Fantasy Football Sneaky Starts: Week 2

Sep 16, 2011

John Paulsen, Contributing Editor

Grossman

As injuries and bye weeks pile up, all but the luckiest fantasy owners will at some point need to find the proverbial diamond in the rough -- a waiver wire player who is capable of putting up some points in a pinch. This feature is dedicated to that part of fantasy football. It's not pretty, but it's part of the game. Here are a few guys that look like sneaky good starts in Week 2.

QUARTERBACKS

Rex Grossman, Redskins

Grossman is still available in almost 90% of ESPN fantasy leagues. In four starts with the Redskins, he has averaged 286 yards and 2.3 pass TDs (versus 1.0 INTs). That's QB1-type production. I know, I know. Rex Grossman is not a good NFL QB, but he has been a good fantasy QB, and that's all that should matter to us. Whatever is going on with Grossmann and the Shanahans is working, at least for now. So ride the wave. (Plus, the Cardinals were dreadful against the pass last week.)

Ryan Fitzpatrick, Bills

After his four-TD outburst against the Chiefs, Fitzy is still available in almost half of ESPN leagues. He faces the Raiders this week, and after losing Nnamdi Asomugha during the offseason, Oakland is no longer a scary matchup for fantasy QBs. Kyle Orton threw for 300+ yards and a TD against the Raiders on Monday night, and there's no reason that Fitzpatrick can't put up good numbers as well.

Chad Henne, Dolphins

Henne threw for 416 yards and two scores against the Patriots in Week 1 and completed better than 61% of his passes. He has a pretty good receiving corps in Brandon Marshall, Davone Bess, Brian Hartline, Reggie Bush and Anthony Fasano. And he has a matchup with the historically bad-against-the-pass Texans in Week 2. Houston is improved on that side of the ball, but this is still shaping up to be a high scoring game.