Fantasy Aftermath: Freshmen on Fire?
The key for the Buccaneers first win this season? Stocking up on Quarterbacks named Josh. The team has been going through a lost season after various player and coaching departures, with the biggest hole being at QB. When the Byron Leftwich experience ended they threw in their 2008 draft pick, Josh Johnson. He looked bad, then ok, then bad again. After the bye week The Bucs pulled the hook on Johnson and put in the other Josh, 2009 first rounder Josh Freeman. How did he respond? With 3 TDs and only 1 pick as the Bucs finally won one against The Packers. While people are going to be asking if his debut performance is for real; he only completed 45.2% of his passes and threw a lot of short passes- so the jury is still out. So is he worth a pickup? I think there’s other options out there before you consider Freeman.
Freeman is only one of may young Quarterbacks making their debut this season, it appears that teams are warming up to the idea of trying out their rookies after the success of Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan last year. The Lions used their 1st overall pick on Georgia QB Matthew Stafford and is looking rather mediocre/terrible so far this season, this past week he threw five interceptions in a loss to Seattle. However he does play for a terrible team and growing pains are the reason rookies typically wait a few years before starting. The other first rounder in the draft, USC QB Mark Sanchez hasn’t been that bad this season, he’s turned in some good performances (in wins against the Pats and Miami), but he’s also put up some clunkers as well (five picks against Buffalo.) I’ve seen him owned in some leagues and he’s an ok backup- but as bye weeks end after next weekend, he should be let go for depth at other positions.
Patriots Pride
Brady performed as expected in a tough fought match against The Dolphins, while I expected a TD and a pick, he certainly took advantage of the 21st ranked Miami pass D and threw for 332 yards. Welker and Moss also turned in great performances, with Moss racking up 147 yards and a TD. I own Welker in a PPR league and I was happy to see 9 receptions for 84 yards.
Remember how I said Ben Watson couldn’t be trusted? 4 receptions for 49 yards is why. He doesn’t score, he’s not worth it. Of course I ignored my advice and picked him up in a league.
The one thing that surprised me in the Miami game was Laurence Maroney. L-Mo ran well and I was surprised he got the rock 20 times for 82 yards and a touchdown. But can we trust him? I can’t. I own him in a league but he’s just bench depth until we see a streak going.
On the other side of the ball, the Wildcat was stopped by the Pats for the most part, but Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams managed to score because of the Wildcat package. The interesting wrinkle in the package this week was the inclusion of Pat White, who pulled off a long run but should continue to be ignored in most formats.
Ted Ginn Jr. is still worthless and you can see that Chad Henne looked to Devon Bess and Greg Camarillo for a total 21 targets, 11 receptions and 137 yards. I still wouldn’t take any Miami receiver despite those stats.
Reading The Box Scores & Watching The Highlights
Clinton Portis has a concussion, that means he probably won’t play this upcoming week. Ladell Betts is the handcuff and looked ok filling in for him with 70 yards and a TD. However don’t forget that he plays for the Redskins.
Talking about injured Redskins, all the hype was to pick-up Fred Davis to fill in for Chris Cooley, 2 receptions and 26 yards later, the TD goes to Todd Yoder instead. Not convinced you really want Fred Davis.
Why is Arizona winning on the road? It made so much sense to blame their road losses last year to jet lag (and snow in Foxboro.) Kurt Warner forgot he was getting old and threw 5 TDs.
Remember in 2007 when Cassel was put late into a blowout game for Brady only to be benched again for Brady? The Cardinals got up by so much they decided to throw in Matt Leinart, who promptly threw a pick and was benched for Warner.
Welcome back Larry Fitzgerald, his 123 receiving yards and 2 TDs look good but it’s mostly from the benefit of having Anquan Boldin off the field. In 2008 every game that Fitzgerald scored more than one TD, Boldin either did not play or did not start in the game. Typically Warner splits time between the two receivers but without Boldin, Fitzgerald saw the majority of targets go his way.
Is Laveranues Coles heating up? In his last three games he has 2 TDs and 12 receptions for 149 yards. Something to look at.
Remember Reche Caldwell? The bug-eyed ex-Patriot that dropped passes? Well he maybe out of the league but his younger brother Andre is doing quite well for the Bengals. He caught his 3rd TD this past weekend and is climbing in the depth charts, he’s an interesting name by as of now he’s just that. If you play in a league where return yards count he’s a low-end WR3.
Another hot pick-up last week was Ryan Moats who surpassed fumbling Steve Slaton for Houston. Well in his first start of the season he ran for a 2.4 average and fumbled the ball himself. Slaton didn’t do too much himself but also scored. It will be interesting to see how this mess sorts itself out.
Last week Joesph Addai threw a pass, this week Reggie Wayne threw a pass. Does the Colts really need to find other passers when you have Peyton Manning?
The Jamaal Charles era started in Kansas City and it didn’t look too bad- need to see him get 15-20 carries to really judge him.
Chris Chambers will be the big waiver wire question this week, scoring 2 TDs and 70 receiving yards. I call it a fluke, he was only targeted four times while Dwayne Bowe and Lance Long were targeted for 10-11.
Wait who’s Lance Long? Not only did he get the same amount of targets but also got the same amount of yards as Bowe.
When I first started playing Fantasy Football, I didn’t know what I was doing and had Ahman Green on my team. He was terrible. Now he’s back. Great, just what I need- Ahman Green fighting to become fantasy relevant again. Please ignore him.
This week we found out that Pierre Thomas is the RB you want, now I feel better about dropping Mike Bell in my leagues weeks ago.
Like I said last week, you have to consider both the match-up and the quality of the talent. Julius Jones had a good match-up against Detroit, but I keep forgetting he’s Julius Jones, and he sucks.
TJ Houshmandzadeh hasn’t been consistent all year, he may have scored this past week but Nate Burleson is the guy I love on the Seahawks.
Josh Wilson made me look smart as I picked him up in an IDP league, he returned an interception for a TD and earned me a sweet 15 points.
LT ran 12 times for 22 yards, for an average of 1.8 yards. Sure it was against the Giants but I have already considered him to have dropped out of the fantasy elite.
I learned last year to always start the Tight End that’s playing against San Diego. So this week I picked up Kevin Boss in two leagues and I was rewarded with a TD.
Vince Young is now 18-11 in games he’s started, but he’s not fantasy relevant yet.
You know who’s quietly sucking this year? Jason Witten. He only has 1 TD for the season and isn’t the top TE you drafted. Players like Jeremy Shockey and Visanthe Shiancoe are outperforming him even though they were drafted rounds later.
Both Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal make an appearance, the two are still getting an equal amount of targets and it finally paid off for the two of them. However they play the top ranked Redskins pass defense next week. Expect both of them to fall back to obscurity.
I think Willie Parker played last night, I couldn’t tell with Rashard Mendenhall rushing for 122 yards.
I Rock At Fantasy Football
This week I went 4-1 but my lone loss came in the 4 Sport Boston league in a 4 point heartbreaker. I blame McNabb and his two interceptions.
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2 Responses to “Fantasy Aftermath: Freshmen on Fire?”
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God. Of course I had Clinton Portis starting on Sunday and also had Anaquin Boldin who was expected to play. Stupid injuries cost me my game this week. LT’s poor performance didn’t help.