FANTASY FOOTBALL IN-SEASON FEATURES

Greg Jennings, Packers –
Jennings is beginning the season looking very much like he did in 2009.  While that campaign was successful enough for an average high end receiver, it certainly wasn’t anything near what is expected of a guy who was in the top 5 or 10 in most drafts.  The reality is, after two games he is on track to have his one of his worst years.  He has only 8 receptions and is catching only about half of the balls thrown at him.  At his current rate he won’t top 65 catches and will finish shy of 1,000 yards.  Until Rodgers actually starts getting the ball in his hands, a slide has to occur.

Santana Moss, Redskins –
Moss, after two games with McNabb as quarterback, is on track for a monster year as far as catches and yards are concerned.  The only thing lacking here is touchdowns – he has none so far – but he’ll grab 5-6 before the year is out, and if he keeps up his two game average he’ll end up with well over 100 catches and 1300+ yards.  Is he going to keep this pace up?  Not likely, but he’s sure to stay a strong option for fantasy owners as a nice number two or three option.  The fact that he doesn’t have a ton of competition at the receiver spot doesn’t hurt his value either. 

Derrick Mason, Ravens –
Chalk this one up primarily to the problems Joe Flacco is having.  Mason is soon to retire, everyone knows this, but he is still a very capable receiver.  The problem is, the team just hasn’t been able to get its passing attack in gear, and this is very troublesome in fantasy circles.  Mason does have one touchdown catch this season, but he only has three catches (out of 11 targets) for about 50 yards to go with it, not something that ranks him very high moving forward.  If Flacco gets his act together, Mason could climb back up a bit, but at the moment there are no indicators to make us expect this to happen soon.

Louis Murphy & Darrius Heyward-Bey, Raiders –
Murphy and Heyward-Bey both had strong outings in week two against the Rams, and with that performance alone they might not move up, but when you take into account the fact that they’ll face the Cardinals in week three, that changes.  The Cardinals are getting lit up by opponents’ passing attacks and these two should be in for very nice follow on performances.  What this will do is begin to breed confidence that may continue on throughout the season, helping both of them maintain better value throughout the year.  Note that these numbers came with a different quarterback playing each half, a good confidence booster for fantasy owners.

Bernard Berrian, Vikings –
Berrian is showing himself to be a less than talented receiver in a passing attack that is completely lost.  Favre isn’t helping himself and age is possibly catching up with him fast, affecting the entire offense.  Berrian will at some point become a spot presence only at the rate things are going now.  If your fantasy team is counting on him for anything right now, it might be worth looking for other possibilities sooner rather than later.  Also, don’t let a strong outing against Detroit’s terrible secondary this weekend gloss reality, it will be an anomaly at best. 

Mario Manningham, Giants –
The Giants didn’t have much success passing against the Colts, but neither did Houston so no big surprise here.  However, for the second straight week Manningham had good to impressive production all things considered.  He shares time and realistically is the third option for Eli, but he’s doing good things for fantasy owners.  First he caught all four balls thrown to him in week one for 85 yards, and then he caught four of the seven passes thrown to him in week two for 75 yards and a 50+ yard touchdown.  Bottom line, he’s producing and seems to be a favorite of his quarterback, ride him while he’s producing.

Demaryius Thomas, Broncos –
He didn’t play in week one due to injury, but put on a sure-fire display of why the Broncos drafted him to replace Brandon Marshall.  While he had a great outing, don’t expect this kind of production every week at least for a few weeks, he’s got a lot of solid competition for catches, but he’s probably available on the waiver wire in your league, so grabbing him now should pay dividends as the season moves along. 

Braylon Edwards, Jets –
A late move down due to stupidity, that’s how to classify Edwards this week.  The reality is, Edwards knows better than to drive under the influence, the team has programs in place to help him avoid doing that, and he didn’t bother to take advantage of it. Definition: Stupidity.  Edwards will likely miss this week and could miss even more time if not the whole season depending on how the team and league deal with the incident.  No matter what happens, Edwards will be doing even less for fantasy owners than was previously expected, which certainly wasn’t a lot. 

Sammie Stroughter, Bucs –
Stroughter turned a few heads later in the season last year and was considered by some as a relative sleeper for a late round depth pick at receiver.  The season, however, hasn’t gone well for Sammie so far.  Mike Williams has stepped up as the receiver of choice for Josh Freeman, and Stroughter hasn’t made much of a splash.  While the offense isn’t a juggernaut by any stretch, the team has done enough offensively to demonstrate the roles, and Stroughter’s isn’t that strong, making the outlook for the season less than stellar.  If you’re stashing him away hoping for him to break out, you may want to trade in for someone with better upside.