It’s hard to believe that the first week of NFL action is over. It was a crazy week, with some big wins and even bigger losses. Here, we’ll look at some of the surprises that emerged in daily fantasy football. While it’s hard to predict the future from just one week, hopefully this information will help you adjust your strategy a bit so the rest of the season will be a lot better for your fantasy football teams.
Week One Diamonds
Danny Woodhead, RB, San Diego Chargers
Woodhead was priced well below par in most leagues, yet had some pretty impressive numbers. As a running back, he had 5 receptions for 31 yards, a receiving touchdown, and 89 yards of rushing. That’s a very impressive amount of versatility, one that could serve him well in your fantasy leagues for a lot of the season. It will be interesting to see how long it is before the daily fantasy sports sites catch on to how well he did and what he’s capable of and start raising his price. For now, he’s one of the biggest diamonds you will find.
Brandin Cooks, WR, New Orleans Saints
Cooks had just 6 catches, but was able to score 2 touchdowns off of that. He had 143 receiving yards, and 11 rushing yards. Cooks was one of the top fantasy point producers at WR, and although he had received some attention before this game, he was not priced very high and this large amount of success was a surprise considering the depth that the Saints offense has this year. It’s hard to tell so early if this will be repeated, so we would proceed cautiously with him for the next week or two.
Spencer Ware, RB, Kansas City Chiefs
Ware had zero hype going into the season and was one of the cheaper running backs to choose from in most leagues. However, he turned out a phenomenal performance against the San Diego Chargers, helping them to win in overtime. He had 7 receptions for 129 yards, plus 70 rushing yards and a touchdown. The Chargers have a weak defense, so it’s not likely that he will see this kind of action every single week, but it is nice to know that he’s capable of a game like this once in a while, especially if he stays so cheap throughout the season.
Adam Vinatieri, K, Indianapolis Colts
Even by the standards of a kicker, Vinatieri was much cheaper than the average at his position, yet he managed to score 3 extra points, 1 field goal over 50 yards, and 1 field goal under 50 yards. In a week that so relatively low scoring games, the Colts-Detroit Lions game had 74 points scored between the two teams. It was a high scoring game, and not something that will happen against a lot of defenses. The Lions allowed the Colts to move the ball a lot during this game, and that’s not likely to repeat every week—although Andrew Luck is one of the best QBs in the league.
Week One Busts
Adrian Peterson, RB, Minnesota Vikings
Peterson was one of the top ranked running backs going into the week, but did surprisingly little in terms of production. He had 31 yards in rushing. That’s it. The Vikings won with 25 points, but Peterson wasn’t much of a factor in this game.
Odell Beckham, Jr., WR, New York Giants
Beckham was one of the top ranked wide receivers in the NFL, depending on the daily fantasy site that you use for reference. However, he had a pretty lackluster game on Sunday, catching just 4 receptions and having 73 yards off of those. The good news with Beckham is that 73 yards is a lot off of 4 receptions. It shows that he has a ton of talent and that this down week is probably not going to be his norm from a fantasy point of view this season.
