Love and Hate Lists for Week 9

Love

Tom Brady, QB, NE - The Patriots have quietly been the best team in the NFL so far this season.  As the only team to only lose one game thus far this season, it is hard not to view them as a Super Bowl favorite.  For fantasy owners, this week is a dream come true with the match up against the Browns.  Look for Brady to have a nice game as well as the Law Firm. As far as who will be CATCHING the balls Brady is throwing… who knows.

Michael Turner, RB, ATL - Turner has been a stud for fantasy owners.  There are not many backs left in the NFL that get the number of carries that Turner does and since they are going against the league’s 30th ranked run defense a hundred yards is seemingly guaranteed.

Hakeem Nicks, WR, NYG – With the status of Matt Hasselbeck still unknown and how thoroughly the Raiders decimated the Seahawks, it is hard to fall in love with this season’s breakout receiver.  Nicks has vaulted past Steve Smith to be the goto target for Eli and the Giants passing attack.

Eli Manning, QB, NYG - The Seahawks have an easy schedule this year being part of the NFL’s least competitive division, the NFC West.  The fact that they are ranked 29th against the pass with this easy schedule is a bit misleading… Manning should be in for a 300 yard performance with a couple of TD passes.

Adrian Peterson, RB, MIN - The Vikings offense with Randy Moss was able to stretch the field and pass the ball effectively with Percy Harvin not drawing so many double teams.  Now that they are without Moss again and Favre’s injuries are stacking up, the obvious strategy for Childress and the Vikings offense is a heavy dose of Peterson.  Given that the Cardinals are allowing an average of 143 yards per game it should be a good week for AP’s fantasy owners.

Matt Forte, RB, CHI - This will be interesting to see how this game plays out.  Against the Bills, the smart choice is to run the ball as often as possible, but that really does not fit into the Mike Martz scheme.  Forte has made some BIG plays to help the Bears struggling offense and with the Bills being so bad against the run it is likely that we see a couple big runs this week too.

Greg Jennings, WR, GB - After David Garrard threw four TD passes against the Cowboys secondary last week, it is hard not to love Aaron Rodgers in this match up.  With Driver being hampered by a bad hamstring and shut out for two weeks straight, Jennings is the only trusted target that Rodgers has left.

Hate

Chad Ochocinco, WR, CIN – Conventional wisdom says that 85 is a better fantasy option than TO, but past performance this season says otherwise. I am done sticking to my guns on Ochocinco and while this will likely change before long… start TO and bench Ochocinco for this week.

Jahvid Best, RB, DET – It may have taken fellow Lions RB Kevin Smith a LONG time to fully recover from last season’s knee injury… now that he is back and Best has been under-performing since week 2 the carries are being split.  Until Best shows some flashes of the play making ability he demonstrated at the start of the season, feel free to bench him (though given the bye weeks that will be tough).

Matt Schaub, QB, HOU – Being one of the weeks with six teams on a bye, you aren’t likely to have a better option than Schaub… but he sure has been disappointing to the fantasy owners that drafted him.  Going against the league’s best defense (statistically) means we’ll have to lower our already-low expectations.

Carson Palmer, QB, CIN - I am on record as hating Palmer for a while now.  His play has declined over the years and the only reason his is own-able still is due to the fact that the Bengals refuse to run as often as they did last year.  But, given their tough Monday night match up against the Steelers in week 9, I doubt you need much convincing to sit him.

Dwayne Bowe, WR, KC - The two big games that Bowe had, came with great match-ups and while I spent most of last week trying to convince people that the Bills are not a good match up for your QBs and WRs… it isn’t a bad match-up either.  Last week Bowe only caught three passes for 16 yards and while one was a TD you were probably expecting better.  Don’t do that anymore, he should go back to being just as disappointing as he was earlier in the season.