Is Raheem a Mustart?

At this point, this is a yearly rant for me. Having 3 games in the late afternoon slot during a full slate in week 2 is just dumb. There are west coast teams that are traveling to the East coast that could benefit not having their internal clocks thrown off. Los Angeles lost to the Detroit Lions and I’m not totally convinced that they wouldn’t have played better if kick off was at 4:25 Eastern. There are plenty of statistics out there stating that West Coast teams don’t fare well in the 1:00 Eastern slot. San Francisco also played in Cincinnati and that could have been a 4:05 start time. If those two games were moved to the later afternoon slot, that would have been an 8/5 early to late split which is much more digestible for the football fan that wants to keep an eye on all of the games. The number of fans that want to watch more plays from all of the games grows every year as fantasy football grows. 

Obviously San Francisco didn’t need the late afternoon start to be wide awake on Sunday. That offense was rolling on all cylinders in Cincinnati. Raheem Mostert was the running back that had the biggest day out of a back field that had 3 running backs that scored at least 14 fantasy points (more that James Conner). Mostert led the team in carries with 13, followed by Breida with 12, and Jeff Wilson with 10. Mostert’s biggest play was on a 39-yard screen pass that he housed. With Tevin Coleman being week to week, this situation is necessary to monitor. Even if Coleman is back sooner than expected, Mostert should remain on your roster if you picked him up. With 3 running backs getting double digit carries for San Francisco on Sunday, we have to watch who has the hottest hand going forward. Mostert has looked like one of the two best backs out of the group through two weeks.

Performance Checks

• Mecole Hardman was one of my two favorite pick ups this week along with Raheem Mostert. Hardman caught 4 of his 6 targets for 61 yards and a touchdown in week 2 against the Raiders. With Tyreek Hill sidelined for a while, Hardman needs to be on your roster and he’s only owned in 35% of ESPN leagues. Patrick Mahomes is playing out of his mind right now and he will most likely continue to be the best quarterback in the league. Even with Hardman being the 3rd or 4th option in the passing game on any given week, there is a ton of value there until Tyreek Hill is once again healthy.
• Andy Dalton is having a hell of a start to this season with a 300 yard 2 touchdown passing game following his 400 yard game from last week. Plus, he will eventually get A.J. Green back and none of us will be kicking him off of our rosters when he is healthy. Tyler Boyd has had two start-worthy weeks to start the season and today was his best performance so far with 10 catches for 122 yards. John Ross also continues to be a show stopper with his 2nd consecutive week with over 100 yards and a touchdown. Another 8 targets is nothing to turn your nose up to. 
• All eyes were on Antonio Brown in his first and maybe last game with the Patriots. Nobody knows. This guy will be walking a tight rope all season if he gets the privilege to. Brown played about a third of the snaps today and made the most of it with 4 catches for 56 yards and a touchdown. His role and snap count will continue to grow rapidly the longer that he is with the Patriots. Antonio’s presence was detrimental to Josh Gordon’s fantasy value in his first week.
• Tom Brady’s offense is too big to fail. Brady continued to perform efficiently with a 264 yard day with 2 touchdown passes.
• Sony Michel relaxed his owners with  85 yards and a touchdown. He had 21 out of the 35 carries out of the backfield. The panic can end now. 
• The panic can end on David Montgomery as well. He had 18 out of the 29 backfield carries for the Bears. His 62 yards and touchdown were helpful to the people that started him in their flex spot.
• Marquise Brown’s fantasy value extends beyond what I previously believed after two straight good weeks. I would still rather own Mark Andrews if I have any Raven’s pass catcher but Marquise Brown needs to be in his owner’s lineups at this point. 
• Christian Kirk and Larry Fitzgerald are every week starters going forward. I also think that Kyler Murray might be as well. The touchdown luck didn’t favor Murray this week but he attempted 40 passes. We might be looking at a 675 pass attempt season like Roethlisberger had in 2018. 
• This isn’t even a hot take: Austin Ekeler is a better fantasy running back than Melvin Gordon. It’s going to be a travesty when Gordon eventually returns and devalues Ekeler.
• Here I sit, still happy that I don’t own any of the Viking’s passing game and a lot of Dalvin Cook. 
• Nice bounce back week for Davante Adams and Aaron Jones. You can stop your panic on the Packers’ offense pieces if you were. 
• Great week for Kenny Golladay truthers this week. I didn’t think that he would have a big week, but he did. It was also great to see Kerryon Johnson find pay dirt.
• Lamar Jackson is probably the 2nd best quarterback to own in fantasy football and the absolute best draft day value. Shout out to the whole Razzball crew for sniffing this one out. 
• Gardner Minshew outperformed Deshaun Watson in their head to head match up, but the Texans came away with the W. 
• Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cooper Kupp was technically down at the half yard line, but he should have gotten credit for a touchdown on an awesome 4th quarter catch and run. 5 catches for 120 yards isn’t too shabby for his 2nd game back from ACL surgery. 
• It has been a quiet start for Robert Woods, but I expect him to eventually return draft day value. 
• Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger are going to need to be monitored by owners throughout the week for their availability for week 3. Neither injury looked overly promising for availability next week. 
• James Conner seems to have avoided an overly serious injury but his availability for the next few weeks is in jeopardy pending test results.

Follow me on twitter here.