The Football Diaries: Week 1 Recap
The Football Diaries is a weekly segment in which I break down a cash game lineup and a GPP lineup I used in the previous week. I’ll attempt to show what my mindset was heading into the games and how those decisions ultimately turned out. I believe the decision making process is the most important thing in DFS and not necessarily the actual outcome. Hopefully reading this can help with roster construction in some way, either through my good rosters or even learning from my bad ones.
Cash Game Team
Tony Romo
I clearly fell into the trap of thinking this would be a game where Dallas fell behind and then Romo would rack up garbage stats trying to comeback. I think in general the sentiment was right, but normally I would have not attacked the 49ers defense. Perhaps their demise on defense was slightly overblown. Lesson learned.
Jamaal Charles
What can you say? I typically like to rock out 2 solid RB’s in my cash games and Jamaal fit the bill as a top notch play Sunday. I wouldn’t look to deep into his lack of usage though. Andy Reid knows he made a mistake and I would almost guarantee the Walrus finds a way to get Jamaal more touches than he can handle coming up.
LeSean McCoy
Shady is an example of why I like to play these elite RB’s in cash games. Even in a “disappointing” day they can still salvage a decent stat line more times than not (Jamaal being the exception this week).
WR’s
To me, Crabtree was the biggest bust on my team. I expected so much more out of him. He’s just generally a great WR when healthy and with Kaep at QB. Instead we saw two TD’s go to Vernon, and a majority of receptions go to Boldin. We even saw a sprinkle of Stevie Johnson and Brandon Lloyd. I am seriously worried about the depth at pass catcher moving forward when dealing with Crabtree’s outlook.
Further analyzing my utilization of Crabtree, I had way to much exposure to him. His poor performance actual kept me from an Atlantis seat. I needed a 14.5 game in DK PPR format and only got a 4.5 from him. However I can’t complain because it was the same style that netted me the huge week 9 last year with Andre Johnson.
Sanders settled in pretty nicely around where I thought he could. He’s never going to rack up TD’s in this offense, but he can be a yardage machine when game-flow dictates.
Colston is a guy I never play. I have stated many times that his fantasy consistency is terrible. He’s strictly a GPP play most weeks. However I heard him being touted a bit around the industry and decided to fire him up in a cash game. He was decent enough with the 110 yards, but I really have no more use for him. I saw what I needed to see with the Saints offense and I am leaving Colston to the big tourneys from here on out.
Tournament Team
Matt Ryan
I was derailed from the Matt Ryan train as this past week went on. It just so happened I made this team on Tuesday, and so I left him in. I can tell because that was the day I was in my Detroit Lions Defense phase. That changed also later in the week. Ryan was a QB, at home in a projected shootout. He paid off and will have a solid year as long as Julio stays healthy. He actually had the type of game flow that I expected from Romo.
Matt Forte
His end result did not disappoint although I expected a TD out of him this week. The Bears have a ton of weapons on this team though, and unlike other stud RB’s, Forte’s TD’s will be inconsistent from week to week. Some weeks he’ll get shutout of the end zone and others he will have 2 or 3 TD’s. He makes for a great GPP play.
Brandin Cooks
I was higher on Cooks in the PPR format but I can certainly live with his result in any style. I didn’t expect a TD given his size and the other big targets the Saints have in the red zone. The kid will be a force going forward but this is still the Saints and I have my doubts about week to week consistency outside of Jimmy Graham.
Markus Wheaton
It’s a GPP so you have to go out on a limb at times. In hindsight the minimum salary WR decision would have best paid off using Hurns, who was on my radar, but I heard great things about Wheaton coming into this game. I’d say he performed “fair”, but at 12.7 points you better nail some great games out of the higher salary guys and I didn’t do it. Crabtree sunk this team.
Julius Thomas
He was a top 2-3 TE going into this game, depending on the health of Gronk. Turns out he was the top guy after this weekend with a monster 1st half in Denver. He’ll have a great year and now everyone will jump all over him next week. Considering that Demaryius Thomas will not get shut out to many times this year it may be a good time to fade Orange Julius next game. However we have plenty of time to figure that out.