Week One Value Machine: Fast Willie Will Not Go Quietly Into the Night

Value machine takes a look at the rising and falling fantasy stock of players in light of their recent performance. If you don't see a big mover covered, he's probably already been hit in Reality Check.

Top Riser: Willie Parker
Rashard Mendenhall was thought to be the short yardage back and steal carries that fell between the tackles. Of course, Fast Willie took nearly all the carries until trash-time, when Mendenhall garnered the majority of his ten. Parker scored three times, including twice from inside the ten. You have to assume that was a statement game by Parker that he's not going away, and the Steelers obviously believe he can handle the inside-the-tackles and short-yardage work. Parker's the starter, and Mendenhall is the backup. It's just that simple.

Eddie Royal
Brandon Marshall returns this week, but Royal was all over the place Monday night. The nine catches for 146 yards were huge, but the two carries also spoke volumes. It's obvious the Broncos want the football in his hands.

Matt Forte
He displayed the quick feet and great vision Sunday night in Indy. The Bears will lean heavily on ball control offense, and that means Forte is never going to be short on touches.

Chris Johnson
Yes, he's in a time-share with LenDale White. He's also more talented and has home-run big-play ability. Get him in your lineup for this week against the Bengals.

Anthony Fasano
Apparently Chad Pennington hearts Fasano, because that's an eight catch day for a tight end that only had 28 career catches in two seasons heading into '08. Look for the targets to continue, and that's huge for a TE.

Sammy Morris
So he's stealing carries and touchdowns from Laurence Maroney again. Bill Belichick just won't let Maroney take over, will he?

Tarvaris Jackson
That late pick was much worse for his real team than his fantasy owners. The 65 rushing yards and passing TD threw Jackson into the middle-tier of QBs for week one in Fantasyland. That's better than expected, and it came against a very solid defense.

Top Faller: Tom Brady. He'll be covered in his own post. He's too important to just slap on a few words.

Randy Moss
No Brady, and Moss takes a big hit.

Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis
Greg Lewis and DeSean Jackson proved to be best buddies with Donovan McNabb. As long as these two are either hurt or ineffective, the Eagles won't see a need for change.

Rudi Johnson
Kevin Smith ran well, relegating Rudi to backup duties as long as Smith is healthy. It's likely the Lions just knew that Tatum Bell was horrible and needed a legit backup.

Nate Burleson
Out for the season. Ouch.

Marion Barber
Very small downgrade here. Just a hunch. Felix Jones looked very solid, and Barber injured his ribs. Moving forward, if the Cowboys don't feel they lose much it may behoove them to cut down on Barber's touches as to not risk further injury to the ribs for the long-term.

Darren McFadden
Justin Fargas ended with better numbers because of the trash-time 42 yard run, but the main thing here is the tweaked shoulder for McFadden. Just like above, if the perceived backup runner is just as good as the starter, there's no real reason to push the starter too hard.

Selvin Young
Seven freaking carries. Sigh.

Brodie Croyle
Separated shoulder, and now Damon Huard will come do well with the job. In fairness, you shouldn't have even owned Croyle anyway.