matchup. Because going into halftime, Marlon Mack had eight carries for 21 yards. Well, the second half player, Mike. Yeah. I'm not taking that away from him. Just saying that.

It looked really, really bad for a half, and then he busted off a career-long 63-yard touchdown run. That certainly helps things out. But, yep, I was on the side of, I think that the Colts, it's going to be really tough to trust any of their fantasy weapons. But we'll see what happens. It's proven wrong week one. Derek Henry, Dalvin Cook. Derek Henry, the beat continues. In Cleveland, thought it would be tough for him to get moving. But game script in this one,

lint itself to a lot of carries late. They generally win when Derek Henry gets a lot of carries. And the day was made on a, on his one reception. Yes. Misdirection place, 75 yards up the sideline, looked slow on film. What was crazy to me? Was really fast on the strides. It was like a gazelle. Watching him is, it's impossible to gauge what is happening. Because you, like this, this man, I could beat this guy in a foot race. Meanwhile.

The NFL defenders have. They can't catch him. It's so wild. Do you expect things to continue for Derek Henry? I think he'll be a fine play, but if you're expecting 150 total yards and two touchdowns every week, then I think you're going to be upset. Big weeks from Dalvin Cook, Mark Ingram, David Johnson, Chris Carson, a couple of touchdowns, including this is the headline. Yes. Six receptions for Chris Carson. So far. So good for my guy.

You know, this is fantastic news for Chris Carson. I mean, not super efficient. Like six receptions for 35 yards. That's not what you're hoping for. But when they couldn't get the run game going, they started throwing the ball to Chris Carson. Russell Wilson only threw the ball 20 times. And six receptions for Chris Carson. So it's looking very well for Carson to be a workhorse and be awesome.

I agree with you. Yeah, it's looking good. Lev Bell, nice first week, six for 32 and a touchdown through the air, 17 carries 60 yards, has Cleveland next week. And then do we want to talk about the Malcolm Brown, Todd Gurley thing? You have to talk about it just from the structure that they were splitting time. Todd Gurley did not get any goal line carries. Todd Gurley was actually most used at the end of the game. So it was.

This was upside down what we thought would happen. Well, the game was not put away. So Gurley had the majority of the snaps, right? I mean, the snaps 53. Yes. Malcolm Brown 21, but Malcolm Brown with the two touchdowns. He'll be a popular pickup. Maybe he should be? I think he, well, yeah, he should be picked up. But that's the problem for Gurley. Like, Gurley was fine, 14 for 97, started gouging the defense at the end of the game. But they went to Malcolm Brown.

in the high fantasy scoring plays. Malcolm Brown had two rushing touchdowns. Like, I'm trying not to freak out over week one, but that's pretty scary. There were things to like about Gurley in week one. He looked explosive, the majority of the snaps. There were things to not like. You know, the fact that it was, you know, 14 total carries in the game in a competitive game where Malcolm Brown had 11. And only one target. But these were kind of, there were red flags for Gurley. We knew that that.

The Gurley of old, those days were done. Yeah. So maybe we saw our first preview. I think they're going to be very good weeks for Todd Gurley. But I think that you're also going to have weeks like this, where you're just kind of frustrated as a girly owner saying, all right, I got 97 yards on the ground. Very efficient. Very efficient. He has the capability of being that Alvin-Kamara efficiency in this office. But he's cast to get goaling. He does. To provide value based on where you drafted him. Yeah. Like you're...

For a player that you drafted at the back of the first, the early seconds, 97 yards wasn't what you were hoping for. All right. I encourage our listeners to follow Robert Wilson, one of our staff writers, at the FF Gator. He was dropping the fire on Twitter this weekend. And he wrote in Article 10 Things We Learned in Week 1. It's on the website, the fantasy footballers.com.

Quoting him, he said the NFL is becoming a league that's dominated by one thing, that is speed. Look at this week the studs at the wide receiver position. Sammy Watkins. The Lizard King, 9 for 198 and 3 on 11 targets, Oakland, Baltimore, Detroit coming up. Deshawn Jackson stole my soul this weekend. And I don't even know how to feel because...

Deshawn Jackson was 8 for 154 and 2 on 10 targets. I own them in every league. How long have I been talking about Deshawn Jackson? This is why you should feel bad because when you looked in the mirror and you said now, I'm going to bench him. It's my fault. I benched him in every league. Fricking Marvin Jones in my roster, Deshaun Jackson on my bench. And I want to be happy, but I am sad because I was worried about the finger. And I tell you what, Mike.

I had them in my lineup in our League of Record 10 minutes before game time. You know what swayed me? I was on the fence. I have Emmanuel Sanders. I'm on the fence with this decision. One of these knuckleheads comes on the TV and says, does Sean Jackson put the splint on? And he said, quote, it's like nothing I've ever felt in my life. That's what D. Jack said? That's what D. Jack said. He's never, a wide receiver? He's never felt a splint. He said it's like nothing I've ever played with. That was the quote.

Like in a good way? No, not in a good way. Not a magic splint, Mike. Well? It's a negative connotation. So I said, you know what? Maybe he's there to take the top off the defense and be a pretend distraction. Maybe I'll outthink myself today. That's what I said to myself. And I did. And he's on, and I would have won all my leagues. Yeah. But, but he was great. Eight for 154 and two. And the 10 targets. Now.

Changes the team. It changes Carson Wins, man. Yes, 100%. 100% it changes Carson Wentz. However, if you watched the game, Washington strangely got out to an early lead and Philadelphia had to come back. Philadelphia covered their massive spread, but... No, they didn't. They did not. They did not. Trey Quinn scored the end. That's right. That's right. I apologize. Woo.

They did not cover. So they had it covered until there was like 10 seconds. That's correct. But they had to come back. Yep. So I don't expect 10 targets for DJs on a weekly basis, but having that built in is pretty nice. There's more truth than Mirage with Deshaun Jackson in this performance. But you are right. They had to come back. They had to throw the ball, Atlanta, Detroit coming up. John Ross, 7 for 158 and 2 on 12 target. This one's fascinating. Is he?

legitimate. We'll talk more on the waiver show tomorrow. Is there more Mirage here against Seattle? The two big time plays, the two touchdowns. John Ross just scores touchdowns. That's what his career has been either. And normally they've been like one, one for one yard in a touchdown. And the hard thing to decipher with John Ross, I'm excited to go back and watch. But 12 targets. That's incredible volume. But is the Seattle secondary just that bad?

I think you're going to be really disappointed in John Ross next week against San Francisco. Okay. But you're going to have to make that call on Waver Day, whether you like him more than some of the other names that we bring up. It certainly was, I'm sure somewhere Marvin Lewis is going, yeah, buddy. He was a first round pick. I spent that first round pick on him. And he's really fast. He, look, speed dominated. Marquis, Hollywood, Brown. Four for 147 and two. The hype, the performance.