Fantasy Football Week 1: 3 Super Studs Who Will Struggle

Week 1 figures to be tough for a wide many fantasy owners, with studs around the NFL set for difficult matchups that will undoubtedly depress their numbers to a significant degree.

These three fantasy football stars, in particular, will suffer against good defense, on the ground and through the air.

Adrian Peterson, RB, Minnesota Vikings

So, you know how Adrian Peterson usually has at least three or four sub-par performances per year? Well, count Week 1 against the San Diego Chargers in that column for 2011.

The Bolts return a defense that was among the best against the run last season, though, to be fair, that alone won't be enough to slow down AP. The Vikings' offensive line is both bad and banged up, but Peterson is one of few backs in the league who can succeed in spite of his blocking.

Rather, the biggest problem for Peterson on Sunday will be the scoreboard. The Chargers boast one of the NFL's most dynamic offenses and should have no trouble putting up points against a Minnesota defense whose depth up front has been depleted by the absence of the Williams Wall and the departure of Ray Edwards to Atlanta.

As such, San Diego will score, and then Minny won't against the Chargers' stout D, followed by more points for the Chargers, and then...

And then, what?

Oh, and then the Vikings will be so far behind that they'll have to throw it on every down in a desperate attempt to stay in the game, thereby keeping the ball out of Peterson's hands. 

Ray Rice/Rashard Mendenhall, RB, Baltimore Ravens/Pittsburgh Steelers

I love Ray Rice and Rashard Mendenhall as fantasy running backs, just not against each other's defense. The Ravens and Steelers have both been top-five against the run five years running and top-10 in each of the last seven.

Both teams return pretty much all of their most prominent defensive players (except for Baltimore's Dawan Landry, who left for Jacksonville), which means we should expect more of the same this time around.

Especially on the Steelers' part, since they'll have a healthy Troy Polamalu back in the lineup to plug every gap known to man.

Tony Romo, QB, Dallas Cowboys

Tony Romo is a privileged man in pretty much every respect now that he's recovered from his gruesome collarbone injury. He's the face of the most famous NFL franchise in the world. He's married to a former beauty queen. He's surrounded by a strong offensive line and more weapons than he can shake a stick at.

The one drawback: He'll have to begin his climb back to the top of the quarterback mountain against the stifling secondary of the New York Jets.

And don't think Romo is simply going to play dink-and-dunk with running back Felix Jones and bromantic tight end Jason Witten. He'll try his darndest to air it out to Dez Bryant and Miles Austin. For his career, Romo has averaged just over 8.0 yards per pass attempt, the fourth-highest such number in NFL history.

Romo may be smart, but he's not one to shy away from the deep ball, which could either mean bad things (incompletions) or worse things (interceptions) for his fantasy value, going against Darrelle Revis and Antonio Cromartie on Sunday.

Follow @J0shMart1n