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Contributed by:
Jeff Sperber
Last Updated: Sep 20, 2011 10:53 PM |
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Jamaal Charles tore his ACL; he's out for the year. Arian Foster injured his hamstring, tweeted a picture of it, then injured it again. Chris Johnson has fewer rushing yards than Chad Henne. The current rushing leader is Buffalo's Fred Jackson and Steve Smith, of the Carolina Panthers, leads the league in receiving yards. It's official, ladies and gentlemen, the fantasy football world has gone topsy-turvy!
What if you could do it all over? What if you had a time machine and could re-do your draft with what you know now? Well, you can't. Unless you really do have a time machine, but if you did, using it to go back in time and dominate your fantasy football draft probably isn't the first thing you'd think of doing.
So, who are the top players in fantasy football moving forward? While some players, like Adrian Peterson and Aaron Rodgers, were clearly in the Top 25 at the start of the year, many new players seem ready to join the fantasy elite.
The Top 25 Players for Fantasy Football
1. Tom Brady: It's pretty obvious Brady is number one. He has 940 passing yards in two games. 940! Can we please fast-forward to Week 5, so we can see him go up against the Jets secondary?
2. Adrian Peterson: The most consistent running back in the NFL the past few years has still got it. His team might not be good, but Peterson still gets plenty of carries, yards, and TDs.
3. LeSean McCoy: He's averaging 6.6 yards per carry and it's no fluke. The Eagles look like they'll score lots of points this season and many of their touchdowns, both rushing and receiving, will be courtesy of McCoy.
4. Ray Rice: Rice didn't have a great game against Tennessee, but when a not great game for a player is 96 all-purpose yards and a touchdown, you know he's pretty darn good.
5. Darren McFadden: He's going to touch the ball 20+ times a week. McFadden averaged 5.2 yards per carry last year and he's averaging 5.3 so far this season.
6. Aaron Rodgers: Through two games, Rodgers has 620 yards passing, has completed 70..8% of his passes, and has seven TDs and only two interceptions. And he hasn't come close to playing his best football yet.
7. Andre Johnson: Like Adrian Peterson is with running backs, Johnson is Mr. Consistent when it comes to his position. He had seven receptions for 95 yards and a touchdown in Week 1 and seven receptions for 93 yards and a touchdown in Week 2.
8. Calvin Johnson: Megatron hasn't gotten too much yardage so far this season, but what's important is that he's Stafford's go-to guy in the red zone. He has a league-leading four TDs. The yards will come.
9. Drew Brees: Brees has averaged 356.5 yards per game, having gone up against two 2010 playoff teams (Packers and Bears). He has yet to throw an interception.
10. Michael Turner: Turner was widely criticized before the start of the season since his yards per carry decreased last year. So far, Turner has proved doubters wrong, averaging 6.9 yards per carry. He's looking like a top tier RB.
11. Matt Forte: Talk about a duel threat. Forte has 207 receiving yards (9th in the NFL) in addition to 117 rushing yards. He's basically the Bears whole offense.
12. Kenny Britt: And we thought the Titans would be a running team this year. Britt has 271 yards and three touchdowns. It's looking more and more like this will be his breakout season.
13. Steve Smith: Smith has a league leading 334 receiving yards. Whether or not he can keep it up depends on Cam Newton.
14. Wes Welker: Tom Terrific shows no signs of slowing down and Wes Welker is his main target.
15. Mike Wallace: Wallace has eight receptions and over 100 yards in each of the Steelers first two contests.
16. Fred Jackson: Jackson has two games over 100 yards with a 6.5 rushing average and leads the entire NFL in rushing yards. Let's see if he can keep it up playing on a Bills' offense that's looking pretty good.
17. Michael Vick: As long as Vick doesn't miss more than a week or so because of his concussion, he remains a Top 25 fantasy player. He looks like he could be every bit the fantasy football weapon he was last season.
18. Matthew Stafford: We've always known Stafford had great potential and he's finally showing it. Let's hope he doesn't get hurt again.
19. Maurice Jones-Drew: MJD would do much better if he played on a team with any sort of passing attack. Still, he managed 88 yards against a very good Jets defense. Don't expect him to be getting too many touchdowns though.
20. Jason Witten: Witten led tight ends with 1,002 yards last year and had nine touchdowns. This year, he's leading TEs with 212 yards. Having a tight end like Witten is a huge advantage in fantasy football.
21. Rashard Mendenhall: Mendenhall hasn't done much so far this year, but he's a solid running back on a good football team. He should be fine.
22. Miles Austin: As of this publishing, it looks like Austin will miss time because of a hamstring injury Sunday. Otherwise, he'd be ranked much higher.
23. Philip Rivers: Rivers has 713 passing yards (3rd) and is second in completions with 62.
24. Ryan Fitzpatrick: Fitzpatrick is tied with Brady and Stafford for a league-leading seven touchdowns.
25. Cam Newton: I don't think anyone predicted Newton would have 854 passing yards after two games. Still, he makes rookie mistakes and has one more interception than touchdown.
The views and content in this article are not necessarily the opinion of Fantasy Football Champs, www.FFChamps.com, and its in-house experts.