Love

Stevan Ridley, RB, NE – There are a lot of people out there that are under the assumption that the Patriots are a pass-first offense. New England has attempted 276 rushing plays and 323 passing plays.  A surprisingly even split when the perception is that they almost never run.  Ridley is the lead back on the NFL’s 4^th best rushing offense and he is playing against the NFL’s 31^st ranked rushing defense.

Matthew Stafford, QB, DET – Stafford didn’t knock his fantasy owners’ socks off last week with points.  He did however play pretty well and the team was running the ball with an effectiveness that we have really never seen before.  This ability to run the ball opened up Calvin Johnson in the passing game.  Stafford should bounce back well in the second half of the season.

Stevie Johnson, WR, BUF – Johnson has been a fairly large disappointment in the past few weeks.  The Bills passing offense has fallen apart and they are leaning heavily on their running game.  But, I’ve got news for fantasy owners… New England’s secondary is awful.  Aqib Talib is not eligible to play for the Patriots yet as he finished out his suspension and it is reasonable to look for 100 yards and a score from Johnson this week.

Rashad Jennings, RB, JAC – It may be hard to get excited about a back up running back on the worst team in the NFL.  Sorry Jaguars fans, I don’t mean to offend, but they really are that bad. I am excited because this is a winnable game for Jacksonville.  They are playing at home against the 5-3 Indianapolis Colts, who have a terrible run defense.  They have been gashed by a variety of backs this season and Jennings will have more room to run in this game than any Jaguar back has all season.  Get this guy in your lineup unless your team is stacked.

Brandon Meyers, TE, OAK – The only thing that I am nervous about with Meyers is that he is on a west coast team that is traveling to the east, to play at 1pm.  Carson Palmer is playing pretty well as of late and Oakland is starting to improve.  Darren McFadden is banged up and even if he gets out there, which I doubt, he will have a limited role.  This means that Oakland will be opening up the passing game even more this week and Meyers has been a VERY sure-handed and reliable threat for Palmer all season.  He’s close to being a top 10 guy until further notice.

Brian Hartline, WR, MIA – If after last week, you still require more proof to believe me when I say that Tennessee is a bad team, your insane.  The offense was turning the ball over like crazy and the secondary couldn’t contain Brandon Marshall, who was the primary AND secondary receiver on every pass that Jay Cutler threw.  Hartline is no Brandon Marshall but he is a reliable weapon for Tannehill and could be in-line for his second best game of the season.

Hate

Shonn Greene, RB, NYJ – The Jets offense has struggled, to say the least, at times this season and while Greene has been able to put up some very good statistical performances, he has yet to WOW me when I watch the game film.  Seattle has one of this season’s best defenses and when they are at home, they can shut down ANYONE. This is not a good week to risk your fate on Greene or any New York Jet.

Mike Williams, WR, TB – A LOT of fantasy analysts have listed Mike Williams as a top 20 guy this week and honestly, I think that this is absurd. He has not had a 100-yard game in 3 weeks and while he has 3 TD’s in 4 games, I am not sure that there is any real certainty that he will be continuing this trend.  Don’t get me wrong, his value is on the rise and he is a viable flex option but a WR #2? Get real… not yet.

Tony Romo, QB, DAL – IF you still love this guy, you haven’t seen his games.  You should have been in the market for a new QB already and Josh Freeman, Carson Palmer and Andrew Luck all found their way above Freeman in my rankings. Sit Romo down or you are asking to lose.

Chris Johnson, RB, TEN – I was really upset when Johnson pulled the fluke 80 yard TD run out of thin air as the Titans were DOMINATED by the Bears last week.  If you take away that ONE play, Johnson would have gotten you just two fantasy points.  He is not a top 20 guy and just a flex-option because it is possible that he pulls another big play out of nowhere.

Jeremy Maclin, WR, PHI – Dallas’s defense has been incredibly improved from last year.  That goes double for the secondary, which was simply awful last season.  Between that and how poor Vick has been playing lately, there is not much chance of quality production from Maclin.  DeSean Jackson gets ranked higher this week because he is far more likely to take a short pass the distance but even he is just a flex-play in a week where big-plays are not very likely.  If your desperate, you can use Maclin because NFC East games tend to be tough to analyze… anything can happen.

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Antonio Brown has been outscored on the season by Mike Williams, Brian Hartline, Jeremy Kerley, Michael Crabtree, Cecil Shorts, Santana Moss, Anquan Boldin and Golden Tate.

Antonio Brown will not crack my top 30 again without a couple of good games in a row.

Doug Martin did not have a 100 yard rushing performance before week 8.

Martin is 186 yards off of the NFL’s rushing leader, Adrian Peterson.

Martin is 3 TDs off of the NFL’s leader in rushing scores, Arian Foster.

Doug Martin is the highest scoring running back, for fantasy purposes, in the National Football League.

Brandon Marshall has five games with a TD.

Only one of these games did NOT also come with 100 yards receiving.

Marshall only has one BAD game this season. (2 points in week 2).

Andre Brown has not rushed more than 7 times in a game since week 3.

Brown has not amassed more than 21 yards in a game in the same time frame.

He has one TD per game for three consecutive games.

All three TDs were goal line carries.

Demaryius Thomas is widely considered to be a top 10 Wide Receiver.

Eric Decker is, generally, not ranked inside the top 20 among Wide Receivers.

Eric Decker has outscored Demaryius Thomas by 6 points on the season.

Both Randall Cobb and James Jones are top 10 fantasy wide receivers.

They have just one 100 yard receiving game between the pair of them.

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Pick ups

Joique Bell, RB, DET – Bell saw a shade under half the carries on Sunday and while LeShoure scored 3 times, Bell also found the end zone and was the only one of the two backs to be involved in the passing game.  If touches are going to be equal the rest of the way, Bell will have a lot of consistent value for ppr owners. 10 team and deeper standard leagues should be picking this guy up as well.

Carson Palmer, QB, OAK – “BUT… HE’S SOOO OLD!”  Shove it, he’s incredibly consistent.  I wrote this in my QB positional analysis and I’m sticking to it: “If you have an elite guy on your roster, then I think you should target Carson Palmer as your backup.  You can probably scoop him up at the very end of your draft and I think he has a serious shot at being a top 15 fantasy QB for the second half of the season.”  I look at his games so far and he only has ONE game below 14 fantasy points.  That was against the best defense he has faced all year, Denver.  He only has one scary match up left and its… DENVER!  I expect a stronger second half as the offense seems to be more effective in recent weeks.

Nate Washington, WR, TEN – Hopefully we get some clarity about Kendall Wright’s status for week 10 in time to cancel waiver claims if he is sure to be active but if he ISN’T, I like Washington to see the most benefit.  Britt will be productive when he’s back to 100% healthy and in the mean-time, he will continue to struggle.  Washington is the safest bet for a WR play but with Wright gone, his upside increases significantly.

Isaac Redman, RB, PIT – What a mess in Pittsburgh for fantasy owners of Redman, Dwyer and Mendenhall. The only thing that is currently providing any concrete information about who is worth a start is the injury report and assuming all three are active next week against Kansas City, it will be a mess to figure out who will see the work.  One thing is certain, all three guys have to be owned and one of them, at least, is going to be a worthy flex play once the smoke clears.

T.Y. Hilton, WR, IND – Indy just threw 48 times on Sunday and there is not another scary match up on the horizon that isn’t Houston (weeks 15 and 17) and with New England and Buffalo on that list in the next three weeks, Hilton is a potential flex play in deep formats and a bye week plug-in.  He also has the potential to take off a bit and be worthy of holding down the stretch.

Brandon Meyers, TE, OAK – As I mentioned with Palmer, this passing game is improving weekly and Meyers has only had fewer than 3 catches once on the season.  He won’t be a top 8 guy much but he’ll be a top 10 guy more often than not.

Daniel Thomas, RB, MIA – Another week, another split workload. Still can’t start him but this is interesting.  He is more than a backup now.

Dump List

Brandon Gibson, WR, STL – Still owned in 22% of leagues and that’s around 20% too many.  What are you waiting for? Cut this guy yesterday.

Jermichael Finley, TE, GB – The Packers offense is simply not looking to utilize him as a receiver. As long as Rodgers is the QB, he’ll crack the top 15 or 20 but he won’t be a top 10 guy again the rest of the season. You NEED to be using the waiver wire weekly to pick your TE every week.  If you are lazy, just go grab Meyers.

Michael Bush, RB, CHI – People drafted this guy to use him and he’s around 70% owned.  If you NEED the guy in this roster spot to play or at least be a flex consideration, you can drop Bush.  Forte is playing well and it’s only an injury that could make Bush worth playing again.

Philip Rivers, QB, SD – This week was a good game for Rivers this season. 18/21 and a decisive victory. Still just 18 fantasy points.  Considering 4 or so teams in standard leagues should only carry the one QB on their roster, Rivers being 83% owned is nothing short of stupid. I hate to say it but his career is over… for fantasy football at least.

Brandon Pettigrew, TE, DET – 80+% of leagues do not have this guy available.  Why? Is it the single TD he’s scored this season (week 2)?  Maybe his 100 yard receiving games… nope because he has none.

Brandon Stokely, WR, DEN – His ownership %age in standard leagues should be 0%. He’s a deep after-thought in the Broncos passing game.

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Studs

Bears, D/ST, CHI – I don’t think very many people expected a one-sided game between the Lions and Bears. Three defensive and/or special teams TDs for the Bears was unexpected and how this game got out of hand.  Chicago has one of them defenses that you should probably just start regardless of match-up and that strategy paid off this week.

Michael Bush, RB, OAK – Bush was just an absurd play-maker on Thursday night as he torched the Chargers defense for 157 rushing yards on 30 carries as well as 85 yards receiving. Bush only found the end zone once but still scored 29 points and was the 2nd highest scoring back for fantasy owners in week 10.

Larry Fitzgerald, WR, ARI – Usually I don’t put the elite guys at each position in my Studs list when they perform like elite guys at their position… The difference this time is that John Skelton was at QB and Fitz still was able to haul in 7 catches for 146 yards and 2 scores.  No matter who is at QB for Arizona, you have to start Fitz.

Chris Johnson, RB, TEN – If you had told me in the preseason that I would be surprised that CJ put up 23 fantasy points against the Panthers , I would think you were crazy. I don’t think that we should be overly impressed here or expect some big turn around.  The Panthers defense is riddled with injuries and most of CJ’s stats came at the end of the game, when the Panthers were exhausted and had for all intensive purposes given up. CJ is still just an RB2 or flex play.

Marshawn Lynch, RB, SEA – He’s made me look foolish in the past but I am going to be pretty high on Lynch for a few weeks to come.  These past two games are the first back-to-back 100 yard rushing performances of Lynch’s entire career and with zero scary match ups until Chicago in week 15, Lynch may be in for a VERY big second half.  For now I would only be using him as a low-end RB2 to protect yourself from his inconsistency.

Duds

Steve Johnson, WR, BUF – What the hell Buffalo… With a soft secondary, you can’t get anything done through the air? Your number one receiver has zero fantasy points?  Buffalo played like complete crap and its time to reel back in all the love for this offense.  Steve is a flex play and Fitz is barely a QB2 anymore.  The only person you can start reliably and without pause is Fred Jackson.

Darren Sproles, RB, NO – Sproles had been phenomenal for the Saints this season and even though they got the win in OT against the Falcons, Atlanta COMPLETELY shut down the run.  Sproles, Thomas and Ingram ALL were just awful in this game.  I don’t think this means anything about the Saints’ backs but remember this when you have one of your other backs going up against the Falcons.

Vincent Jackson, WR, SD – Speaking of duds… VJax got out-shined in a big way by rookie Vincent Brown and specifically Jackson gave up on a long pass into the end zone and did not even challenge the two receivers for the jump-ball.  Even if you lost it in the sun, you jump when they do and try to swat it away. Jackson had a terrible game and I am worried about how consistent he can be this season on this offense.  I am thinking of him as a WR2 unless its a favorable match-up from now on.

BenJarvus Green-Ellis, RB, NE – The Pats tore the Jets to shreds and I am surprised that the Law Firm wasn’t even involved late to close out the game.  He is just a flex play at best due to the committee system and his inconsistency even when he gets the touches. Look to find someone to replace him asap if you are relying on him.

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