How the Top 7 Predicted Fantasy Players Fared in Week 1

Fantasy football projections can be a rough business. Not only are you trying to predict whether or not a player will have a good game, but you also have to put a specific number on it. Nobody is that perfect.

But it's still fun to look back at the best players in the NFL and see how they fared compared to their projections. Did they go too high or, crazily, not high enough?

We used ESPN's Week 1 projections.

Ben Roethlisberger: Projected 17.9 Points

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Actual Points: 22

It helps when you're throwing to Antonio Brown, but Big Ben was lights out anyway. Three hundred yards with three touchdowns and the only thing that kept him from going even further past his projected points was that one interception.

Andrew Luck: Projected 17.9 Points

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

Actual Points: 35

We might need to start cranking up the projections for Andrew Luck this season, because it looks like he's back in full form. Almost doubling his projected point total, Luck threw for 385 yards and four TDs.

Matthew Stafford: Projected 17.9 Points

Jeff Roberson/Associated Press

Actual Points: 25

Stafford exceeded his projection with some late production, throwing for 114 yards and a TD in his last two drives of the game, including a 50-yard drive that set up the game-winning field goal.

Derek Carr: Projected 18 Points

Butch Dill/Associated Press

Actual Points: 21

Carr exceeded expectations, which is pretty solid for a guy projected in the top five in points, throwing for 319 yards and a TD. You can expect his numbers to get even better when he starts to find the end zone more often.

Eli Manning: Projected 18.3 Points

Ron Jenkins/Associated Press

Actual Points: 18

Give the guy who projected Eli Manning's point total a raise, because he nailed it. A solid, if not spectacular game from Manning, throwing for just over 200 yards, but contributing three TDs and an interception.

Aaron Rodgers: Projected 19.6

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

Actual Points: 22

At this point in his career, you know what Aaron Rodgers is going to get you: 199 yards and two TDs is nothing to write home about necessarily, but Rodgers also threw in a rushing TD to make sure he beat his projected tally by more than two points. He'll be the most consistent QB all season.

Russell Wilson: Projected 19.9

Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images

Actual Points: 11

Yikes. This is not what people were expecting when they reached for Wilson in their draft. Passing for 258 yards and a TD is OK, but throw in an interception and a lost fumble and you have a supremely mediocre game on your hands. The Seahawks may have come away with the victory, but Wilson took the L in fantasy, especially considering he was projected to be the top point scorer in all of Week 1.