A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
The playoffs are underway in many fantasy football leagues, and this means that important decisions must be made. Having a player who is on the bench score more than a starter in his place is very frustrating, and could be the difference between winning and losing.
Jon will have the overall Week 12 start/sit post ready to go for tomorrow morning, but with three games on Thanksgiving Thursday I thought it might be helpful to do a special start/sit column for those games.
So in this post I’ll do just that, providing analysis and recommendations for the key players you need to decide on before Turkey Day.
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All the talk this year has mainly been of the struggles of Chris Johnson and Philip Rivers. As painful as it is to watch, dwelling on the problems will set you back.
Six team byes have been scaled back down to four this week, so fewer players will be sitting out of your matchups, but it will still likely necessitate at least one or two touch decisions; decisions you shouldn’t take lightly, because while this may be the middle of the season for the players, our playoffs are right around the corner and crunch time is upon us.
This has been a crazy week for injuries, but such is life as the season nears its midway point. Sometimes supposedly injured players practice, sometimes seemingly healthy players sit out, and then sometimes guys like Jimmy Graham gets placed on the injury report late in the week out of the blue. Let’s get started and see what this week’s key injuries look like heading into Sunday.
Luckily for a lot of owners, there are not many major players who have a bye this week, except for my team…but I have faith in Jay Cutler!
Regardless, there may be some surprises this week from a few highly unknown RBs. This position may very well be the most important for owners in terms of touches for players, but on the professional level it is the most dispensable position, as almost anyone can succeed in the right situation.
If you are itching to see how Tim Tebow is going to follow up his breakthrough game in Week 5, then you are going to have to wait until next week, but if you want to hear a bunch of media chatter about him just turn on ESPN.
Having said that, we have a lot of good stuff for you in this week’s Stock Report.
Week Three is here, and hopefully you aren’t 0-2. Don’t worry, it’s still not panic time…but it very well could be time to shake some things up. As always, let’s recap last week’s predictions before looking ahead.
Because we at MSF try our best to get you our Start Em, Sit Em picks before everyone else, we have to take a few chances. One of the downsides to coming out with these picks on Tuesday is that we won’t know all of the injury updates that come out later in the week. We answer your questions and update our predictions accordingly as more information comes out.
However, a few predictions didn’t pan out this week because of injuries (either during the game, or because guys with nagging injuries didn’t end up suiting up on Sunday)…so out of fairness to me, we are going to throw out Michael Vick, Felix Jones, and Dez Bryant.
So besides those guys who caught the injury bug, I went 29 out of 46 overall…a little under 65%. I improved from week one…and that’s exactly what you should try to do from week to week in fantasy.
Trying to forecast the early weeks of the NFL fantasy season is like…trying to pick a piece of hay out of a stack of needles. There is always going to be a breakout game from an unknown guy and a bad game from someone who is expected to have big games (Big Ben).
If there is one thing to know prior to Week 2 it is that you shouldn’t be excited one way or another about one specific game; but that doesn’t mean rest on your laurels. Fantasy football owners must be bold and we have some bold stock reports just for you.
The first week of fantasy football has passed, and many people watched their team do next to nothing even though it was filled with presumed stars. Players on teams such as the Chiefs, Browns, and Falcons had embarrassing performances, and did not live up to preseason expectations.
Many fantasy football owners still have lineup questions, so here are a few last minute lineup tips that may answer any lingering questions.
Week One is finally here. You have done all the research (you know, the usual: waiver wire picks…injury updates…comparing QBs to Michael Jackson songs…), you have gone through your draft, and most importantly, you have started talking smack to everyone in your league.
You only have one job left to do: start the right guys.
Nothing could be worse than having an awesome team…on your bench.
Each and every one of us has a fantasy sob story or two, and it’s almost a guarantee that one of them revolves around sitting the wrong guy.
So who are you going to start this week?
In the latest fantasy football podcast I take reader questions from Twitter (@FantasyMSF) and r/FantasyFootball on a variety of topics. I also discuss why guys like Brandon Marshall, Anquan Boldin, Danny Amendola, Beanie Wells, Michael Bush, and Mike Tolbert are underrated and could play huge roles on your team this year.
With Jon, Drew, and others taking over some of the weekly fantasy football columns this year, I have been forced to find a way to fit myself into the fantasy football analysis. My first thought is that I should do a “tips sheet” type post in which I periodically pull together some of my random fantasy-related musings.
Since I have now participated in several drafts and am starting to get a feel for how general values, ratings, and draft positions are shaping up this year, now seems like as good a time as any for the first Fantasy Football Tips Sheet post.
So here are some tips.
Holy crap.
I just saw this tweet from Adam Schefter pass through my feed:
Details still coming into ESPN, but Dolphins WR Brandon Marshal was stabbed and taken to a hospital, where he has been in intensive care.
Well this is going to shift the balance of power a bit in the AFC East.
Adam Schefter is reporting this morning that the Miami Dolphins have agreed to ship a couple of draft picks – reported to be 2nd rounders this year and next – to the Denver Broncos in exchange for WR Brandon Marshall.
The Dolphins have had a tremendous void at the WR position for years now. Assuming this trade goes through – Marshall still needs to pass a physical – and Marshall doesn’t get entangled too much in the South Beach night life, the ‘Phins will have upgraded their WR corps from liability to strength.
The Week 17 start em, sit em lineup advice post is up.
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Looking back at my Week 3 Start Em, Sit Em post as I begin Week 4′s, and it was a pretty solid week.
The definite hits: Derrick Mason (start), Brent Celek (start), Denver D (start), Carson Palmer (sit), Ben Watson (sit), Donnie Avery (sit).
The definite misses: Trent Edwards (start), Dallas D (sit).
The ones I predicted relatively well but touchdowns (or lack thereof) skewed value: Steve Slaton (start), Cedric Benson (sit).
All in all, a pretty solid week, and hopefully most of the 157 comments on that post led to sound fantasy decision making for everyone.
And now, it’s time to do it all over again.
As we pointed out in our recently posted NFL Week 4 TV schedule, odds, and picks post, the following teams all have byes this weekend: Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Philadelphia Eagles. Obviously keep that in mind when you’re setting your lineups.
And remember: I’m trying to avoid the obvious choices here and instead pinpoint guys that folks might be on the fence about. And as we do every week, I will do my absolute best to answer every question that comes through in the comment section.
[Editor's Note: At some point in the not-to-distant future, MSF will be holding special, "members-only" Sunday morning live chats to help you out with all of your last minute fantasy football decision making. We are going to be hosting these sessions at our new MSF community at Explodium.com.
I'll be writing a post at some point soon telling you about Explodium, but it's pretty badass. When you click on the link, you do have to sign up, but it's free...and trust me, the benefits are there well beyond our Sunday morning fantasy help.]
Now, onto the Week 4 start ‘em, sit ‘em picks:
Jared Allen and Brandon Marshall Deliver Some Entertaining NFL Preseason Goodies
First off all, something that made me laugh out loud this morning while the morning SportsCenter was running in the background as I got ready for work. In case you didn’t hear the latest world-stopping controversy out of Minnesota, there were reports that surfaced yesterday about a “schism” in the Vikings locker room regarding the players’ support for Brett Favre.
While Brett Favre played his I’m-just-a-simpleton-from-Mississippi card and explained that he didn’t know what “schism” meant, his new teammate Jared Allen was much more hilariously eloquent in describing how big, complicated, six-letter words are so foreign to NFL locker rooms:
Jared Allen’s comments on “schism”, via The Big Lead:
The video of him delivering the line was even funnier. He had just gotten done at practice, was all sweaty, half out of breath, and looked directly into the camera when he delivered the line. I wonder how long he’d been saving it, or how many of his teammates he tested it out on before running over to to officially deliver it to the world.
I don’t really care one way or the other; it’s the funniest (and certainly the most ironic) line from an NFL player we’ll hear all year.
(And here’s an early nominee for funniest message board post discussing this situation, from BoxDen.com: “hes #69 for a reason abstinence my ass”)
And for anyone else who is still wondering what a “schism” actually is, here is the dictionary definition…and then here is a video that defines it even better in lovely, melodic tones as only Tool can deliver:
And speaking of weird videos, did you all see Brandon Marshall at Broncos practice yesterday? Kudos to whoever described him as acting like an ass clown, because that’s about the most apt way to describe it that I can think of:
Video: Brandon Marshall Acting Like an Ass Clown at Practice
Acting like a petulant child is definitely the way to go when you want to get traded and get a new contract. Umm…not. (Actually, this is the NFL we’re talking about, so maybe Marshall is onto something.)
Marshall was, of course, in full damage control mode this morning, but there is a good chance that this video will stick with him for the rest of his career, kinda like TO doing push-ups in his driveway. (And TO’s only gotten two fat new contracts since that display…so take that Brandon Marshall! Wait a minute…)
I wonder what Josh McDaniels is thinking right about now. What’s the over-under on how many games the Broncos win this year? 3.5? I might be tempted to take the under.
Enjoy your Friday everyone. Â I’ll Be back later if anything hot comes up and will definitely have a link post up this afternoon.
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* – Jared Allen photo credit: Tom Olmscheid via USAToday.com