3 days Ago By Jake Kleiner
Washington Commanders WR Terry McLaurin is struggling. Kansas City Chiefs TE Travis Kelce had his worst game in the Mahomes era. Colts QB Anthony Richardson's turnovers are hindering his fantasy stability.
Week 2 of the NFL Fantasy Football season brought its fair share of surprises, and not all were pleasant. For many fantasy managers, the frustration of watching top-tier players underperform can feel like a gut punch, especially when those players were expected to be reliable weekly starters. This past week was particularly rough for a few prominent names projected to be game-changers but delivered subpar performances that left fantasy rosters in the dust.
This article will examine four players' Week 2 performances, determining what went wrong and whether their struggles are cause for long-term concern or simply early-season anomalies. Let's dominate all season long with these weekly fantasy football rankings. 1 Terry McLaurin, WR, WAS Terry McLaurin has had an underwhelming start to his 2024 NFL season.
McLaurin entered the season as a highly touted player in fantasy and real life. He has suffered from weak quarterback play for the majority of his career and has never finished below the WR30 rank in fantasy leagues (he is in his sixth NFL season). This year was expected to be different, as McLaurin was set to receive passes from the reigning Heisman winner and the second overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, Jayden Daniels.
However, things have not gone according to plan. In Week 1, he was virtually invisible, racking up only two targets for 17 yards, equaling 3.7 fantasy points (PPR).
In Week 2, he was a little bit more involved in his team’s offensive scheme, accumulating six targets for 22 yards (8.2 fantasy points). This is due to a combination of Daniel’s inability to hit his receivers that well yet and McLaurin's struggle to create space between defenders and himself.
Luckily for McLaurin’s fantasy managers, he is too talented of a player to give up on and start panicking about. The steady improvement from Week 1 to Week 2 shows promise; however, he needs to do better to prove that he deserves to be back in your starting lineup (and he sure will). Consider keeping him on your bench and monitoring his status next week.
2 Travis Kelce, TE, KC Travis Kelce was awful in Week 2 and contributed almost nothing to the Kansas City Chiefs offense. He finished the day with one reception and five receiving yards, good for 1.5 fantasy points.
This was the worst game Kelce has ever played in the Patrick Mahomes era. This ghastly performance came after Week 1 when Kelce was better but still not up to his standards . He recorded three receptions for 34 yards in that game.
Kelce’s start to the year is a shock to almost everyone in the fantasy world, as he was a consensus top-3 tight end entering the drafting season. He also has a ridiculous fantasy resume, finishing as the number-one-ranked tight end in six of the last eight seasons. Still, it is hard to doubt that Kelce will bounce back, especially because of the man throwing him the ball.
He is just too damn talented not to step up and start making plays. Fantasy managers should continue to start Kelce in Week 3 and then formulate their opinion on his season after that game. 3 Anthony Richardson, QB, IND After a tremendous Week 1 performance, where he accumulated 27.
08 fantasy points, Anthony Richardson struggled in Week 2. He threw for 204 yards and one touchdown and rushed for 56 yards, but threw three interceptions and fumbled twice (for a total of 12.86 fantasy points).
The reality is that there was an opportunity for him to exceed his Week 1 total in fantasy points in Week 2; however, the sloppy mistakes became the story of the game (and Richardson's narrative heading into Week 3). Two of Richardson’s three interceptions came deep in the Green Bay Packers territory, and his Indianapolis Colts offense only managed to score ten points because of that. Richardson is the literal definition of a boom-or-bust fantasy player.
He has so much explosive talent that can win you your fantasy week, yet he lacks the experience it takes to do that every week. After all, he has only made six career NFL starts. Still, this past weekend was eye-opening for Richardson fantasy managers, as it turns out he may not be the sure thing they all thought he would be.
With that being said, though, it is still too early to give up on him and sell all of your stock. Consider starting him again in Week 3 and reevaluating after that. 4 Zamir White, RB, LV Zamir White , who was slated as the Las Vegas Raiders’ RB1 heading into the 2024 NFL season, is off to a very rough start.
In Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens, White rushed for 24 yards (2.7 yards per carry) and had three receptions for 14 yards, which was good for 6.8 fantasy points.
That was a slight improvement over his Week 1, where he only had 4.6 fantasy points, but still, not very good. The expectations for White were high entering this year as he had a strong finish to end the 2023 NFL season.
His ADP reflected that, as fantasy managers selected him around 66th overall in their drafts. There is cause for concern with White. He has been ineffective so far and has averaged so few yards per carry through his first two games.
The Raiders also have a very capable backup running back in Alexander Mattison, who has outplayed White so far. There is obviously a chance that he will bounce back. However, he is beginning to look like a major bust candidate, and fantasy managers should consider all their future options concerning White.
All statistics used in this article are taken from Pro Football Reference and Fantasy Pros . After Khalil Shakir's massive performance during the Bills' Week 2 win, he looks like a player you should be targeting immediately..
