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Week one is always a tough week to predict which players will have fantasy football success.   However, the Docs managed to post a very respectable record week one.   Mid-late round picks Quentin Griffin and Thomas Jones had huge fantasy games as we predicted.   Jerome Bettis had only 1 yard rushing which would have made him a great choice to bench.   Unfortunately for our picks, he managed 3 TDs to give "The Bus" a very nice fantasy day.

Nostradamus (a.k.a. psychic)
Start:
Quentin Griffin – We like to give out good fantasy football bench/start predictions for everyone out there, and sometimes we really know how to knock it out of the park.   Griffin had the best opening day by a Broncos running back EVER.   156 yards (we love) and (we REALLY love) the three TDs.   Griffin even showed some great break away speed and provided a bonus in those leagues that award points for long runs with his 47 yard scamper to pay dirt.   We wish that he would not have fumbled and that he would have scored for a 4th time, but then we are all just being plain greedy.

Thomas Jones – Jones was most likely not one of the first backs taken off the board in fantasy football drafts this summer.   However, he acted like one with his 6 receptions (in point per reception leagues), 104 total yards from the line of scrimmage, and 2 TDs.   The Bears absolutely fed the ball to Jones with 27 total touches.   The fact that his two scores were 2 and 3 yards has to make his owners feel good about Jones’ role in this offense.

Jason Hanson – We crunched the football numbers and looked at the fantasy trends and Hanson was the kicker de jour.   He came through with 2 field goals and 2 PATs in the Lions big road win over the Chicago Bears.

Brian Westbrook – Westbrook didn’t find the end zone, but he really looked good in this game.   The three receptions were a little low, but we expect to see that number increase as the season goes on.   Westbrook’s 161 total yards are a great day by any fantasy football standards.   As long as Westbrook stays healthy, we expect to see great things out of this running back.

Rod Smith – The negative three yards rushing don’t float our boat so much, but the seven receptions for 76 yards looked great in a point per reception league.   Plummer clearly has marked Smith as a guy he looks to often during games.   During this season, we expect to see very consistent fantasy production out of Smith all year.

Philadelphia Eagles Defense – We said Kurt Warner was going to go down, and that is exactly what he did.   The Eagles threw Warner to the turf for 5 sacks and a Fumble.   We would have liked to have seen an interception and a fumble added to this total, but it was still a good fantasy performance from the Philadelphia D.

Chris Brown – 100 yards rushing was a great game for this new feature back in the NFL. The thing that makes this even more impressive is that Brown did this in the first half.   An ankle injury forced Brown to miss the second half of play.   We hope to see this stud back on the field soon.   If he can remain healthy, we fully expect this RB to be one of the best in 2004.

Bench:
Lee Suggs – We are going to only take partial credit for this one.   It ended up that Suggs did not play.   However, we are sure that Suggs owners are very glad that they didn’t start him.   Most fantasy football leagues don’t give you a redo if your player doesn’t play that week.   If you left Suggs out of your lineup, you avoided a goose egg.

Andre Davis – Only one reception doesn’t sound like the teams #1 WR.   Things could change, but for now we would suggest fishing for one of the other Browns WRs if you are in search of some WR depth.   It was a big catch in the game and it did rack up some fantasy points, but not enough to warrant a start.

Any Miami RB – It was very wise of anyone who avoided the Dolphins running backs this week.   The best performance out of the group was from the guy they just traded for, Lamar Gordon, and that was only for 62 total yards.   Then he went an fumbled the ball away.   Travis Minor only managed 45 total yards, while Sammy Morris piled up a whopping 8 total yards.   As some of the fine ladies from our Cheerleader Rankings might say, “This fantasy performance was U – G – L – Y, and the Dolphins had no alibi”.

Kurt Warner – If your league penalizes your QB for getting sacked, Warner was a nightmare.   If your league doesn’t, then Warner was still pretty ugly.   No TDs, barely over 200 yards passing, and a fumble.   This was one smelly fantasy football performance and you were happy if you avoided it.

Amani Toomer – As we recommended in the Bench / Start last week, Toomer did have a tough time with his QB on his back.   Toomer gathered up only 41 yards of offense and no TDs.   This was a good week to leave Toomer on the pine.

Ben Troupe – A big fantasy goose egg from Troupe this week.   If you were looking for a young TE to make an impact, this was the wrong one and you should be happy that he was not in your starting lineup.   Troupe’s counter part on the Titans roster, Erron Kinney, did manage one catch, but he made it count by scoring a TD.

Marty Booker – Booker was a great call to leave on your bench this week.   Booker only managed 36 yards.   Not the type of fantasy production most are looking for from their WRs.


Farmer's Almanac (a.k.a. not so bad/not so good)
Start:
Kevan Barlow – Barlow did get a good number of carries and he did manage 91 total yards.   However, Barlow’s fumble was costly to his team and it was costly to any fantasy team that was expecting big things against the Falcons.   Barlow owners will be hoping that he snaps out of this funk soon.   We suspect that fantasy owners would prefer him to snap out of it next week.

Marc Bulger – We were expecting Bulger to be one of the best QBs week 1 against the Cardinals.   While Bulger didn’t knock our socks off, he didn’t fall completely on his face either.   He did manage to get the win for the Rams, and hopefully he provided enough to give his fantasy teams the win as well.   271 yards passing, 1 TD, and 1 INT.

Steve Smith – Unfortunately for Smith owners this will be the last time we recommend starting Smith for at least a month.   Smith broke his leg in the Monday night game.   His 6 receptions for 60 yards weren’t too bad in a point per reception league, but they weren’t exactly what we were expecting.

Corey Dillon – Dillon looked better than his fantasy numbers.   86 yards isn’t bad, but we were hoping for at least one score against the Colts.   Dillon owners will be hoping to see a lot more of those running skills he flashed Thursday night this next week.   Maybe Dillon will get lucky and his coach will let him score a TD.

Bench:
None this week.


Weather Forecast (a.k.a. oops better luck next time)
Start:
Brett Favre – Favre won the game and didn’t turn the ball over.   The Panther’s inability to stop Ahman Green kept Favre’s numbers down because he didn’t have to throw to win.   We had hoped that the Panthers would score some points, but they were equally inept at stopping the Packers blitz.   We liked the TD, but we would have liked more.   Favre’s 143 yards passing didn’t float our boat at all.

Brandon Lloyd – This is another 49er that let us down.   The Falcons looked like such an easy target.   Sometimes appearance (and injured QBs) can be deceiving.   Lloyd didn’t have the best game of the San Francisco WRs, but he was thrown to quiet a bit.   Don’t drop Lloyd, we are still expecting good things from this young WR.

Bench:
Eddie Kennison – We thought that Bailey would be a shut down corner in his first game as a Bronco.   He was … we just picked the wrong receiver.   Bailey’s lockdown skills were used on tight end Tony Gonzalez as shown by Gonzalez’s 2 catches for 17 yards.   However, our bench recommendation was wrong because Kennison benefited from not being covered by Bailey and he racked up 101 yards receiving.

Jerome Bettis – We knew Bettis wouldn’t find much room to run against the Raiders and we were right.   Bettis only had 1 yard rushing on 5 carries.   So why has Bettis found his way to our bad calls section?   Unfortunately for our pick (and Staley owners), Bettis scored 3 times.   Ouch!   1 total yard … 3 TDs … go figure?

David Patten – Despite the fact we had a pretty good week predicting who to start and who to bench, we started off pretty rough when Patten hauled in a 25 yard TDs pass from Tom Brady on Thursday night.   86 yards and a TD is a good start in almost any league and a bad call by us.