Week 2 Start Em’ & Sit Em’

Hey everyone, I hope you fared well during opening weekend with your teams. It’s always tough to do a start and sit column for the first week as the NFL changes so much from year to year. As we said last week, early in the season you play your studs unless there is an injury or suspension involved. As we learned last week, even this can lead you astray. I named Adrian Paterson as a sit in this column last week and boy was that wrong! But let’s think about it for a minute. He was coming off a major injury and surgery which normal human beings would not have healed so quickly from. He was questionable to play and the coaches routinely said throughout the week that if he did play he’d only get 5-10 touches. You can’t really blame yourself for sitting him last week as much as it hurts. However, throw him back in your lineups immediately!

START EM’

Matt Ryan: I have no idea why he keeps getting projected so low, but he’s at 15 pts again! He’ll top that easily.

Joe Flacco: Let’s see how Philadelphia does against a decent offense. If they shut down the Ravens then maybe I’ll start to think they’ve legitimately improved from last year’s defense.

Chris Johnson: His performance last season and his week 1 failure might have owners wavering, but I expect a bounce-back performance.

Steven Jackson: Jackson is still the workhorse in this offense. Washington has a good defense, but they really only had to worry about defending the pass last week. Jackson will grind out 70-80 yards with a score this week.

Alfred Morris: He’s the starter for now, and St. Louis gave up plenty of yards and 2 TDs to Kevin Smith last week. Morris should at least be able to break through for one score.

Randall Cobb: Cobb was used a lot like Darren Sproles last week. With the running game struggling Cobb lined up at RB for 20 snaps and caught several balls out of the backfield. It seems like the Packers intend to use him that way for now and he has big play ability after he gets the ball in his hands. Plus he is an excellent returner, taking one to the house last week. Plus, Greg Jennings is doubtful to play this week.

Percy Harvin: Ponder loves throwing to him and he is easily their best offensive weapon outside of Peterson. He can get you running, receiving or returning.

Mike Wallace: He had his “rust” game and came out of it with a 9 point performance. Expect him to step back into solid starter status this week.

Martellus Bennett: A preseason sleeper of mine, I meant to put Bennett in as a start last week but forgot to. He would’ve been a win and I won’t leave him off the list this week. He is a great athlete and Manning trusts him in the red zone.

Greg Olsen: Newton will look to Olsen often this week as a security blanket. Olsen is finally in a situation where he can live up to his potential as a pass-catching tight end.

Bengals D/ST: I don’t expect the Browns to be that bad on offense all season, but they looked atrocious on Sunday.

SIT EM’

Phillip Rivers: The Tennessee defense is better than most people realize, and Rivers wasn’t terribly impressive on Monday night…. Let him sit until he has a great matchup or shows us something.

Mark Sanchez: Last week was probably the best week Sanchez has ever had. I’m not buying that it continues this week against Pittsburgh.

Kevin Smith: This 49ers defense is legit and it is nasty. I want no part of the Lions running game.

Marshawn Lynch: Lynch is dealing with those pesky back spasms again and while he played last week and was fine, he’s already missed practices this week. The Cowboys should be able to key in on him and shut him down this week.

Michael Turner: 10 carries, 32 yards…. That was his week 1 output. He just looks like he’s lost it and it happened quickly at the end of last season.

Miles Austin: I’m not a huge fan of Romo either come to think of it. Seattle has played tough defense for over a year, especially at home.

Nate Burleson: Not a great matchup and he really benefited from a boneheaded mistake by Titus Young. Can’t bank on that every week.

Vincent Jackson: Make him show you something before you start playing him.

Jacob Tamme: The TD made his day last week. I just don’t see him reaching the endzone this week.

Jermaine Gresham: Cleveland’s defense actually looked pretty good last week, highlighted by their linebackers. Gresham has the talent level to be a good fantasy TE but he has yet to consistently put it together.

Rams D/ST: RGIII has the ability to overcome good defensive play to produce. They didn’t necessarily shut down Detroit last week either, although this is a unit on the rise.

Last week I said we will be keeping track of my picks throughout the season. I posted the scoring system for measuring a W or L last week, so feel free to check that out if you want to. Let’s see how I did last week:

Starts: 4-7 (.363)

Matt Ryan: 37pts = W, Jay Cutler: 23pts = W, Trent Richardson: 3pts = L, Toby Gerhart: 1pt = L, Cedric Benson: 1pt = L, Pierre Garcon: 16pts = W, Torrey Smith: 6pts = L, Kendall Wright: 3pts = L, Brandon Pettigrew: 7pts = L, Tony Gonzalez: 11pts = W, Bills D/ST: -4pts = L

Sits: 8-3 (.727)

Tony Romo: 29pts = L, Ben Roethlisberger: 19pts = L, Cardinals RBs: 1pt (Wells) = W, Pierre Thomas: 2pts = W, Adrian Peterson: 20pts = L, Micheal Crabtree: 7pts = W, Santonio Holmes: 6pts = W, Darius Heyward-Bey: 4pts = W, Dustin Keller: 0pts = W, Jason Witten: 1pt = W, Steelers D/ST: 3pts = W

That puts me at a 12-10 (.545) mark after the first week of the season. From other columns I have read similar to this idea in the past, a 55-60% success rate is pretty good. My goal for the season then will be to reach 65% by the end of the season. Remember that these selections are designed not to be obvious. If I named Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Calvin Johnson, etc. as starts oevery week then there’d be no point. Also remember that the selections are made without knowledge of who you have on your roster. If you have Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson and Roddy White on your team with 3 WR slots, then obviously you are starting if they’re playing. Also, I am amending how I will grade my D/ST selections. It seems if I am using standard scoring settings 10 pts might be too high a bar. the past two weeks only 5 defenses have been projected for that total or higher. I am changing the benchmark to 8 pts from here on out. With that being said, let’s see if I can get my RB starts up to par!