2011 Preseason Week-2 Broncos vs. Bills – Fantasy Football Notes

 – Donald Jones (0 rec, 2 targets) is one of our proposed sleeper WRs for 2011, and he left this game with a concussion and is going to miss the rest of the preseason. Jones was one of our higher rated college WRs in 2010, despite his UDFA status. This will be a mild setback for his 2011. Jones is a late-round worthy Fantasy Football pick for a PPR-league with a Flex/3rd-WR position.

 – Bills rookie RB Johnny White (1 rec for -1 yards) left the game in a stretcher. Our computer analysis projects White as a high-probable NFL “bust” RB.

 – The most talented Bills RB (by far) is C.J. Spiller (6 carries for 10 yards, 2 rec for 11 yards on 2 targets). Spiller’s stats in this game didn’t look great, but we blame that on a terrible Bills O-Line. Spiller had as nice a run (14-yards) through traffic as you will see. CJ Spiller is an elite-level talent, available for Fantasy Football at a discount — he is worth the mid-round Fantasy Football Draft gamble. The downside is the bad O-Line and a bad 2nd-half schedule (Jets 2x, Weeks 9 & 12). Fred Jackson (4 carries for 34 yards, 2 rec for 13 yards) is a solid NFL RB, and he may be the stated starter…but the future and talent-upside is Spiller.

 – Broncos rookie TE Julius Thomas (2 rec for 12 yards, 2 targets) started in this game, and made the Broncos very first catch on the first play. That was a mild shock to see him in that early. We are much higher (long-term) on Broncos rookie TE Virgil Green (DNP).

 – Kyle Orton (10-13 for 135 yards, 1 TD/0 INT) gets nowhere near the credit for how good an NFL QB he is. Orton has a great schedule start with OAK-CIN-TEN…after that it’s trouble with GB-SD-BYE-MIA-DET.

 – Brad Smith (4-4 for 34 yards passing, 4 rushes for 34 yards) is seeing a lot of time as the “wildcat” type player. It’s hard enough to come by stats for Fantasy Football on the Bills, now Brad Smith is going to come in and steal some output. Smith is a unique weapon in the NFL, but we don’t see the usefulness for Fantasy Football.

 – Knowshon Moreno (6 carries for 28 yards, 2 rec for 21 yards) started and looked good as usual…but Willis McGahee (5 carries for 6 yards, 1 TD and 2 rec for 33 yards and 1 TD) looks equally as good as Moreno, and now we see McGahee being integrated into the passing game. The walls are closing in on Knowshon Moreno’s Fantasy Football value outside of a PPR league. Moreno may run for 1,000+ yards, catch for another 400+…and score only 3-4 TDs on the season with McGahee and Tim Tebow stealing all the close TDs (and that’s how Moreno gets his rushing TDs to date in the NFL).