Trust or Bust?

After week 2, there have been some really bad underperformers. However, it may be too soon to judge some players, as they haven't had a home game yet or have faced tough defenses two weeks in a row (I'm looking at you LaDainian). So while it may be a bit premature to label someone a bust, I'll pick one or two players in each owner's team to evaluate. In order of the roster grid:

Matt Leinart - Somewhat Bust. Major douchebag according to the blogs. So probably has poor leadership skills, which is disturbing for a QB in the NFL. Arizona's run offense is looking pretty decent, so Leinart won't be throwing as much as people expected before the season.

Cedric Benson - Trust. Bears will face soft defenses in the next 2 weeks, and they are fully aware that putting the ball in Rex Grossman's hands will always be an adventure. Benson may not be a stud, but he'll continue to have the carries and the goal-line looks.

Steven Jackson - Somewhat bust. It's all about expectations. As a #2 or #3 overall pick, Jackson was expected to be a no-brainer starter. However, St. Louis has had a poor start, and lost its best offensive lineman for the season. Plus, the Martz effect has now totally faded from this team and you're looking at the offense of a former Dolphin coach, a team not exactly known for their offensive prowess after Jimmy Johnson left. Jackson is still worthy as a starter, but expect a worse year than last year.

Laurence Maroney - Somewhat Bust. In college and in the pros, Maroney never carried the load by himself. After watching him run on Sunday night, I was less than impressed with the east coast version of Cedric Benson. Plus, New England has the Brady-Moss love connection going, and Maroney will be the third wheel. Having said that, he'll get a few terrific weeks in when the intel report tells Belichick to run instead of pass. But most of the time, it'll be pass.

Donovan McNabb - Trust. Mcnabb has started slowly in the past. He's not 100% healthy and Philly has played two pretty good defenses after all (yes, I'm saying you should pick up the Redskins as a backup D). The Eagles do play the Lions and Giants next, so things should pick up. Plus, he's starting to play the racial disrespect card, so watch out. If McNabb still underperforms after week 4, then it may be time to re-evaluate his situation.

Eli Manning - Bust. He's playing, but New York has so many issues on both sides of the ball that Manning will have too much pressure on him to win games by himself. And handling pressure was never his strong suit. A QB on the hot seat in New York is a very risky sub-prime investment.

LT -Trust. Remember, LT was so-so after the first few weeks last year. He won't continue his sub 2 yards per carry stat much longer. He may not be a one-man fantasy team like last year, but he'll still give you the goods. Norv Turner may be a poor head coach, but he's a fine offensive coordinator who will make adjustments to help LT.

Drew Brees - Trust (for one more week). Despite New Orleans' overall poor fantasy start, they have not yet played a game at home. With one of the strongest fan support last year, the Saints used the "twelfth" man to great effect. So all Saints get a reprieve to see how they perform when they get some good ol' cajun/creole/popeye's home cooking.

Phil Rivers - Somewhat Trust. Like LT, he's faced two monsters of a D and the schedule will get easier. And he'll have opportunities to make big plays as defenses key on stopping LT. His wide receivers haven't stepped up yet, however, so his upside is a bit limited for now.

Marc Bulger- Trust (surprisingly) . Poor coaching minus Blind Side Protector = QB Disaster normally, but Bulger has delivered double digit scoring in the 2 games so far. As long as he doesn't get sacked and injured, he'll continue to deliver some points.

Reggie Bush - See Drew Brees above. But hasn't looked really spectacular despite getting a lot of balls thrown to. It's not as if Donny has options, however.

Ronnie Brown - Bust. Miami still has a pretty bad offense, and if they couldn't get going at home against the Cowboys, then who can they score on? Plus, if Chatman comes back, it's RBBC time (almost).

Alex Smith - Trust. He's not meant to be a current Fantasy starter, but I am still bullish on improvement in the latter half of the season. Even though he hasn't lit it up, the confidence from two come-from-behind victories can only improve his mental toughness.

Lee Evans - Bust. True, he's faced two good secondaries, but having like 1 point so far? And he faces New England next. He's very talented, but just needs a change of scenery; which won't happen this year. I am pretty sure Tuna is desperately trying to unload him. Avoid.

Larry Johnson - Bust for first half of season. KC has an incredibly tough schedule against defenses that are great against the run. Next 2 teams: Vikings and Chargers. Ouch. The schedule does get easier later on, but he's definitely no longer the automatic start. FYI, in my other league, I had the 3rd pick and passed on him to select Addai. So far a very good call.

Reggie Brown - Bust. OK, so this experiment of being an Eagles fan has not worked out so well for me. I'm sure Kevin and Bill will be glad to know I've jumped off the Philly bandwagon and the Eagles can therefore commence winning again. Despite my trust on McNabb for now, Brown has shown little so far and Philly may just throw 20 passes per game to its RBs and TEs again.

EDIT: Sportsline this year has a neat new feature for the Draft Results page. You'll see two sets of number in the right-most column. The first number is how many points the player gave your team when you've started him and the second is the total number of points player has scored, starting or on bench. Check out the ugliness that is my 3rd and 4th round.