If you drafted last Sunday or this upcoming weekend, I hope you watched this week of preseason. But regardless of whether you watched or not, I bet you’re wondering who stood out this week from a fantasy relevancy. Who was injured? Who lost their starting QB job? Well, you came to the right place.
–I was extremely impressed with rookie Sam Bradford’s performance last week. He managed to throw for 189 yards and 2 TDs, only missing on seven passes against the Patriots. The only person to outshine him that night was Tom Brady who looked amazing as usual, pouring it on with 273 yards, 3 TDs and a near perfect completion percentage.
Illinois State University alum Laurent Robinson has become the defacto No. 1 passing option in St. Louis following the season-ending injury to Donnie Avery.
–It must be noted that if there was ever a battle between the two rookie Patriot TEs, Rob Gronkowski has won. Gronkowski hauled in 2 TDs and 66 yards. Prior to this week, Gronkowski had a TD in Weeks 1 and 2. This guy is meshing really well with Brady. Keep an eye out for him this season.
–As the Packers lit up the Colts with a whopping 59 to 24 final score, Ryan Grant came back looking hot after being limited last week and Indy’s Joseph Addai sustained a concussion and left the game in the third quarter.
–Jermichael Finley is someone that I have seen drafted very high this year and fantasy owners must have been rejoicing on Thursday when Finley caught 6 passes for 85 yards and a TD. Not bad.
–Should you have drafted Shonn Greene this year? LaDanian Tomlinson thinks not. LT averaged 7.8 yards-per-carry on his 86 yard total, but Shonn posted decent numbers too, averaging 4.7 yards on 12 carries. Mark Sanchez completed about half his passes against the Redskins and proved that Greene and Tomlinson are both good fantasy options because the Jets are still a running team. Sorry, Sanchez.
–Who is Chris Ivory? Everyone found out on Friday when the New Orleans rookie cut up the field with 45 yards rushing and a 76-yard TD reception against the Chargers.
–On the other side of the ball, Rivers looked sharp connecting with his new No. 1 receiver Malcom Floyd on a 9-yard TD score adding to Floyds total of 51 yards. (As of Monday, ESPN still ranks Floyd as the 179th overall player because they are still ranking Vincent Jackson as the No. 1 WR in San Diego. Malcom is a steal if you draft with uneducated Fantasy players. Get on it.) San Diego’s rookie running back Ryan Mathews continues to look tough taking the majority of the carries as well.
–Chiefs Renaissance Man Dexter McCluster is a player that you need to know. He is billed as a WR, catching 3 passes, but took 8 snaps at RB for 47 yards, returned 2 punts and returned 3 kickoffs on Friday night. He can do it all. It will be interesting to see where he lands when the season begins, but he is a steal in all leagues, especially ones that reward points to players who return kicks and punts.
–Chiefs RB Jamaal Charles, had a rough night, fumbling his first carry and then leaving the game with an undisclosed shoulder injury. Charles appeared to be fine and will start this week.
–The young guns in Detroit beat the sage wisdom and impressive play of Jake Delhomme on Saturday. Browns QB Delhomme looked very good, completing 20-of-25 for 152 yards and a TD. Lions QB Matt Stafford looked equally as good, missing on just three pass attempts with 141 yards and a TD. Rookie and apparent starting RB Jahvid Best got just one carry, but made it count with a 51-yard gain.
–I know I let the cat out of the bag last week about how much I love C.J. Spiller, but I want to tell you something. I LOVE C.J. SPILLER. He had a monster outing against the Bengals this week, gaining 52 yards and scoring 2 touchdowns on just 12 carries. Spiller should be drafted 3rd or 4th round in most leagues. If preseason is an indicator, Spiller is due for a great fantasy year.
–Take notice, the Ravens are 3-0, very pass happy, and healthy. Joe Flacco was fairly efficient, totaling 229 yards with 2 TDs and one interception against the Giants. Flacco, Ray Rice, Anquan Boldin and the Ravens Defense are all moving way up on my draft board and they should be on yours too. By the way, Baltimore’s strong defense just now allowed their first touchdown of all preseason with 1:18 left on the clock in Week 3
–I can hardly call Victor Cruz a fluke at this point. He now has 4 TDs and 251 yards in three games of preseason. It’s hard to judge his fantasy value because of how far down he is on the depth chart, but take a wait-and-see attitude with Cruz. Just hope you have the No. 1 waiver pick the week he blows up.
–Another explosive rookie WR is the Buccaneers’ deep threat, Mike Williams. Williams had three very impressive catches. One was a sideline toe tap to stay in bounds, another was a nice snatch in traffic and the last was a 53-yard bomb. If only he had an elite quarterback throwing to him. He still might be worth a 16th round pickup.
–If anybody had doubts about who would emerge as the starting RB for Houston, Arian Foster would like to show you why he’s the man for the job. He ran all over the Cowboys with 110 yards and a TD, making him the first Texans RB to rush for over 100 yards in a preseason game.
–Brett Favre finally nearly played a full game during Saturday’s preseason matchup with the Seahawks. He threw 26 passes, but unfortunately only 16 of them were completed and two of them were interceptions. He also lost a fumble. In Favre’s defense, the interceptions weren’t really his fault, but they still show up on the stat sheet. The fumble was completely his fault, however. Adrian Peterson looked explosive on a 24-yard run for a TD against the Seahawk defense.
–The QB race in Arizona is finally over. Though both Matt Leinart and Derek Anderson both looked mediocre in Saturday night’s game, Coach Ken Whisenhunt let the media know that Derek Anderson will be the starter Week 1.
–49ers Rookie RB Anthony Dixon continues to play well, gaining 69 yards and scoring a TD in Sunday’s game versus the Raiders. Starting RB Frank Gore outshined Dixon with his 49 yard run. Both running backs have been running very well this preseason. If you draft Gore, I would highly recommend Dixon as a backup.
–The Raiders suffered their first preseason loss, but the silver and black still looked gold. Fantasy gold, that is. The Raiders had two standout performances. One from WR Louis Murphy, snatching a 74-yard TD pass from Bruce Gradkowski. The other from Gradkowski himself as he racked up 202 yards and 2 TDs as backup to Jason Campbell.
–Steelers Rookie RB Jonathan Dwyer got to see plenty of action with 13 carries for 89 yards and a TD against the Broncos on Sunday night.
–I usually don’t talk about kickers, but I’ve been impressed with the accuracy of Broncos Kicker Matt Prater. He completed 2 FG and 4 XP this week. That’s 10 pts in most leagues and that’s nothing to sneeze at.
There is only one more week of preseason left, so pay attention, follow the trends, and draft wisely.
