Thursday Night Football, which can be seen on the NFL Network every Thursday during the regular season, has become a minor controversy because of boring games and sloppy play. Not only is this affecting fans and players, but it’s annoying fantasy owners as well. The lack of production from the offense has been noticeable, but just how bad has it been? Let’s take a look…
I will disregard week 1’s thursday night game because both teams were given ample time to prepare beforehand.
Week 2- Patriots over Jets, 13-10
This was an ugly game. Tom Brady threw for 185 yards and 1 TD, while Geno Smith and the whole Jets offense struggled. Steven Ridley ran for 40 yards, and only Julian Edelman was relevant.
Week 3- Chiefs over Eagles, 26-16
The two top fantasy running backs LeSean McCoy and Jamaal Charles played well, but Michael Vick struggled with only 200 yards and 2 INTs and also fumbled.
Week 4- 49ers over Rams, 35-11
Frank Gore played great, but Colin Kaepernick struggled for fantasy owners as he put up 167 yards and 2 TDs. That’s not what you expect from your starting QB. The Rams were terrible, but nobody was really fantasy relevant on the team at the time.
Week 5- Browns over Bills, 37-24
This wasn’t a bad day for fantasy owners actually. Spiller scored a TD and Fred Jackson scored twice. Josh Gordon put up over 80 yards and a TD. Jordan Cameron did struggle, though.
Week 6- Bears over Giants, 27-21
WR superstar Brandon Marshall had a great day, but the whole Giants offense struggled. The rest of the Bears offense played okay.
Week 7- Seahawks over Cardinals, 34-22
The Seahawks shut down every fantasy relevant Cardinals player. The Cardinals did the opposite to the Seahawks, as Russell Wilson had a great day along with Marshawn Lynch.
Week 8- Panthers over Bucs, 31-13
Cam Newton had a great day, and Tim Wright, a popular TE pickup that week, showed up and scored a TD. Overall, it was a good game for fantasy owners.
Week 9- Dolphins over Bengals, 22-20
Andy Dalton was a bust, but Lamar Miller and Gio Bernard both had great games, while AJ Green had a solid game. Once again, not a bad day.
Summary-
The fantasy performances were underwhelming to begin the year on Thursday, with pretty much anyone that wasn’t a sure fire stud being irrelevant. This trend has started to decrease, as the fantasy production has picked up as the season has grown. The football is still sloppy, so perhaps this is why less mobile quarterbacks have struggled to produce as they can’t make broken plays into production. Running backs don’t seem to be affected by thursday nights, and of course, wide receiver production is usually directly correlated with the quarterback play. So in conclusion, if you have a wide receiver or running back playing on a thursday that usually is starting for your team, you are not benching him. Avoid flex-material players (outside the top 25 for their position), and if you can replace a non-mobile non-Peyton Manning quarterback, try your other options.
