With four weeks down in the NFL season, there are teams and players who are exceeding expectations while others are huge disappointments. Several of these situations could have been seen coming, but the majority of them have come out of left field.
Denver’s Peyton Manning has been light outs so far this season with over 1,400 yards passing, a 138.0 passer rating, 16 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Even though the four-time MVP was drafted behind guys like Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees in most leagues, it isn’t too far fetched to think Manning would be this good considering he has been dominant when healthy in his career.
It is somewhat hard to believe how bad his younger brother Eli has been to start 2013. Eli has thrown eight interceptions to just five touchdowns in four games and holds a passer rating of 70.5. The Giants are 0-4 while the Broncos are 4-0 and the two signal callers shoulder a lot of the responsibility.
Outside of Victor Cruz, Eli’s supporting cast has been dreadful. We have already documented the struggles of David Wilson and the running game, but what happened to Hakeem “Disappearing Tricks” Nicks? The fifth-year wideout has caught just 12 passes on 26 targets for 230 yards and zero touchdowns to this point. He started off the season well with five catches and 114 yards in Week 1, but has underwhelmed us since and had no grabs in Week 3. Fantasy owners should continue to have hope that he will be more consistent in the coming games while also realizing he could be a ‘boom or bust’ guy.
In short, Eli has two Super Bowl rings and Peyton has only one, but this season the brothers are going in opposite directions like Josh Freeman and the Tampa Bay organization.
The Buccaneers have turned to their rookie third-round pick, Mike Glennon, to replace Freeman, who has the worst completion percentage in the league at just under 46 percent. Freeman has fallen off considerably since having a breakout season in 2010 when he threw 25 touchdowns to only six interceptions and had a 95.9 quarterback rating.
Glennon struggled in his first career start last week with 193 yards through the air and a touchdown to go along with two picks and a fumble. He is a big quarterback at six-foot-seven and has the arm to be a solid quarterback someday. He needs to develop his awareness and leadership abilities to make a great impact.
The Buccaneers’ offense has been underachieving this season, but has the talent to turn it around if Glennon gets up to speed after the team’s bye this week. Fantasy owners have felt the impact of the sluggish offensive unit as Doug Martin, Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams have all under delivered. Martin and Jackson are especially frustrating situations because they produced at such a high clip last season and were drafted fairly high for their respective positions.
The quarterback carousel continues to turn with a few more ponies being added and several injured donkeys potentially falling off.
Brain Hoyer has looked good in replacing the injured Brandon Weeden and led the Browns to victories the past two weeks. Anybody who says they saw this coming is lying worse then Ryan Braun about his PED use. Weeden is trying to recover from a sprained thumb on his throwing hand and isn’t able to hold the football well enough to be effective. He wasn’t exactly effective before hurting his thumb and may have a hard enough time holding onto his starting job even when he gets healthy.
Christian Ponder is in the same, leaky boat with fractured ribs and Matt Cassel getting the start in the Vikings’ win over the Steelers last Sunday. Ponder has not be overly effective with five interceptions in three games. Head coach Leslie Frazier has said that he is still the starter, but that could change quickly if Cassel plays this week and performs well.
From a Cassel to a Locker, the Titan’s lost their starting quarterback for at least a month with a hip injury and Ryan Fitzpatrick will fill-in for Jake. Locker was having a breakout season before the injury and was playing his way onto fantasy rosters as a serviceable backup.
In other fantasy news, Chris Johnson lashed out at his fantasy owners via Twitter because people are upset with how he is performing statistically this season.
Johnson tweeted,
U r the head coach n the owner of ur fantasy team so u should be mad at urself I didn’t ask any of u o draft me so if I’m so sorry y start me.
For those of you that need a translation, CJ2K is saying, “It is your fault if you drafted him and that you shouldn’t start him if he is so terrible.” I realize you only get 160 characters per tweet, but my four-year-old son is better at spelling and he also cries when things don’t go his way. Johnson currently ranks 13th in the league with 277 rushing yards, but his owners are more concerned with his zero trips to the end zone.
While we are on the topic of no trips to the end zone, C.J. Spiller hasn’t sniffed the goal line since Week 17 of last season. The owners who drafted him as their top running back have seen Fred Jackson score more fantasy points up until this point and it could get worse this week. Spiller sprained his ankle in the win over the Ravens last Sunday and could be limited, or even inactive, this week against the Browns on Thursday night. What is that saying about crying over spilled milk?
Fantasy owners who own Ray Rice are also disappointed at the lack of production from their first-round selection. Rice has played in three of the four games this season and has only 89 yards rushing, 44 receiving and a lone touchdown. Even more alarming is that over the past four seasons, the former Rutgers Scarlett Knight averaged just under 22 touches per game between carries and receptions. He is averaging less than 14 touches per contest so far this season.
It was a strained hip flexor that kept Rice out of action Week 3 and likely played a role in his poor performance last week against the Bills. With that being said, his meager statistics have been hard to stomach like overcooked rice.
I wish you the best of luck in Week 5 and I know that some of you need it. Feel free to tweet us at @FantasyCouch or myself directly at @AndrewEggers with topics you would like to see in next week’s Fantasy Woes. And make sure you use #FantasyWoes when tweeting your painful moments.
