The Dynasty Aftermath: Week One

Ken Kelly Posted On September 10, 2013

manning
Welcome to DLF’s Dynasty Aftermath. This Tuesday staple is our longest running signature piece as we have a little fun after a tough week at the Dynasty League Football office. You’ll find this article will review the week’s happenings in a variety of ways and help set you up for the coming weeks as we spin around the league in the way we know best. Opening week featured some unusually explosive performances and a few really serious and troublesome duds as well. In short, we have a lot to talk about.

Let’s take a look back at the opening week that was!

Week One Fantasy MVP

So, how good was Peyton Manning this week? His 462 yard, seven touchdown performance was so dominant I’m actually writing this section of the aftermath on Thursday night. Yep, fifteen games to go and I’m already supremely confident nobody is even going to come close to matching this unbelievable night from Manning. Depending on your league format, this was quite possibly one of the top five performances of all time. Wes Welker fits rights in with Denver, Julius Thomas has emerged, Demaryius Thomas is almost unstoppable and all that combined makes it look like Peyton is due for another monster season.

First Runner Up

In 2003, Anquan Boldin exploded on the fantasy scene with a ten-catch, 217 yard, two touchdown performance for the Cardinals against the Lions. Little did we know ten years later would produce a debut even more shocking. Boldin temporarily silenced those who thought he had lost a step with a 13 catch, 208 yard, one touchdown performance in his first game with San Francisco. While this won’t be a sign of things to come, he’s clearly going to be a focal point for the 49ers offense and still seemingly has a lot left in the tank. If this week was any indication, he’s in store for a big bounce back season.

Second Runner Up

How about the day for the tight ends? On at least one special day, the position wasn’t dominated by just Jimmy Graham and/or Rob Gronkowski as a host of tight ends had monster games this week. Jared Cook (seven catches, 141 yards, two touchdowns), Julius Thomas (five catches, 110 yards, two touchdowns), Vernon Davis (six catches, 98 yards , two touchdowns), Jason Witten (eight catches, 70 yards, two touchdowns) and Jordan Cameron (nine catches, 108 yards, one touchdown) were all dynamic and game changing difference makers this week. This likely isn’t a sign of things to come, but the gap between the top and bottom of the position may actually be getting just a little bit smaller.

Third Runner Up

Colin Kaepernick is the real deal, folks.

Week One Fantasy LVP

The David Wilson hype train got out of control this off-season after Ahmad Bradshaw was let go and he was given the keys to the car in New York. It really started to snowball when Andre Brown got hurt earlier in the preseason, raising Wilson’s ADP all the way up to #16 overall. Wilson took those aforementioned keys and ran that car directly into a pole. There really aren’t the words to describe just how disappointing his debut was this season – trust me, I’ve tried. Wilson had seven carries for 19 yards and lost not one, but two costly fumbles, resulting in his benching in favor of Da’Rel Scott. As good as some players were this week, there will be no storyline bigger in the next few days than the future of Wilson in dynasty leagues. It’s going to be critical not to panic and try to sell Wilson, but it’s going to be hard for his owners to swallow this performance.

Lineup Fun

The unbeatable lineup of the week…

QB Peyton Manning DEN = 462 passing yards, seven touchdowns
RB Adrian Peterson MIN = 111 total yards, four catches, three total touchdowns
RB Reggie Bush DET = 191 total yards, four catches, one touchdown
RB Joique Bell DET = 102 total yards, five catches, two touchdowns
WR Anquan Boldin SF = 13 catches, 208 yards, one touchdown
WR AJ Green CIN = 9 catches, 162 yards, two touchdowns
WR Victor Cruz NYG = 5 catches, 118 yards, three touchdowns
TE Jared Cook STL = 7 catches, 141 yards, two touchdowns

The dominant underdog lineup of the week…

QB Terrelle Pryor OAK = 217 passing yards, 112 rushing yards, one touchdown, two INTs
RB Shane Vereen NE = 159 total yards, seven catches
RB Fred Jackson BUF = 108 total yards, four catches
RB Vonta Leach BAL = 3 catches, 12 yards, one touchdown
WR Julian Edelman NE = 7 catches, 79 yards, two touchdowns
WR Jerome Simpson MIN = 7 catches, 140 yards
WR Andre Roberts ARI = 8 catches, 97 yards
TE Dallas Clark BAL = 7 catches, 87 yards

The unexpectedly horrible lineup of the week…

QB Ben Roethlisberger PIT  = 191 passing yards, one touchdown, one INT
RB David Wilson NYG  = 19 rushing yards, two lost fumbles
RB Stevan Ridley NE = 46 rushing yards, one lost fumble
RB Mark Ingram NO = 11 rushing yards
WR James Jones GB = No Catches
WR Mike Wallace MIA = One catch, 15 yards
WR Kenny Britt TEN  = One catch, 15 yards
TE Zach Sudfeld NE = No catches

Gut Checks

I’d be worried if…

…I’m panicking over anything that happened this week. Well, other than David Wilson’s performance. This is not the time to start trading Trent Richardson for Jared Cook. Get off the ledge, people.

…I’m counting on Ed Dickson or Dallas Clark for tight end production. Clark’s line is misleading and Dickson looks as if he has the hands of a caveman grasping at meat.

…I think Bernard Pierce is going away any time soon.

…I think Wes Welker may not fit in with Denver. It looks like he’s doing just fine.

…I own any Denver running back right now. Talk about your wicked, ugly time shares.

…I own Stevan Ridley. Wilson’s performance overshadows this story, but Ridley was also benched for fumbling. The bigger problem here is Shane Vereen stepped up and looked like he added a dynamic to an offense looking like it desperately needed it. Ridley has lucked out big time with Vereen’s wrist injury that looks to sideline him for a few weeks, so he really has to take advantage starting this Thursday against the Jets.

…I’m suddenly thinking CJ Spiller isn’t going to have a big season. It’s way too early to view that situation any differently.

…I think the Patriots are going to do anything but force feed Danny Amendola until he either gets hurt or throws up.

…I’m playing a team with AJ Green on it.

…I think Gio Bernard is going to take the fantasy world by storm. That was pretty disappointing, but it’s obviously very early in the season.

…I own Mike Wallace. The rumors of him not being on same page with Ryan Tannehill seem to be very, very true.

…I have Lamar Miller. His performance was overshadowed by that of Ridley’s that was overshadowed by that of Wilson’s. That seems like an overuse of shadow references, but regardless, this was not what his owners were hoping for. Miller had ten carries for three yards and one catch for seven yards. Cleveland played pretty well defensively and owners shouldn’t hit the panic button yet. However, I wouldn’t blame them if they found the panic button and made sure it had some new batteries, just in case.

…I don’t think Norv Turner can make fantasy owners crazy in another city even without being a Head Coach. I know I’d only give Trent Richardson the ball 13 times in a close game when I have Brandon Weeden at the helm. Seems like the right thing to do, really.

…I think that’s going to happen again for Jerome Simpson.

…I think Joique Bell is just a handcuff. This kid can really play and could help Reggie Bush stay healthy. And if I own Mikel Leshoure, it’s just about time to wave the white flag.

…I think Christian Ponder has improved enough to keep defenses honest.

…I’m selling the farm for Terrelle Pryor. He had a nice line and belongs on rosters, but let’s not get too crazy.

…I own any Jaguars player. The rumors of Blaine Gabbert’s improvement were greatly exaggerated. Paging Mr. Bridgewater!

…I’m relying on Mark Ingram. He really just shouldn’t be this unproductive, but he is. He just is.

…I need Roddy White any time soon. High ankle sprains are no joke and he may not be right for a month or so.

…I own Josh Freeman. That just wasn’t what his owners hoped for in a make or break season opener.

…I expect Kellen Winslow to have another game that productive. He did look healthy, though.

…I have any player on the Steelers. With the injury to Le’Veon Bell and now to Maurkice Pouncey, that offensive line and running game are in serious trouble. With the trouble in Pittsburgh and New York, it won’t be surprising to see veterans like Willis McGahee get signed this week now that their contracts won’t be guaranteed.

…I really expected James Jones to have 14 touchdowns again this season.

…I don’t have a young quarterback like Colin Kaepernick or Russell Wilson on my roster. These guys are fun to watch.

…I thought Carson Palmer was totally washed up. He’s not and that bodes well for Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Roberts and the rest of the receiving corps in Arizona.

…I didn’t follow DLF all off-season. Mainstream waiver wire articles will be posted all over the Internet this week begging people to pick up players like Julius Thomas and Marlon Brown. It’s actually kind of comical. Followers of DLF not only knew of these players, they likely already had them on their rosters. In short, they’re not sleepers to us and haven’t been for some time. After all, we focused on Thomas as a spotlighted player back in June and then again as one of our Summer sleepers back in July. We were even talking abut Thomas as a sleeper with Jordan Cameron and others in this post back in 2012 and even as far back as 2011 in this article. Our own Chad Scott focused on Brown as part of his Mining for Paydirt article early last week. In fact, he predicted Brown would have exactly four catches, 65 and a touchdown, which HE DID! No, we don’t hit on every player (we struck out on Jarius Wright this week), but our job is to give you information to make informed and educated decisions and stay ahead of the curve, not on it.

Projection Fun

Since it’s so much fun to manipulate some data, let’s crunch some numbers after the opening weekend.

Peyton Manning is on pace for 7,392 passing yards and 112 passing touchdowns.
Victor Cruz is on pace for 48 touchdown receptions.
Anquan Boldin is on pace to be targeted 272 times, which is projected to net him 208 catches for 3,328 yards and 16 touchdowns.
AJ Green isn’t far behind Boldin, as he’s on pace to produce 144 catches for 2,592 receiving yards and 32 touchdowns.
Jared Cook is on pace to be targeted 160 times, producing 2,256 receiving yards and scoring 32 touchdowns. Maybe Peter King was right about Cook being the best player he saw in camp this year.
Mike Wallace, James Jones, Zach Sudfeld and Kenny Britt are on pace to produce 32 catches and 480 receiving yards combined.
The Jaguars defense is on pace to score 40 points this year while their offense is on pace to go scoreless. In reality, not fantasy.
Lamar Miller is on pace to carry the ball 160 times this year for a total of 30 yards, good for a per carry average of 0.3 yards per carry. Who does he think he is, Chris Johnson?
And sadly, David Wilson is on pace for 32 lost fumbles.

Yes, these numbers are ridiculous, but it illustrates an important point. Don’t read too much into the numbers this week as it’s an incredibly small sample size. This is not the time to celebrate. It’s also not the time to panic. Well, unless you own David Wilson, that is.

See you next week for the next edition of the Dynasty Aftermath. You can follow Ken on twitter @DLF_KenK.

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Ken Kelly

Co-Founder at DynastyLeagueFootball

Ken is a corporate trainer by day an a tireless editor of dynasty content by night. His passion for the World Champion Seattle Seahawks is second only to his love of fantasy football and the dynasty format.

Ken is on Twitter at DLF_KenK