Yes, we are officially on regular season time! Thank the football Gods the NFL is back! Sadly one of the best in the game will be out for a while, but we’ll talk more about that later. Tonight we get a matchup that could be a preview of the NFC Championship game. The Packers and Saints are both full of talent and this should be a great game to start the season. There are plenty of fantasy starters out there tonight and also plenty of fringe starters. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Lance Moore: This hurts me deep down in the loins, but Moore is out with a groin injury (which means it’s hurting him in the loins as well). This helps Jimmy Graham the most and I’m looking for a huge game from him unless Chuck Woodson shadows him, but I don’t believe that will be the case.
James Starks: Ryan Grant and Starks are splitting time, but if Starks is outplaying Grant he will stay out there. And that’s my prediction. Starks is a bit of a wildcard and I might go with someone safer if you can, but I like James tonight.
Marques Colston: The loss of Moore helps him a little, but like I said I think it helps Graham more. If you own Colston you start him until he breaks down.
Jordy Nelson: When it’s crunch time Donald Driver is the guy, but soon that will change to Nelson. I think it happens sooner than later and I wouldn’t even be surprised if we saw it start tonight.
Peyton Manning: It looks like he had another procedure on his neck and will be out 2-3 months (most likely more). This hurts the Colts receivers quite a bit, but I’m still cool with Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark because they are old and so is Kerry Collins. He’ll lean on them. We’ll just have to keep an eye on Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon, but I’d rather not start them this week. As far as holding onto Manning goes, if you have room you should hold onto him for now, but if you are in a very shallow league and need that space to compete in the first half of the season I’d make that move.
Arian Foster: He didn’t practice today and is set to be a game time decision. If he does go there is a chance he would split time with Derrick Ward and Ben Tate. If you own Foster I would hope he doesn’t go so he can heal up and you don’t have to worry about it lingering. If Foster is out, Ward will most likely get the bulk of the work since he is much better than Ben Tate in pass protection.
Sidney Rice: He didn’t practice today and it looks like he may not go. I would look for other options.
Daniel Thomas: He tweaked his hammy and is trying his hardest to be a huge bust. Of course it is way too early to call him a true bust, but in fantasy we have very short attention spans. This opens up more looks for Reggie Bush and made them sign Larry Johnson. You know things are bad when those two things happen.
