The Fantasy Football Geek Blog

I’m a bit ashamed to realize that the last Shocker post I did was for week 11. At least it was a decent one… I correctly predicted big games for Ronald Curry (120 yards) and his QB Daunte Culpepper (a whopping 340 yards, only 1 TD though). The picks of Northcutt, Boller, and Grossman were wrong and stupid.

Here are this week’s potentially wrong and stupid picks. I’m pressed for time this afternoon (damn these Thursday games rushing me) so I can only offer three today. As always, here’s a brief explanation of my definition of a fantasy "shocker": A player who comes out of relatively nowhere, has a gigantic, multi-touchdown game, becomes the hottest waiver commodity the following week, and then soon sinks back into the relative obscurity from whence he came. Like I’ve said before, these are long-shot picks and I don’t expect to hit on most of them.

Kellen Clemens, QB, NYJ: He’ll likely have Coles back, and good things tend to happen against the Browns D. Given that the Browns will be able to score against the Jets, the Man-Formerly-Known-As-A-Genius will be forced to call a ton of passing plays. Expect big yardage, and at least a couple of touchdowns.

Jason Wright, RB, CLE: Desperate for a fill-in? REALLY desperate? This is a serious long-shot, but it’s plausible. The Jets stink; the Browns don’t. This could very easily turn into a blowout of epic proportions by the second half. We’re nearing playoff time, and I’m sure the Browns would love to rest Jamal Lewis if they possibly could. If the Browns are up by two or three scores by early in the third quarter, I’m willing to bet you’ll see a lot of Jason Wright, and the Browns will be pounding the ball with the run to kill the clock. If that’s the case, Wright could very well wind up with better stats than Lewis.

OK, that’s two shockers from the same game. One is more or less guaranteed to be incorrect. Time to look elsewhere…

David Patten, WR, NO: When the Saints were on that four-game winning streak, Patten was heavily involved in three out of four of those games. Lately, he hasn’t seen much action, but he’s due. Obviously, throwing the ball to nobody but Colston hasn’t worked out lately, and the Saints may try to get the ball back in Patten’s hands more frequently.