Colin Kaepernick had a bad game in Week 13 against the Rams.

He had a solid completion percentage of roughly 60%.

He only threw for 200 yards and an interception.

Kaepernick had 14 fantasy points in week 13.

The safety that comes from his running ability makes Colin Kaepernick a top 10 fantasy QB.

Since the turn of the millennium, just one running back has followed up a season-ending ACL tear with a 1,000 yard season.

There are two running backs that are over 1,000 yards rushing on the season that finished last year with an ACL tear, Adrian Peterson and Jamaal Charles.

Jamaal Charles suffered his injury in week 2 and was expected to make a strong return because of that.

Adrian Peterson suffered his injury and the fact that he was playing at such a high level, immediately, is nothing short of a medical marvel.

Peterson is the NFL’s leading rusher by a margin of 308 yards and is the NFL’s top scoring fantasy RB.

Bryce Brown is averaging 173.5 yards per game and two TDs.

LeSean McCoy has not had more than 150 yards rushing at all this season.

McCoy has just two rushing TDs on the season.

Bryce Brown is a gifted athlete with a very bright future in this league.

If LeSean McCoy returns from injury and is 100% this week, I expect Brown to get roughly half the carries.

Everyone knows how well Doug Martin has run the ball this season, with 1100 yards and 9 rushing TDs.

Not many people have noticed his pass catching ability.

Martin has been targeted 47 times and has amassed 374 receiving yards plus one receiving TD.

Doug Martin is a complete, three down back that will be a very highly ranked RB going into next season, especially in PPR leagues.

Randall Cobb is a top 15 WR in most fantasy analysts’ rankings.

Jordy Nelson has re-injured himself so even though Greg Jennings has returned, Cobb will see the field plenty.

James Jones will start along with Jennings for the Packers in 2 WR sets.

Randall Cobb has fewer receiving yards than any other top 20 WR on the season with 675.

Cobb also has the lowest number of targets (84) among top 20 WRs on the season.

Randall Cobb is not to be considered a top 20 wide receiver during the fantasy playoffs.

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So these lists are small and only going to get smaller as the weeks progress through the playoffs.  In fact, this week’s list is more of a catch-all list of guys that simply shouldn’t be available.  This isn’t laziness on my part, I assure you.  It’s MORE important to make moves during this time, if you are still alive that is. The reason that the number of guys worthy of a pick-up shrinks is that there isn’t much time left! Many waiver wire additions require time for you to develop enough trust to start them and this is a ten times more relevant point in the playoffs.  You lose and you are done, are you going to trust someone that you know nothing about other than a single game’s stat line? Not very likely.

Pickups

Danario Alexander, WR, SD – I’m not regaining any confidence in Rivers or the Chargers as a whole but in 5 games, this guy has 467 receiving yards and 3 TD’s.  This is better than ANYONE has done on this offense all year and since they have stayed a bad team throughout this production, I don’t see it dropping off any time soon.  He’s a solid flex-play the rest of the way and he just might be sitting out there for you to pick-up.

Bryce Brown, RB, PHI – The LeSean McCoy injury situation is murky still and even if it was clear, Brown has been statistically more productive than McCoy was all season.  The season is a lost one for the Eagles and given that they will want to evaluate talent for next season, I can’t imagine that Brown takes a back seat when McCoy does return.  Next week is a bad match-up though so if McCoy plays, neither will be worthy of a start for fantasy owners.

Brandon Meyers, TE, OAK – The Raiders are not a great team and they aren’t going to be.  Myers isn’t an elite tight end and he isn’t going to be.  What he is however, is safe.  Myers has had just ONE game below 5 receptions since week 6 and that is an impressive feat for a tight-end this season.  He has just as good of a chance to find the end zone as any other non-elite tight end and is too important to the Raider passing attack to suddenly disappear from the stat sheet. I wish I wasn’t so skeptical about this guy for as long as I was because he is gone in all of my leagues and if he isn’t in yours, your incredibly lucky.

Josh Gordon, WR, CLE – In my one-liners column, I talked about how this guy was a possible flex-starter this past week and I mentioned how sweet his match ups are going forward too.  A big game from him this week should mean he’ll get scooped back up in a lot of leagues but make sure you at least put in a waiver claim if he is out there.  This should happen even if you don’t want to start him (and I’d really rather not in the playoffs) but given his high upside, I don’t want an opponent hitting the lottery when I could have blocked him from picking up his ticket in the first place.

T.Y. Hilton, WR, IND – I know, Avery had the better game… I don’t care.  Hilton has been providing fantasy value for a good long while now.  His targets might not knock you out of your chair but he’s been getting it done and on an offense that passes a LOT.  Teams can’t focus on him with Wayne out there having one of his best seasons either.

Dump List

I know you might think this is a cop-out but you can drop ANYONE that you wouldn’t play AND that your opponent wouldn’t start against you.  Listen, if your holding Donnie Avery and you need a receiver. Drop him for Josh Gordon.  I would personally love it if an opponent picked up my garbage and started it against me in the playoffs.  Also, maybe you own RGIII and Andy Dalton… the three other teams in the playoffs have Brady, Rodgers and Brees.  You can just drop Dalton now because the other teams are not going to waste a roster spot on him.

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Love

Cam Newton, QB, CAR – Newton showed us all, last week, that he can still put up some BIG numbers against bad teams.  The team lost Jonathan Stewart and while fantasy owners wouldn’t believe it, it will have a negative impact on the team.  DeAngelo Williams has been the worse of the two and with him getting the lion’s share of the work, I believe the running game will suffer significantly because of it.  Expect them to ask Cam to pick up the slack around the goal line and expect him to have a nice day throwing as well.  He falls just outside my top 10 but only because Kaepernick has a little more upside to me.

Jamaal Charles, RB, KC – The Chiefs are pretty bad and unfortunately that can mean abandoning the run and looking to the air but Carolina is ranked 25th at defending the run and Charles is better than your average running back.  I think Crennel would like to keep his job and if that means winning more games, he just might give Charles another 30 carry game.  Don’t rely on that but if Charles starts strong, I wouldn’t be remotely surprised to see it.

Reggie Wayne, WR, IND – The way to beat the Lions is by passing.  They will be throwing a ton themselves (the leagues top passing offense), so you will have to keep up and their secondary is pretty porous.  Andrew Luck has been solid and Wayne has been great as he is on pace to beat his personal record for single season receiving yards.

Ahmad Bradshaw, RB, NYG – I don’t think he can hold up all the way through a playoff run, physically, and history backs me up on that.  However, the Giants need to MAKE the playoffs first and a key to that will be keeping Robert Griffen III off the field by running the ball with Bradshaw.  I don’t expect Coughlin to suddenly throw David Wilson out there more than he has to.  The Redskins defense is really bad too so i’m looking for a great performance from Bradshaw as well as the passing game.

Justin Blackmon, WR, JAC - I ranked Cecil Shorts considerably higher but Blackmon was the more surprising to me, considering that he was the second guy to make it into the top 25.  Buffalo’s defense has been pretty stout in recent weeks but that doesn’t mean that there isnt fantasy production to go around.  The weak spot, still, is the secondary and if Henne and the Jags wanna win some games, they will pass a TON this week.  Even if MJD makes it out there, you have to think it’s a limited touches scenario and the passing game will remain the feature of the offense.

Danario Alexander, WR, SD – He’s started three games and even with one of them being as a tight-end, he has been the most effective receiver in every single one.  This is a really good flex-option and he is fast approaching WR 2 territory with another strong game this week.

Hate

Trent Richardson, RB, CLE – I didn’t know I hated Richardson till I finished my rankings and looked at what the other websites had up… TOP THREE?! Not for me.  He’s been great and I think he is one of the best RB2′s you can ask for but he’s a Cleveland Brown and that limits your upside significantly.  I would not start him over any of the elite guys just because of his nice match-up.  So, if you own Peterson, Doug Martin and CJ Spiller, which is incredibly possible, you just keep Richardson on your bench and don’t let anyone make you feel bad about it.

Danny Amendola, WR, STL – I wouldn’t blame PPR owners for playing him but even there he is a flex play at best against the incredibly stout 49er defense.

Chris Johnson, RB, TEN – People, hear me now and remember how right I was later… THIS IS NOT A TOP 10 RUNNING BACK.  He’s put up far too many awful performances, he plays behind an awful offensive line  and plays against the Texans this week.

Brandon Lloyd, WR, NE – I really thought he was going to be a flex play again for one more week but I just couldn’t do it. Not with your playoff chances on the line. Sit him down and live to fight another week.

Dustin Keller, TE, NYJ – I really like Keller but he hasn’t been consistent and all I can think about is the fact that the Cardinals picked off Matt Ryan 5 times a couple weeks ago and now they play Sanchez.

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