Thursday, October 7, 2010

You Can Get With This Or You Can Get With That: Week 5

We interrupt your baseball playoffs coverage for our weekly fantasy football column. Ben P is back again with some great advice of who to start and who to sit in Week 5 of the National...Football...League:
Sit Favre out this Sunday (Yahoo)
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Get with Carson Palmer not with Brett Favre

I know, I know, Minnesota just stole the disgruntled Randy Moss from the Pats. This is good news for Brett Favre who has struggled without a healthy Sydney Rice. However, there are two reasons why I don’t like his match-up this week. Numero Uno being that this is Moss’s first week with the team. Moss will have had very little time to develop a little chemistry with Favre and to learn the Vikings playbook. I think Favre will force a few too many balls to his new toy. Numero Dos is of course the Jets Defense. They haven’t been playing up to the lofty standards they set for themselves last year, but they’re still very good. Even if Revis doesn’t play again or is limited, Cromartie has played well for the Jets and matches up well against Moss. I think the Jets get their licks on Favre and he doesn’t get away with a couple of the balls he throws up for grabs.

Carson Palmer makes a much more intriguing option. He has looked fairly inconsistent this year and he’s going against a surprising Tampa team that is off to a good start. However, Tampa hasn’t really been tested (they’ve face Delhomme, Moore/Clausen, and Batch) and I think Ronde Barber has lost a step (he looked very slow returning an interception earlier this year). Palmer and T.O. are coming off of a big week making beautiful passing music together. Palmer has a lot of weapons in the passing game and the Bengals are not afraid to give him lots of opportunities to use them. Palmer is no longer elite, but I think he has a solid game this week.

Get with Beanie Wells not with Ryan Mathews

I’m still seeing Ryan Mathews ranked way too high on peoples’ rankings. The San Diego running attack is a 3 headed monster, and if you're going to start anyone, the guy you want is Tolbert because he is best suited to get goal line carries. Mathews is a good young player and has a bright future in this league, but I don’t think he’s going to get the opportunities on a weekly basis to put up big numbers. Plus, Tolbert has run very well when given the opportunity. The Oakland Defense is actually pretty good. Stop riding Mathews before it’s too late.

Carolina showed the league how to play the Saints last week. Run the ball because the Saints are not a great run defense and it keeps the ball out of the offense’s hands. The Cardinals rookie QB, Max Hall, does not look very good. When you were behind Matt Leinart and Derek Anderson on the depth chart, how could you be? The Cardinals only chance is to pound the ball on the ground, and Beanie finally looks healthy and ready to capitalize.

Get with Dez Bryant not with Anquan Boldin

Anquan Boldin has been very impressive this year, showing that he doesn’t need Kurt Warner or Larry Fitzgerald to be successful. However, this week he draws a tough match-up against a good secondary led by Champ Baily and Brian Dawkins. When these two guys double team you, there’s simply no place to throw the ball. With Ray Rice a little banged up, the Broncos will be focused on stopping the Ravens passing game. Boldin draws a tough match-up this week.

Dez Bryant has looked impressive this year but he’s really yet to break out in a big way as a receiver and this week will be his week. When the Giants played the Titans earlier this year, Mario Manningham was able to get open for some big gains opposite Hakeem Nicks and I think it will be a similar story for Bryant opposite Miles Austin this week. Bryant is too talented not to have topped 60 yards receiving in a game yet. He’s had a chance to nurse his minor wounds with the off week, and I think the Cowboys get him involved early and often against the Titans.

1 comment:

  1. I checked out Football Outsiders fantasy advice on ESPN and they had different advice with Mathews (though they did acknowledge the timeshare situation):

    "Ryan Mathews (San Diego Chargers, plus-10 percent)
    Mathews is clearly in a timeshare with Mike Tolbert, but a likely win over the Raiders should produce both the quantity of carries and the (poor) quality of run defense both Mathews and Tolbert need to produce nice days."

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