Matt Ryan

It seems as if almost everyone has come to the conclusion that Larry Fitzgerald is the clear No. 2 wide receiver after Calvin Johnson. However, I’ve seen a few people rank Julio Jones as the No. 2 wide receiver. I think it’s a fair debate to argue that Julio Jones deserves the No. 2 wide receiver ranking.  In fact, I have him ranked No. 2 over Larry Fitzgerald.

Here’s what I don’t like about Fitzgerald. His QB situation. Although he had the same QB situation in 2011 at had a monster season with 80 receptions, 1,411 yards, and 8 TDs, I rather have a receiver with a much better QB throwing him the football. The Falcons could easily be a scoring machine and the team to beat in the NFC outside of the Packers. The Cardinals will struggle to go .500. On the plus side, Fitzgerald had a much better 2nd half with Skelton as his QB compared to Kevin Kolb. All signs point to Skelton getting the starting job, who had much better chemistry with Fitzgerlad than Kolb.

Fitzgerald had a much better statistical season in 2011, but many feel that Julio Jones is going to breakout this season and go nuts this year. Julio Jones’ stats last season are 54 receptions, 959 yards, and 8 TDs (12 games). What I like with both players is their yards per reception. Julio Jones averaged 17.8 yards per receptions (ranked 7th) which is right on par with Fitzgerald’s 17.6 (ranked 8th), but Fitzgerald’s career average is 13.9.

Jones also had a hamstring injury nag him throughout the season which kept him out of 4 games. If Julio would have played in 16 games, his stats could have come out to 72 …

Question: In week 1, do I go with Steve Smith or Lee Evans?

I need a WR to play this week in my FLEX positio nand since I have no good RBs on my bench I decided to start either Steve Smith (CAR) or Lee Evans (BAL).

I personally don’t see the Ravens offense doing too much against the Steelers D. For the Panthers, Steve Smith is good, but I don’t know if I can rely on Cam Newton in his first start as a rookie to get the ball to Steve Smith, albeit against a poor Cardinals D.  Just looking for some opinions.

Answer:

Go with Steve Smith. Believe me, Cam Newton will have an impressive year. Matt Ryan had a monster game in his NFL debut. I expect big things from Cam Newton. Yeah, he is a rookie QB and a terrible team, but Steve Smith is by far the best talent and I’m sure he’ll get his yards against the Cardinals. Evans, as you said, gets stuck with Pitt D and he may not even be able to put up any significant yardage.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!…