San Diego Chargers wide receiver Travis Benjamin caught seven of the eight passes thrown in his direction. Not a bad outing in his first game as a member of the Chargers, right? Well, that's until we realize that those seven catches went for a total of 32 yards. This means that Benjamin averaged a grand total of four yards per target.
None of that is really Benjamin's fault, as Philip Rivers was consistently throwing him screens against the Kansas City Chiefs throughout the afternoon.
On the other hand, Tyrell Williams put up 71 yards on two receptions for the Chargers. He averaged 14.2 yards per target. Both are going to end up being DFS factors with Keenan Allen likely lost for the season due to what is suspected to be a torn ACL.
How bad is the New Orleans Saints defense and why is this one team to really pay attention to in the fantasy football world? Well, let's just crunch the basic numbers for a second here.
Drew Brees completed 28-of-42 passes for 423 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions. Brandin Cooks added six receptions for 143 yards and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, Willie Snead led the Saints in both receptions (9) and yards (172) while scoring a touchdown.
The Saints STILL found a way to lose the game. This despite the fantasy dominance its offense displayed against the Oakland Raiders.
This tells us a story of a Saints team we should have a heavy eye on every single week. Start its foursome of fantasy relevant players, and even consider Mark Ingram an option. Meanwhile, do your best to stack quarterback/receiver tandems against this most unfortunate of defenses.
Is Alex Smith suddenly fantasy relevant or is the Chargers' pass defense just that bad? Smith finished Sunday's action as the third-best fantasy quarterback behind Andrew Luck and the aforementioned Brees. He did so having led Kansas City back from an 18-point halftime deficit en route to completing 34-of-48 passes for 363 yards with three total scores and one interception.
All said, Smith connected with eight different receivers on the 34 completions. Interestingly enough, and maybe an indication that this was a mirage, only 13 of those went to receivers. Then again, the usually run-based Andy Reid offensive attack relied on 51 dropbacks compared to just 19 rush attempts. WOW!
An argument could be made that Rex Ryan knows defense. Okay, well ... he does know defense. But gosh, his offense was absolutely horrific in every possible way Sunday against a previously lackluster Baltimore Ravens defense. All said, the Buffalo Bills gained 160 total yards on 48 plays. Yes folks, that's an average of 3.5 yards per play.
It wasn't any one thing that was bad here. It was all clownish. If you take into account offensive penalties, Buffalo had 112 net yards throughout the game. Tyrod Taylor dropped back to pass 24 times and came away with 94 net passing yards.
Heck, starting receivers Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods averaged a grand total of 5.7 yards on 11 combined targets.
Remember folks, there were a lot of people (raises hand in shame) that recommended the Taylor-Watkins stack against Baltimore on Sunday. Ouch!
We really want to know why Adrian Peterson hates us so. Dude had everything working for him heading into Sunday's game against the Tennessee Titans. No real quarterback to speak of, a backup running back that was hobbled and an offense that was reliant on him.
This made Peterson the perfect DFS play in Week 1. So what does he do to troll us? The future Hall of Famer puts up 31 rushing yards on 19 attempts without a score. Yeah, we don't like you either, AD.
Hey guys, Will Fuller knows how to catch a football. He can even catch a football without it hitting the ground first. After a draft season and training camp filled with questions about whether the rookie first-round pick has drop issues (he does), Fuller went out there and put up five catches for 107 yards on 11 targets. More baffling than that? Fuller had three more targets than DeAndre Hopkins. We'll just leave that right there for you to soak (cry) in.
Speaking of amazing things and the Houston Texans. Someone should send a game tape of Lamar Miller's performance to his former team, the Miami Dolphins. It's a concept. An odd concept. One that Miami refused to comprehend. Give Miller the football on a consistent basis, and he might have some success. Miller put up 108 yards on 26 attempts in his Texans debut, finishing Sunday as the NFL's leading rusher.
Just our two cents. Now that Miller actually has a coaching staff that deserves to coach, he might very well provide top-five fantasy upside this season.