Fantasy Football Week 2 Underachievers: Terry McLaurin Falls Flat Again
Week 2 of the NFL Fantasy Football season brought its fair share of surprises, and not all were pleasant. For many fantasy managers, the frustration of watching top-tier players underperform can feel like a gut punch, especially when those players were expected to be reliable weekly starters.
This past week was particularly rough for a few prominent names projected to be game-changers but delivered subpar performances that left fantasy rosters in the dust.
This article will examine four players’ Week 2 performances, determining what went wrong and whether their struggles are cause for long-term concern or simply early-season anomalies.
Terry McLaurin has had an underwhelming start to his 2024 NFL season. McLaurin entered the season as a highly touted player in fantasy and real life. He has suffered from weak quarterback play for the majority of his career and has never finished below the WR30 rank in fantasy leagues (he is in his sixth NFL season).
This year was expected to be different, as McLaurin was set to receive passes from the reigning Heisman winner and the second overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft, Jayden Daniels. However, things have not gone according to plan.
In Week 1, he was virtually invisible, racking up only two targets for 17 yards, equaling 3.7 fantasy points (PPR). In Week 2, he was a little bit more involved in his team’s offensive scheme, accumulating six targets for 22 yards (8.2 fantasy points).
This is due to a combination of Daniel’s inability to hit his receivers that well yet and McLaurin’s struggle to create space between defenders and himself. Luckily for McLaurin’s fantasy managers, he is too talented of a player to give up on and start panicking about.
The steady improvement from Week 1 to Week 2 shows promise; however, he needs to do better to prove that he deserves to be back in your starting lineup (and he sure will). Consider keeping him on your bench and monitoring his status next week.
