Football is back.
Fantasy football is back.
Hope your television sets and laptops got a nice rest this summer because Sundays are going to be the equivalent of two-a-days all fall and winter long as you furiously update your fantasy matchup pages.
With all but two games in the books from the NFL’s opening week, brand new fantasy stars have already emerged while some of the more reliable ones were nonexistent.
Only fantasy football can make you feel like a genius or a dolt in such dramatic and swift waves.
Alas, here are some of the best and worst fantasy performances from Week 1 of the NFL season:
Top Fantasy Performers
Kareem Hunt, RB, Kansas City Chiefs
Week 1 stats: 148 rush yards, 98 receiving yards, 3 total TD’s
Fantasy points: 40.6
No Spencer Ware, no problem for the Chiefs as the next-man-up mentality prevailed again in Week 1 against the New England Patriots.
Rookie rusher Kareem Hunt, in his NFL debut no less, torched the defending champions for 246 total yards and three scores:
The performance set a record for most points accrued in a professional debut, breaking Detroit Lions running back Billy Sims’ mark of 39.7 set back in 1980 against the Rams.
Alex Smith, QB, Kansas City Chiefs
Week 1 stats: 368 pass yards, 4 TD’s
Fantasy points: 31.02
This is one of the most un-Alex Smith performances you will ever see.
Entering the 2017 season, he had just six 300-yard passing performances in 142 career games. It built him the reputation of being a vanilla quarterback who thrived off short passes, which obviously isn’t great for fantasy football.
But then Week 1 happened and Smith went ballistic:
He had just two off-target passes the entire night and also became just the second quarterback in Chiefs franchise history to throw a pair of touchdowns that spanned 75 yards or more.
What are all those folks screaming for Patrick Mahomes to take the Kansas City starting job now?
Worst Fantasy Performers
Le’Veon Bell, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers
Week 1 stats: 32 rushing yards, 15 receiving yards
Fantasy points: 4.7
The writing was on the wall for Bell to have a down Week 1, especially when it comes to fantasy.
Pittsburgh had only activated him a day before the season opener against the Cleveland Browns and it was one of the first times he had actually worn pads after holding out during the offseason.
The Steelers didn’t look to keen on feeding him the ball though as he had just 13 touches (10 rush, 3 catches).
Is it time to panic? No, Bell is one of the most explosive players in the league. There just might be a frustrating acclimation period that will get him back up to full speed.
Andy Dalton, QB, Cincinnati Bengals
Week 1 stats: 170 passing yards, 0 TD’s, 4 INT’s
Fantasy points: -3
To the poor souls that thought it was a good idea to start Andy Dalton against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, I’m sorry.
Tying a career-high with four interceptions, Dalton put up a career-worst -3 fantasy points, which probably destroyed any hopes you had of winning your opening fantasy matchup.
The veteran looked lost as he could not find his rhythm or any way to find an opening within the Baltimore defense.
At least he gets to play a Houston Texans team that looked pretty dysfunctional themselves in Week 1.
