Fantasy football AFC checkup

Pencils down. Draft season is over, and it’s time to sit back and watch your team ascend to… Pencils down. Draft season is over, and it’s time to sit back and watch your team ascend to the top of the league.

It’s here. A long season filled with endless piles of wings, immeasurable amounts of beer and countless sacrilegious statements about your team’s running back not getting the ball every down.

Fantasy football has little to do with any sort of team effort, but here’s an AFC analysis of the fantasy prospect of each team after week one. The NFC breakdown will follow tomorrow.

Buffalo

Marshawn Lynch looked like he can be a reliable No. 2 running back for your team.

Brian Moorman had a monster day.

Enough said.

Miami

Quick! Somebody call Shaquille O’Neal at the Miami Police Department -there’s a robbery in progress. Jesse Chatman is stealing carries from Ronnie Brown.

Brown only ran for 32 yards in the opener against a Washington rush defense that ranked 27th in the league last year.

Oh yeah, and Brown also shared nearly half the snaps with Chatman.

If he were splitting carries with Ricky Willy Nelson (Ricky Williams), it might be a different story. But Chatman looked adequate as a spell for Brown and as a third down back.

It might be time to trade Brown before others catch on and his value depreciates. Or, if you’re a Brown advocate, do the opposite and buy low.

New England

The Patriots are the early-line favorites to win the Super Bowl this year, and it could be a Patriot that carries your team to a fantasy title.

Now, if only there was a fantasy category for espionage.

In my last column, I said to draft running back Laurence Maroney, not Randy Moss. Well, Moss caught nine balls for 183 yards, and guess what? I still say Maroney over Moss.

New York Jets

The Jets fans cheered when Chad Pennington left the game, which should tell you all you need to know about the fantasy value on this team.

Cincinnati

Other than Chad Johnson’s overdramatic and over-hyped touchdown celebration, the Bengals’ fantasy studs had a decent showing against the league’s best defense.

Carson Palmer looked strong against Baltimore. Although he didn’t quite pass for 200 yards, Palmer did throw for two touchdowns with no interceptions.

Johnson had a monster first half with five catches for 95 yards and a touchdown. However, use his second-half performance as an indicator – Johnson didn’t catch a single ball in the latter period. Credit the Ravens’ ball-hawking secondary, but be aware that T.J. Houshmandzadeh commands far less attention, and, as a result, will put up numbers parallel to Johnson.

Both showed they are solid No. 1 receivers.

Rudi Johnson had a rough game, as expected against the stout Ravens front, but he’ll be fine. Expect another 1,000-yard season and 12 touchdowns.

Pittsburgh

Did Rich Rodriguez sign on to call the plays in Pittsburgh? I like the spread look the Steelers showcased.

Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians is actually calling the plays, and he helped mentor some guy named Manning. It might be rubbing off on Ben Roethlisberger, who seems to have more control at the line of scrimmage this year.

Big Ben had four touchdown passes and, more importantly, no interceptions.

Cleveland

Let me just reference Brown’s general manager Phil Savage and his manifestation following Sunday’s romping by the Steelers.

If you didn’t see it, Savage was boisterous when talking to reporters, trying to convince them that the Browns are indeed trying to win games.

It sounded like General David Petraeus trying to convince Congress that the surge in Iraq is working.

If the Browns wanted to win, simultaneously helping Kellen Winslow’s and Braylon Edwards’ owners, they wouldn’t start the opener with their worst quarterback first and work their way to Brady Quinn.

Baltimore

It was interesting to see head coach Brian Billick throw the ball 40 times Monday night, unless you’re a Willis McGahee owner.

Don’t buy into this precipitous pass-first offense. The last time Steve McNair had a productive fantasy season, Nicole Richie weighed more than 100 pounds, and that’s not going to change this year – for either of them.

Sit tight McGahee owners, Baltimore will get back to their smash-mouth style, and McGahee is a horse.

Tennessee

You’re on your own here. All bets are off.

Chris Brown, inactive for most of last season, rushed for a league-best 175 yards against a dominant Jaguar run defense, and LenDale White is still listed as the starter.

By the way, Vince Young is a much better fantasy option than Matt Leinart.

Jacksonville

They cut their starting quarterback and only ran the ball 18 times. That’ll change, and Maurice-Jones Drew will be fine.

Indianapolis

Not much to say here that everybody doesn’t already know.

The Colts have more stars in their cast than Oceans 11, 12 and 13 combined.

Marvin Harrison, Peyton Manning, Reggie Wayne and Joseph Addai could realistically all be top-15 fantasy performers.

Houston

Mario Williams has more touchdowns than Reggie Bush so far this year. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Houston fans.

Kansas City

This isn’t fantasy related, but why does Herm Edwards have to act like Randy Jackson in the Chiefs’ HBO Series, “Hard Knocks?”

Denver

This is where I’d like to make some comment about Mike Shanahan trying to prove he can win no matter who his running back is, but Travis Henry’s a good one.

And although they barely squeaked out a win, Jay Cutler threw for 300 yards, and Javon Walker received 119 of them.

Oakland

Again, this isn’t fantasy related, but is it just me, or does Al Davis look identical to Carmine Lupertazzi from the Sopranos? No seriously, look at a picture of both of them.

In all seriousness, LaMont Jordan did look impressive and showed signs that he could possibly repeat his extraordinary 2005 season.

San Diego

Can you believe one of my friends had the nerve to ask me if I thought Ladanian Tomlinson was going to be a bust, after he was held to 25 rushing yards against Chicago?

I was displeased with the amount of carries Michael Turner received late in the game, but LT still had two touchdowns, one passing.

Side note: I think players should be eligible at multiple positions in fantasy football like they are in baseball.

Come on, it’d be cool to start Tomlinson at quarterback.