Fantasy Aftermath: Buyer's Remorse
Photo courtesy of Flickr user joanieofarc
This week many of you will line-up on Friday morning to try and cash in on some Black Friday deals. The first ten people will be lucky enough to score a big HDTV for a ridiculous price. The rest will realize it was ridiculous to wait in the cold for so long. I have already experienced a similar kind of remorse in one of my fantasy football leagues.
Most leagues have a trade deadline right around now and I made a deadline deal to send Brett Favre and Calvin Johnson in exchange for Pierre Thomas and Anquan Boldin. I picked up Favre for nothing earlier in the season and with Matt Schaub already in my line-up I had a buyer who was interested. The trade pretty much breaks down to Favre for Thomas, a fair trade I think, and Johnson for Boldin. Both receivers have been somewhat disappointing but I liked Boldin’s schedule down the line, and with my team currently 8-2 and in 1st place, I wanted to start planning for the playoffs.
I asked for Thomas since he would be a suitable replacement for Michael Turner, who is currently out with an ankle sprain and Thomas also has a very favorable schedule in the fantasy playoffs. I am currently down 17 points in my match-up this week, one I could of easily dominated if I held on to Favre for his 4 TD day or Megatron’s 161 yard game, but in the end I’ll feel better not having to worry about Megatron without Matthew Stafford, or hoping he scores against Green Bay, Baltimore, and Cincinatti. I still have plenty of WR depth and I was able to quickly patch up a big hole I had in my RB corps.
When it comes to trading it shouldn’t be about trying to win the deal more than making both sides happy. For my trade partner he’s probably happy he has Favre, and for me I am happy I have two upside guys for the playoffs and when Michael Turner comes back- I’ll have an RB tandem that will be feared.
Patriots Pride
Can you trust L-Mo with your fantasy playoffs? (Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)
November 22nd was a date circled on the calendar since the Week 2 defeat in the Meadowlands. Combined with the need to prove themselves after a heartbreaking loss in Indy, this was a week you did not want to play the Patriots.
It didn’t take long for Belichick to make a statement, faced once again with a 4th and short he decided once again to go for it, and ran L-Mo to the right where he converted for the 1st… then fumbled the ball. Maroney only had 1 fumble in his entire NFL career coming into this season and he now already has 2 in back-to-back games. Some may think that’s reason enough for L-Mo to earn a spot in Belichick’s doghouse, however with Sammy Morris still out- Maroney is all they got (the Law Firm of BenJarvis Green-Ellis hasn’t done anything to stand out in the running game.) So for that reason alone Maroney carried the ball 22 time for 77 yards, which equals a disappointing 3.5 yds/carry. However his 2 TD plunges made him a great fantasy start for anyone that trusted him.
So should you trust L-Mo? I think he’s a flex-play at best as long as Sammy Morris is out, once Morris comes back it’ll be a time-share where anything could happen. If Maroney is getting all the touches, there’s a good chance he could score.
Despite out thinking Darrell Revis on a play for a TD, Randy Moss was pretty much covered for most of the game. That meant a great game for Wes Welker who racked up 15 receptions for 192 yards. You can see how much Brady missed him in the first Jets encounter.
Tom Brady had an ok day with 310 pass yards/1 TD, the Patriots were up quickly with a Leigh Bodden TD interception return. Bodden had a great day with 3 interceptions and that return TD. He could be an interesting IDP play next week as he goes up against the pass happy Saints offense. He may not get 3 picks but he could rack up a good number of tackles.
On the other side of the ball Thomas Jones quietly rushed for 103 yards, not too bad. Shonn Greene‘s three rushes for -1 yards should convince his owners to drop him, he’s no Leon Washington.
Braylon Edwards continues to drop passes, which pretty much cements Jerricho Cotchery as the Jets top target in my eyes.
Now on to the rest of the past weekend’s action.
Reading The Box Scores & Watching The Highlights
Ricky Williams might run away with the rest of the fantasy season (AP Photo/Rick Havner)
Ricky Williams is probably owned in every league, I have him on my bench in a league; well if you own him he pretty much becomes a must-start now. With Ronnie Brown out for the season, Williams becomes the number one guy on a team that can definitely run the ball- just look at the 3 TDs he scored this past Thursday.
Jonathan Stewart has become a trendy pickup ever since his 2 TD game last week, but failed to produce this week. Bottom line the guy is a boom or bust kind backup who will always be second fiddle to DeAngelo Williams. Remember the all or nothing performances of LenDale White last year? That’s pretty much Jonathan Stewart this year.
Joseph Addai quietly scored his 3rd TD in the past 3 weeks. He’s still sharing some time with Donald Brown but it’s clear to me that Addai is still the number one option there.
Interesting to see practice squadder Tom Santi get some action, but in a crowded WR corps and Dallas Clark, he’s just an interesting name but nothing more. By the way if I had to rank the three Colts receivers it’s Wayne, Garcon, Collie. However any of one of them could catch a couple of TDs- just ask Robert Meachem who caught 2 TDs for the Saints (while sitting on my bench.)
You see Derrick Mason‘s 142 yard day and it’s hard to believe that the 35 year old receiver almost retired this season. Amazingly enough it was his 2nd 100 yard game of the season and he’s quietly the 19th best receiver in the 4 Sport Boston league. He’s owned in most leagues but it’s amazing to me how under the radar he is.
Anyone from my current locale of DC knows that the Redskins have an anemic offense. Who knew that the match-up against the Cowboys would be just as anemic with only one TD scored in the entire game. The only takeway here is that you might want to look at Rock Cartwright. Besides having a cool name, he maybe the guy with Clinton Portis still suffering the effects of his concussion and Ladell Betts leaving the game with an ACL injury. 13 carries for 67 yards doesn’t impress me but he maybe the starter next week- and at this rate the only guy that’s going to run the ball. Who else is left there?
Can you believe that both Matthew Stafford and Brady Quinn did threw more TDs than Peyton Manning and Tom Brady combined? That’s what you get when the Browns and the Lions face-off: a shoot-out against two terrible teams. Last night my friend Noah told me that the Browns only had 5 total offensive TDs this season- who knew they would almost double that in one game? How action packed was this game? Even Browns kicker Phil Dawson completed a pass for 10 yards. Calvin Johnson, Kevin Smith, and Mohamed Massaquoi all benefited from the high scoring game.
Before you go picking up Quinn for his 4 TDs/304 passing yards/0 INT, just remember this was against the worst passing defense in the NFL. I might be able to throw for 4 TDs against the Lions.
Matt Stafford: Hero (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
Matthew Stafford gets the heroic play of the day for coming back from a shoulder injury in the previous play to throw the game-winning TD. Also in the same game, he continued the annual Lions tradition of earning a safety (at least he didn’t step out of bounds.)
Michael Crabtree continues to develop as he catches his first NFL touchdown. Greg Jennings breaks out after a long fantasy hiatus.
New coach in Buffalo and a new game plan for the offense: throw the ball to Terrell Owens. What an ingenious idea, one that should make T.O. happy as well as his fantasy owners. We still need to see if this will continue, if it does I’ve noticed T.O. dropped in a number of leagues. If he’s available in your league you may want to stash him just in case. Also worth mentioning that Lee Evans was one penalty away from a great game as well.
Mike Sims-Walker had another great game despite the hype that he had a bad match-up. Does this mean he’s a must start in all leagues? I say yes if you play in a league that starts 3 WRs .
It looks like Chris Chambers is indeed fantasy relevant again, with Dwayne Bowe suspended for three more weeks, Chambers proved he can by the number one option by catching 4 passes for 119 yards against a weakened Steelers secondary. However you should note that his next three match-ups are against the Chargers, Broncos, and Bills, all top 10 passing defenses.
Brett Favre didn’t discriminate with his receivers this week: He threw TD passes to Bernard Berrian, Sidney Rice, and Percy Harvin. I rank this group Rice, Harvin, then Berrian.
Jason Snelling did his best Michael Turner impression and scored 2 rushing TDs against the Giants. Without Turner and Norwood in the game, Snelling took advantage of carrying the ball 25 times. He looks to be a valuable backup to own as long Turner is out.
Hi Mario Manningham, good to see you perform after that 150 yard performance in Week 2. Too bad you got tough match-ups to finish the season.
Kevin Boss has been heating up and after his 76 yard/2 TD performance this week- he’s definitely an option in leagues that have lost Chris Cooley and Owen Daniels.
Josh Freeman has gone from throwing 3 TDs to throwing 3 Interceptions. That’s why you stay away from the rookie breakout game.
Everybody will be watching Kurt Warner‘s status after leaving the game with a possible concussion, we already know what the Matt Leinhart era looks like and we don’t want it.
People are still too quick to call the fantasy death of Tim Hightower him and Chris Wells split the touches evenly and while Wells got the TD, Hightower rushed for 110 yards.
Chris Simms: Zero (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
How bad is Chris Simms? The Broncos would rather play an injured Kyle Orton than play Simms. All this means bad things for Brandon Marshall
LaDanian Tomlinson had a good fantasy day today, not that he was ever fantasy dead- just more human than past seasons. He should continue to be good against the Chiefs and Browns in the next two weeks.
Bernard Scott look good filling in for Cedric Benson, however Carson Palmer decided to run in a couple of TDs himself.
Jeremy Maclin looking good in his past two games, I don’t think he’s rosterable yet but keep an eye out on him. Meanwhile Jay Cutler still looks shaken up form his terrible game last week, now that the bye weeks are over I’m totally ok with you dropping him.
Kahlil Bell was activated from the Bears practice squad this week and broke out a 72 yard run. An interesting name, but let’s wait to see what happens to this new kid down the line.
I’m writing this piece on Monday so I’ll quickly predict tonight’s game: Chris Johnson runs all over the field, Andre Johnson catches a few TDs from Matt Schaub, yet thanks to a terrible Houston defense, Vince Young walks away with another victory. I can easily see this gaming being a shoot-out.
I Rock At Fantasy Football
Right now I’m currently leading in 3 out of my 5 leagues. I’m hoping that Schaub can pull out 20 fantasy points and Johnson catches 3 TDs. Here’s to hoping.
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