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.

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Studs

Calvin Johnson, WR, DET - I wonder if Megatron is happy to have his franchise QB back at the helm?  In his first game after being reunited with Matthew Stafford, Calvin makes the most of it, hauling in 9 catches of the 15 thrown his direction to total 101 yards and three scores.  Calvin should be able to validate your decision to draft him with ease in the 2nd half of the season as the Lions continue their crawl out of the shame of their 2-30 record from the ’08 and ’09 seasons.

David Garrard, QB, JAC - Well, this is why Garrard is so frustrating for fantasy owners.  5 total TDs this week in a dominating performance against the helpless Dallas Cowboys. I still couldn’t trust Garrard in a one QB league, but if you were in bye week hell this week, you were rewarded for digging deep and starting Garrard.  Stay away from Captain Inconsistent from here on out unless you have to start 2 QBs every week.

BenJarvus Green-Ellis, RB, NE – The law firm had a MONSTER second half Sunday to finish with 112 yards and 2 scores on just 17 carries.  This performance came out of left field given his committee situation and tough match up, but he has done a lot to ensure he will see a lion’s share of the carries in the Patriots backfield.

LaGarrette Blount, RB, TB – Blount, in the past two weeks has taken over the feature-back role in the Buccaneers’ offense and vaulted himself to a top 25 RB option for fantasy owners.  The success of the Buccs offense has centered around young talent like Freeman and Mike Williams.  I was not surprised to see this type of performance from Blount in that offense with the great match up, but it was far from a lock that he saw the same amount of carries.  After Sunday, these questions are no longer a concern and Blount should be used as a great flex option from here on out… or a RB 2 if you’re hurting!

Larry Fitzgerald, WR, ARI - When it looked like it couldn’t get any worse for Fitzgerald… it didn’t! Fitzgerald returned a little bit of value to fantasy owners who drafted him and hadn’t abandoned him to their bench.  Fitz caught two TD passes from two different QBs this week and totaled 72 yards.  We can’t expect to see scores every week from the NFL’s most talented receiver, but he should probably be started weekly still, whether you like it or not!

Brandon Lloyd, WR, DEN – After two straight quiet weeks, Lloyd hauled in 7 catches for 169 yards and a score Sunday in England.  He has been a HUGE value for the lucky owner in each league who grabbed him off waivers early in the year.  I do have concerns for Lloyd down the stretch as continuing to lose only speeds the emergence of Tebow as the Broncos starting QB… which turns every offensive player in Denver into one giant question mark.

Jamaal Charles, RB, KC - I still don’t know what Todd Haley and Charlie Weiss are thinking making Charles split carries with Thomas Jones.  Charles saw only 3 more carries than Jones did and has an extra ONE HUNDRED YARDS to show for it.  It’s great to have an adequate backup that can fill-in when your lead guy gets tired… but to force him to see half the carries at the expense of the success of your offense and team is just idiotic.  Charles had double the yards per carry that Jones did and had he run it 30 times instead of 22, there would not have even been an over time in this game.  Even with his current coaching staff, Jamaal Charles is a top 15 RB and a must-start every week.

Jason Witten, TE, DAL - With uncertainty at QB and one of the most talented Tight Ends in the NFL, we should see the re-emergence of Jason Witten as an elite fantasy TE.  Very often when a QB is struggling, they use the TE as a safety-valve because they are so difficult to cover in space, due to their large size.  That combined with how good Witten is at stretching the field and going deep over the middle should lead to him being Kitna’s new best friend.

Duds

Ben Roethlisberger, QB, PIT - The Saints defense looked a lot like their opponent usually does… dominant.  Ben was not able to stretch the ball down the field to his receivers who all could take a spot on this list. This won’t be the norm, but highlights why Big Ben is not an elite fantasy QB at this point in his career.

Chad Ochocinco, WR, CIN – The Bengals continue to deny their identity as a run-first offense and they continue to lose.  I don’t know why Marvin Lewis is the last person on the planet to realize that Carson Palmer is not the QB he once was and as long as they continue to go to the air twice as often as handing the ball off, they will continue to lose.  Chad’s owners might disagree with me, but if they would run as often as they did last year, he would be open much more often.

Zach Miller, TE, OAK – With his first terrible game of the season behind him, we still have to start this guy every-week.  I was big on him as a value pick in this year’s draft and he has not disappointed.   Look for him to remain the Raider’s leading receiver throughout the season and continue to be productive regardless of who starts at QB.

Felix Jones, RB, DAL – All I can say is you’re sure not starting ANY Dallas RBs until further notice.  What a mess.

Marshawn Lynch, RB, SEA – I am speechless, the matchup was right… but the whole Seahawk offense was silenced Sunday against the Raiders.  We can’t expect anything THIS bad again, but it puts a halt on the top 20 RB expectations I had for Lynch for the past couple weeks.

Mark Sanchez, QB, NYJ - The whole Jets offense struggles when Sanchez does and the Dom Capers blitzing scheme shut Sanchez down this week.  All we really learned from this game is that the Jets are indeed human and even with all the injuries, we still need to take the Packers seriously.

Randy Moss, WR, MIN – Moss did so bad this week that his head coach told the Vikings players that Moss was no longer a part of their team on Monday morning.  Now, no such move was officially made yet and we need to watch this unfold to know how his fantasy-value will be impacted.  However, I saw a lazy player not trying his hardest on Sunday… unless this serves as a humbling experience for Moss, his attitude will need to be monitored closely for the rest of the season.

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Pickups

LeGarrette Blount, RB, TB – Blount had a big game this week with a soft match up against the Cardinals.  The Cards made a change at QB midway through the game and they were actually able to achieve some offensive production.  I liked Blount a lot in this game considering how inept the Cardinals offense has been over the past few weeks.  This game ended up being close, but by adding a dynamic running game to the mix, the Buccs were able to get a well-deserved win.  Look for Blount to stay the feature back for Tampa Bay and develop into a great RB 2 option.

Kevin Smith, RB, DET – Jahvid Best burst onto the scene at the very beginning of the regular season and since week 2 he has been average at best.  This past week Smith and Best split carries evenly (12 a piece)  Smith’s stock is rising.  Due to his increased involvement in the passing game and break away speed, I would rather own Best than Smith… but that will change soon given how long it has been since Best has found the end zone.

Darrius Heyward-Bey, WR, OAK – The Raiders have been a surprise team this year so far.  Their biggest area of concern is at the WR position.  They really need someone to step up and prove to be a consistent threat (other than Zach Miller).  We can’t just assume Heyward-Bey is that guy after one game, but given his ability to make plays in a variety of ways (including a 30 yard run) he is the only WR on that team worth owning… just in case.

Nate Washington, WR, TEN – It is not yet known if Britt will miss any time yet, but since non-contact injuries have a tendency to cause a player to miss a few weeks (see Malcom Floyd) someone will need to pick up the slack at the WR position in Tennessee. This is def a double-edged sword though with Vince Young also leaving the game with an ankle injury, but Kerry Collins is one of the best backup QBs in the NFL and will keep the Titans offense afloat.

Mike Sims-Walker, WR, JAC - I wouldn’t go get him, but with how well David Garrard played this week… if you are in a deep format or are just simply a believer in Garrard, MSW and the Jaguars… then holding this receiver on your bench for a couple weeks to see if he rebounds isn’t a terrible idea.

Keiland Williams, RB, WAS – This is a very deep league suggestion only, given that Portis will be back before long and the RB situation in Washington will be a complete mess.  Williams is slowly finding his way into the Skins’ offense and is getting touches that we all thought where reserved for Torain.  Given how seemingly random the carries get shared under Mike Shanahan all three guys are own-able (in 14+ team leagues) until one of the backs in Washington wins over the coach.  My guess is Portis though.

Brandon Tate, WR, NE – After the emergence of Deion Branch in his first game back with the Patriots, it is very likely that whoever grabbed Tate bailed and re-released him.  This was a mistake!  If this happened in your league go grab him.  He has a gorgeous long TD catch this past week where he extended his route down the field and got open for Brady, who was under pressure.  Plays like this make a QB fall in love with their WR pretty quickly and the Pats need a deep threat.

Dump List

Tim Hightower, RB, ARI – With the Cardinals able to move the ball effectively this week and putting up 35 points, it was surprising to see Hightower get only two total touches.  LaRod Stephens-Howling was a surprise to take the 2nd most touches… but since it was only four you can’t add him yet.

Marion Barber, RB, DAL - With the Cowboys running game being entirely ineffective so far this season and Felix Jones being a dynamic player, I see no reason to hold onto Barber any longer.  He will be at best a goal line back the rest of the year and with Kitna at QB his chances from the one will be limited.

Jonathan Stewart, RB, CAR – He has been really disappointing in his #2 role so far this year.  With DeAngelo Williams missing last week due to injury it was expected that Stewart would perform admirably in his absence… but that was incorrect.  He had 14 carries and only 30 yards rushing in a very disappointing outing. If he can’t produce as a lead back against the Rams… why would you bother to trust him when he returns to his #2 spot on the depth chart? Once we know Williams is back you can drop Stewart.

Patrick Crayton, WR, SF - He had a bad day this week in a good win for the Chargers who are trying to claw their way back into playoff contention.  With Vincent Jackson coming back soon and Malcom Floyd and Legadu Naanee coming back from injury soon, just bail on Crayton now.

Chris Ivory, RB, NO - Thomas and Bush are due to return this week, barring any setbacks in their recovery.  After a bad game statistically, in a tough win last night, Ivory is not worth a roster spot any more.

Ladell Betts, RB, NO - See Chris Ivory.

Eddie Royal, WR, DEN – Fantasy owners might not realize this given the numbers that Orton and Lloyd have been putting up… but the Broncos suck. After dropping to the 9ers in England this week the Broncos are now 2-6.  With the yearly Chargers resurgence in November and December the Broncos have eliminated themselves from the playoff race already and it is only a matter of time before the young-guns are allowed to take over.  Enter Tim Tebow and Demaryius Thomas.

Roy Williams, WR, DAL – Did you guys hear? Roy Williams isn’t that good!  After being one of the receivers that let a pass deflect off his hands and get intercepted this past week, it is apparent that he won’t be developing any trust with Kitna soon.  While Kitna may be an adequate back up… he will not be able to keep three receivers alive for fantasy owners.

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Chris Cooley, TE, WAS - Active
Vernon Davis, TE, SF - Active
Steven Jackson, RB, STL - Active
Donovan McNabb, QB, WAS - Active

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