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| If only ...... |
Most weeks we have write long-winded rant about something inane that happened during the week that drove is nuts. Come to think of it, the fact that we're able to write long-winded rants on a weekly basis might be some cause for concern, but we'll deal with that in next week's "Why We Need Therapy". Anyway, this week's, it's relatively short.
We got shit on by a bird.
Yep, a bird shit right on us, without provocation. We were a victim of avian terrorism. There we are standing on the corner trying our best not to look like a creep (and probably failing miserably) when - Splat! - we felt something hit the front of our suit and look down to see a bright green streak (apparently birds in NYC eat glow sticks) down our lapel and onto our shoes. Thanks bird, if you were trying to ruin our day, we say "Mission Accomplished."
One quick programming note. In an effort to curb our verbosity we're only going to deal with 7 guys from now on. Why 7? Because .... its lucky? there are seven days in the week? it's arbitrary and manageable? Yeah, we'll go with that last one.
On to the top fantasy football performers and under performers of Week 7.
1. Kenny Britt, WR, Tennessee Titans;
Holy shit Kenny, where the hell did that come from!! After being benched for the first quarter due to his role in a bar fight early Friday morning, Britt put an absolute beating on the Eagles' secondary racking up career highs in catches (7), yards (225 - more than double his season total before Sunday) and TDs (3, including a= crazy, 80-yarder) in the three remaining quarters. Of course, even after scoring in each of the past 4 games, Kenny probably found himself on a fair amount of benches this weekend. So, what do we make of this? Well, as always, its tricky. Britt has all the tools you want from a big-time receiver; the size to dominate defensive backs, the speed to get down field and the hands to be a reliable target. Unfortunately, his production hasn't matched the measurable, making him a somewhat unreliable proposition. The other big issue is that his breakout performance came with Kerry Collins replacing the injured starter Vince Young. While Collins may move around like a slow bowel movement (Vince Young = diarrhea), he can still get the ball downfield better than VY. For those reasons, we can't expect anything approaching this until we see it with Vince chucking the ball. That said, start the Rutgers product as a #2 or, ideally, # 3WR, with upside, based on his touchdown potential alone.
2. Steve Johnson & Lee Evans, WRs, Buffalo Bills;
We'd like to extend a big 'Fuck You' on behalf of any owner who lost to a team that was so desperate that they started a crappy receiver from a crappy Buffalo Bills team. If you are one of these guys, you don't deserve to win and, in fact, you probably don't deserve to have a fantasy team (it's a privilege, not a right!!) Perhaps that was a tad mean-spirited, but, come on, is the universe really serious with this crap? Let's start with Steve Johnson. Who? Exactly. We consider ourselves to be pretty well educated football fans but we had to look him up to find out that he actually a 6'2" 3rd year player from noted football factory Kentucky. Before Sunday he'd never topped 66 yards or 5 catches and was being used primarily as the Bills 3rd wideout. Perhaps, if you really care, you noticed he caught 4 TDs in his three previous games but nothing could have prepared you for Sunday's 8 catch, 158 yard, 1 TD explosion. The only difference between Johnson and Lee Evans is that Lee Evans used to be good, like 5 years ago. Evans has been a huge bust since his 2006 fakeout performance (82 catches, 1292 yards, 8 TDs.) and this year has been no exception. He hadn't even topped 87 yards in any game before Sunday's 6 for 105 with 3 big TDs. Add in Ryan Fitzpatricks 374 yards and 4 TDs and you had a fantasy poo poo platter to ruin a whole week. Can they do it again? Sure, it's possible, but we can't in good conscience recommend them. Still, if this column is any indication, we've been wrong before.
3. Roddy White, WR, Atlanta Falcons;
We're ready to call the Rowdy one the most underrated receiver in fantasy football and we're tired of allowing ourselves to be surprised when he does things like catch 11 passes, rack up 201 yards and score 2 TDs. From this day forward we pledge to appreciate it when he blows up like this but when he does, just say "That's what Roddy White do." Sunday's performance merely served as notice to everyone that Roddy is in the upper echelon with guys names like Johnson, Moss, Wayne, Fitzgerald, etc. He's yet to have a bad game yet this year, is by far Matty Ice's top guy (he accounted for 13 out of 33 targets on Sunday) and ranks 1st in the NFL in yards, catches and targets (meaning the ball is coming his way no matter what). There's simply no reason to think he's going to slow down.
4. Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Arizona Cardinals; David Gettis, WR, Carolina Panthers;
At the risk of sounding completely obvious, we're concerned about Fitzgerald. Really concerned. Before the season, the retirement of Kurt Warner and the departure of Anquan Boldin gave us some pause about whether Fitz could keep up his prodigious production but we figured a guy this talented would find a way to get his numbers, or at least somewhere in the neighborhood. 7 weeks into the season, however, it seems like that's a stretch. Sunday's 3 catch, 30 yard performance simply highlights the disturbing trends (no game over 100 yards or 7 catches, only 2 TDs) that are making us wonder whether he's even a no brainer starter right now. The Cardinals quarterback play has been awful and after rookie Max Hall left Sunday's game with a head injury, the reins went back to the dilapidated Derek Anderson. There's simply nobody on the roster who inspires any kind of confidence in us that they can get Larry the ball, even when they try (on Sunday, Fitz was targeted a team high 10 times but only caught 3 of them, meaning those targets weren't exactly on target (awful pun intended)). Talent almost always wins out but right now, we're not seeing much reason to be optimistic.
In the same game where Fitzy was struggling so mightily one one side, someone named David Gettis, a 6th round draft pick from Baylor, completely outplayed both Fitz and The Artist Formerly Known as The Real Steve Smith (4, 51) to the tune of 8 catches, 125 yards and 2 TDs. While this type of performance is nice (unless of course, you own TAFKATRSS and you can't quite figure out how the Panthers one good passing performance of the year didn't go to your guy) Carolina's quarterback play is so bad (Clausen might be good some day, Matt Moore, no so much) that you can't expect this to be a harbinger of things to come. We'd keep all Panthers out of our lineups until further notice. Let the random big performances happen on your bench or the waiver wire and protect yourself from the consistent disappointments.
5. Mike Williams, WR, Seattle Seahawks;
Remember when Mike Williams was such a monumental bust who essentially ate himself out of the league getting so big that his former team, the Detroit Lions, once tried converting him from receiver to tight end? Well, are back-to-back weeks of double digit receptions, that all seems like ancient history. Williams got himself back on outskirts of the fantasy radar after his former college boss, Pete "The Dude" Caroll, gave him a shot in Seattle. Williams rewarded Caroll's confidence by performing well enough supplant veteran T.J. Houshmazode (he was cut) as the #1 WR. Still, he remained largely ignored as the Seahawks didn't figure to produce much in the passing game. Now, it's time to reconsider, as the surprisingly good Seahawks (4-2, 1st in the NFC West) seem to be improving offensively and Williams has been the main beneficiary, snagging 21 passes for 210 yards in the past two weeks (including a whopping 16 targets on Sunday, three times more than the next guy). If he's still available in your overly skeptical league grab him and get him in your line-up STAT.
6. Darren McFadden, RB, Oakland Raiders;
After a tweaked hamstring figured to derail his breakout season (2nd overall in rushing through 3 weeks), Run DMC made things tricky for the Broncos on Sunday, raising hell on the ground to the tune of 165 yards on only 16 carries and 3 rushing TDs, adding a receiving score for good measure. The best part for fantasy owners hoping to see the former #4 overall pick fulfill his promise was that McFadden looked tougher than leather while running over a defender for the first time in recent memory. So McFadden has finally arrived as a fantasy stud, right? Probably. We love his talent but the two obstacles he's always faced are injuries (the jury is still out after 2 missed games this year already) and opportunity, aka carries, aka Michael Bush. As we wrote in the past, Bush was the guy who was supposed to have the breakout this year until his thump betrayed him and McFadden stepped up. On Sunday McFadden's extreme production overshadows the fact that he did it all on 16 carries and Bush, his competition, had 15. McFadden seemed to be featured early but neither played in the 4th quarter so it's not like you can chalk Bush's touches up to garbage time. Ride McFadden while you can but beware of the Bush (if only we knew that back in 2000).
7. Dez Bryant, WR, Dallas Cowboys;
We'll spare you the obvious hand-wringing over Tony Romo's broken collarbone (or clavicle if you medically inclined or want to try to sound smart like Mike Torico - he talked to an orthopedic surgeon at halftime, what a guy!!) and the 24/7 coverage of Brett Favre's appendage (his ankle this time, not his dinkus). We'll also avoid gloating too much over the Cowboys 1-5 record except to say that they're D-U-N, done. What we will do, however, is focus on the potential impact of Romo's injury. We all know that every quarterback has his favorite targets and whenever onegets hurt, there's a distinct possibility that the back-ups preferred target will change. In Romo's absence, the keys to the talented, if not consistently productive, Cowboys offense fell into the lap of the well-traveled (that's sport-speak for just crappy enough not to start) Jon Kitna. The obvious beneficiary of Kitna's ascension is Jason Witten (shorter routes, tight end security blanket, etc.) and that seemed to be the case on Monday night as Witten set season highs in catches (9) and yards (95) with the added bonus of a touchdown. In addition to Witten, however, the surprise beneficiary might be Dez Bryant. Dez hasn't been much of a factor on offense since week 1 but he seemed to get a few more looks from Kitna as the game went on, including two big TD grabs (he also added a punt return TD for good measure). It's speculative at this point, but we think Dez is someone to keep an eye on going forward (a trade target perhaps?) for the Jon Kitna-led Cowboys. (Ha! Ha! Ha! We can't help but laugh at that statement.)
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