Squish (252)
e-roc (119)
Jeff (53)
Mal (45)
Tommy (45)
Ken (42)
Amir (37)
Tj (29)
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.
Latest Updates: jamal lewis RSS
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Jamal Lewis done for the year?
Brandon
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The Wire - Week 12: Bottom of the Barrel
Brandon
Here are our waiver wire candidates for week twelve. As usual, you’ll find players who are either [Startable], a [Stopgap] to get you past a BYE or injury, [Worth a look] and spot on your bench, or [One-week-wonder]s who don’t warrant a roster spot, so you make your roster moves accordingly. You’ll also see the percent owned (in Yahoo! leagues) in parenthesis. All I can say about the cast of characters on this week’s list is that hopefully you don’t have to rely on them too much…otherwise you’re in big trouble.
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The Wire - Week 11: The Replacements
Brandon
Here are our waiver wire candidates for week eleven. As usual, you’ll find players who are either [Startable], a [Stopgap] to get you past a BYE or injury, [Worth a look] and spot on your bench, or [One-week-wonder]s who don’t warrant a roster spot, so you make your roster moves accordingly. You’ll also see the percent owned in parenthesis. This week we start off with a number of backup running backs who could have some immediate fantasy impact due to injuries to starters Michael Turner, Cedric Benson, Clinton Portis and Julius Jones.
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The Wire - Week 10: The Return of Chris Chambers
Brandon
Here are our waiver wire candidates for week ten. As usual, you’ll find players who are either [Startable], a [Stopgap] to get you past a BYE or injury, [Worth a look] and spot on your bench, or [One-week-wonder]s who don’t warrant a roster spot, so you make your roster moves accordingly. You’ll also see the percent owned in parenthesis (and if you see an asterisk by the players name, it means they’re on a BYE this week.)
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The Wire - Week 9: Desperate Times
Brandon
Here are our waiver wire candidates for week nine. As usual, you’ll find players who are either [Startable], a [Stopgap] to get you past a BYE or injury, [Worth a look] and spot on your bench, or [One-week-wonder]s who don’t warrant a roster spot, so you make your roster moves accordingly. You’ll also see the percent owned in parenthesis (and if you see an asterisk by the players name, it means they’re on a BYE this week.)
Before we start, don’t forget to enter in our contest to win a $50 NFL.com gift card!
This week the talent is really starting to fall off the cliff, with the only real interesting additions to the list being Texans’ running back Ryan Moats and Chargers’ receiver Malcom Floyd…but even they don’t raise all that much excitement. Anyways, here’s the guys that are still available out there in case you’re in desperate need of help at a position. Hopefully you don’t have to rely on these guys too much!
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The Wire - Week 8: What Can Greene Do for You?
Brandon
Here are our waiver wire candidates for week eight. As usual, you’ll find players who are either [Startable], a [Stopgap] to get you past a BYE or injury, [Worth a look] and spot on your bench, or [One-week-wonder]s who don’t warrant a roster spot, so you make your roster moves accordingly. You’ll also see the percent owned in parenthesis (and if you see an asterisk by the players name, it means they’re on a BYE this week.)
We’re finally starting to narrow down the list, with only a few new additions this week and a bunch taken off. The biggest additions by far will be Jets running back Shonn Greene, who is replacing the injured Leon Washington as the backup to Thomas Jones, along with the newly anointed 49ers quarterback, Alex Smith. If you counted on Leon Washington or Shaun Hill (probably less people counting on him), you better take a shot at the waiver wire and see what you can do. Anyways, let’s get to The Wire for this coming week…
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Hits & Misses - Week 7: New England heads to Old England
Brandon
Here are our “Hits” and “Misses” for week seven, listing players you want to make sure are in your lineup, as well as those you might consider shelving for the week (or at least lowering your expectations!) This week I’ve again tried to leave off the most obvious picks, such as Peyton Manning’s dream match-up against the Rams, so that the list only includes players you may have been scratching your head about starting this week. Also, not to get too far off topic, but the Patriots head to London this week to play the Buccaneers, which got me thinking…is the team name “New England Patriots” offensive to the British? I mean, they ARE the nation that we were being patriots against in the first place! Anyways, I guess we’ll let some of our readers from the U.K. comment on that, so let’s get into the hits and misses for the week… (More …)
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Hits & Misses - Week 6: Brady Back in Business
Brandon
Here are our “Hits” and “Misses” for week six, listing players you want to make sure are in your lineup, as well as those you might consider shelving for the week (or at least lowering your expectations!) Normally I would leave off the most obvious picks, such as Tom Brady against the Titans. However, the Patriots passing game hasn’t lived up to it’s billing so far this year and there are managers who are probably considering benching this week, so I’ve included him as a reminder to get him in your line-ups! Anyways, here we go with the hits and misses for the week… (More …)
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The Wire - Week 6: Week of the Wide Receiver
Brandon
Here are our waiver wire candidates going into week six. As usual, you’ll find players who are either [Startable], a [Stopgap] to get you past a BYE or injury, [Worth a look] and spot on your bench, or [One-week-wonder]s who don’t warrant a roster spot, so you make your roster moves accordingly. You’ll also see the percent owned in parenthesis (and if you see an asterisk by the players name, it means they’re on a BYE this week.) We begin with a whole slew of wide receivers, a few of which racked up some serious stats (Miles Austin, Austin Collie, Jeremy Maclin) this past weekend.
UPDATE: Added Chad Henne to the list (Oct-13) (More …)
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Hits & Misses - Week 1: Let the games begin!
Brandon
With tomorrow already being opening day of the 2009-10 NFL season, it’s time for the first Hits & Misses post of the year. I’m trying a new table-based formatting this year, which should make it a little easier to distinguish between players at each position, so let me know what you think. With the Hit list, I usually try to pick players that aren’t the most obvious, so you’ll rarely see a player with the name Adrian Peterson, Randy Moss, or Tom Brady (although I did include Drew Brees this week!) For the Misses list I try to include only players that are fantasy relevant, so while it’s probably a given that a fourth string receiver on the Raiders will have a bad day, you won’t see his name on the list. Anyways, let’s get to the good stuff… (More …)
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Last minute hits and misses heading into your draft
Brandon
If your league hasn’t had it’s draft yet (such as the two Matt and I are in), I felt it necessary to share my last minute thoughts on some key players at each position. I’ve created two teams, The Hits and The Misses, that include players you should target or avoid in your league’s draft. Keep in mind that I’ve intentionally left out some of the most obvious guys and focused on the players that you might not have thought about as much.
The Hits
QB: Aaron Rodgers, Packers – Rodgers quietly had one of the best years of any fantasy quarterback last season, throwing for over 4,000 yards and 28 touchdowns. The offense returns intact (and a bit healthier overall) and should allow Aaron to put up even better numbers this year. In many leagues, he’s being drafted after Peyton Manning, Philip Rivers and Kurt Warner, but when all is said and done, he could have better numbers than all three of them. (More …)
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Brandon
Our quarterback and running back cheat sheets have been updated, so make sure to check them out before your draft! Some players who have moved up or down include Tony Romo, Brett Favre, Steven Jackson, Jamal Lewis, Ryan Grant and more…
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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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Brandon
Some quick notes from the past day or so…
- Looks like Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall may have had a good conversation with his agent or something, because he’s wisely returned to practice with the team’s offense (he previously was running with the scout team, mimicking opposing team’s star receivers.) The team has moved him back to the number one spot on the depth chart as well and as long as he can get some reps during one of these final preseason games, it’s probably safe to move him back up a few notches on your cheat sheet.
- Given the fact that Browns’ running back Jamal Lewis isn’t getting any younger and rookie James Davis has been outstanding this preseason, we could see more of a committee situation in Cleveland than at first expected.
- If you were hand-cuffing Bills running back Fred Jackson to Marshawn Lynch (out with a suspension for first three games), unfortunately he’s suffering from finger/wrist pain and there is now some question as to how much he’ll be able to play in the first game of the season. If he can’t play, Dominic Rhodes would get the bulk of the carries for the team. Just in case this situation wasn’t messy enough…
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Hits and Misses - Week 12: Peyton ready for a playoff run
Brandon
Although the Patriots lost a close one to the Jets, last week ended up being a pretty good week for me in all areas of the fantasy football world. Not only did I win in nearly all of my leagues, but my predictions ended up with a stellar 19-4-5 record, led by great games from Turner the Burner, the Arizona passing game and DeAngelo Williams, along with sub-par efforts from Kyle Orton and Willis McGahee (even with Jake Delhomme doing his best to submarine me and one of my fantasy teams!)
With the playoffs fast approaching though, and me still needing a win or two more to clinch the playoffs in a few leagues, let’s move on to my picks for this week. I’ll start with the man who should help many a fantasy team make the playoffs in week 12 by handing out a good ol’ fashioned beatdown to San Diego…Peyton Manning.
Hits
- Peyton Manning, QB, Colts: This weekend Indianapolis will head to San Diego to take on a Chargers defense that has been one of the worst in the league against the pass (possibly due to the absence of their top pass rusher in Shawne Merriman?) For all those managers who drafted Manning with a top pick in their league and have been disappointed so far (although the past few weeks he’s been pretty good), this game should serve as redemption. The Chargers are allowing 267 passing yards on average to an assortment of signal callers across the league…and this weekend they take on one that is slightly better than your “average quarterback.” I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect 300 yards and at least two scores from Peyton this week.
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Hits and Misses - Week 9: Brandon Marshall ready to hand out tricks and treats
Brandon
To all of our devoted readers (and those who just stopped by for their first time), Happy Halloween! Make sure to go out and get some good candy (not the crappy kind that you hated getting as a kid!) to pass out to the kids tonight…or risk having to clean up toilet paper and shaving cream up in the morning.
Anyways, last week something relatively new happened in the world of FFGeekBlog hits and misses, which was that for the first time of the season, my feature pick did not completely bomb…nor did he do extremely well. For week eight, I recommended that you start Jets running back Thomas Jones at all costs against a Swiss-cheese style Kansas City run defense. If you took my advice, you probably don’t completely hate me…but you’re most likely not making up nicknames for me that include the words “genius”, “psychic” or “super awesome.” Against the Chiefs, Thomas Jones managed a mere 54 yards on the ground and also scored a touchdown, so while his fantasy stats weren’t something to cry about, they also weren’t something to warrant cover space on the revered Hits and Misses column.
After the dust settled though, even with Thomas Jones earning a “push” rating for the week (and J.T. O’Sullivan playing so badly that he lost the starting gig!), I still finished with a solid 16-4-5 (hits-misses-pushes) record, riding upon the shoulders of huge games from Drew Brees, Clinton Portis, Santana Moss, along with predictable stinkers from the Colts star receivers. This week I’ll try to continue my trend of solid picks, so here we go…
Hits
- Brandon Marshall, WR, Broncos: While Marshall’s numbers may have “dropped off” over the past few weeks (only 18 receptions for 200 yards in the last three games), it’s not because quarterback Jay Cutler was not looking his way. Brandon continues to get more looks than almost any other receiver in the league (possibly the most) and this week, following the bye, playing at home, against a fairly bad Dolphins secondary, I expect a huge performance from my doppelganger (in name only.) Cutler will have a big day, but I think it’s Marshall who reaps the most rewards as he hands out tricks to the Dolphins and treats to the fans. (More …)
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Hits and Misses - Week 7: Calling all Titans running backs
Brandon
So it looks like the FFGeekBlog cover curse lives on as Matt Cassel and the Patriots receivers managed to fall flat on their face last weekend against the Chargers. I’m not sure what it is that causes every player I mention in the headline to go out of their way to play terribly, but we’re switching it up a bit in hopes that it doesn’t continue. You’ll notice that the post has been renamed Hits/Misses, instead of Studs/Duds (maybe it was the use of the word “stud” or something), so we’ll continue using this new name and hope that my luck can change.
Anyways, along with the Patriots offense hitting a brick wall last weekend, the revival of the Brownies offense didn’t help my cause. However, I was saved by some big time performances by Thomas Jones (3 TD…not too shabby), Clinton Portis, and the failure of the Panthers running game leading me to a 11-7-3 (hits-misses-pushes) record. This week the Patriots tried to trick me into putting them on the list again as they take on a terrible Broncos defense at home, but as the saying goes, “Fool me once, shame on you…fool me twice, I’m an idiot.” Even as a Patriots fan, there’s no way I can honestly put Cassel on here and expect him to put up stats I’d want anywhere near my fantasy roster. I have a really good feeling though that all my picks this week will be correct, so let’s jump right in, starting with those Tennessee Titans running backs…
Hits
- Chris Johnson (RB) / LenDale White (RB) Titans: Over the course of just five games, the Kansas City Chiefs are allowing an incredible 182 yards per game on the ground, which is even more crazy considering two of the teams they played have little to no running game (Patriots, Broncos). Worried that your running back might not find the end zone? Fear not…they’ve also allowed eight rushing touchdowns already. Chris Johnson and LenDale White are sure bets to go huge as the Titans and the NFL’s only remaining undefeated record head to Arrowhead this weekend. (More …)
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Studs and Duds - Week 6: Cassel ready to break out?
Brandon
After taking a sabbatical during week four, I got back on track last week and didn’t fare too badly with my predictions. Although again my title pick didn’t pan out all that great (the Detroit Lions passing game did NOT rebound after the bye week!), and my pick of Clinton Portis to have a rough go of it against the Eagles did not quite work out, big games from Matt Forte and Michael Turner, along with a weak performance (again!) by the Jacksonville running game led me to a pretty decent record for the week. As usual, I’ll be looking to improve again this week, and who better to lead me there but my boy Matt Cassel of the Patriots. So without further ado, here are your studs and duds for week 6…
Studs
- Matt Cassel, QB, Patriots: After a few weeks of the main “stud” not living up to their billing (Ryan Grant, Lions), I’m hoping Matt Cassel of the New England Patriots is the one to change my fortunes. Cassel gave Patriots fans reason to start believing in his abilities with a 66 yard touchdown bomb to Randy Moss last week against a middle-of-the-road 49er’s pass defense. This week his task should be a bit easier as the Patriots play the worst pass defense in the NFL in the San Diego Chargers. The Chargers are allowing 266 yards per game through the air over the first five games of the season and have allowed an average of two touchdowns per game as well. If Cassel can simply get the average, it would be a fairly successful fantasy day. (More …)
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Studs and Duds - Week 2: Ryan Grant ready to roll!
Brandon
After all the dust has settled and the injury count has been tallied (bye bye Brady, Burleson, Alex Smith and for a little while, Colston), it’s time to recount my predictions for the previous weekend and give you a few more for week two of the season. According to my slightly-biased count, I finished last week 13-7-6, which isn’t all that bad I guess. Some of my better picks included Thomas Jones, who re-assumed his spot in fantasy football relevance with a strong showing against the Dolphins and Chris Perry, who did very little with his first chance to shine as the Bengals new starting running back, as expected. On the flip-side, I did miss a few picks, including Ricky Williams, who returned to his role as a deadbeat (in fantasy production that is) against the Jets, while Brandon “The Bruiser” Jacobs taught me (and LaRon Landry) never to doubt him again. Anyways, it’s time for your week two studs and duds, so hopefully I can provide a little insight that can help your team this upcoming weekend…
Studs
Ryan Grant, RB, Packers: Unless Michael Turner is one of the greatest running backs of all time, I see no reason why Grant shouldn’t be able to exploit the same gaping weakness in the Lions defense that the Falcons did when they obliterated (for some reason the word seems like an understatement) them for 318 rushing yards in week one!
LenDale White, RB / Chris Johnson, RB, Titans: If the Ravens, minus an injured Willis McGahee, could pound it out for 229 yards last weekend against the Cincinnati Bungholes, I have to believe a more talented duo can at least do the same. You should expect LenDale White (thunder) and Chris Johnson (lightning) to run the ball non-stop while the quarterback position for the Titans is currently going through somewhat of a a rough patch. (More …)
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Yet another ridiculous Jamal Lewis pick in a mock draft
Matt
Is the Jamal-Lewis-in-the-first-round thing going to be a pattern in fantasy drafts this year? A month ago, I noticed with some horror that he’d gone tenth overall in Yahoo’s “expert” mock draft. Now here he is going SIXTH in The Hazean’s May mock draft. Haze’s advice to anyone considering a similarly outrageous pick:
Finding a site that lists Average Draft Positions can be useful. Even if you are the biggest Lewis believer and think he might put up top 5 RB numbers, if the ADP suggests him being drafted in the 3rd or 4th round, take a risk that Lewis will be there in the 2nd or 3rd round and draft Westbrook here and Lewis a round or two later. I actually like Ryan Grant better than Lewis.
Good point. If you want to make the argument that Lewis is going to put up first-round numbers, that’s fine – but that doesn’t mean you have to waste a first-round pick on him. He’ll almost definitely be there for you in the second. If he isn’t, well, that’s one fewer 29-year-old RB on your roster.
