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.
It’s go time.
The playoffs are dead ahead. Now, more than ever, it is vital that you start the right guys.
We already advised you on the waiver wire. We’ve already outlined who you should start and sit on Thanksgiving. We’ve also told you about a fun Thanksgiving-only fantasy challenge.
Heck, we’ve even outlined the complete history of Thanksgiving Day football for you.
Now it’s time to look at the rest of Week 12.
There are many reasons I enjoy fantasy football, but I was reminded of an important one yesterday.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock in Philly, I stuck a fork in the season of my beloved Eagles; but at least I still have hope for the remainder of the season from a fantasy perspective. So no matter where your favorite team rates on the bed-crapping spectrum, the remaining seven weeks of the season still have a chance to bring you some joy.
Update: Our Week 10 start em, sit em advice is posted, and this week’s post includes an opportunity for one MSF reader to win free NFL tickets. Make sure you check it out after you finish going through the waiver pickups.
There are no teams on bye in Week 10, but don’t let that lull you into a false sense of security.
The Texans, Colts, Saints, and Steelers are all on bye in Week 11, which means a lot of fantasy firepower will be sitting on benches during one of the final weekends of playoff positioning.
Don’t get caught snoozing; take this opportunity not just to improve your lineup for Week 10 but also to plan ahead for any lineup vacancies impending next week.
The fantasy playoffs are approaching quickly, and decisions must be made to set a playoff-worthy roster. Picking up a player off waivers or deciding which star to sit could be the difference between making or missing the playoffs.
Week Eight featured fewer injuries and breakout performances than we’ve seen in recent weeks, but it did provide fantasy owners with a sobering reminder that we live in a world where Drew Brees, in a gift-wrapped matchup against a floundering defense, can be outscored by guys like Matt Moore and Matt Painter.
The good news is that we are through most of the bye weeks, and just four teams (Carolina, Detroit, Jacksonville, and Minnesota) are off in Week Nine. While most of those teams haven’t racked up many wins, there are some big fantasy names on those rosters for which owners may need a replacement.
Yesterday was a brutal Sunday in the NFL, both in terms of injuries and the quality of play. With so many prominent fantasy players banged up and six more teams on bye in Week Eight (Atlanta, Chicago, Green Bay, New York Jets, Oakland, and Tampa Bay), the waiver wire will once again be a popular destination.
The Oakland Raiders and Cincinnati Bengals have closed a deal that will send exiled quarterback and former Pro Bowler Carson Palmer to the Raiders in exchange for a 2012 first round pick and a conditional 2013 first round pick.
Twitter and Facebook are buzzing about this deal, with most coming to the consensus that Oakland, as they are wont to do, is overpaying for a player with questions surrounding his ability and desire. But if we examine this situation, that might not be true.
I love song parodies, and the Internet is replete with them. Some are good, some are not so good. The one in the video below, I think, is quite good. And timely. And absolutely spot-on correct about the moribund Cincinnati Bengals and their now-retired QB Carson Palmer.
Via today’s Hot Clicks (Jimmy Traina was on fire today…this is the second video I’ve re-posted – first here – after seeing it at HC), here is “Retired in California” by Ryan Parker:
Before the lockout began Carson Palmer made it clear that he did not want to be a Cincinnati Bengal in 2011, not after the team went 4-12 in 2010, which was a major decline from their 10-6 record and playoff appearance in 2009.
Palmer gave the the Bengals’ front office a choice: they could either trade him or he would retire. He is currently under contract through 2014, which makes this decision seem quite selfish. He signed a contract, and after a bad season he wants out. He is essentially giving up on his team and losing any respect that his teammates might have had for him.
The Bengals have announced that they have no intention to trade him, which means that Palmer is, as of right now, retired. His decision can be looked at it two ways.
Before the 2010 NFL season began, one of the most intriguing names in the NFL was Matt Leinart. With Kurt Warner retiring, Leinart finally appeared poised to fulfill his potential as he prepared to take over the reins of a high octane Arizona offense led by All-World wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald.
Across the country in quiet Kansas City, Matt Cassel, a former teammate of Leinart’s at USC (his backup in fact), had no one even close to atwitter after an underwhelming 2009 campaign in which his QB rating was 69.9 and he threw as many INTs as he did TDs.
Before the preseason started, nary a fantasy football owner would have chosen Cassel over Leinart; but as often happens in the NFL, things have not turned out as anyone expected.
Cassel has become a revelation under second-year coach Todd Haley while the erstwhile Leinart Era had yet another false start in Arizona that resulted in one of the most ignominious outcomes imaginable for a quarterback: being benched for Derek Anderson.
This is the unlikely tale of two Matts whose respective statures have done a near complete 180 over the last half decade.
Remember in the movie Men In Black how they had that little device that could wipe someone’s memory clean? After last week, I wouldn’t mind someone doing that to me.
Though I did a good job answering specific questions with all relevant lineup/league info (as I feel I usually do), Week 9 was certainly less than stellar with respect to the top-line picks.
While I nailed Eli Manning as a start and Seattle’s D as a sit…that was pretty much it. See below. The carnage was ugly.
But you know me. Bad weeks only motivate me more to dig deeper into the numbers and trends. I am committed to making Week 10 a much more accurate week over all…as much for your teams as for my own.
Last week I opened up the Start em, Sit em post by telling you about how was I was off to a strong 5-2 start in the P&G-sponsored Blogger Fantasy League*. With the stakes being two tickets to the Super Bowl, you can imagine how much focus I’ve put on doing well in this league.
This week, I must regretfully inform you that I lost in Week 8, falling to 5-3 with a 14 point loss. The worst part? A win was sitting on my bench.
I am watching Neftali Feliz close out the Yankees in Game 3 as I put the finishing touches on this week’s Start em, Sit em post. Right now, this series is through three game, the Rangers have absolutely dominated all but one inning, yet the Yankees find themselves down just a game.
If AJ Burnett can somehow pitch well in Game 4 and the Yankees win, they will find themselves at a very fortuitous 2-2…but 2-2 nonetheless.
Keep this in mind with your fantasy teams.
All week, I told you to start guys like DeAngelo Williams, Bruce Gradkowski, and Dustin Keller. And boy did all three produce well. Unfortunately, none of them were top-line picks.
While predicting Peyton Hillis and Vernon Davis to have strong days proved accurate, I whiffed on Carson Palmer and Matt Ryan. Had I flipped them, I would have been in good shape!
Such is the frustration of try to predict the unpredictable. But I love the challenge. So let’s quickly review my Week 4 start ‘em, sit ‘em picks and then move on to Week 5.
