A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
Every Sunday morning starting at 10:00 CT (11:00 ET) we are here to answer your last minute start/sit questions.
I’ll kick things off, then Zach will take over, and there might even be an appearance from Drew. There will not be a call-in show today, so pose your questions below.
So how’s everyone’s fantasy team doing? Are you confident like the dominating Green Bay Packers or feeling a little lost like the unfortunate Minnesota Vikings? If it’s the latter…well maybe you’re not paying close enough attention to my injury updates! Then again my team is 1-3. Yeesh.
Here are the injury updates for Week 5 of the fantasy football season.
Jon is busy traveling this week, and I am busy creating pictures of the MNF broadcast team as a boy band, so it’s possible we won’t get rankings posted. (Actually, I’ve just been trying to stay caught up on the questions to the @FantasyMSF Twitter account and in the Week 5 Start/Sit comment section.)
However, that’s why we have a partnership with the folks over at Play This Guy, so that we can bring you consensus rankings even when we can’t bring you our own.
Injuries!
Andre Johnson is gone. Ben Roethlisberger is banged up. Miles Austin is on the mend. Marques Colston is back, but when will he get on track?
With the bye weeks now here, the time has come when fantasy leagues are truly won and lost. If you drafted well, and got a little lucky, you should be near the top of the standings. But nobody can ever completely escape the injury bug. Managing your lineup properly when byes and injuries attack is what separates the good owners from the great ones.
So let’s look at the Week Five games and decide who to start and who to sit this week.
Every Sunday morning starting at 10:00 CT (11:00 ET) we are here to answer your last minute start/sit questions. And we’ll be here again this weekend.
Register below and we’ll send you an email you Sunday morning to remind you.
Update: I’ve launched the live chat early. I won’t be here full time to answer until 10:00 CT, but leave your questions and I’ll pop in when I can to answer, and then we’ll go full steam ahead at 10:00 CT.
Each week I post my first set of player rankings on Monday or Tuesday. Inevitably, things happen throughout the week (injuries, trades, the release of naughty cell phone pictures) that alter my projection for how guys will fare on Sundays.
Because my goal is to help each and every one of our readers (and myself) be in the best possible position to win, I update my rankings on Friday to reflect all the activity from the week.
Click for the latest injury updates on guys like Darren McFadden and Pierre Thomas, which impacted the rankings below. Then check out the final, updated rankings for Week 5.
Update 10/5: Michael Vick is officially out for Week 5 and Jay Cutler’s status remains unknown. The rankings below have been updated to reflect both.
Here is the first installment of my Fantasy Football Week 5 player rankings. As usual, I will update these throughout the week, especially as injury information is made available, and then post a revised version on Friday.
Remember that the Dolphins, Patriots, Steelers, Seahawks all have byes in Week 5.
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It’s Monday, which means that for some of you victory hangs in the balance of tonight’s result. For others, it means that you’ve either won or lost already and the time has come to look ahead to next week.
Either way, everyone will have waiver wire decisions to make over the next 24-72 hours. Do I use my top 3 waiver spot on this guy? Should I wait and see if he clears waivers? Can I make this trade because so-and-so is available on the wire?
All are tough, valid questions…and we’re here to help.
In this post, as I do every week, I will run down players at every position who are owned in 50% or less of Yahoo leagues and have value for the rest of the season or particularly strong value in Week 5. Take a look at last week’s waiver wire target post to see just how on-target those targets were.
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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.
Before we begin this Friday’s Morning Would column, I want to make a declaration about one of its subjects, Browns rookie WR Mohammed Massaquoi.
And that declaration is as follows: henceforth on Midwest Sports Fans, Mohammed Massaquoi will be known as MoMass. This a common practice among fantasy writers and players who are lazy and don’t feel like typing out long, complicated names (ex. Maurice Jones-Drew is “MJD” and DeAngelo Williams is “DAW”).
You see, as much as I love MoMass, both as a building block for the Browns and as a fantasy sleeper for the balance of 2009, his name is one of those difficult ones that is very hard to get through typing without making a mistake.
Here, I’ll try a couple of times typing it at my normal rate without stopping: Mohammed Maaquia; Mohammed Massaquoi, Mohammed Massaqoo, Mohammed Massaquoi, Mohammed Massaqio.
As you can see, the second and fourth attempts were spot on. But 40% accuracy is not acceptable to be. so I’m shortening it to MoMass and that’s that.
And now we can move on to more important subjects…
Two of the hottest names in the WR sleeper category this week — and certainly two of the players that I have been asked about the most in the comments section of the Week 5 start em, sit em post — are MoMass and Pierre Garcon.
This morning, I will analyze which of these two players I’d rather have on my team in Week 5 and beyond.
While preparing to answer another wave of questions in the comment section of my Week 5 start em, sit em post, the lightbulb of inspiration flickered above my head.
I spend so much time answering similar questions about similar players, that I might as well consolidate some of those answers into posts.
Don’t worry, I’ll still answer your comments directly. But for the myriad people who are interested in Steve Slaton, Rashard Mendenhall, Jerome Harrison, Knowshon Moreno, and Glenn Coffee in Week 5 — many of whom seem to be faced with the task of choosing between two or three of them for starting spots — this post should help.
Here are my quick hit Week 5 rankings for these five players this week, plus some explanation.
I am proud to have a new weekly feature to unveil this week for everybody: the Fantasy Flash, a weekly podcast during which Fraschetti and I discuss start ‘ems, sit ‘ems, and sleepers for the current fantasy football week.
Among the topics discussed in this week’s Fantasy Flash:
Kurt and I both give our prediction for the week’s top scorer, as well as provide two start ‘ems, two sit ‘ems, and two sleepers a piece.
For the record, I tried not to just regurgitate the same information I provide in this week’s start em, sit em post. So even if you read that post, the podcast is still worth listening to.
Here it is. Enjoy:
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Note: If you have any problems with the player above, here is a link to mp3 file and you can also download the MSF Podcast on iTunes.
And please use the comment section if you have additional start ‘em, sit ‘em questions or to provide feedback on the podcast and features you’d like to see for the future.
The Week 17 start em, sit em lineup advice post is up.
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Watching the Packers-Vikings game as I type this, so I will try not to be too distracted. Week 5 is a big week and we’ve all got to be on top of our games this week.
If you’re 0-4, this is your last chance to stay alive and have a prayer’s chance at the playoffs. If you’re 1-3 or 2-2, a win in Week 5 can potentially get you into first place or a game back, depending on your league. And if you’re 3-1 or 4-0, you’re looking to put some distance between you and your foes.
Either way, Week 5 is a huge swing week that will put you in the position of either being the chased or the chaser over the next few weeks.
Let’s hop to it, starting out with a quick look back at Week 4 and then a glance forward to Week 5 with your usual rundown of start ems and sit ems.
