Week 2 Fantasy Football Advice: Sit Peyton Manning?
BOSTON (CBS) -- After a passing for just 175 yards and no touchdowns in a Week 1 win over the Baltimore Ravens, there are a lot of doubters out there when it comes to Peyton Manning.
And it's not just fantasy football owners, but they are the ones most concerned about Manning's noodle arm and inability to find the end zone last weekend (aside from Broncos fans, but who really cares about them in this part of the country?). Now, Manning has to hit the field on a short week with a Thursday night showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs (a game you can catch tonight on WBZ-TV/CBS), who had an impressive win over the Houston Texans in Week 1.
So what do fantasy owners do with Peyton Manning this week? CBS Sports' fantasy football expert Dave Richard joined Toucher & Rich on Thursday for his weekly call into the show, and said to stay away from Manning this week, but all is not lost for the rest of the season.
"This is good news and bad news, because the bad news is he looked like crap last week but I don't think the problem is Peyton as much as his offensive line," said Richard. "Once he gets that offensive line to block for him, he needs that extra second and at 39-years-old he doesn't like the pass-rush in his face. There were two plays [against Baltimore] were he nearly had deep touchdowns to Emmanuel Sanders, their timing is just off."
Richard does think Manning owners will get much better performances in the coming weeks, with an easier schedule coming up with games against the Lions, Vikings and Raiders.
Richard has Drew Brees as his top quarterback this week: "He's playing Tampa Bay and they suck."
For that very reason he says to be cautious of rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota, who torched the Bucs for 209 yards and four touchdowns last week in his NFL debut. Richard said Mariota isn't a bad backup to have on your roster, because someone will eventually want to trade for the rookie, but he isn't expecting another monster game in Week 2 against a better Cleveland Browns defense.
Listen to the full podcast for all of Richard's Week 2 advice, including his thoughts on Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr.: