By Dalton Del Don – Senior Writer
There wasn’t a bigger surprise this week than Randy Moss’ performance. He missed all of the preseason and even seemingly still appeared less than 100 percent, yet torched the Jets’ secondary play after play. Leg issues will likely continue to hamper him, but there’s obviously quite a bit of upside with that offensive line and Tom Brady throwing him the ball.
Things that made me look bad Week 1: Lee Evans, Maurice Jones-Drew, Reggie Brown and Vince Young. However, there was some good mixed in: Travis Henry, Adrian Peterson, Ronald Curry and Tony Romo – who I got flack for ranking as my No. 3 QB for this week. Point is, it’s one week of action, and while football certainly seems like less of a marathon than baseball, this week’s results should be digested with a mountain-sized grain of salt. But man, my Romo ranking was good!
Ben Roethlisberger threw four TD passes Sunday, and Pittsburgh didn’t throw a single pass over the game’s final 15 minutes…Santonio Holmes is going have a breakout year this season…If you drafted Jamal Lewis you (a) likely don’t read this site and (b) are even less likely to make your playoffs…I’m beginning to think I was wrong in doubting Kellen Winslow’s health. A monster season could be in store.
Donovan McNabb didn’t look great, but blame it more on Green Bay’s emerging defensive unit and not the surgically repaired knee…The Eagles’ (not very) special teams was the most pathetic thing I’ve seen in a while and single-handedly cost that team a victory…Will someone please tell Reggie Brown the season has indeed begun…The Packers’ offense looks dreadful…
But not as bad as the Chiefs’ offense looks. If Larry Johnson makes it through the entire season unscathed, he’s the toughest man in sports, hands down…Matt Schaub to Andre Johnson is the new Montana to Rice.
R.I.P. Matt Jones…The new offensive coordinator for the Jaguars might want to watch some game film from last year and acclimate himself with the national football league. His personnel doesn’t exactly fit a 3-1 pass-run ratio…It’s such an oversimplification, but man, all Vince Young does is win football games.
Adrian Peterson looks like he’s going to be a pretty good running back.
If the Panthers’ offensive line plays like that throughout, this team will easily make the playoffs…As much as I’m enamored with all these young backs, I’m calling DeAngelo Williams a bust. It will take a DeShaun Foster injury (somewhat likely, however) for Williams to ever get more than 40-50 percent of the touches, and he’ll never get any goal line work…You’ll hear people talk about how the loss of Orlando Pace is terrible news for Steven Jackson owners, but don’t buy it – he was actually much more productive after Pace went down last season. The loss of Bulger’s blindside help meant the team rarely threw deep and instead settled for quick dump offs to Jackson, so another 75-80 catch season might be in the cards.
If Jon Kitna can do that against a solid secondary and away from a dome, a huge season may be in store. Even with a 17-0 lead, the team threw excessively and only allowed two sacks after leading the league in that category last season…Roy Williams had to deal with Nnamdi Asomugha all day, so expect better performances out of him moving forward…It’s safe to say Sebastian Janikowski was not worth a first round draft pick.
Folks, that was LaDainian Tomlinson’s floor – Week 1 will likely be his worst statistical performance of the season, and he still accounted for two TDs. He’s just so involved in that offense, the more I think about it, the more I believe Tomlinson is worth 60 percent of your budget in an auction league…Cedric Benson had a tough matchup Week 1, and he’ll no doubt possess legit fantasy value this season. However, he’s just not a very good NFL running back. He lacks speed, escapability and has hands seemingly comprised of five thumbs. Backup Adrian Peterson legitimately looks better when on the field.
I was wrong panning Joey Galloway entering this season. He exhibited his old speed Sunday, and the team simply has zero alternatives in the passing game. And with an upgrade in Jeff Garcia, Galloway may very well have one more decent season after all…How about Deion Branch going catchless Week 1? Now that’s the green-gloved man we know and love…And I’m sticking to my Shaun Alexander is done proclamation – take away one late run in garbage time, and he got 80 yards on 26 carries against a team that was routinely gashed by the run last season. He’s tentative, lacks burst and is finished with that whole breaking a tackle nonsense.
Every carry given to Julius Jones over Marion Barber decreases the Cowboys’ chances at victory. How much visual (and statistical) evidence does one need to finally make this switch?…Tony Romo is good, people – use YPA to your advantage…What a disaster the Giants’ season opener was. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed such catastrophe on the injury front. Brandon Jacobs was an injury concern, but I did expect him to make it to 10 carries on the year…That said, I feel pretty bad worrying so much about Jacobs’ knee when Kevin Everett’s ability to ever walk again remains in question. Really puts things in perspective.
Leave a Reply