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First, Eric Decker is the odd man out for the Denver Broncos. Peyton Manning had an unbelievable performance Thursday night to start the season off. Manning threw for 462 yards and a jaw dropping seven touchdowns. Manning spread the ball very efficiently as he threw touchdowns to four different wide receivers, none of whom were named Eric Decker. Decker struggled greatly on Thursday night. Despite being targeted seven times he was only able to make two catches for 32 yards. With the addition of Wes Welker, who recorded nine receptions and two touchdowns, along with the emergence of tight end Julius Thomas, who also caught two touchdown passes, Decker could struggle to find a way to fit in to Denver’s game plan.
Second, AJ Green is creeping up on Calvin Johnson as the best fantasy wide receiver. Both wide receivers had monster seasons last year as Johnson recorded 1964 receiving yards and Green caught 11 touchdowns. However, after the first week of the season Green looks as though he wants the title of number one fantasy wide out as he scorched the Chicago Bears for nine receptions, 162 yards and two scores. Meanwhile, Johnson struggled in the Detroit Lions‘ victory over the Minnesota Vikings as he only caught four passes for 37 yards.
Third, first-year starting quarterbacks continue to impress. Last year we witnessed Robert Griffin III, Russell Wilson, and Colin Kaepernick each take the league by storm in their first season as starting quarterbacks, and the trend seems to be continuing this year. Terrelle Pryor, E.J. Manuel and Geno Smith all played very well in their debuts as starting NFL quarterbacks. Although Smith was the only one of the bunch to lead his team to victory, Pryor and Manuel both did more than their part to keep their teams in the game. Keep an eye on each of these three quarterbacks as the season progresses as they could be a solid pickup off the waiver wire, especially Pryor who totaled 112 rushing yards.
Finally, we learned that Adrian Peterson is still the king of fantasy football. Peterson, who was coming off of the best season of his career last year, picked up right where he left off. On his first carry he ran 78 yards to the house, and continued to dominate from that point on. Peterson racked up 111 total yards and three touchdowns. Peterson proved why he was the best back in the league and the top preseason fantasy player on Sunday as he led all running backs with three total touchdowns.
The most important thing that we can take away from the first week of the NFL and fantasy football season was that it was just the first week. Therefore, don’t overdo it celebrating your team’s success or moping over a week one blowout loss. There is plenty more football to be played which means that several more fantasy trends will develop throughout the course of the season.
Jon Keller is a writer for www.rantsports.com. Follow him on twitter @jkell2005.
