Article:NFl Week 1: Thoughts and Burning Questions

The biggest story is obviously Tom Brady’s injury, which of course will end his season. The Patriots have already contacted Tim Rattay and Chris Simms to come in and work out, which is great because these are quarterbacks that the Niners and Bucs had on their teams and said “No, thanks”. (Hang on, I need to go talk some friends off the Tobin).

Here’s a thought, Daunte Culpepper just retired, is now the perfect time to reunite the Culpepper-Moss connection? I mean, he’s no worse than Rattay and Simms…(hang on while I stand on the ledge and look down)

Matt Cassel played pretty well, orchestrating a 98 yard touchdown drive which included some nice passes and a fantastic Randy Moss touchdown grab. The running game looked strong also, which will help Cassel. If the Patriots have to go to a more conventional style offense to protect him, rather than just spreading the field, things might be okay. On the other hand, they played the Chiefs, so we’ll check back in on the Patriots when they play a real team.

Carolina scored the game winning TD as time expired against San Diego, yet they go on to kick an extra point to extend a one point lead to two. They could have lost the snap, or had the kick blocked, and the Chargers could have ran it back and regained the lead, all after time had expired! Can a team waive the extra point? The safest play there is actually to keep the first team offense on the field and kneel it down.

Kurt Warner displayed why nearly everyone in my salary cap league picked him for week one. He is penciled in to start every week (because of his low dollar value) for the rest of the year until further notice.

Atlanta is either much better than expected, or the Lions are even worse than expected. We’ll have to check back in when the Falcons play a team not named “The Lions”, and Tampa Bay should be a reasonable test next week.

Brett Favre is still the same old player. He makes bad decisions, heaves the ball and hopes. Somehow this works out better for him than everyone else. (See Grossman, Rex)

And speaking of the Bears, it’s amazing what that team can do with an average QB performance. Orton provided 150 yards and no turnovers, the defense kept the rusty Colts in check (noted by Peyton’s two timeouts during the first drive), and a strong debut from Matt Forte helped the Bears shock the Colts last night.

Joe Flacco is slow.

The Bengals are overrated yet again. At this point I’m pleased to have ranked Carson Palmer and Chad Ocho Cinco so far down in my Fantasy rankings.

Someone needs to let the San Diego Chargers know, it’s the regular season, not the playoffs. It’s okay to win the close games for a few months. Also, how do all the people who took their defense in the 7 th round of their drafts feel this week? In how many leagues is the Atlanta defense just sitting there? As always, draft defenses second-to-last.

Dallas looks to be the sharpest team in the league right now, very solid in their first win offensively and defensively. The Browns have some work to do if they want to be in contention for a playoff spot this year.

In 36 minutes of football, Willie Parker scored more touchdowns that he did all of last season. I hate fantasy football sometimes. A lot of the time, actually.

Drew Brees and the Saints are looking sharp. Nothing like their 0-4 start of last season. David Patten is looking comfortable also.

The Giants defense still looks pretty solid. Eli Manning still looks like a below average quarterback who focuses on one above average target. Brandon Jacobs ran well (and hard) but nine carries from Derrick Ward can’t make all the Jacobs owners happy.

Earnest Graham and Warrick Dunn split the carries, nearly 50/50. That’s not good news for anyone who drafted Graham early this year.

The Rams are either still in a lot of trouble, or Philadelphia is poised to fight the Cowboys for the NFC this year. I’m hoping the Rams bounce back for my Bulger/Holt predictions, yikes.

The Seahawks certainly weren’t able to hide how banged up they are, and the new injuries didn’t help any either. The Bills absolutely dominated them, and we’ll see if they can bounce back to form.

Chris Johnson looks pretty electrifying, which is great news for my salary cap league, and the Jaguars looked pretty horrible, which is why I drafted neither Maurice Jones Drew nor Fred Taylor in any leagues this year. David Garrard already has only one less interception than he threw all of last year.

Adrian Peterson seems to have distanced himself from Chester Taylor as the number one in Minnesota as he carried most of the load. I still would have handcuffed him because of this injury concerns.

The Raiders and the Packers both seemed to want to protect their young quarterbacks last night with “Trent Edwards-like” performances, meaning lots of short makeable passes, and few difficult vertical ones. Building confidence is important though, so maybe this will work out.

Andre Hall did most of the rushing work for the Broncos, but Selvin Young and Michael Pittman got the touchdowns, so you know, that’s just great. With Brandon Marshall out I was right to look for a different passing weapon in Denver this week, sadly I chose Tony Schefler instead of Eddie Royal.

The season is still early, so there were lots of surprises, and maybe some flukes. We’ll see if teams like Seahawks and the Rams bounce back, and if teams like the Falcons and Bills can keep it up. As always, looking forward to next week.