A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
I am skipping an introduction this week because I’m too mad at fantasy football.
In my league of 14 teams, I finished right in the middle of the pack in terms of points…but because I had the third most points scored on me, I missed the playoffs…by a lot.
I finished second to last.
Lame.
Sometimes, fantasy football goes that way. I will spare you my three heart-breaking losses of the year because, quite frankly, we all have them…and nobody else cares.
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 can’t believe it’s already week 13 of the football season. I felt like just a few days ago we wondering if the lockout would end in time for the season. It’s crunch time now for fantasy teams as we fast approach the playoffs for the fantasy league.
Let’s take a look at the crucial injuries for this week’s games.
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.
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.
Letdowns and surprises have been the theme over the first two weeks of the season, but that’s just because it has only been two weeks. Now is when we see who the real fantasy stars are as outlier 33-point games from Chad Henne are brought back down to earth.
The Chiefs team as a whole gets a lot of attention this week due mainly to the injury of Jamaal Charles, which opens up some opportunities for other guys on that squad.
The game itself is changing with the way teams throw the ball. Yes running backs are still important but QBs and WRs are becoming the high scorers week in and week out. Don’t be late to the party.
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.
[Editor's note: this was originally published on September 13th, but I'm bringing back to the front of the site for easy Sunday morning access.]
If there is one word of advice I could give you before week two of your fantasy league this year, it would be this: “Don’t overreact. Panic time doesn’t hit until week 4.”
Every player is due to have a bad week or two; and luckily for Jamaal Charles and Adrian Peterson owners, they already got one of theirs out of the way.
Does that mean that we should take nothing from week one? Of course not. It’s possibly time to drop Colts’ players not named Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark.
But don’t go scrambling for Cam Newton just yet.
Everyone loves to draft a guy that he thinks is a sleeper. Why? Because it’s our way of proving to everyone else that, “Yes, I know more than you.” Beyond that, it’s simply quite fun to draft a guy that surprises everybody else.
Like I said before, it’s not that fun to draft Ichiro. You know exactly what you’re getting. (Or at least you used to know, before this season.) On the flip side, thinking about Jason Heyward’s upside gives us all visions of glory.
But when it comes to drafting running backs for your fantasy football team this year, save the “sleepers” for other positions.
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.
This post is from 2009!
Head over to MSF Fantasy Sports for the 2010 Fantasy Football Week 8 Sleepers and Waiver Wire Targets
Week 8, as usual, is filled with injuries, six bye weeks, and numerous underachieving players. This is the time of year when uncovering a waiver wire player about to step into more opportunity can be exactly the boon that your team needs.
In New York and San Francisco, two such sleeper players exist: RB Shonn Greene and QB Alex Smith.
We look at these two Week 8 diamonds in the rough, plus link you to PFI for more sleepers and waiver wire steals for Week 8.
[Editor's Note: Jerod's Week 8 start 'em, sit 'em column will be one day late but will be posted tomorrow morning.]
