Week 1 Reactions: Where are the WR Points?

The Replacements

Fantasy success, whether in season-long or daily, almost always involves picking up the right replacement player. Rarely does someone win a fantasy league with only the players he drafted (outside of MFLs, of course), and we've all heard stories of people who rode guys they picked up off the waiver wire to a championship. Whether it was David Johnson and DeAngelo Williams last year, Odell Beckham the year before or Kurt Warner in 1999, being able to identify a player who is moving up the depth chart early is key to success.

After some limited success last year filling in for the injured Jamaal Charles, Spencer Ware exploded Sunday against the Chargers, finishing with 11 carries for 70 rushing yards and a touchdown and adding seven catches on eight targets for 129 receiving yards. There was some talk earlier in the week that Ware could split touches with Charcandrick West, but that failed to come to fruition, as the latter lost one yard on three carries while catching all six of his targets for 24 receiving yards. With Charles still working his way back from a torn ACL and Ware's early success, there's little reason to think he won't continue to get a bulk of the Chiefs' backfield touches. With that said, their Week 2 matchup against the Texans in Houston isn't an easy matchup to exploit.

Speaking of finding the right replacement, fantasy owners with Keenan Allen will have to do just that. The Chargers' wideout suffered what is believed to be a torn ACL during Sunday's game against the Chiefs, which came after he missed half of last season with a lacerated kidney. Allen was a strong fantasy producer last year, catching 67 passes on 89 targets for 725 yards and four touchdowns before the season-ending injury. Unfortunately for fantasy players, getting another Chargers wideout did little to make up for the loss of Allen, as running back Danny Woodhead was the only player on the team to finish with more receiving yards than Allen by season's end.

That looks like it could happen again this year, as Woodhead will be heavily relied upon in the passing game to help fill Allen's void. However, Woodhead's rushing upside isn't nearly as attractive as it looked a few weeks ago.

After famously going his entire rookie season without a touchdown, 2015 first-round pick Melvin Gordon finally found the end zone not once, but twice Sunday. Gordon wasn't going to go another full season without a touchdown, but it's certainly encouraging to fantasy owners that he broke through in Week 1, giving head coach Mike McCoy every reason to keep him on the field. However, given Allen's injury, it seems entirely possible that Gordon and Woodhead could be productive fantasy options this year, though Woodhead will likely see a dip in goal-line touches if Gordon can continue to bang them in.

Spreading It Around

There has been no shortage of writing about how wide receivers have become more important than running backs in fantasy drafts, which is why we saw Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham and Julio Joneslead the ADP race, while the position had more spots in the top-20 than any other. However, our first full Sunday of the regular season saw quarterbacks spread their touchdowns around pretty significantly, with only two quarterbacks throwing multiple touchdowns to a wideout.

Drew Brees had a monster opening day, passing for 423 yards and four touchdowns, with Brandin Cooks (ADP: 29.76, WR-14) catching six of nine targets for 143 yards and two TDs, while Willie Snead (111.06, WR-42) led the team with nine catches (on nine targets) for 172 yards and a score (running back Travaris Cadet has the other Brees TD). Cooks and the Cardinals' Larry Fitzgerald (eight catches on 10 targets for 81 yards) were the only wide receivers to score multiple times despite 19 other wideouts getting at least nine targets.

Two other players had multiple receiving touchdowns Sunday: Titans running back DeMarco Murray and Colts tight end Jack Doyle. Murray's scores were quarterback Marcus Mariota's only touchdown passes, while Doyle caught half of Andrew Luck's scores, with the others going to wideout Donte Moncrief and tight end Dwayne Allen. Of that group, Moncrief had the most receiving yards (64), though he was third on the team behind Phillip Dorsett (94) and T.Y. Hilton (79).

Hilton is on a list fantasy owners don't want him to be on, as he is among a group of wide receivers whose quarterbacks threw multiple touchdowns Sunday but not to their top wideout:

• Odell Beckham: Eli Manning threw three touchdowns passes, but they went to Sterling Shepard (43 yards for the game), Victor Cruz (34) and Larry Donnell (15)
• Brandon Marshall: Ryan Fitzpatrick's passes went to to Quincy Enunwa (54) and Eric Decker (37)
• Golden Tate: Matthew Stafford's scores were to Theo Riddick (63), Ameer Abdullah (57) and Eric Ebron (46)

This isn't to say that we were all wrong to write that top wideouts were better choices than top running backs, as A.J. Green (12 catches for 180 yards and one touchdown), Jordan Matthews (seven catches for 114 yards and one touchdown) and Mike Evans (five catches for 99 yards and one touchdown) showed what a top wideout can do, but with only five players having at last 100 yards and a touchdown (Evans came up just short of this completely arbitrary barrier), it's clear we'll see many more fantasy wins come with players like Mohamed Sanu (five catches for 80 yards and one touchdown).

And for those looking for the other quarterbacks who threw multiple touchdowns but to different receivers, here you go:

• Jameis Winston: Mike Evans (99 yards for the game), Charles Sims (32), Austin Seferian-Jenkins (30), Brandon Myers (four)
• Aaron Rodgers: Davante Adams (50), Jordy Nelson (32)
• Brock Osweiler: Will Fuller (107), DeAndre Hopkins (54)
• Carson Wentz: Jordan Matthews (114), Nelson Agholor (57)
• Matt Ryan: Mohamed Sanu (80), Julio Jones (66)
• Alex Smith: Jeremy Maclin (63), Tyreek Hill (nine)