Eddie Royal scored five touchdowns in his 91-catch rookie season for the Denver Broncos back in 2008. In 52 games over his next four seasons, Royal scored five touchdowns total. And in two games this season he has … you guessed it, five touchdowns.

Royal has certainly earned himself a roster spot in fantasy leagues of all sizes, but before we start talking about him as a regular WR2, or even WR3, let’s see how he performs against a better pass defense. The Eagles and Texans were both among the 10 most fantasy WR friendly defenses in the NFL last season, the former allowing the most WR touchdowns in the league.

If two weeks of game film and a better defense don’t do the trick, I’ll happily endorse Royal as the fantasy asset he was five years ago.

Speaking of guys who used to be good—that’s back-to-back decent weeks for Darren McFadden. He actually looked a lot better this week than last week, but part of that has to do with playing at home against a Jacksonville team that looks like it’ll be in the hunt for the No. 1 pick in 2014. With so many running backs injured this week—Steven Jackson, Ray Rice, Eddie Lacy, Maurice Jones-Drew—the time is now to see if you can get anything for McFadden. It’s likely to be a short window in which he’s both healthy AND productive.

Same probably goes for Rashard Mendhall, who went for 94 combo yards and a touchdown against the Lions. Health isn’t Mendenhall’s forte, and rookie Andre Ellington showed flashes of why he’s the guy dynasty owners should be eying up over Stepfan Taylor.

Staying in the NFC West, I was hesitant on Tavon Austin going into Week 2 just because I wanted to see the Rams prove they were going to work the rookie in even more. They did that and then some. Austin led St. Louis with 12 targets and scored twice, with a surprising Robin to his Batman coming from Austin Pettis — who went for 78 yards and a score. I don’t anticipate an Austin/Austin dynamic duo throughout the season, though if Sam Bradford’s going to throw the ball 55 times per game I suppose I’ll put out the fantasy Bat Signal for pretty much anyone in a Rams uniform. Somehow, though, Jared Cook wound up with just one catch on six targets in the passing barrage.

Martellus Bennett, meanwhile, has moved past Cook and is battling with Julius Thomas and a resurgent Owen Daniels for the right to be Jimmy Graham’s positional caddy while Rob Gronkowski is out. All of the aforementioned were late-round guys. There’s a lot of season left, but the early returns are why I advocated waiting on the position after Graham and Gronk were off the board.

That said, it looks like the Falcons will have to start leaning a LOT more on Tony Gonzalez, especially if Steven Jackson misses any significant time. Atlanta’s offensive line came into the season with plenty of questions, and after watching Jacquizz Rodgers struggle to 17 yards on 11 carries it’s clear he’s best served as a mini-Darren Sproles should Mike Smith choose to start using him regularly. They could give Jason Snelling a longer look, but count me among the non-excited when it comes to Jason Snelling.

I was, however, excited about the running backs in Indianapolis—the starters, anyway. On the Colts side, Ahmad Bradshaw averaged 4.3 yards per carry on 15 totes with a touchdown, plus three more touches in the passing game. With Vick Ballard no longer stealing touches, as long as Bradshaw is healthy he’ll be a productive flex play at worst. On the other side of the ball, Lamar Miller got nearly double the touches of Daniel Thomas, shaking off last week’s dud to average 4.9 yards per carry—including a 10-yard touchdown scamper. It’s what I expected, though as a Miller owner maybe it’s just more what I was hoping for. Either way, Miller’s back in the RB2/flex conversation.

Finally, if you need someone to miss a field goal for you, might I recommend Randy Bullock? After all, I recommended him as my No. 2 kicker this week. Hey—all I can do is predict opportunities, of which he had plenty. I can’t kick it through the uprights for him. And neither can he, apparently. At least his team won. I actually feel worse for Connor Barth.