Floyd, Bowe, Collie, in that order.
I’d play Mike Williams over Bowe even though they are playing Pittsburgh.
Floyd has a great matchup vs Seattle, which has been hapless vs the pass, little or no rush, and undersized linebackers. Even though he’s splitting targets with Nanee, nearly all SD players are a must start this week.
Collie is playing out of his mind right now, he’s a must start over many other WR1’s and nearly all WR2’s. He’s probably going to end up with the best receiving stats on the team next to Dallas Clark as Wayne gets doubled and Garcon keeps dropping passes.
After that these two, it gets a lot harder. Williams has a decent matchup vs the steelers, IF the o-line can protect freeman long enough for him to pass. In the games I’ve seen, the QB’s can’t survive the 7 step drop, which means lots of receptions to the TE, RB or slot receiver. He might get a fair share of targets and catches, but I don’t expect a touchdown.
Bowe has a decent matchup vs SF. SF has been great so far vs the run, but mediocre vs the pass. The big problem here is Moeaki, who seems to be KC’s main deep threat.
Fred Jackson has a bad matchup vs the Pats, and the bills are currently running a 3 RB rotation. Fred does seem to be getting most of the goal line work though.
Hester is not bad if you get points for returns.
I think bowe, jackson, and hester will each get under 10 fantasy points. I think Hester is most likely to break off a td, but on a return. If you are playing PPR, Bowe is OK. If not, hester.
The biggest problem with playing Bowe is Matt Cassel.
I can play 3 WRs (no flex spots) and have to choose between:
Anquan Boldin vs Browns
Hakeem Nicks vs Titans
Mario Manningham vs Titans
Dez Bryant vs Texans
I also have Braylon Edwards but he’s a no-brainer to bench this week. Which one of the above four should I bench? Yahoo says Dez Bryant by a hair, but that Texans (lack of) pass defense is hard to pass up. The Cowboys offense has been shitty this year, yes, but nowhere near as bad as the trainwreck that the Giants were in Indy last week.
Then again, last time the Giants got fired up by trash talking was back in 2007 when Pam Oliver called out the defense for being apathetic on the bench, and the Giants came on in a big way immediately after that. So maybe Antrelle Rolle’s trash talking lit a fire under them. Still, two receivers from the same team, neither of whom is the #1 receiver, is a bit much, no?
Plus Nicks hurt his knee last week which is why he disappeared in the game after one catch. He says he’s good. The only dependable way to tell is Thursday practices, and he went through a full practice. I think they’re going to try and force it into Dez for at least 5-6 targets, which is probably more than manningham with a healthy nicks, so I would say bench manningham.
Boldin has to start for you. But why would you automatically bench Braylon? He isn’t going to be suspended for this game, is playing against a bitter division rival in Miami and probably feels like he has something to prove. I’d start him, actually.
I’m not sold on Dez Bryant yet and Hakeem Nicks is a favorite red zone target, he has 4 TD’s so far in TWO games.
So, if I were you, I’d play Boldin, Nicks and Edwards. But thta’s risky me. You may want to sub Manningham for Edwards, but definitely start Boldin and Nicks.
Hmm. I counted it up, and dez bryant got 11 targets (7 catches) in week 1 and 2 in week 2. It looks like dez and manningham get nearly an equal number of targets, average. But, what does that 2 targets mean? Are they losing confidence in him?
There’s a lot of variables here, but by far, Dallas has a much better matchup than NYG.
Oh, i forgot to list who I would play: Boldin, Nicks, Bryant.
re: Benching Braylon: I have a feeling it will play out like this:
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Jets are winning, so they bench Braylon in the 2nd half or longer.
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Jets are losing, so they are forced to play him for the deep ball. If the Jets are far behind, he’s going to get a lot of deep targets.
If you think #2 is likely to happen, I would play him as the 3rd WR. If not I would play bryant or manningham. I think the Jets are going to be playing from behind most of the game.
I’m currently going with Boldin, Nicks and Bryant, subject to change after I sleep on it.
Last week I got hammered when Edwards, Manningham and Bryant were the top 3 scorers out of this group. How the hell do you sit Boldin and Nicks, y’know? Just brutal.
I just spent the last hour going through the free agent pool in all four of my leagues. In one of them Manningham was available, so of course I snatched him up. I also upgraded three receivers in the dynasty league, so I’m happy with that.
It eventually gets to the point where you just have to dance with who you brought, though, and I invested heavily in Jahvid Best and Dez Bryant during my four drafts this year, so even though he’s been lukewarm at best I’m going to give Bryant every opportunity in the early part of the season.
If I make a change, it will be to start Edwards over Nicks based solely on the strength of the Titans pass defense. Apparently they haven’t let any receiver reach 40 yards so far, and Edwards had good games against the Dolphins last year.
A few close calls:
Ronnie Brown vs NYJ or Mike Tolbert vs SEA
Clayton/WAS, Bowe/SF, Knox/GB, or Naanee/SEA
Tony Gonzalez/NO or Winslow/PIT
Pittsburgh/TB or Minnesota/DET
And… pick 3: Knox/GB, Demaryius Thomas/IND, Louis Murphy/ARI, Eddie Royal/IND, Mike Williams(sea)/SD, Bess/NYJ, Edwards/MIA, Massaquoi/BAL, Cribbs/BAL.
The Gonzalez start is a no-brainer to me. Miller hasn’t done shit and needs Ben for his production to increase.
That said, Miller will now get 150 yds receiving and 2 TD’s…
- Tolbert: easy call, seattle has been horrible vs the run while NYJ has been excellent vs the run. I’m starting him this week over Jamaal Charles.
Clayton if it’s PPR, Naanee if it’s not.
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The TE situation is not good. Tony has the better QB, i’d go with him.
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Pittsburgh D is an easy call. I drafted SF defense and dumped them this week, and you might want to do that even though Minn was ranked higher pre-season. Pre-draft ranking is meaningless once the season starts (although pitt has the early bye in week 5.)
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I can’t really recommend anyone other than Thomas, and even then he has a bad matchup. After that, you have a mishmash of bad QB’s, bad o-lines, and bad matchups. But, if you put a gun to my head, I would probably go with: Thomas, Knox, Murphy, with the possibility of Edwards instead of Murphy (as in my earlier explanation.) What I would do with this team is immediately dump massaquoi, cribbs, and bess and sit on the waiver wire on Sunday and hope a new opportunity presents itself, especially since the Browns are facing pitt, cinci and baltimore 6 times.
I really don’t like Knox as receiver because of Chicago’s o-line, but you don’t have much of a choice here.
Re: Royal vs Thomas: This week is a tough one to predict who will score more. If the opponent has a decent rush, the TE, slot receiver, and RB get more looks. If the opponent has a shut down corner or bracket the best receiver, looks to WR1 generally go down. Indy definitely has a great rush, so looks to WR2 (Royal) should go up. However, this advantage is probably not as great as the possibility of Thomas getting a TD. However, both receivers will see lowered production vs Indy as Orton will probably be working mainly out of the three step drop. Your receivers are so weak, you may be forced to play both Thomas and Royal eventually, and I wouldn’t play more than one of them this week, but it’s up to you which one to use. Sadly, it looks like Thomas is your best receiver.
Nicks was replaced by Manningham, which is why MM scored so much. Those points/looks should have been Hakeem’s. Boldin was just bad luck. Flacco imploded. I think it was his unibrow getting in the way of his eyesight. Of this group, you should be starting boldin and nicks every week, there’s not much you can do about injuries or turnovers.
Don’t worry when some scrub puts up a 4-50-1 day. You can find those guys every single week on the WW. Bryant is just tragic, and the only reason he was relevant last week was a punt return TD and Jerry Jones wants to prove he’s right all the time.
When I snagged Jason Snelling last week, he was (at the time) owned by 1% of Yahoo teams. I would have dropped him immediately after hearing that Turner is fine but he is going to replace Norwood, which suddenly makes him a good option. Just because the WR5 gets lucky and scores a TD doesn’t mean they should play for you the following week.
Oops, I forgot about Nanee splitting with Floyd. Nanee should not be played ahead of Mark Clayton.
This a dynasty league with 25 man rosters, so almost everyone worth anything is owned, and it also explains why I have a lot of receivers that don’t have much output now - I’m hoping they’ll develop into something.
Fuck you, Brett Favre.
Pretty good week. I won 4 out of 5, pending a monster game from Aaron Rodgers tonight, at which point I’ll be 5-5 (but will drop to 3-5 if he hits Donald Driver all night). I nailed some truly absurd picks - in the Big League I plugged in Lance Moore for 32.78. I had Boldin in He Hate Me. Picked up Vick for 35.35 in All-Pro.
As a Chefs fan, I was happy to see Jamaal Charles continue to run ridiculously well. People leaving him on their bench are making terrible decisions. He’s the primary back, despite Jones’ carries. Weis is waiting for the OL to more fully gel before giving him more. He’s also using Jones to soften up the defense to allow Charles to run wild later in the game.
Bleah, bad week for me. I left 20 points on the bench (Jamaal Charles, Dwayne Bowe) but it doesn’t matter…i’m down 130 points (200 vs 70) with Aaron rodgers left to play. MJD and Calvin Johnson continue kill me with 1 TD combined. Joseph Addai remains my most consistent RB, while Jamaal (after this week) is barely my highest scoring RB. Chad Ochocinco is still the high scoring non-qb on my team even though he’s done nothing since his big game week 1. The other teams in my league are averaging 180-200 points per week. The best receiver on my team, Visanthe Shiancoe, went down with an injury and I’ll probably have to waste a bench spot on him since Minnesota is in a bye next week. Aaron has been very good, but he’s not the highest scoring QB in my league.
My wife’s team, who lost Knowshon Moreno and Steven Jackson and doesn’t even have a warm RB body to put in her flex, scored more than mine and her opponent had a bad week too, so she’ll probably end up winning.