I’ve always said that you wait forever for the draft each year and then week 1 barely gets here. All of a sudden, bang, it’s week 10 in the fantasy season. Really, there still very few good pickups left. Here’s a look at top candidates at each position.
QB - Josh Freeman TB, Jason Campbell WAS
RB - Laurence Maroney NE, Ladell Betts WAS, Darren McFadden/Justin Fargas OAK
WR - Mike Wallace PIT, Chris Chambers KC
TE - Brandon Pettigrew DET
K - Rob Bironas TEN, Olindo Mare SEA (only at home)
DEF - Dolphins, Titans, Bengals
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No doubt if you survived the first 2 weeks you noticed that some teams were just really good and some really bad. As I’ve mentioned before, I didn’t make it out of Week 2 this year. Well now it’s Week 10, yes Week 10. I still think there are easy pickings out there like BAL over CLE this week, MIA over TB, NO over STL and MIN over DET. Let me give you my traditional speech about warning signs… I still don’t like road teams, divisional games and intra-state games. Ok that last one I made up. Remember that DET has played MIN tough the last couple of meetings. I’m leaning towards NO over STL. If you’ve used up your easy ones and have to make a tough decision I would take TEN over BUF. Let’s make that my pick too. I hope you caught that there was a Thursday night game this week and every week through Week 15. I’m taking SF -3 over Chicago in a high scoring game this week. I know SF looks good on paper defensively but short weeks lend themselves to the offense. I’m starting Matt Forte with fingers crossed based on that logic. I’m taking the week off but here are my picks against the spread. WAS +10 I rebounded in Week 7 with an above .500 week. But it again was so close to being a great week! Minnesota botches the 4th Quarter, Houston blows a 21 point lead and the Resdskins blow every chance handed to them to be in Monday night’s game. For the week I was 7-5-1. That takes my record down to 46-36-1 for the year. I was 3-1 on my locks. I’m now 4 above .500 on those picks at 12-8. This week, I think some lines are very favorable (i.e. Denver) and some not so favorable (SD by 17) to pick. Picks on left. Locks have asterisk. *DEN +3.5 @ BAL - Denver just gets no respect from Vegas HOU -3.5 @ BUF - Is it me or does Houston play better on the road *CLE +13.5 @ CHI - If Anderson wakes up, Browns could win this game DAL -10 vs. SEA - I think Ware will imprint his jersey number on Hasselbeck STL +4 @ DET - Another Yuck game, but Rams should stay close IND -12 vs. SF - Riding Colts until they show weaknesses *MIA +3.5 @ NYJ - I always underestimate Sparano but not this week NYG +2.5 @ PHI - Hard to pick against my team but McNabb is way off right now JAX +3 @ TEN - Is Vince Young the answer? I think not. SD -17 vs. OAK - Chargers not great but Raiders are that bad GB -3 vs. MIN - I just don’t have a feel for this game so I choose the home team CAR +9.5 @ ARI - Hard to take ‘Zona by more than TD even though they should win easily *ATL +10 @ NO - I think Miami drained the Saints a bit. Expect ATL to step up here. All those guys over there at ESPN can tell you it’s a no brainer to start Peterson, Brees, Wayne or Gates each week. I really don’t see any of them showing you when to start a second/third tier guy from your bench over a normal starter. That’s what this weekly post looks to accomplish. I want to give you the best possible matchups to consider versus the guys you auto-start each week. Start Bench For the third straight week, there appears to be very little to choose from in the free agent pool. There are a few speculative pickups and a one game situational pickup. 1. Jamaal Charles RB KC - It looks like Larry Johnson’s days are over in Kansas City. If so, it looks like Jamaal Charles is your next best RB there. 2. Lee Evans WR BUF - In most leagues he was probably drafted but he may be availble after another abysmal start to his season. He seems to have developed a good repoire with BUF’s new QB Fitzpatrick. 3. Alex Smith QB SF - This is a stretch but if you can project SF having to throw more than Smith may actually be productive for a stretch. He’ll have a big test against the Colt defense this week. If he can show something this week he may be productive the rest of the season. 4. Fred Davis TE WAS - With Cooley down for at least 4 weeks, Davis proved on Monday night that he can catch passes. He may not be able to block but he can catch. I would take him as an IR replacement for Cooley if you don’t need somebody this week as WAS is on a bye. 5. Cardinals D/ST ARI - This is a one week pickup. ARI welcomes the turnover prone Panthers to town this week. This should be a safe week pickup if you have a bad matchup or a bye. Honorable Mention: Shon Greene RB NYJ, Chris Wells RB ARI, Mike Wallace WR PIT (maybe next week’s pickups) Last week Houston jumped out to a huge lead only to hang on by a thread. But hey, a win is a win is a win. If only there wasn’t that Week 2 blemish on my record. I would be 6-1. Oh well. Moving into Week 8, there are still some huge mismatches on paper out there. Do you remember the scene in the original Bad News Bears where the Yankee coach tells his players …”Take second, take third, take any base you want!” Well that pretty much describes my top 5 plays this week. SD over OAK, CHI over CLE, DAL over SEA, IND over SF and ARI over CAR. Take any of them and you should be safe. I’ll take DAL over SEA for my official pick. All those guys over there at ESPN can tell you it’s a no brainer to start Peterson, Brees, Wayne or Gates each week. I really don’t see any of them showing you when to start a second/third tier guy from your bench over a normal starter. That’s what this weekly post looks to accomplish. I want to give you the best possible matchups to consider versus the guys you auto-start each week. Start Bench Well, it finally hit me as I somewhat predicted. I did not break .500 in Week 6. The terrible part is that changed 4 games from Saturday night’s original predictions to Sunday’s posting. I lost all 4 of those. But that’s why they call it gambling. Officially for the week I was 6-8. That takes my record down to 39-31 for the year. I didn’t have any locks picked last week so I’m sitting 2 above .500 on those. This week, it feels just as tough as last week. I think the oddsmakers are getting a good feel for how bettors are laying their money. Thus it seems more difficult. And you can bet I’m going to stay with my first instinct; yeah right. Picks on left. Locks have asterisk. *GB -7 @ CLE - Hearing CLE team has flu plus more injuries HOU -3 vs. SF - Crabtree/Gore not enough *KC +4.5 vs. SD - Chargers on short week, on the road, divisional opponent MIN +4 @ PIT - If field holds up, I like MIN to win *IND -13 @ STL - Could have been 21 and I would take IND BUF +7.5 @ CAR - Yuck game, at least it should be close NE -14.5 @ TB - Bet Buc season ticket holders were glad to give up this one NYJ -6 @ OAK - Raider nation got their upset last week, back to reality CIN -1.5 vs. CHI - Classic AFC/NFC who’s better in the middle question ATL +3.5 @ DAL - Cowboys need to showup big or Phillips will be gone before Zorn *NO -6.5 @ MIA - Do you want me to pick against the hottest team going? NYG -7 vs. ARI - I think the Giants are a wee little upset by last week WAS +7 vs. PHI - No good reason for this other than WAS plays close games |
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