Fantasy Football recap: Week One winners

The fantasy football season started off with a bang, and not exactly how most of us predicted. Here is a recap of all the best performers from Week One.

There is a lot of information to take in this week as we have seen some of the weirdest fantasy performances in quite some time. Le’Veon Bell owners must be furious but Antonio Brown owners are elated, and let’s not even tackle the David Johnson debacle just yet. Let’s start off on a positive note, take a look at some winners from this Week One.

Winners:

Antonio Brown: Brown was the safest first round pick and he showed exactly why this past Sunday. 11 targets, 11 receptions, 182 yards, over 20 fantasy points without getting into the end zone. This guy is a staple of any fantasy football team and devoured all targets in the Pittsburgh offense.

LeSean McCoy: I always love drafting McCoy, his name provides some absolute gems for fantasy team names (The Real Slim Shady/really any variation of a famous Eminem moniker), but he also is the glue that can hold your running back group together.

22 carries, 110 yards, round 18-20 fantasy points is a pretty decent showing for Week One.  He got vultured by Mike Tolbert along the goal line after he injured his wrist. McCoy would turn out to be fine however it was a scary moment for all McCoy owners. He will see a ton of carries as the Bills will look to ride him until his wheels fall off.

Kareem Hunt: Hunt was the surprise of the week as he gashed the New England Patriots and left them for dead. Hunt had 246 yards total, which is just absolutely astonishing.

He was the premier passing threat after Tyreek Hill and just gobbled up the Patriots defense on the ground. He did finish with 17 carries, 148 yards, a touchdown, and those are just his stats on the ground.

I think it is far too early to tell whether or not this is an every week thing, as well the Patriots defense could honestly just be bad this season. But there is no ignoring Hunt as he will get a tough matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week Two.

Tyreek Hill: Hill was the best pure receiver in the first NFL game of 2017. While dealing with cramps for much of the game (HE NEEDS MORE POTASSIUM), he managed to rack up 133 yards on 7 receptions, and only missed one catch in this contest.

He even got into the end zone after the Patriots completely forgot to have defenders on one side of the field. Hill should consistently be the Chiefs best option in the passing game, and he could potentially be the fastest wide receiver in the league so all arrows are really pointing upward for the Chiefs go to aerial threat.

Los Angeles Rams Defense/Baltimore Defense/Jacksonville Defense: Wow. All I can say is wow. Who knew these matchups would produce pure gold.

Almost 50 fantasy points for the Rams, (now we know anyone who plays the Colts is in line for a big week) Ravens pitched a shut out and Jacksonville hung the Houston Texans out to dry. Pretty crazy but all of these defenses are capable of boasting big points again.

Amari Cooper: Cooper fans rejoice, your prayers have been answered. Buckets of red zone targets and finally a touchdown for Mr. Cooper. One discouraging sign has to be the 5 receptions on 13 targets however his efficiency should improve as the season continues. Still solid performance from a guy who underperformed significantly in 2016.

Ezekiel Elliott: Feed him, simple as that. Zeke crushed the Giants for over 100 all purpose yards. He got 24 carries in Week One and that volume alone should allow him to keep recording monstrous games all season long.

Matt Stafford/Alex Smith: Stafford (292 yards, 4 touchdowns, 1 interception) surprised many by having one of the best performances by any QB in Week One. Smith (4 touchdowns, 368 yards) did the same without throwing any picks against the defending world champion, New England Patriots.

Both of these guys were overlooked all summer even some scoffing at Stafford becoming the highest paid QB in the NFL, now we know why. For all of the talk about the rookie first round pick, (Patrick Mahomes taking over because Smith cannot throw the deep ball), we now know one thing, the probability of that happening will wane every day the Chief’s offense clicks.

Leonard Fournette: Talk about making your presence known, Fournette accumulating 100 yards and finding the end zone during his first NFL contest, against one of the better defenses in the NFL. The amount of carries he will receive will give him an opportunity to turn in elite numbers every week.

Giorgio Tavecchio: Who? Well, of course, a kicker had to make this list, and why not the best kicker in all of the land, Tavecchio. He was perfect from the field, piling up the points on his way to a 19 point fantasy week.

To put that into perspective he scored more points than everyone in the list below (losers), and some of the first overall picks in fantasy drafts, ouch.

Todd Gurley: Gurley is back in a big way. He tallied 96 total yards and got into the end zone. He did have 19 carries so he should have a terrific amount of carries in most games. The big thing is that he passed the eye test.

The Los Angeles Rams offense was the bottom of the league last season, now they have one of the highest total scores in the first week of 2017. Most of that was their defense but this offense looks unrecognizable and that is a good thing.