Here are my quick reactions to Sunday’s early slate of games:

That’s the Cam Newton I remember. As soon as Newton jumped over the pile for the game’s first touchdown on Sunday, I knew vintage Newton was back. How classic was that stat line? Just 226 yards passing, but three touchdown passes to go with 83 rushing yards and a touchdown running. If you were riding Newton at quarterback all year, you may not be in the playoffs. But if you found an alternate option and hung on to Cam, this might just be the boost you need to get you to a title.

 

Heck, same goes for Jonathan Stewart. That is, assuming DeAngelo Williams misses more time. Stewart’s looked good most of the season, but isn’t a trustworthy option with Williams in the mix. Take him out, though, and even with Mike Tolbert and Fozzie Whittaker around to poach touches, Stewart is a strong play against soft run defenses—like the upcoming Tampa Bay Bucs and Cleveland Browns, for instance.

 

Meanwhile, Kenny Stills broke a lot of fantasy hearts in this game. He’s been so consistent since the loss of Brandin Cooks that it was difficult NOT to start him at home in a good matchup, but the Carolina defense came to play and Drew Brees struggled to get anything going. The risk is always there for Stills, as Brees threw at least one pass to 11 different receivers. He’s an equal opportunity passer, which exposes all of his targets to risk as fantasy assets. That holds true even for Jimmy Graham, though the disappointment in this one comes with a silver lining—assuming you advance in your fantasy playoffs despite Graham. The tight end had a team-high 11 targets—his most since Week 10 and his third highest total of the season.

 

The Pittsburgh/Cincinnati game was supposed to be a relatively low-scoring affair featuring a lot of running. Well, Le’Veon Bell did a lot of running, certainly, but Big Ben had a HUGE day with 350 yards and three touchdowns. Antonio Brown remains a must-start stud, and Martavis Bryant once again showed off his boom/bust ways with a 94-yard touchdown boom to make his final line 4-109-1. Still, with just six targets, its difficult to like Bryant as anything more than a risk/reward WR3 going forward.

 

For the second straight week, Andy Dalton rushed for a touchdown while Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard didn’t. The duo combined for just over 100 combo yards, which would be fine if it was just one guy. Instead, both Bernard and Hill are no more than flex plays going forward with Hill getting the slight edge because he continues to get a few more looks per game.

 

Pierre Garcon and Jordan Reed do a lot of the same things, so in a matchup where the opponent is stout against the tight end I suppose it’s no surprise that it was Garcon who came out of hibernation to put up a decent fantasy day. As long as DeSean Jackson remains out, Garcon is a WR3 option. Reed falls into that huge group of tight ends with lots of upside, and lots of downside.

 

There was all sorts of pregame consternation regarding Rashad Jennings, who was active for the Giants against the Titans. But Andre Williams was listed as the starter and got a starter’s workload, with Jennings earning just three touches to Williams’ 27. My gut feeling on this is that Tom Coughlin knew early that his team would have little trouble with the Titans, so fed Williams to keep Jennings healthy to reinsert as the starter next week. Williams looked as good as he has all season, but I’m chalking that up to Tennessee’s defense. If Jennings practices all week and is listed as the starter next Sunday, I’m going right back to him.

 

We can stop talking about Bishop Sankey now, right? Shonn Greene was out, the Giants are a bad run defense, and the top two Titans receivers were also out. Sankey got what should have been an expected 11 touches, and did what should have been expected nothing with them.

 

A week after throwing six touchdowns, Ryan Fitzpatrick threw zero. In his defense, he only had to throw the ball 19 times, and managed to run one in himself to salvage some bit of value. He nearly had one to DeAndre Hopkins, but the second-year receiver was ruled down at the one. That would’ve made another solid day for Hopkins, who instead was a disappointment overall. But, that’ll happen when your team can run the ball 42 times against a bad run defense. This doesn’t impact my view of Hopkins the final few weeks.

 

The Lions are exactly who we thought they were in this game with Reggie Bush back in the mix. Bush did next to nothing, as expected, Matt Stafford threw jump balls to Calvin Johnson, who caught them, and Joique Bell ground out 133 combo yards and managed a couple of touchdowns. Bell especially has come on as of late, making himself an easy RB2 going forward.

 

Mike Evans caught another two touchdowns because that’s what Mike Evans does, but Josh McCown has brought Vincent Jackson’s stock back up with a 10-catch, 159-yard day. Jackson’s still a high-end WR3/flex option for the most part, but if he can do this against Detroit on the road, I wouldn’t worry about his remaining opponents negatively impacting his (or Evans’) value.

 

If you started Isaiah Crowell, congratulations on the touchdown. But once again the touches were basically split with Terrence West. So if you’re relying on Crowell going forward, just know there’s a chance West gets the next trip into the end zone and Crowell leaves you with a disappointing five or six fantasy points.

 

The Colts’ passing game turned out to be exactly the opposite of what I thought it would. With Joe Haden on TY Hilton I thought Andrew Luck would exploit matchups and pump up the stats of Reggie Wayne, Donte Moncrief and Dwayne Allen. Instead, the former and latter caught one pass for five yards, and Moncrief managed just 33 yards. Hilton? 10-150-2. Hilton is the kind of guy who can take advantage of Haden with his speed and good hands, but that was an incredible effort even by his own high standards.

 

Of course Percy Harvin went back to Minnesota and caught six balls for 124 yards and a touchdown a week after the Jets only threw 13 passes. I couldn’t trust Harvin enough to recommend him to anyone, and even after this don’t trust him enough to recommend him to anyone next week.