Fantasy Football, Starter Rankings, Week 2: The Brandon Marshall Dilemma
By Jason Lisk
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The Chicago Bears don’t play until Sunday Night Football, so there won’t be any official word on whether Brandon Marshall or Alshon Jeffery is out until after all the day games have started. There has been a report that there is a 75% chance neither plays.
I have placed Marshall in my rankings, in the event he plays. I have put Santonio Holmes in as well, in place of Alshon Jeffery, and if both Marshall and Jeffery are out, I would bump Holmes up even higher, into a top 20 WR start.
There are a couple of ways you can go. If you are in a league with lineup changes to game time, and are fortunate enough to have another receiving option in the SF-CHI game (Boldin or Crabtree) or the IND-PHI game (Wayne, Cooper), you can wait to see, and adjust.
Or you can play it conservatively, and if you have another top 30 WR option, that’s probably what I would do.
Other notes:
- Carson Palmer is out, and Drew Stanton is starting. Palmer would have been in the low teens, and Stanton would fall outside my top 25.
- These rankings assume that Gerhart and Lacy are playing, and that DeAngelo Williams, Maurice Jones-Drew are out.
- For Matt Asiata, I think the issue is how many carries he gets versus Jerick McKinnon. I know Asiata had a high workload game last year, but that was because he was the only option with both Peterson and Gerhart out. With McKinnon, and a more diverse attack where they will likely lean more heavily on Patterson, I’m a little more conservative.
QUARTERBACKS
- Peyton Manning
- Drew Brees
- Andrew Luck
- Aaron Rodgers
- Matthew Stafford
- Matt Ryan
- Nick Foles
- Tom Brady
- Colin Kaepernick
- Andy Dalton
- Robert Griffin III
- Russell Wilson
- Jake Locker
- Cam Newton
- Jay Cutler
- Tony Romo
- Philip Rivers
- Alex Smith
- Ryan Tannehill
- Ryan Fitzpatrick
- Eli Manning
- Geno Smith
- E.J. Manuel
- Brian Hoyer
- Matt Cassel
RUNNING BACKS
- LeSean McCoy
- Matt Forte
- Giovani Bernard
- Marshawn Lynch
- Arian Foster
- Alfred Morris
- Montee Ball
- Jamaal Charles
- DeMarco Murray
- Knowshon Moreno
- C.J. Spiller
- Chris Johnson
- Andre Ellington
- Frank Gore
- Mark Ingram
- Shane Vereen
- Terrance West
- Pierre Thomas
- Joique Bell
- Rashad Jennings
- Eddie Lacy
- Doug Martin
- Darren Sproles
- Reggie Bush
- Zac Stacy
- Toby Gerhart
- Steven Jackson
- Isaiah Crowell
- Lamar Miller
- Johnathan Stewart
- Ryan Matthews
- Matt Asiata
- Chris Ivory
- Darren McFadden
- Ahmad Bradshaw
- Carlos Hyde
- Stevan Ridley
- Fred Jackson
- Khiry Robinson
- Trent Richardson
- Roy Helu
- Shonn Greene
- Robert Turbin
- Mike Tolbert
- Jeremy Hill
- Danny Woodhead
- Jacquizz Rodgers
- Latavius Murray
- C.J. Anderson
- Jerick McKinnon
WIDE RECEIVER
- Calvin Johnson
- A.J. Green
- Demaryius Thomas
- Julio Jones
- Jordy Nelson
- Dez Bryant
- Percy Harvin
- Randall Cobb
- Vincent Jackson
- Emmanuel Sanders
- Andre Johnson
- Roddy White
- Brandon Marshall+
- Cordarrelle Patterson
- Julian Edelman
- Pierre Garcon
- Michael Floyd
- Brandin Cooks
- Reggie Wayne
- Jeremy Maclin
- T.Y Hilton
- DeSean Jackson
- Kendall Wright
- Mike Wallace
- Keenan Allen
- Larry Fitzgerald
- Justin Hunter
- Andrew Hawkins
- Marques Colston
- Santonio Holmes (if Alshon Jeffery out, otherwise Jeffery here)
- Eric Decker
- Michael Crabtree
- Kelvin Benjamin
- Victor Cruz
- Anquan Boldin
- Golden Tate
- DeAndre Hopkins
- Greg Jennings
- Dwayne Bowe
- Rueben Randle
- Terrance Williams
- Mohamed Sanu
- Riley Cooper
- Allen Hurns
- Mike Evans
- Brian Quick
- Sammy Watkins
- Marqise Lee
- Rod Streater
- Robert Woods
TIGHT ENDS
- Jimmy Graham
- Julius Thomas
- Rob Gronkowski
- Greg Olsen
- Vernon Davis
- Martellus Bennett
- Zach Ertz
- Jason Witten
- Delanie Walker
- Kyle Rudolph
- Charles Clay
- Antonio Gates
- Travis Kelce
- Dwayne Allen
- Jared Cook
- Larry Donnell
- Marcedes Lewis
- Jermaine Gresham
- Niles Paul
- Levine Toilolo
- Ladarius Green
- Coby Fleener
- Zach Miller
- Garrett Graham
- Andrew Quarless