Fine, ignore my advice. 
Browns D. I’m not really afraid of the immortal Charlie Frye (despite the revenge factor!) coming back to a Cleveland with snow showers and wind. As someone who gets to see far more Texans games than is healthy, their defense is not to be trusted against any team that still feels like playing football (my explanation for their decency against Seattle and St. Louis.)
For RB, take Harrison and Rice. Pittsburgh, per advice cited above, isn’t the same w/o Polamalu, and Rice had 19/88/0 with 5 recp/67 against the Steelers last game at home, w/o Polamalu there. Will that be enough?
Oakland is not the stoutest versus the run—and it “looks” like Harrison is getting the carries… Is SJax in a contract year or other reason why he should risk aggravating an injury in a meaningless game? And I think we’ve dissected the Charles question already…though if you need a home run, I think if Charles goes off, he can get you more on the high end than Rice, particularly if your league lumps return TDs with rushing TDs. Not sure how likely he is to go off though.
I like Harrison and Rice’s chances to give you a good consistent 10-15 points each more than I like Charles’s chances to do so. Your mileage may vary, advice on the Internets is worth what you pay for it, etc…
Good luck and Merry Christmas.
Thanks to everyone for the advice. Very, very helpful.
Merry Christmas! 
Whoops.
Well, good to know I should have trusted my instincts.
I scored 50 points in the Xmas day game in the HHM Championship game and I’m feeling very disappointed in that number and worried about my fate.
6 points is a pretty pedestrian day by Kaeding’s standards, especially considering the Bolts scored in the 40s. Otherwise I’d be pretty happy.
Rivers only managed 2 TDs in that same 42 point game. And Chris Johnson had a TD vultured by Young. I was expecting closer to 60 points from those 3 guys.
Is there any way I should be considering playing Alex Smith over Kurt Warner today, in my championship game?
Rule #1: Always play your studs. I know… but Warner hasn’t been playing all that well, and the Cards have wrapped up the division. I’m concerned he may get pulled early for any one of a variety of reasons.
Alex Smith is not a QB1, but they are playing the Lions.
So, while my current starters aren’t doing much, S. Holmes, S. Smith and Caddy have all scored TDs from my bench.
With 11 min left:
S.Smith (NYG) 7 70 1
S.Smith (C) 5 60 1
I was just looking at that!
Steven Jackson is inactive today. My opponent apparently didn’t realize that.
Lucky you.
Steve Smith (CAR) broke his forearm about halfway though the game or he might have matched his prediction.
So, because I’m bored at work I went back and looked at the first round of my league’s draft. Here are choices, in order, followed by their total points so far and their league rank in parentheses. Now, I know that total points doesn’t equal value, but there are still a lot of busts on this list. MJ Drew is the only Top 10 pick still in the Top 10 in points.
- Adrian Petersen 273.80 (17)
- Michael Turner 169.10 (66)
- MJ Drew 313.70 (10)
- L. Tomlinson 161.60 (73)
- Matt Forte 171.40 (64)
- Brian Westbrook (197)
- DeAngelo Williams 210.40 (45)
- Brandon Jacobs 142.90 (92)
- Larry Fitzgerald 241.50 (28)
- Steven Jackson 246 (27)
Won my league championship handily, due in large part to starting Rice, Harrison, and the Browns D. Thanks again, Gray Ghost.
Meh. DeAngelo’s not really a bust; he’s produced when he’s been on the field, and Jonathan Stewart has produced when he hasn’t. If you didn’t handcuff Williams, well, that’s your fault. The only “bust” aspect of his season was his 1 carry for 7 yards last week, which cost me a title appearance in my money league.
I told everyone who would listen that Forte would slump this year (though even I didn’t know how badly) so none of you get any sympathy for that.
Westbrook’s been waiting to have a year like this for ever, and he’s always a bit hurt anyway.
Remember, though, running backs are hardly ever going to end up in the top 10 in any scoring format. Quarterbacks just have too many touchdowns. The reason running backs are always drafted in the first round is scarcity, not production. There are just about as many good running backs as there are good quarterbacks - but you have to start at least two of the former.
Won my league, woo hoo! Definitely a patchwork season. Only 5 of 17 players on my final roster were original draftees. Since it’s a keeper league, right now, which 2 of these would you keep?
Gore
Jamaal Charles
Colston
Boldin
Dallas Clark
Jamaal Charles is going to be extremely interesting next season. I’m not sure the Chiefs actually trust him, even given all the work he got the second half of this year. But they should, he produced big time in every game, and this isn’t a team that ever really had a lead they could milk the clock with. Nor did they have a good offensive line, or maybe even a competent one. Since he became the starter (or since he got the majority of the carries, whichever), he’s averaged 19 carries and 101 yards in those games (the last seven), with 6 TDs! The only game in the last seven where he *didn’t *score was this past Sunday. Depending on when you declare keepers, he might be the best of your bunch. The others I would choose as follows:
Gore - Not sure he’s a 1st round caliber guy anymore, still not being used consistently despite preseason and early season “emphasis.”
Colston - Still a top guy, but he gets passed up sometimes in that offense.
Clark - Maybe even above Colston. Lots of depth at TE, but there’s a clear upper shelf of guys and he’s the clear best of that elite group.
Boldin - He’s almost certain to be traded this offseason, and there’s no guarantee he’ll go somewhere that favors his fantasy value. He could go higher than Colston depending on how that plays out, but it depends on when you have to declare keepers as to how valuable he’ll be to you.
I brought home the trophy in the SDMB All-Pro league, my second championship in three seasons. My choice of Vince Young initially looked to have doomed my season (I was down 48-8 after Friday night’s games), but ended up being a non-issue. Peyton Manning ended up with only a point and a half more (and Jay Cutler ended up being the big winner on my bench. I thought he had a secretly good matchup, but I didn’t trust him at all this season). Beanie Wells outscored Megatron and Jamaal Charles after scoring late in the game (he had stunk the joint up for three quarters and was threatening to make me look a fool).
I won by about 50 though, my opponent didn’t manage anything outside of Philip Rivers and Chris Johnson. Huzzah! Huzzah!