I’ve spent most of the week in deep thought about one of the more important things in life right now: Why don’t Robert Quinn and Chris Long have a nickname yet? Bash Brothers is already taken. I was thinking something like Ebony and Ivory, but I guess we probably want to avoid the race issue. Then I got to thinking that the word sack should probably be included, but that evokes memory of another duo. Regardless of what you call them, you have to call their performance on Monday Night Football spectacular. On a night when the St. Louis offense couldn’t close the deal, their defense gave them a chance to win.

Quinn and Long combined for 9 tackles and 6 sacks in one of the more dominant pass rush displays we’ve seen by a team this year. Their impact performances were nearly matched by Bruce Irvin, who had 8 tackles, a sack, an interception and a forced fumble in just his 4^th game back from a suspension. There were plenty more great games in Week 8, as well as some not-so-great games, so let’s take a closer look.

I’d like to start this week with my condolences to those of you who lost Brian Cushing this week. He’s always been one of my favorite IDPs due to the way he ran train on Jersey HS football during my senior year, and he emerged as a steal in drafts this year. Before suffering another devastating season-ending injury this past week, he was LB14 on the year coming of his first torn ACL. For those of you in dynasty leagues, here’s to hoping that he comes back next year chalk full of even more PEDs and better than ever.

But on to happier news…

By this point in the season, your roster is pretty much set. Bye weeks will change things, as will injuries, but your team shouldn’t be relying too heavily on the waiver wire for success. If you are, then I’d imagine your playoff hopes are similar to those of the Giants, and your face is likely as red as Tom Coughlin’s.

With your roster set, the toughest choices become who to start each week. While you could just sit back and let my rankings do the work for you, thinking about matchups can make your choices easier. Certain offenses tend to provide more opportunities for IDP stats, and depending on your scoring system, this knowledge can help you decide between two close options on your roster.

Here are some teams and scoring systems that have yielded great results so far:

This point in the season is decision time for fantasy owners. Every team has played at least 4 games, and in the 13-week fantasy football regular season, that counts as a good enough sample size. Sleepers who haven’t panned out yet are not likely to make an impact this year, and high draft picks who […]

Now that we are one quarter of the way through the season for most teams, and even further than that into the fantasy football season, it’s time to take a break from the usual routine and reflect on what has happened so far. A year after setting the world on fire, J.J. Watt remains the […]

The problem with defensive studs, compared to their offensive counterparts, is that the better they are, the less likely they are to rack up stats. Defensive Linemen get double-teamed, Linebackers get run away from, and Defensive Backs are avoided like the plague by smart QBs. This effect limited Dontari Poe, Zach Brown, and Patrick Peterson […]

They say one week is a fluke, two weeks is a trend, and three weeks is reality. Who says that? I don’t know, I may have just made it up. But it applies for early season breakouts on both of the offensive and defensive side of the ball. So while you one-dimensional owners debate over Eddie Royal and James Starks, I’ll dive deep on some impressive early-September IDP performers in this week’s Adds/Drops/Rising/Falling:

In my Week 1 Rankings, I mentioned how it’s risky to start rookies in their first career game. The ceiling can be high if a rookie DB is underestimated by an opposing QB, but the floor is also low if a first-year LB can’t adjust to the speed of the pro game. That held true for the most part, as several rookies looked very impressive last weekend, while others… well others didn’t even see the field.

After weeks of sleeper, busts, injuries and cuts, we’re finally here. FOOTBALL! For the first week of IDP rankings, there are not many changes from my preseason rankings. Teams change from year to year, and IDP stats tend to be less opponent-based than their offensive counterparts, so we’re left primarily with overall talent.