Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Sweet, Sweet Fantasy Baby

Sorry for the delay today - I've been out sick today, then the fire alarm in my building was going off and then Blogger had an outage that prevented me from publishing this post. I bet Ian Hamilton doesn't have to put up with this kind of garbage.

Before we get to the Fantasy Football, I feel as though I should point out that Atlanta Thrashers head coach Bob Hartley was fired by the team today. I should also point out that Hartley was first on my list of head coaches who would lose their job. See for yourself. Just don't scroll down to where I pick Kings goalie Jonathan Bernier to be the rookie of the year - Bernier was sent back to Junior last week.

Anyway on to the Fantasy Football, where my only fantasy is to not be 0-6. I'm going for the record... 0-14. I'm getting into George Costanza territory here - every instinct I have is wrong, so that must make the opposite right. Adjust your rosters accordingly.

Thankfully though we do have someone here at Sports As Life who knows what he's talking about - here's Senior Fantasy Football Writer Trebor's breakdown for Week7:


So Week 6 finally saw some top performances from LT, LJ and MJD, but Alexander has fallen off now (hope you listened about LJ and Alex). This week there’s only 4 teams on a bye. Carolina, San Diego, Green Bay and Cleveland. All but the Panthers had startable QB’s and there’s also some WR/TE’s that will be sitting so hopefully your rosters can be filled properly or you have waiver wire luck/skill (CH).

So with some news coming through the wire. I thought I’d take a look at these trades/signing and give you some things to look for. Just so you know I haven’t read any analysis on the following trades, as work is damn busy - I called it quits at 9pm last night (start at 7 am)…so hopefully when I get a chance later in the week the experts will think the same but…

Michael Bennett gets traded to Tampa Bay:
For the last couple of years this one guy in my league keeps picking Michael Bennett, 2 yrs ago in the 6th round, every time he gets laughed at. Not just a heckle but basically leading up to the draft and then for weeks after the selection is mocked and for good reason, he’s been a back-up for a couple of years now, waiting for LJ to get hurt, before that he was part of a three back system in Minny. If he drafted him this year then he’ll be laughing now. Tampa has no running back, Earnest Graham can be a decent option but Bennett will compete for the starting job maybe not this week but week after I see him out there a lot more than Earnest. One of the reasons being is that Bennett can catch. This used to be Pittman's role until he got hurt. With Garcia playing top notch, Bennett can not only see 10-15 carries per game but also get checked down to 5-7 times/game. So expect 75+ yards from him after week 7.

What to do…If you have Earnest I would suggest picking up Bennett, or if you think you may need some help at RB. He’s not going to put up big numbers in that offense but can help a team out down the stretch with a couple of match-ups against the Saints, Carolina, the ATL. Wow I think Tampa will win their division…who said that Gruden was going to be the first coach fired ???? same person who said Coughlin would also be gone right away ?? (well... at least I can pick which hockey coaches are going to get fired) My picks of John Fox and Lovie Smith are still in play.

Also with the trade LJ’s back-up is now Kolby Smith…you might be saying “who??” and I’m not going to bother looking him up. Important thing is the trade may mean Priest Holmes is going to be playing again. See if/how he does in practice before making a move though

Chris Chambers trade to San Deigo:
This caught me by surprise. The Tampa trade you knew was coming they had to get someone in at running back. So the Chargers went and got a number 1 wr. Or well at least a former top receiver. I don’t see Chambers getting back to his production of 2005, or even what he did at the beginning of the season. Vincent Jackson the soon to be #2 WR, is tall, athletic, fast, knows the system and is a tier 2 wr at best. The reason being ??? I’m not sure Rivers, coaching schemes…. no wide receiver is going to do well in this offense. The reason why Rivers can be a good QB is because of the screen pass to LT and no one can cover Gates. Throwing in 1 more receiver will only diminish balls thrown to Jackson and to Gates. However, teams now have another guy to cover, which means more room for LT.

Miami is in rebuilding mode, Chambers probably was a high paid player if he was a free agent this or the next year wouldn’t surprise me. So the winless Dolphins traded their top wr… I’m not sure but management could be in trouble here, they passed up Brady Quinn thinking Trent Green was the answer and stretched with the pick of Teddy Ginn, but from a fantasy side who cares. Perhaps Teddy showed them something, but I have seen nothing from him except for a 100 yard run that lost XX yards and knocked out their QB.

What to do… With San Diego on bye Chambers will have time to get into the system. I don’t see his production going up so don’t try and reach for him unless you need help. I would value him more than Jackson right now who just might slip to a #3-4 WR, since he may get lost behind the big names.

As far as Miami this could mean the Ronnie will see more men in the box, especially until Cleo Lemon shows he can pass. They also play New England this week so it’s not a good match-up for any Dolphin - though if you have anyone beside Ronnie, well I cant help you. See how Booker and Ginn step up in the offense. After their week 9 bye, they have some easier match-ups and either could be worth a flier when your top WR has a bad match-up.

As for picks... the big one I got wrong was to sit Adrian Peterson... wow did I ever get that wrong. Wasn’t there a time when you went into Chicago knowing that if you got 75 yds on the ground it would be a good day.

QB’s
Start’em
Eli Manning vs SF... Who needs leaderships skills Tiki when your a Manning, they’ve got the running backs in place, receivers who can catch, Def playing strong... which is good news for Eli, bad news for Eli he is going to get jacked up by Willis which will be fun to watch.
Campbell vs Arizona... He didn’t do much last week against a tough Green Bay team. He’s up against the Cards this week, still tough but I figure their Def will pick off Rattay or whoever ??? a couple of times and give him a short field to work with.
Garcia vs Detroit... Who would have thought Garcia could still play at this level, I’m fairly sure he hasn’t thrown a int yet and going against the Lions could mean he could rack up some td’s.


Bench’em
McNabb vs Da Bears... I’m putting all Philly players on the bench this week, I think after the embarrassment of last week they’ll be all kinds of fired up for their visit to the City of Brotherly Love. Mcnab probably gets put on here anyway cause he’s not playing good against anyone.
Cutler vs Pittsburgh... Come off a bye to play one of the top Def coupled with their running back situation ??? not a good situation for an average QB.

RB's
Start’em
Brandon Jacobs vs SF... Can’t wait to see Willis go after Jacobs, I realize this is the 2nd time I’ve mentioned Patrick Willis, maybe too close to man crush but hey he’s that good.
Thomas Jones vs Cincy... Jones is starting find his stride with J-E-T-S, I think he went over 100 last game and this week he gets the Bungles.
LJ vs Oaktown... After being on the sit list for the first 5 weeks (which was the right call) he is now permanently on the start list, and facing Oakland will only help him get back in stride.

Bench’em
Westbrook vs Da Bears... See my McNabb argument, the Bears aren’t going to let someone else run all over them. Yes he will probably get 50 yrds on the ground and 50 in the air, but in standard leagues that’s 4 points... not that good.
Travis Henry vs Pittsburgh... His role is going to start being less and less unless it’s true that it was 2nd hand smoke that caused him to fail the 2nd drug test. Didn’t say anything about the 1st test so.... also I think Pitts hasn’t allowed a RB to gain more than 70yds this season.
Barber/Jones vs Minny.... This tandem is one of the better ones in the league, but going against Minny, Romo will be chucking the ball way too much. If you want to start one Barber, he is more active in the passing game and also should get goaline work.

WR's
Start 'em
Crayton vs Minny... They have the worst pass defense, so expect numbers from both all three (Owens, Crayton and Witten).
Engram vs Rams... I’m putting him here as he seem to be the go-to guy, but for some reason my gut says Nasty Nate (Burleson) is the better of the 2.
Cotchery vs Cincy... Even though Chad’s arm can't get him the deep ball, Jericho will run the short routes and pile on the YAC.


Bench 'em
Colston vs Atla... This could be a fun game to watch... kind of like the stooges. None of the Atlanta players can catch and Colston seems to be taking notes from his former mentor (Joe Horn) and will fit right in with Atlanta. He had 1 catch last week and 3 drops that I saw, 1 he was standing there with ball delivered right to his chest and... well... I just laughed.
Boldin/Fitz vs Washington... I have the misfortune of having both WR’s so I’ll have to start one of them. Boldin will likely play this week but with Rattay throwing the ball??? Also Washington's secondary had really stepped up by shutting out Kitna and Favre.

Also I hope the editor wins one game this year - just not this one, though I am worried because of his receivers and their favorable match-ups. (If you haven't guessed Trebor and I are playing each other in our Fantasy League this week - stay tuned next week for the results)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's with all this CH hating? Hate the game not the player. Not my fault Brady is a Man-God who will throw for 5 TD's vs. the dolphins, and had his best fantasy week vs. his toughest competition thus far.

How can my waiver playing be lucky? When you're the top Point getter in the league by 53 points (anyone who reads this doesn't even want to know how many points back they are), you are always last on the waiver wire. Anyone could have picked up my gems before me.

I am unstoppable. My head is growing. I will never get my comeuppance. Never.

CH

Anonymous said...

gotta hate someone. you are the top guy, so it comes with the territory. Or wouuld you rather have the hate going towards someone who is 0-6

though you are tied with 2 other teams, they have gotten lucky with their match-up, playing the right owner at the right time. or having owners sit the worng player.