Fantasy Football Week 1 best, worst and recap

Did you hear about high school football player Journey Brown this weekend? The Meadville High School (PA) running back racked up 722 yards with 10 touchdowns this past Friday. His team won 107-90 because defense is hard.

Some quick reading, writing and arithmetic tells us Brown would have posted 132 fantasy points by himself. That’s the good news. The bad (and really depressing news) is the 722 rushing yards in one game isn’t a high school record. New Jersey's John Giannantonio still owns the record of 754 yards from his memorable 1950 season. His friends and family just wished he would stop talking about it for one bleeping second.

Onto Week 1 fantasy football studs from the NFL! (All PPR)

Leave your Week 1 best and worst nominees in the comments section below!

Marcus Mariota – 33 Fantasy Points vs. Buccaneers

What a debut for the Titans rookie quarterback as he posted most of his fantasy stat line in the FIRST HALF against the Buccaneers. He finished with a perfect passer rating, which in fantasy football doesn’t matter unless that equates to 13-for-16 passing for 209 yards and -- count ‘em -- four touchdowns.

With the Browns' horrible secondary on the schedule next, expect Mariota to see his ownership and starting percentages soar in Week 2. He, James Jones and David Johnson will lead waiver wire claims this week. Book it!

Rob Gronkowski – 32.4 vs. Steelers

Remember opening night like three days ago? Feels like weeks have passed. Still, the Brady-to-Gronk tandem continues to pay shareholders huge dividends and, unlike last season, right away. Gronk didn’t catch his third touchdown until Week 4 and didn’t flirt with 100 receiving yards until week 5. He finished with three touchdowns and 94 receiving yards right off the bus. Brady is pissed. Gronk is a monster. Huge season ahead for the first-round tight end.

But Week 1 posed the question. Did owners have to burn a first-round draft pick to acquire TE1 fantasy production each week?

Tyler Eifert – 31.4 vs. Raiders

Granted, it was against a Raiders squad that still sucks on defense, allowed the 10th-most fantasy points to opposing TEs last season, and lost Derek Carr to injury during the game, but Eifert backed up the under-the-radar preseason hype with the best game of his career. In his 17th NFL game, and with Jermaine Gresham finally out of the picture, Eifert finished with nine receptions for 104 yards with two touchdowns. Not bad for a tight end with an average draft positon of well after the 10th round. He was owned in less than 50 percent of leagues before Sunday.

Travis Kelce – 28.6 vs. Texans

Kelce was pushing Gronk for the top fantasy tight end of Week 1 during the Chiefs’ first-half onslaught on the Texans. Kelce, a media darling among most fantasy pundits during draft season, finished with six receptions for 106 yards with two touchdowns. It is worth noting, however, that Jamaal Charles (8) and Jeremy Maclin (9) did see more targets than Kelce (6) in Week 1.

Nate Washington – 16.5 vs. Chiefs

One of the bigger surprises out of Week 1’s early games, Washington was a target machine when Brian Hoyer was behind center for the Texans.  Washington, the pride of the Tiffin Dragons, finished with six receptions for 105 yards on 11 targets. Only DeAndre Hopkins (Week 1 fantasy WR1 - 32.8) saw more targets.

James Jones – 21.1 vs. Bears

This is your friendly reminder that Jones’ return to the Packers does present an opportunity for a run back of his fantasy friendly 2012 campaign in Green Bay. He may have only finished with 784 receiving yards that season, but led the league with 14 touchdowns. Friendly, indeed.

In Week 1, Jones caught all four passes tossed his direction – and drew a big pass interference call late – en route to his 20+ fantasy point performance as a makeshift third wide receiver. Davante Adams saw eight targets and Randall Cobb, who is nursing a sore shoulder, saw five targets.

Keenan Allen – 31.6 vs. Lions

Not bad production for being held without a touchdown in Week 1. Allen finished with 15 receptions (17 targets) for 166 yards. Whatever gets the job done. Oh, and Philip Rivers completed 35 of 42 passes against the Lions for future friendly quarterback matchups.

LeSean McCoy – 11.7 vs. Colts

The 11.7 fantasy points isn’t the worst production in the world, but the red flags out of Buffalo are evident. McCoy finished with 17 carries for 41 yards. Karlos Williams finished with six carries for 51 yards including a 26-yard touchdown run. When the ball was on the Colts’ one, Boobie Dixon got the call as McCoy failed to escape the red zone vulture by relocating to Buffalo. But it was Tyrod Taylor’s nine rush attempts for 41 yards that were most concerning as it pertains to McCoy's rest-of-season value.

Now, all of these red flags could be picked up by some signs of life against a Patriots’ rush defense that allowed DeAngelo Williams to post 127 rush yards against it last Thursday. Time will tell if this is an overreaction, but I didn’t like McCoy’s 60 minutes on Sunday.  

Sammy Watkins – 0.0 vs. Colts

Wow. This isn’t a good sign either. Watkins only saw three targets, too. To think, I moved him up from mid-WR30s to WR26 because I thought I was being too harsh. Go with your gut moments win again. What doesn’t help is Percy Harvin caught all five targets for 79 yards with a touchdown from Taylor.

Greg Olsen – 2.1 vs. Jaguars

He had a BS offensive pass interference called on him that wiped out a touchdown early in the game against the Jaguars, but, like Watkins, Olsen only saw three targets. Ted Ginn and Jerricho Cotchery saw a combined 13 targets. I truly believed Olsen would be targeted 13 times. The defensive coordinator M-O against the Panthers must be “smother Olsen and let the rest beat you.” The Panthers won despite fewer total yards and first downs than the Jaguars. Jacksonville’s three turnovers killed its chances for the upset.

Calvin Johnson – 5.9 vs. Chargers

As I write this, Calvin is the WR52 in points scored for Week 1. He caught two passes for 39 yards on four targets. Four-4-IV targets. Calvin Johnson. Four targets. Last season, Johnson finished with fewer than four targets twice, but in both instances was either ACTIVE, but injured or left the game due to injury (ankle). However, in both of those games Golden Tate combined for 15 receptions for 250 receiving yards and a touchdown. Tate chipped in a paltry four receptions for 24 yards against the Chargers.

Julio Jones was a first-to-second round fantasy football draft pick, so while his Week 1 high-water mark of 35.1 is incredible work - owners would have probably aired him out for less against the Eagles secondary.