The Reclamation of Randy Moss and other thoughts from Week One

Wow. That's all I can say. Wow.

Ok, perhaps I can say a little more. When the Patriots traded a fourth round pick for Randy Moss last April, it was viewed as a brilliant move by a few and a travesty by many. Coming off his two miserable seasons in Oakland in which he was injured often and frequently displayed a poisonous attitude, he was largely written off by the experts as a player who had wasted the prime years of his career. Never again would the fans be treated to the sight of him scoring highlight reel touchdowns.

"How you like me now?"- LL Cool J

Granted, his offensive explosion came against the hapless Jets, so I'm not quite ready to recommend him as an automatic start in every game this season. However, it wasn't so much his impressive statistics (9 catches for 183 yards and a touchdown) as it was the way in which Tom Brady utilized him. Since he was given ample time against the pathetic New York pass rush, Brady's first look almost always seemed directed to Moss. Brady is usually thought of as a QB who will use every receiver available to him, making no particular New England WR a great fantasy play. Is he that type of quarterback or could it be that he just never had a #1 target with the prodigious skill of Moss to play with? This situation bears watching.

Other thoughts on week 1:

-I am not an alarmist by any means. But any Jet fan who watched the game yesterday has to be hearing warning bells going off in his brain today. From Chad's ankle injury to the inability of the defense to stop the Patriots, there was a lot to be depressed about. Scary thought: New England is not even the best defense in the AFC. Baltimore looms and it will not be pretty no matter who is under center.

-Is it too much of a conspiracy theory to think that Atlanta is going to tank the season so that Brian Brohm (the likely #1 pick of next year's draft) can be reunited with his college coach Bobby Petrino? Atlanta looked worse than Oakland or Detroit yesterday.

-Welcome back, Chris Brown. Nice one. The over/under on you getting banged up is two more games. Boy, won't all those fantasy owners who jumped on your bandwagon feel foolish then?

- The Giants defense may stink, but they showed a lot of heart last night and nearly gave me a heart attack since my opponent in my fantasy league had Plaxico Burress. If Jason hadn't benched Eli Manning, I'd have been a dead duck for sure.

-As far as my start/sit options from Saturday went, I blew it with my Kitna, Deion Branch (zero catches...hey Lama, how about a little something, you know, for the effort?) and Jax defense picks. But I'll give myself a pat on the back for Lee Evans, KC defense and Eli Manning. Just goes to show that predicting much of fantasy football is as much of a safe bet as winning the Powerball lottery.

-I'll give $500 cold hard cash to any fantasy owner in the world who had Derrick Ward in their starting lineup last night (offer expires at 2pm today).