Fantasy Insider: Confusion in the Cassel Era

So far, this year's fantasy football season has been a jumble of surprises. Old faces have fallen, new faces have risen, and if you want to keep up and secure your cash winnings, bucket of chicken, tin foil trophy or whatever it is you play for, you need to throw your previous knowledge and convictions out the window, and get in the game.

The most burning question on one out of every 10 to 12 fantasy owner's minds is: Do I have a shot after losing Tom Brady? A first-rounder in most leagues, Tom Brady played for about eight minutes, getting you a little less than two fantasy points before dealing you a heavy blow with his season-ending knee injury. But is all hope lost? Absolutely not. There are several good quarterbacks out there, and although none of them will put up the numbers that Brady did last year, there's a good chance that New England's golden boy wasn't going to repeat his epic performance this year anyway.

I'd recommend previous Brady owners pick up Matt Cassel, New England's current starter. Even after his debut victory over the Jets, Cassel is a huge question mark, an unproven talent who could flop or explode. Keep in mind, he has some pretty serious artillery in wide receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker, and he's got the ability to get them the ball. Whatever those two do after that, still counts for your yardage and touchdown points. To play devil's advocate, it is pretty sad when a player is being discussed on NFL Sunday Countdown, and ESPN has to dig up video clips from the Little League World Series to show his ability. On the plus side, when Cassel has started, he's undefeated throughout his entire collegiate and professional career. The Cassel question is a roll of the dice. Go with your instinct.

For the other nine to 11 fantasy owners who don't give a hoot about anything I've just said, here's a breakdown by position of the first two weeks' breakouts, duds and surprises:

Quarterbacks: Someone needs to do some investigative journalism and find out what Mrs. McNabb is putting in Donovan's Chunky Soup, because this is not the Eagles quarterback of old. Donovan tore up the Rams in Week 1, and managed to put up decent numbers against a defense-on-fire in Dallas this Monday. A QB who can run and throw just about equally well is a fantasy godsend.

But the big story these past few weeks has been Aaron Rodgers, who currently leads the Green Bay legend he replaced (Brett Favre) by 131 passing yards and two touchdowns. As a former Favre-natic, and someone who refused to draft Green Bay receivers because of the unproven Rodgers, I'm currently slamming my head against my desk.

I'll go on the record and say that this is Jay Cutler's breakout year, and he could end up leading the league in passing yards. He's currently on top in all of my fantasy leagues and the way he's playing, he can only go up. I'll also go on the record saying that Peyton Manning is garbage with a capital "G" this year.

Running Backs: Two words. Marion Barber. I knew he was going to be amazing as the starter in Dallas this year, but I missed picking him up in all my leagues, so now I'm rooting for his demise, but it doesn't look good. He's a power runner who breaks tackles for extra yards on almost every play. He scores touchdowns left and right and he has hands made of glue, which makes him a major asset in any league that allots points for receptions.

There's also a rookie riot going on so far this season. Rookie backs Michael Turner (ATL), Matt Forte (CHI), Chris Johnson (TEN), and Darren McFadden (OAK) are all top 15 backs thus far, a scary thought considering those high-risk-high-reward fantasy owners who gobble up sleepers in the draft.

The saddest moment for me personally this season is the fact that my number one pick overall, LaDanian Tomlinson, is currently riding the bench. His jammed toe has put a serious dent in his numbers, making him one of the biggest fantasy duds (besides Brady) so far. However, don't sleep on LT yet, and don't you dare drop him. He's still a monster when he's healthy and as San Diego gets angrier and angrier after two last-second losses in a row, expect an invigorated Chargers offense later in the season.

Wide Receivers: You know the world of fantasy football has turned upside down when New York's Chansi Stuckey (who?) has more fantasy value than Randy Moss. The loss of Brady definitely hurt the once-powerhouses of Moss and Welker, but there's plenty of new, possibly undiscovered talent that could still be available in your fantasy league. Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal are the end result of the Jay Cutler explosion and should continue to put up big numbers, as well as Denver's tight end Tony Scheffler. DeSean Jackson is a nice pick-up if he stops tossing the ball away before he reaches the end zone, and Bryant Johnson seems to have gone from a nobody in Arizona to a major threat in San Francisco.

With all the technicalities out of the way, here's Demian's Fantasy Rule #1: When your favorite team is playing a squad that has one of your key fantasy players, it's all right to root for that player, but anything more than a few claps or a brief mention of your fantasy dominance will likely get you blacklisted by your fellow fans. I'm pretty sure Bert's kicks you out now for such behavior.