A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
If you’re reading this post right now, one of three things is happening:
One, you are in your league’s championship round and looking for some advice as you try to make the most important lineup decisions of the season. We congratulate you, and we’re here for you. Skip ahead and start soaking in the analysis as you go for your league’s equivalent of The Shiva.
Week 14 is here.
For some of you, that means you have a team (or hopefully teams) on bye this week. If so, major kudos to you.
For others of you, Week 14 means that it’s the first week of the playoffs. If so, good luck, and hopefully the advice in this post will help you move on.
For others, Week 14 is the last week of your regular season. Maybe you’ve clinched a playoff spot or maybe you’re still scratching and clawing for one. Regardless, hopefully we can do you and your lineup some good with our picks in this week’s start em, sit em.
And for some of you this may be your first week without fantasy football – if your playoffs start this week and you did not make it; but if that’s the case, why would you be reading this?
Alas, if you’re here, you are looking for help in Week 14. And you’re in luck, because that is exactly what you’re about to get.
I know what you’re thinking…
“I love the NFL, and I need my start/sit advice for Week 13, but I’m just SO pumped for the Big Ten Championship game this weekend that I can’t even think about it!”
You’re in luck!
Click here (or here for a work-friendly page) and comment, “I want tickets!!!!” in order to win FOUR free tickets to the Big game this weekend between Michigan St. and Wisconsin, courtesy of our friends at Verizon.
Seriously…that’s all you have to do. What have you got to lose? We’re even going to save you time by helping you out with your start em, sit em questions in this post and in the comment section!
Now on to week 13.
Thanksgiving is a football fan’s dream: plenty of good food and plenty of good football.
Even though some fantasy owners don’t like their guys playing so early, it could actually work in your favor if you are down a pretty big margin after the Thursday games have ended and taking a big risk is necessary.
No byes again this week, so getting a lucky matchup with your opposition missing Aaron Rodgers and Matt Forte are over.
Please, enjoy your holiday and this week’s Stock Report. (And find a replacement for Fred Jackson fast.)
I absolutely love the fact that there are no byes this week even though it makes things harder on my own team. How’s that for a contradiction?
As I stop with the filibuster lines, let’s discuss the injuries that have begun to rear their many ugly heads. And I’m not just talking about injuries to players on your roster. Something else to pay attention to is injuries to your players’ opponents. These can sometimes affect your guys greatly. For example, Johnathan Joseph will play this week against Tampa Bay, but his hamstring isn’t 100%.
As a matter of fact, in the NFL, after week 1 nobody is 100% anymore. This is a tough game we play we with tough decisions, and we highlight who is healthy enough and good enough to play in this week’s stock report.
There are many different factors that make fantasy football difficult: bye weeks; injuries; random lucky days for your opponent; and worst of all, Chris Johnson.
In my opinion though, the hardest thing is staying in the present.
What do I mean?
I’mmm baaaaaaccccckkkkk!
Did you miss me?
Jon has himself a busy schedule this week, so he texted me this morning and asked if I’d be up for reprising my role as the author of our weekly Start/Sit column here at MSF. I have to admit, as soon as I saw his text I was pretty pumped.
Doing these posts every week, week after week, can admittedly be a bit of a grind, as I learned over the last couple of years; so I was happy to let Jon take it over this year and focus my efforts in other areas. But I’ve missed the weekly challenge of poring over matchups and stats and trends to figure out which players to recommend to you as starts and sits.
So it’s good to be back in the saddle.
Anyway, It’s not like I’ve been totally absent. I still offer commentary on Jon’s posts, answer questions in the comment sections, and monitor the @FantasyMSF Twitter account. So I haven’t really given you a chance to miss me even if you wanted to. Now though, for the first time all year, I have to go on record with start and sit picks.
I’m ready. Let’s roll.
It looks like this is the week of the missing quarterback as owners have to deal with the bye weeks of Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tom Brady, Eli Manning and Michael Vick. This is a turning point of the season for a lot of teams and fantasy owners alike. Those who are 5-1 feel good, while the 1-5’s may have chalked the season up as a loss already, and those who are 3-3 are biting their nails like LeBron James. (I wonder how he would do as a fantasy tight-end…)
Staying on the topic of quarterbacks, this week we will see some newcomers who will be thrust into the starting role. Though you shouldn’t hold your breath waiting for Christian Ponder to make headlines in Minnesota, we’ve got other names to know for you in this week’s Stock Report.
Well, that was fast.
As soon as I opened up my big mouth and proclaimed that 2011 was going to be the most prolific fantasy year ever, scoring around the league plummets. No worries.
At least I had a great week on the predictions front, as I was right on nearly 80% of my picks.
As always, here is a quick look back at last week before we move on to week 7.
[Read more...]
My fantasy team is about as good as the Bears’ O-Line against the Saints. Yeah…0-2, baby. But that doesn’t mean we can’t turn it around!
Let’s take a look at the fantasy football-relevant injuries going into week 3, including Peyton Hillis, Tony Romo, and Beanie Wells.
Welcome to yet another new feature, which I’ve decided to call “Thanks and Shanks”. The goal of this new weekly feature, to be published every Monday morning, is to make me, Jon, Andy, Zach, Drew, and anyone else who offers fantasy football advice here at MSF even more accountable for our recommendations than we already always try to be.
Here is how it will work: I will run down some of the recommendations I gave leading into the previous Sunday that worked as well as some that didn’t; then, more importantly, the comment section will then be yours to dole out “thanks” to any MSF writer who gave you a good recommendation or to call out a “shank” of a recommendation that hurt your team that week.
After losing my Week 1 matchup for fantasy, I am ready to call it quits. Not sure I’m cut out for this.
The first week was full of hard-hitting action and high scores, and with that combination comes the injuries. Here’s your injury update to make sure your second week goes better than my first!
It dawned on me that we need to start posting our waiver wire advice columns earlier in the week.
Most leagues have a 24-72 hour waiver period at the beginning of each week when no transactions can be finalized, giving everyone a chance to claim every player. If our waiver wire guidance column comes out after that time period, most of the good players are already claimed.
So this week we’re fixing that and now you can spend some time scouring the waiver wire while watching tonight’s Monday night game to see if there is anyone you want to claim.
This week in fantasy football the wide world of receivers has blown right open. With guys coming back from injuries, rising stars, and offenses on the move, there are some important news and notes to consider before Sunday morning.
Controversy in the Desert
The Cardinals have some incredible talent in the desert. Kurt Warner prayed that his team wouldn’t suck after he got Anquan Boldin rocked by the Jets and his prayers were answered by Steve Breaston. Breaston proved to fill the spot well and has averaged 98 YPG since week 4. Everyone saw his value hitting the floor, though, when Anquan Boldin bounced back. It didn’t. This week against the Panthers he had 91 yards and made it clear that he was still considered a key part of the offense. Not to mention, sticky contract negotiations with Boldin have Steve Breaston in the front office looking to ink a deal with the Cards.
Even with Anquan Boldin back, look for his value to even out slightly, and Steve Breaston’s to stay consistent. Remember the Cardinals throw the ball 60% of the time and Breaston is a primary kick returner, too. (Even with that, Tim Hightower has been the touchdown hawk for the Cards, so don’t count on blowup numbers for Breaston.)
There are some other key dudes back from injury that will change value around the league:
by Sean Kane
Well, it was interesting to watch two almost identical teams face off in Soldier Field today at 12 pm Central Time. Both the Bucs and the Bears sit at 1-1. Both the Bucs and the Bears have showed some potential but nothing stunning. Both the Bears and the Bucs will be lucky to make the playoffs this year. Both the Bucs and Bears are teams with tough defenses that are required to play well in order to win. Both the Bucs and Bears have the same man under center, more or less.
Brian Griese and Kyle Orton are basically the same guy: Big Ten QBs that because of being inconsistently not bad at managing games are still in position to start games. Having worked together last year in the Chicago, it’s clear that Griese rubbed off on Orton letting him know that with one decently managed drive, you can hold a job in Chicago. Then, even when they’re done with you, you can get picked up by somebody else whose front office isn’t trying to make constructive moves under center.
