The Rundown: Week 2

Sep 16, 2020

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The inaugural week of this year’s NFL season is both a relief and what feels like the most anticipated opening that doesn’t feature the Avengers in years. As expected, we saw a lot of offense with some huge passing performances, but as always, a few surprises as well. Unfortunately, we also saw some players go down with Marlon Mack and Blake Jarwin among the early sufferers of season-ending injuries. It’s not the time to panic but even one week can give us some early signs of what’s to come.

Some of our trending players did well last week with Cam Newton and Gardner Minshew putting up QB1 performances. Running back didn’t do nearly as well with Tarik Cohen and James Conner flopping hard. Let’s also pat ourselves on the back for Noah Fant while thoughtlessly ignoring the DeAndre Hopkins Week 1 hate.

Like last year, this article will leverage the wide array of 4for4’s data library including snaps, touches, targets, fantasy scoring, and red zone information. Lucky for you, this article will put everything in one place in time for those weekly matchup decisions.

Quarterbacks Trending Up

Matt Ryan, Atlanta Falcons

It’s easy to point to a quarterback who just threw for 450 yards as a player on the rise, but Week 1 served as a reminder of what Ryan can do with a full slate of weapons. He supported three top-15 fantasy wide receivers, as Julio Jones (second), Calvin Ridley (ninth), and Russell Gage (15th) all had 12 targets each. Now, he gets a Cowboys defense that gave up nearly 300 yards to Jared Goff and has the highest total betting line (52.5 points) of the week. Bet on the gunslinger in the shootout to get a second top-12 finish in as many weeks.

Teddy Bridgewater, Carolina Panthers

Similar to Matt Ryan, Bridgewater has a strong set of weapons at the wide receiver position and it showed early. He targeted three different wide receivers at least eight times on his way to a QB15 finish in fantasy. The touchdown upside will be limited with Christian McCaffrey around, but there’s room for growth. A Week 2 matchup against the Buccaneers has them as a significant underdog and could force the Panthers to ratchet up the passing volume, which could have him surpass the 4for4 ranking this week that’s currently outside the top-24.

Quarterbacks Trending Down

Carson Wentz, Philadelphia Eagles

The flop against Washington looked bad and Wentz was the primary culprit. He struggled immensely with pressure and struggled to consistently find his receivers. A few big plays were nice, more on that later, but Wentz can’t be fantasy relevant relying on dump-off passes, especially if Miles Sanders returns as a red-zone threat. The Rams did a pretty good job keeping the Cowboys out of the end zone despite giving up over 400 total yards of offense. Another bend, don’t break week will make Wentz a tough start for fantasy players.

Jimmy Garoppolo, San Francisco 49ers

It’s hard to be excited when Kendrick Bourne and Trent Taylor combine for 10 of the 11 wide receiver targets in a given week. Even with a Jets defense in Week 2, Garoppolo will be hard to start as the team is likely going to lean heavily once again on the run game and keep his role limited. If a fantasy player is looking at other waiver wire options, Garoppolo is far from bulletproof in shallower 1QB leagues.