Week 1 Musings

Thoughts before the Sunday Nighter Ends, and before Monday Night Thunder- my week 1 observations:

-The biggest suprise of the week, to me, was not that Viano won, or had a good week, but by how much he outran everyone else. He could outscore the next closest team by 30 points. Granted, he won't get 20+ points from Willie Parker and Jimmy Smith every week, but jeez, even without them he wins by 20. The only bad thing (and it's a big one) is that WR1 Javon Walker could be lost for the season.

-Finishing the point above, Drew had a good week to have his bad week. Despite three key players on Monday night, the lead is pretty much insurmountable. Wolfman could bounce back against Stem next week. Donald Driver has all of a sudden become a very, very good keeper (see: Walker, Javon above)

-I don't want to throw a pity party (or a pants party) for the Gun, but he might have beaten 4 other teams this week. Daunte Culpepper had better not score in the negatives again if Eli wants to win, ever. Cadillac Williams is the best first rounder of the draft so far.

-Team most likely to get Thundered tomorrow: JR's. Donovan McNabb goes for Lincoln, and the lead for JR is probably going to be less than 20 after tonight. McNabb can make up for that and get a big win early.

-Champion's team has vaulted itself into the upper half, in my eyes. Kerry Collins and Randy Moss could be devastating as the year progresses. However, this team does have 5 QBs now, and I haven't checked, but I believe that this is the only club to bench a healthy keeper in week 1. Still, will end up with the #2 high score, and will have another key game against a playoff wannabe (Lincoln) in week 2.

-We all love Stem, but his recent performances do not inspire confidence in his abilty to build winners. He's the Matt Millen of the league right now. However, I really liked his draft this year, and think his RBs are in top3 in the league right now (behind mine and Viano's, with Gun's in the discussion) and an easy week 1 win has got to be nice to have. Baron's got some strong Thunder going, which has screwed Stem over and over again, but this lead seems safe. He can make a strong statement with a win over Wolfman next week. That statement will be: I'm not Matt Millen.

-JR and Lincoln's battle intrigued me, but to be honest, turned into a bit of a clunker. Just 5 players between the two teams scored in double digits, and one was a defender. Tomorrow will be interesting for nothing else than the fact that I think that the winner of this exact matchup will eventually determine a playoff spot for someone.

-As for my team, I'll stay away from turning into Bill Simmons, or at least I'll try. (If I ever refer to my team as "the champs", you can blindfold and beat me until I'm retarded) I liked my week, Tom Brady was a good call at QB, and will probably start again next week. I already hate myself for drafting Matt Hasselbeck over Marc Bulger. Domanick Davis can't score 2 pts again if I'm going to be successful. I also find myself struggling with the guy who could be the biggest wild card in the league- Larry Johnson. He's cautiously on the market right now. Ok, that's enough.

-One more thing, Steve Smith pleased me. That's all, forgive me.

-As far as the expansion teams go, their impact is definitely being felt on everyone's final tally. Last year 5-6 teams would put up 100+ points on a given week, with teams like Gun and Viano averaging 120+. That's not going to happen this year. Three teams are over 100 now, and no more are likely to reach it. As a matter of fact, 80 points could be enough to win some games this year. Explaining this drop in scoring is ridiculously simple: There aren't enough starting RBs to go around. There are 32 teams in the NFL, and 30 spots for starting runners in our league. After eliminating a few teams with terrible running games, there simply aren't enough RBs to go around. In addition, Flex spots are weaker as a result too. Teams that have 4 or more starting RBs (Gun, Ed, Viano, Drew) are at a big advantage.

That's all, week 1 recap is due out late on Tuesday, via the Gun.