Week 2 fantasy winners and losers: Newton continues dominance
— -- Shall we rename the "Winners" section the "Newtons?"
Cam Newton seems to have a stranglehold on the fantasy leaderboard these days, but Sunday didn't present only good news for Week 1's members of the 20-point club, as Antonio Brown, A.J. Green, Carlos Hyde and Alex Smith let their owners down.
As we do each Sunday right here, we recap the week's winners and losers from a fantasy perspective, complete with applicable game and historical data. Check back after the conclusion of the 1 and 4 p.m. ET (and, when applicable, Sunday Night Football) games for our picks of the week's best and worst.
Winners
Cam Newton, QB, Carolina Panthers: Ho-hum. Another week, another spot atop the fantasy leaderboard, as Newton's 29 fantasy points were tops through the Sunday 4 p.m. ET games. If his lead holds, it would mark the fourth time in the past seven regular-season weeks that he has been the top scorer, as he also led in 2015 Weeks 13 (tied with Marcus Mariota), 15 and 17. Since the beginning of last season, the only other players to top the leaderboard multiple times have been Devonta Freeman (2015 Weeks 3-4), Matthew Stafford (2015 Weeks 6 and 12, though he was tied for the lead in Week 12) and Russell Wilson (2015 Weeks 12 and 14, tied with Stafford in Week 12).
Fantasy owners who made Newton the No. 1 quarterback off the board -- many of them bold enough to spend as high an overall selection as the No. 13 indicated by his ESPN ADP -- have been pleasantly rewarded thus far.
Travis Benjamin, WR, San Diego Chargers: No Keenan Allen, no problem. Benjamin, signed to a four-year, $24-million contract by the Chargers during the offseason, became the team's de facto No. 1 wide receiver in the wake of Allen's season-ending injury. In Week 2, he made a statement in his first full game in the role, topping all wide receivers through the 4 p.m. ET games with 23 fantasy points. It sure seems that Benjamin has a thing for Week 2s, as his career-best score, and only one greater than his total on Sunday, came with the Cleveland Browns, 29 fantasy points in 2015 Week 2. He also made the most of his targets, catching all six for a 29-point PPR day. To put that into perspective -- and perhaps cast some light on the Chargers' wide receiver pecking order going forward -- Benjamin saw at least six targets in eight of his 16 games for the Browns in 2015, and he matched teammate Tyrell Williams (12 fantasy points on six targets) for the team lead in the category.
Kelvin Benjamin, WR, Panthers: Benjamin has played a big part in Newton's success these first two weeks, following up his 15 fantasy points in the NFL Kickoff game with 22 on Sunday, matching Corey Coleman for second among wide receivers through the 4 p.m. ET games. After whispers that Benjamin might be on a snap count to begin his first season since recovering from a torn ACL, he played 49 of 68 offensive snaps in Week 1. We'll soon get a final snap count for his Week 2, but the 37 fantasy points he has in consecutive weeks shattered his previous best of 35, set in Weeks 10-11 of 2014. It's quite an encouraging comeback so far for the 2014 first-rounder.
Corey Coleman, WR, Cleveland Browns: He certainly justified his No. 15 overall selection -- first among wide receivers -- in the 2016 NFL draft on Sunday, scoring 22 fantasy points to match Benjamin for the position's second-best score through the 4 p.m. ET games. To put Coleman's effort into perspective, only six different Browns wide receivers (rookies or not) have scored more than that in a game since the team rejoined the NFL in 1999: Travis Benjamin, Antonio Bryant, Braylon Edwards (four times), Josh Gordon (four times), Quincy Morgan (twice) and Dennis Northcutt.
Jimmy Garoppolo, QB, New England Patriots: One could make the claim that Garoppolo's week warrants more of a negative spin, but he did score 21 fantasy points for his owners who were bold enough to start him in 9.6 percent of ESPN leagues, that all before getting injured roughly four minutes shy of halftime. In doing so, Garoppolo, still a free agent in 83.8 percent of leagues, exceeded the "magic 20" threshold we demand from the position. It's the most scored by a quarterback in the first half of a game since three managed more in 2015 Week 15: Brock Osweiler (27, en route to 28), Cam Newton (24 of 41) and Kirk Cousins (22 of 35).
Isaiah Crowell, RB, Browns: Through two games, it's apparent that Crowell is the Browns' starting/go-to running back, and he concluded Sunday's 4 p.m. ET games with 20 fantasy points, second so far for the week and tops among Sunday players. More importantly, though, he had 18 carries and 19 touches to Duke Johnson Jr.'s three and seven, after winning those battles in Week 1 by margins of 12-3 and 15-6. Three of Crowell's best single-game fantasy-point totals have come in his past six regular-season games (26 in 2015 Week 14 was his best; this week's 20 is now tied for his second-best; 14 during 2015 Week 16 was his fifth-highest total).
Matt Ryan, QB, Atlanta Falcons: After dropping 24 fantasy points on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1, Ryan followed it up with another 27 in Week 2, giving him a league-leading 51 through two weeks. Scaling the 25 point fantasy plateau is a rarity for Ryan, as he had gone 20 games between performances of at least that many (2014 Week 14 was his last one). Perhaps more importantly for future-matchup evaluation, Ryan's game came at the expense of the extremely disappointing Oakland Raiders defense, which has now afforded a league-leading 57 fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks (they allowed 30 to Drew Brees in Week 1).
Melvin Gordon, RB, San Diego Chargers: For the second consecutive week, Gordon scored a touchdown -- remember that he didn't have a single score in 2015 -- and he managed exactly 17 fantasy points for the second straight game. That gives him 34 for the season, which is more than he had in any six-game span in 2015. He might also be in line for a more prominent role in the coming weeks following Danny Woodhead's early departure due to a knee injury.
