Fantasy Sports Blogger

Everyone rushes for the trendy, hot waiver pick-up each week.  Although there is merit to picking some of those players up at given points in the season, you should really be weary of those “one-hit wonders.”  You know the guys that just have great matchups and shine a week or two each year.

Well I think it’s high time to point out the players that get almost no pub due to their team’s record or the small market they play in.  Let’s look at the “Under the Radar” bunch by position.

QB: Derek Anderson -  He has the third most points at the position this year.  Did anyone think he was more than a stepping stone before the season starts?  He has benefited from some weak opponents so far but he did hold his own against Baltimore.  He ends the year with games against HOU, ARI, BUF, NYJ, CIN and SF.  If you can get him, it would be worth your while to give up second tier RB or WR.

RB: Edgerin James - Yes, he was a top round draft pick but he is not getting the recognition for being a top 5 back all year.  He may not get 4 TDs in a game but he is steady.  Plus with the QB issues, he will be leaned on down the stretch with a borderline playoff team.  He ends his season with DET, CIN, SF, CLE, SEA, NO, ATL and STL.  Doesn’t get much easier than that.

WR: Braylon Edwards - Yes, I’m guilty of picking 2 guys from CLE but it’s not without reason.  This guy gets open and Anderson has a knack for finding him each week.  His schedule concludes with HOU, ARI, BUF, NYJ, CIN and SF as well.  I’m betting he improves his 2008 draft position to 3rd round by the end of this season.

TE: Chris Cooley - No surprise here because this guy is underrated every year.  He’s seventh in points but he has had his bye already.  If Santana Moss can get healthy and clear space for him, watch out!  Plus he ends the year with BUF, CHI, NYG, MIN and DAL.

K: Nick Folk - Of course he plays on the high scoring Cowboys but he’s accurate as all get up.  Kris Brown and Matt Stover are stealing headlines but Folk has had only one game under 9 points and is currently second in K points.  He ends the year with team defenses that are poor between the 20s but clamp down in the red zone (PHL, NYG, WAS, NYJ, GB, DET, PHI, CAR, WAS).  That adds up to buku FG chances. 

DST: KC Chiefs - The Arrowhead faithful know that even thought the offense can’t score the defense has been pretty stingy.  They sit at 13th in points this year due to lack of turnovers but expect that to change.  There offense is getting healthier and can put more pressure on teams to take chances.  They end the season with teams that have turned the ball over a lot (DEN, TEN, DET and NYJ).  Take a chance and see it get paid off in the playoffs.

Question of the day:  Who did you take a chance on this year that you picked up for the stretch drive?

Reminder that the over/under for this is 15 points for QB & RB, 10 for WR & DST and 5 for K & TE. Judge me on Tuesday.

Surprise Starts
QB: Griese
RB: Wright
WR: Burleson
TE: Baker
K: Dawson
DST: Arizona

Bizzare Benches
QB: E. Manning
RB: Alexander
WR: S. Smith
TE: Gates
K: Akers
DST: Green Bay

This week is the one week I knew I would have trouble this season in all of my leagues as I have most of my starting RB and WR core out in week 6. It doesn’t help that my backups are looking rather poor but these are desperate times in all my leagues. I probably shoud be lucky to go 2-2 this week. I’m an optimist but 3 of my teams (1,3,4) need to start winning if I expect to make the playoffs this year.

Team 1 Roster of 10 team veteran league (2-3)
QB: Griese, Young, Harrington - Desperate times
RB: J. Wright, K. Watson, Jordan, Rhodes, White, Gore – U-G-L-Y
WR: S. Smith, Welker, Holmes, R. Williams – Bye week issues
TE: D. Clark, LJ Smith – Need Clark/Griese hookups
K: Rackers – Only K
DST: NYG - Only DST
(Took LJ off IR, Dropped McAllister, Williams, Pennington, Reed, SD and picked up Griese, Rackers, Wright.)

Team 2 Roster of 12 team PPR league (5-0)
QB: Warner, Schaub – Warner should be good
RB: Bush, Jordan, Parker, Young - Jordan may not go
WR: Coles, Welker, Burleson (flex) Evans, Wayne, R. Williams – Ouch!
TE: Witten – Only TE
K: Gostkowski – Only K
DST: Chicago – Only DST
(Picked up Warner and Burleson, Dropped Dunn and Culpepper)

Team 3 Roster of 10 team, 3rd year league (1-4)
QB: Brees, Culpepper – Brees or bust
RB: Jordan, D. Williams, Gore, Parker, Young – Jordan is iffy
WR: Crayton, Welker, Branch, R. Williams, A. Johnson – Bye week blues
TE: D. Lee – Only TE
K: Rackers – Only K
DST: Baltimore – Only DST
(Picked up Crayton and Rackers, dropped Reed and Leinart)

Team 4 Roster of 10 team, 2nd year league (2-3)
QB: McNabb – McNabb or bust
RB: D. Williams, Wright, Norwood (flex)Gore, Parker, J. Lewis - Bye week hell
WR: Stallworth, S. Moss, Wayne, R. Williams, Branch - More bye week hell
TE: Daniels – Only TE.
K: Gostkowski – Only K
DST: Baltimore – Only DST
(Dropped Green and Picked up Wright)

How are your teams doing? If teams are anything like mine, you’ve suffered from the injury bug a little and a lapse in judgment here and there. I’m not in quite as many leagues as Mr. Road, and I rarely perform as well as he does (I’ve been cursed since my last FFL Superbowl appearance in 2003, which will be a future topic). I’m 1-4 in one league and 3-2 in another. The 3-2 team is not as bad as the record indicates. I’ve lost one game due to a tie breaker (thanks, Steven Jackson, for the two fumbles in week one) and the other due to a Joey Galloway/Steve Smith no show in the same game.

The 1-4 team, on the other hand, is a perfect example of how NOT to run your team. Example #1: stick Plaxico Burress on the bench against an injured Cowboy defense and watch Deion Branch make zero catches against Tampa Bay. Example #2: Continue to start a struggling McNabb while Delhomme catches fire. Example #3: Carry Maroney and Morris on your roster, but start Maroney.

Speaking of fire, is 1-4 a poor enough start to hold a fire sale? Is 10 team leagues, I find that you usually make the playoffs with 9 wins, and sometimes 8 if you’ve been making out with Lady Luck. In a 14 game FFL season, this team would need to go 7-2 down the stretch.

Possible, but highly unlikely. Use your waiver power to take the best player each week, even when you don’t need him (to a certain limit). Look at the rest of your season schedule. Determine your most difficult matchups and look at offering trades to help you that week. Remember - you’re in a hole each and ever week - don’t be afraid to be aggressive.

When all hope is lost, talk trash because your team is expected to lose. And the few that you win after trash talking will be oh so sweet.

I’ve recovered a bit to be a game above .500 now this year.  This looks like a dog week so don’t fear those spreads.

CIN (-3) @ KC – Too much firepower on Bengals side

HOU (+6.5) @ JAC – Texans have won previously in JAX

CLE (-5) vs. MIA – Dolphins starting a Lemon & give up 175 on ground

CHI (-6) vs. MIN – Bears due to blow out someone

PHL (+3) @ NYJ – Best of the worst is Eagles here

STL (+9.5) @ BAL – Ravens always seem to play down at home

TEN (+3) @ TB – Titans on a roll so this could go either way

WAS (+3) @ GB – Redskins match up well with Pack

NE (-5) @ DAL – Pats just too good for Boys in October

ARI (-4) vs. CAR – Cardinals back up QB way better than Panthers’

OAK (+10) @ SD – Chargers need to show something at home

SEA (-6.5) vs. NO – Not the week for Saints to get first win

NYG (+3.5) @ ATL – Giants may blow out Falcons by 20

In order to get a little more variety of flavor into the blog space, I’ve asked my good friends to write some blog entries each week on any topic they feel relevant to fantasy football.

The first to accept is my fellow co-commish of our aptly named, 10 year old creation … Spaceballs the FFL. He’s been chasing the FF dream for as long as I have, with a modicum of success in championships as well as the experience of heartbreaking losses.

He shall from this day forth be known as … Money or whatever he wants to be known as … But today I’m calling him Money.

Baltimore. I have gone back and forth on this pick so much this week as no one jumps out at me as an obvious pick. With the parity in the NFL these days you never seem to be 100% confident. However, STL is so depleted and the Ravens play well at home that I feel best about picking them this week.

Warning of the Week: Everyone wants to annoint Chicago as being back to their 2006 level after their Lambeau win. However, I am not one of those folks. They are still using Grossman’s backup and they face a tough run defense. I can’t touch them with a ten foot pole.

Many are saying today that what they witnessed last night in Buffalo was the best game they have ever seen period.  I think that’s a bit of a stretch.  It might have been the best gift ever by the Bills coaching staff (with assistance from the refs) but not the best game.  There didn’t seem to be much earned in that game, only given away.

Point #1:  How could the Bills only turn 17 points from 6 turnovers?
Point #2:  Why, with 4 minutes to go, do you call a short out route with a rookie QB when all you want to do is burn clock and get up by 2 scores?
Point #3:  Did that onsides kick really only take 2 seconds from the time that the first touch of the ball was made at the 40 until the ball was wrestled, secured, touched down and whistled down by the refs? It had to have taken 4-5 seconds.  (Where was the home town clock operator on that one by the way?)
Point #4:  Now with 7 shaky seconds on the clock, how can you let the Cowboys complete an 8 yard out to a WR?  Call me a non-football insider but I think I’m a genious at clock management in comparison to these guys.  If they need 5 yards or more to get into FG range and they have no timeouts left, why not back everyone off the line.  Play 5 LBs and 6 DBs to protect the sidelines and endzone.  It’s fine if they come up to the line of scrimmage and see you back off, they have like 5 seconds to audible and even then what would they audible to?  Maybe a hail mary or hook and ladder but what are the odds they’ll be able to get that?  Zilch or next to zilch.

Maybe NFL teams need to create another coaching position on time management play calling.  I would love that job.

 Question of the day?  What’s your best Monday night game memory?  I was always partial to the Jets-Dophins game in 2000 but I hated that Eagles-Cowboys ‘97 game where Chris Boniol can’t get the chipshot off the ground and tries to run it in ala Romo style.

Team 1 Roster of 10 team veteran league (2-2)
QB: V. Young, Pennington, Leinart – Playing best matchup
RB: F. Gore, L. Jordan, C. Williams (IR), McAllister (IR), D. Rhodes, L. White, K. Watson – Going with 3 WRs
WR: S. Smith, R. Williams, S. Holmes, W. Welker – Should have played Holmes last week.
TE: D. Clark, LJ Smith (IR) – Only TE
K: Reed – Only K
DST: NYG, SD – Jets are primed for TOs
(Placed McAllister and Williams on IR, cut Jeff King and picked up D. Rhodes and NYG DST.)

Team 2 Roster of 12 team PPR league (4-0)
QB: Schaub, Culpepper – Schaub faces MIA!
RB: Parker, Bush, Jordan, Dunn, Young - Bush is back just in time
WR: Wayne, R. Williams, Coles (flex), L. Welker, Evans – Wanted to get Evans into lineup so bad!
TE: Witten – Only TE
K: Gostkowski – Only K
DST: Chicago – Only DST
(Picked up Young and Culpepper, dropped Leinart and Randel El.)

Team 3 Roster of 10 team, 3rd year league (1-3)
QB: Brees, Leinart, Culpepper – Time for Brees to put up
RB: Gore, Parker, Jordan, D. Williams, Young – Time for Gore to put up
WR: Branch, R. Williams, A. Johnson, Welker – Branch getting better
TE: D. Lee – Only TE
K: Reed – Only K
DST: Baltimore – Only DST
(Picked up Culpepper, D. Lee and Young dropped Gould, Dropped Alex Smith, Scaife and Schobel) 

Team 4 Roster of 10 team, 2nd year league (2-1)
QB: Green, McNabb – Green starts now
RB: Gore, Parker, J. Lewis, D. Williams, Norwood - Gore must step up
WR: R. Wayne, R. Williams, D. Branch (flex), D. Stallworth, S. Moss - Branch better option at flex
TE: Daniels – Only TE.
K: Gostkowski – Only K
DST: Baltimore – Only DST
(Picked up S. Moss, Green, Gostkowski and dropped Jacksonville, Leinart and Akers.  Also trying to pick up Cutler for Stallworth.)

Reminder that the over/under for this is 15 points for QB & RB, 10 for WR & DST and 5 for K & TE.  Judge me on Tuesday.

Surprise Starts
QB: Campbell
RB: D. Ward
WR:  Randel-El
TE: H. Miller
K: Crosby
DST: WAS

Bizzare Benches
QB:  Hasselback
RB:  Addai
WR:  All SF receivers
TE:  Marcedes Lewis
K:  Wilkins
DST:  DAL