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Looks like Quinton Ganther will get first crack at a bad Raiders run defense on Sunday, with Rock Cartwright being demoted to backup status. At this point Ganther makes a decent flex play and possibly RB2 if you’re really struggling, but I’m a little worried that it will end up being a time-share in the Washington backfield when push comes to shove.
Updates from January, 2010
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Quinton Ganther to start for Redskins
Brandon
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Jamal Lewis done for the year?
Brandon
For those of you struggling at the running back position (or those of you who have Jamal Lewis on your roster,) you might consider picking up Chris Jennings, who could very well be the new starting running back for the Cleveland Browns. Apparently Jamal Lewis suffered a concussion in last weeks game and could be calling it quits for the season (and therefor his career, since he mentioned he would retire after this season.) While Jerome Harrison was backing up Lewis early in the season, it’s been Jennings that has spelled Lewis recently and should be the first in line to get additional carries. This weekend the Browns play a San Diego team that while better recently, hasn’t been the greatest the league has to offer in terms of stopping the run, so Chris Jennings could be a possible RB2 or flex candidate.
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Reggie Bush out this Sunday?
Brandon
Throughout most of his NFL career, I wouldn’t have cared a whole lot whether Reggie Bush played or not. However, now that I actually have him on my best fantasy football squad AND because he’s actually putting up decent numbers these days, I’m very nervous about the thought of him not occupying the W/R spot on my roster this weekend. It’s looking more and more like it’s heading that way too, with Reggie nursing a knee bruise. Not helping the situation is the fact that the Saints are undefeated and have no need to risk injuring one of their most dynamic players any further. Keep an eye on this situation until he’s ruled out for sure, but with such an enticing match-up against Tampa Bay, I won’t be happy if he takes the week off.
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Thursday Night Football: MIA @ CAR
Brandon
Just like last week, keep in mind that there is a Thursday Night Football game tonight, as the Dolphins head to Carolina to play the Panthers. With Ronnie Brown out for the season now, you definitely want Ricky Williams in your line-up tonight, so don’t forget to set your rosters this afternoon!
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Brandon
Jets’ wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery will miss this weekend’s game with the Bills, so make sure you bench him and put in an alternate. On a side note, this seems like an unfortunate time for an injury for Cotchery, with Braylon Edwards now in town and quickly becoming one of Sanchez’s favorite targets. I’m sure Jerricho wants to get out there as soon as possible so he doesn’t become forgotten/expendable.
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Matt
The Mike Sims-Walker suspension mystery has been solved. If you’d like to know what he was doing when he missed his curfew, you can either read this update from the Jags’ reporter or the lyrics to this Bloodhound Gang song.
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Brandon
Bad news for those clinging to hopes that Derrick Ward or Earnest Graham might have some fantasy value this year. Greg Olson, Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator, has stated…
We went into the season kind of with the mentality of let’s work Cadillac in. Maybe we can rotate him with the other backs. But as good as he’s looked here early on in the season, I think it’s time we become more committed to Cadillac Williams as a full-time guy.
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Braylon Edwards traded to Jets
Brandon
Just when you thought the 49ers signing of Michael Crabtree was the biggest news of the day, Braylon Edwards goes and gets traded to the New York Jets for Chansi Stuckey (and more)! This is great news for those of you lucky enough to win the Mohamed Massaquoi (Browns’ rookie receiver) sweepstakes in this weeks waiver wire. However, I’m not sure it helps Jericho Cotchery’s value all that much.
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Brandon
With the server finally back up and running, let me just put up a few notes that I wanted to mention over the past day or so…
- Michael Lombardi from the National Football Post writes, “(The Browns) found a back in the later rounds this year, sixth-round pick James Davis, who looks like the real deal. I’m still not sold that Jamal Lewis will make the team.” While I don’t take such a pessimistic view on Lewis’ future with the team, this is scary enough to think about to make you want to avoid Jamal in your league’s draft and scoop up James Davis late.
- Looks like the Rams are going to run the ball a lot this year with troubles in their passing games, so expect a heavy dose of Steven Jackson all year long as long as he remains healthy. I’m liking him more and more as a top pick for your fantasy team.
- There still seems to be no conclusion to the debate over who will take the goal-line carries in Baltimore. For now the only running back it’s safe to draft from the Ravens is Ray Rice, who will almost certainly get the bulk of the carries when not near the endzone.
- After Giants receiver Hakeem Nicks’ monster, 144 yard, two touchdown performance in week three of the preseason, it seems like he’ll be a factor the teams passing game come the regular season. Domenik Hixon on the other hand could see less reps and is probably not someone you want to be targeting as one of your top three wide outs at this point.
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Preseason week 2 leaders
Brandon
Now that we’ve got two weeks of preseason stats, the leaderboard is starting to get a little more interesting and realistic from a fantasy football point of view. Historically, the third week has been where the starters play the longest, but here’s a glimpse (compliments of NFL.com) of the leaders after two games so far…
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Quick hits from week two of the preseason
Brandon
Just a few notes from the weekend preseason games…
- Falcons running back Michael Turner continued to look great in the preseason, rushing seven times for 65 yards and a score against the Rams. In non-PPR leagues, he’s a top three running back without a doubt.
- Bears new quarterback Jay Cutler made a good recovery from his first week struggles, throwing for 121 yards and a touchdown on 8 of 13 attempts. Cutler will be solid for the Bears and is start-able in all league formats.
- Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel looked a heck of a lot better this weekend than he did in week one of the preseason, completing nine of fourteen passes for 99 yards and a touchdown to receiver Dwayne Bowe. I wouldn’t be comfortable with Cassel as the starter on my fantasy football team until he puts up a few more good performances though and even then, he’s still more likely to be a bye-week/injury fill-in. In terms of Bowe, you can forget all that talk of him being demoted to second string due to poor conditioning, as he’s clearly established himself as the best receiver on the team and makes a decent-WR1/great-WR2 going into the season.
- Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo looked sharp, throwing for 192 yards on 18 of 24 attempts. Although he is still working on his chemistry with receiver Roy Williams, he still has Jason Witten and some other receivers to spread the ball to in the meantime.
- In just two offensive series, veteran tight end Tony Gonzalez caught three passes for 32 yards and a touchdown from quarterback Matt Ryan. While there was talk that he was still trying to get the system down, this is a pretty good sign that by the time the season starts, Gonzo will be ready to pick up right where he left off last season…racking up the yards and touchdowns.
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Brandon
Looks like the Jay Cutler and Devin Hester are already working well together and Matt Snyder from Fanhouse writes:
“You’ll still be able to get Hester as a WR3 in the majority of fantasy leagues, and it’s looking like he’ll be an absolute steal.”
I agree with Snyder and will definitely be targeting Hester in my draft this year, as I have a lot of faith that Cutler will get him the ball a lot. In the same article, Snyder writes about Darrius Heyward-Bey:
“(he) is already dealing with his second training camp injury. First, it was a tweaked hamstring, and now it’s a bum toe. Even if he exits camp healthy, he’s got fantasy bust written all over him for 2009. Teammates Chaz Schilens and Johnnie Lee Higgins are being drafted later but will both have better seasons.”
Seems he is pretty confident that Heyward-Bey will NOT be contributing to your fantasy team this year. While I’m not quite as pessimistic, it’s very hard to expect anything from Raiders receivers (besides TE Zach Miller) until we’ve seen that JaMarcus Russell has improved dramatically this preseason.
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Which teams don't want Terrell Owens - and which teams might
Matt
It’s the web page Drew Rosenhaus hopes you never see – ProFootballTalk.com is maintaining a running list of teams that have (wisely) stated they have no interest in signing Terrell Owens. I’m not going to copy and paste it here since it seems kind of douche-ish to copy the entirety of someone else’s work instead of linking to it. I was somewhat surprised that the list includes the Raiders, who were the first team that came to everyone’s mind when they wondered, “Who would drop a boatload of cash on a notorious locker room cancer who has gotten along with precisely nobody in his career and has at most two more productive seasons left in him?” It’s also interesting to see the that none of the three of the other teams in the NFC East are interested, which means T.O. won’t get the chance to avenge his ouster wearing the uniform of a division rival.
Of course, just because a team isn’t on this list doesn’t mean they’re thinking about acquiring him. Some teams might even consider the prospect of hiring T.O. so preposterous that they don’t even think it’s worth stating the obvious. Of the remaining NFL teams that might be interested, which ones might actually give him a chance? (More …)
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Housh's a Hawk. Now to figure out where that puts him.
Matt
Now that we know T.J. Houshmandzadeh (whose name I can just now finally spell from memory) is officially headed to Seattle, I’m trying to figure out where to move him on my cheat sheet. Given that he’ll be 32 around the start of next season, he’s obviously someone to approach with caution in keeper leagues, but for redraft purposes, I’m probably even more enthusiastic about him than most.
This isn’t the most exciting fantasy situation he could have landed in, but it’s far from the worst. Housh will be Bobby Engram on steroids (er… you know what I mean). He’ll catch a hundred passes and get a ton of red-zone looks.
The only wideouts I can say for sure that I like more than Housh at this point are Larry Fitzgerald, Andre Johnson, Randy Moss, and Steve Smith. After that, a lot will depend on the draft and the preseason, but I think it’s safe to say that he’ll fall in the top ten for me.
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2009 Pro Bowl rosters announced
Brandon
If you haven’t seen them yet, the 2009 Pro Bowl rosters were announced today and you can see the entire teams here. I’ve already been reading articles mentioning Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams (2nd in NFL for rushing touchdowns, 4th in NFL for rushing yards), Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers (leads the NFL in passer rating and touchdown passes) and Texans rookie running back Steve Slaton as the biggest snubs, while listing Jets quarterback Brett Favre (leads NFL in interceptions) and Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown (17th in NFL for rushing yards, got 4 of 10 touchdowns in one game) as the most undeserving of a roster spot. After reviewing the stats, a few other snubs, who will probably make it anyways after guys drop off due to injuries/injury worries/laziness, include Chicago rookie running back Matt Forte and Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson (tied for 2nd in NFL in receiving touchdowns.) I’ll open it up to the forum for anyone else’s opinions on the selections…
[poll id="4"]
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Week 14 Wrap-Up: Reggie Bush is back
Brandon
With the playoffs in action in many of the fantasy leagues out there, let’s just jump into the action that took place this weekend, starting with the Saints and their resurgent ground game…
- New Orleans 29, Atlanta 25: This is supposed to be the year that the Falcons win the division (after ending up in last place last season), but with a loss to the Saints, they now find themselves in third place and will be two games behind whoever wins tonight’s game between the Panthers and Buccaneers. For Atlanta, Roddy White put up another big effort with 10 receptions for 164 yards, but it wasn’t enough to counter the Saints dominant passing rushing game (?) Pierre Thomas broke the century mark and scored two touchdowns, while Reggie Bush (106 combined yards, TD) seems to be back in action, which can only mean good things for the Saints. (More …)
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Top 25 scoring fantasy football players through 13 weeks
Brandon
It’s been 13 weeks since the season started and four since my last posting of the top 25 fantasy football players in the game. As I mentioned last time, this is a list of the top fantasy football scorers so far this season, based on a non-PPR league that Matt and I are in, which follows near-standard scoring rules…
Note: The number in parenthesis is the ranking of the player after week 9.
1 (4). Drew Brees, QB, Saints: Brees has been a yardage and touchdown machine this year, even with his top receiver from last season (Marques Colston) out for a bit. I’m sure he helped many a team into the playoffs this season.
2 (3). Kurt Warner, QB, Cardinals: Warner’s stats were pretty close to Brees’ and while he did throw less interceptions, he fumbled the ball a lot more. However, I’m sure he’s on a lot of playoff bound team’s rosters.
3 (5). Aaron Rodgers, QB, Packers: Packers fans can’t complain about the production they got out of the quarterback after Favre’s departure and they should be happy that they won’t have to worry about the position for another decade or so.
4 (6). Jay Cutler, QB, Broncos: While I was expecting a bit more out of his “favorite” receiver Brandon Marshall, Cutler has been all that fantasy owners could have wished for.
5 (1). Philip Rivers, QB, Chargers: He’s dropped off a bit over the past few weeks, but you can’t really complain considering the receivers he’s passing to. (More …) -
Week 13 Wrap-up: Do we have to watch the Lions?
Brandon
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! If you were wishing that the football games would give you reason to ignore your family members and sit on the couch all afternoon, you were probably a bit disappointed with what transpired this past Thursday. In my opinion, this had to be one of the worst weekends of football in a long time, as eight of the fifteen games were near-blowouts, seven were missing a 30 point effort from either of the contestants, and three games featured teams whose leading rusher was either their quarterback or Jacob Hester (who needed one attempt to best LT!) Anyways, it was one of the most important weeks of football from a fantasy perspective, so let’s hope that the right guys had big days for your team, starting with the action from Turkey Day…
- Tennessee 47, Detroit 10 (Thursday): Is it time to remove Detroit from the Thanksgiving Day football schedule? After another pathetic performance from a team trying its hardest to go 0-16, do they really deserve a national audience every Turkey Day? Either way, the Titans got back to what got them to 10-0 a few weeks ago…the running game, as both Chris Johnson (125 yards, 2 TD) and LenDale White (106 yards, 2 TD) had a field day against the Lions. (More …)
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Ocho Cinco benched-o
Brandon
In case you had the great (read: bad) idea of sneaking the man formerly known as Chad Johnson into your lineup for tonight’s game against the Steelers, think again. Ocho Cinco has been benched for violating an undisclosed team rule and should be sitting safely on your team’s bench as well. He’s been consistently mediocre at the position this season anyways, so this probably doesn’t matter to you, but just in case…
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Should you start Romo right away?
Matt
To be honest, what I’m really wondering is whether I should start Romo this week. But I’m sure I’m not alone on this one. There are thousands of owners out there who have had to make do with starting their backup for the past few weeks, and while they’re chomping at the bit to put Romo back in, they’re suspiciously eyeing Romo’s ailing pinkie – and Washington’s 8th-ranked pass defense.
While the Cowboys don’t want to give the Redskins any help and thus aren’t likely to be completely forthcoming about Romo’s injury, we can read a bit into what Romo, his teammates, and the coaches are saying: (More …)
