Good to see you again, Tony Romo.
The 2012 NFL regular season officially kicked off Wednesday and Romo, a fixture on my teams for years before being forsaken for Drew Brees in 2011, officially kicked butt in the Cowboys' 24-17 victory over the defending Super Bowl champion Giants, completing 22 of 29 passes for 307 yards and three touchdowns.
It was vintage Romo, throwing darts through bamboo shoots on slants and deep routes and, of course, overthrowing wide-open running backs in the flat and playing catch with the opposition (luckily only once Wednesday).
That's the thing with Romo: No matter how bad he can look over an extended period — and there are times when you'll see better QB play on the playground at recess — he always comes back swinging and slinging.
That Romo was able to carve up New York's secondary after a ho-hum first 1½ quarters wasn't surprising, but the receiver with whom he did the bulk of his damage certainly was.
It's a good bet that Kevin Ogletree was drafted in exactly zero percent of the planet's fantasy leagues and an even better bet that he will be active in 100 percent of leagues from here to Marklar come Week 2 after his eight-catch, 114-yard, two-touchdown performance against the Giants.
But before you offer up your first born or decide to deal Calvin Johnson in order to secure the rights to Ogletree, take a deep breath and try not to get too carried away.
The guy had a great game, yes, and there's nothing saying that he can't emerge as a viable, big-time receiving threat, but the planets were clearly aligned for Ogletree on Wednesday.
First off, he's Romo's only healthy target, with starting wideouts Dez Bryant (patella tendinitis) and Miles Austin (hamstring) nursing injuries and Pro Bowl tight end Jason Witten making no more than a ceremonial Week 1 appearance as he continues to recover from a lacerated spleen. Secondly, if Austin or Bryant is lined up opposite Ogletree, who do you think defenses will be keying on? No, not Frank Stallone.
Then again, this could also play to Ogletree's advantage (see Victor Cruz 2011). There are always plenty of balls to go around in Dallas, and Romo will find the open man, be it Witten, Bryant, Austin or Jack Dundee.
Given Bryant's knack for finding trouble, Witten's spleen and Miles' often cranky hamstrings, Ogletree is definitely worth stashing away for safe keeping, just don't expect Wednesday's numbers to become the norm.
Cuff 'em in stuff 'em
We're one game into Week 1 of a 17-week season ... which means we know almost nothing regarding trends, busts, injuries or hidden gems.
Still, it's never too early to go shopping for upgrades, especially if there are areas on your roster that need some serious tweaking.
What I usually try to do this time of year is survey the roster landscape and determine which, if any, running back handcuffs might still available.
Most of us have at least one roster spot to burn (in some cases, we might have an entire roster to which we'd like to take gas can and blow), so now might be the perfect time to think long term and reserve space for a backup rusher like Kendall Hunter (Frank Gore), Taiwan Jones (Raiders), Felix Jones (DeMarco Murray) or Rashad Jennings (Maurice Jones-Drew), each of whom could go from anonymous to rock star overnight.
Rosenbowl II
In an ironic bit of scheduling, my Week 1 matchup is a rematch of last year's league championship with my father, dubbed by league members as The Rosenbowl. Last year's title game came down to the wire, and this week figures to be more of the same.
Romo and Austin have me off to a great start, now it's up to Darren McFadden, Michael Turner, Marques Colston, Fred Davis and Sebastian Janikowski to finish what they started.
My Week 1 lineup — QB: Tony Romo (at Giants); RB: Darren McFadden (vs. Chargers) and Michael Turner (at Chiefs); WR: Miles Austin (at Giants) and Marques Colston (vs. Redskins); TE: Fred Davis (at Saints); D/ST: Texans (vs. Dolphins); K: Sebastian Janikowski (vs. Chargers).
Bee fantasy sports columnist Stu Rosenberg can be reached at srosenberg@modbee.com or 578-2300.
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