Each week, TSN.ca Fantasy Editor Scott Cullen and NFL Editors Ben Fisher and Mike Hetherington discuss three hot fantasy football topics.
Can Doug Martin challenge Adrian Peterson as comeback fantasy RB of the year?
Cullen: I’m not prepared to give up on Stafford, because he has weapons – Calvin Johnson, Golden Tate, Eric Ebron (when healthy) – that should allow him to put up yardage. That doesn’t mean a free pass forever, though. I’d give him this week’s home game against the Bears as a last gasp before dropping him to the bench.
Fisher: After a slow start Martin has put together two monster weeks; I expect him to eventually settle in somewhere in between. So while it will be a nice bounce back season for the Bucs RB, I don’t think he’ll be able to keep pace with AD all year.
While there will be plenty of garbage yards to go around in Tampa Bay this season, most of them will come through the air, leaving Martin’s score uninflated.
With 70 points already in the bank, Martin will need to average around 10 points a game the rest of the year to finish as a Top 10 back; it’ll be tight but it’s definitely doable.
Are you giving up on Matt Stafford as a viable fantasy QB?
Cullen: For the first three weeks, Martin didn’t look like anything special, but in the past couple of weeks, he’s become the focal point of the Buccaneers’ offence, and that’s probably how it should have been from the get-go. He’s gained 301 yards on 52 touches and scored four touchdowns in the past two games and those numbers would push him past Peterson because that’s insane production. But let’s not diminish AP just because he was on a bye last week; he’s averaging 116.0 yards from scrimmage per game and that doesn’t seem to be an unsustainable level given his importance to the Minnesota offence.
Calvin Johnson is currently a low-end WR3 and their top two running backs – Theo Riddick and Ameer Abdullah – are in that range for RBs as well. None of us expect that to last all year so we shouldn’t expect Stafford to be this bad either. He’s no QB1, but should settle in as a high QB2 eventually.
Hetherington: While I'm not ready to drop Stafford just yet, owners will have to look the keep the quarterback on their bench until he proves he can put up solid numbers again. While he was benched by the Lions in a tough matchup against the Cardinals, it appears even a good matchup against the Bears is no sure thing for a big performance from Stafford.
Just a hot start for Antonio Gates? Or can the Chargers TE challenge the top guys at his position this year?
Fisher: In the tight end category, there’s Rob Gronkowski and then there is everybody else; and Gates can definitely challenge for top spot in ‘everybody else.’ He’s already halfway towards a Top 5 ranking, which could say as much about the uneven state of fantasy tight ends as it does Gates’ huge debut.
Backup Ladarius Green was averaging nearly nine points a game in weeks he played filling in for Gates, which suggests Gates’ big week is at least somewhat sustainable. Gates might not finish right behind Gronkowski, but he’s in my Top 5 moving forward.
Hetherington: I'm buying Gates as a strong TE1 for the remainder of the season. He showed immediate chemistry with Philip Rivers in first game back, and is likely to only improve upon on that down the stretch. Gates is my No. 5 tight end right now behind Gronkowski, Kelce, Olsen and Eifert. While Seahawks promise to get Jimmy Graham the ball, Gates is all but a guarantee to get it as long as Rivers is the quarterback. Rivers' numbers should also improve with the addition of his proven redzone option.