Quarterback for 2012 was the best of times and at times it was the worst of times. And how many times can you say ‘times’ without your audience getting annoyed? This is a question I at times ask myself. But enough about that, for every value play, there seemed to be an equal and opposite punch to the protective cup and even with those value plays, there were plenty that left their owners disappointed when the playoffs finally hit. In either case, the season is now over so I’ll be revisiting my rankings and projections for the top 20 quarterbacks for 2012 and comparing them to how they did for the year. Since we don’t yet have a player rater on the football side like baseball does, I’ll be utilizing yahoo for my final rankings because that’s where I play all my leagues and I’m too lazy to do anything else. Hopefully we have our own player rater in place for the 2013 season, perhaps one that makes me 100% right. But enough about my hopes and dreams, on with the show. Here’s the top 20 quarterbacks for the 2012 fantasy football season…
Please, blog, may I have some more?Cam Newton
Let me be the first one to tell you that as much as I try and keep up, I’m not usually a trendy person. If you took a look at my CD collection, you wouldn’t notice many new artists. In fact, me saying I have a CD collection already proves just how untrendy I am. Get with the digital world, Sky! Well, there are certain trends I do pay attention to and it’s how players are doing in the fantasy world and an alarming one has happened over the last 4 weeks for Peyton Manning owners. Sure, on the season he’s still the 7th best QB to own according to yahoo and he no doubt is a huge reason you’re still reading about fantasy football because his numbers have been so great for such a cheap draft price. But over the last few weeks, Peyton is getting outpaced by Sam Bradford and I had to rethink how we should view him in a week that could have Denver up big early. With Trent Richardson trending downward as the season wears on – only 28 yards last week – and Brandon Weeden throwing into a tough Bronco secondary, real football might trump your fantasy football world and turn Manning into what he has been the last two weeks: a hand the ball off quarterback. Am I saying you should sit him? Nah, he’s still my 12th best guy on the board. I’m simply saying I’m not expecting the world outta him and I don’t know if you should either. In other ideas that are against the grain, Steve Smith has been on a roll with Cam Newton and I like that trend to continue to the tune of WR1 status for the week while I think Dez Bryant and his finger don’t warrant WR1 status despite the sweet Saints matchup. Oh and fumbles make Belichick mad so I couldn’t put Stevan Ridley anywhere near RB1/RB2 circle of trust this week. If you wanna be mad at me for it go ahead, but I suggest you do something more constructive like send Stevan some Elmer’s for his hands. And with that, let’s get to the rankings for what is – for many – championship week…psyche! I wanted to let you know since there’s no Thursday Night Football tonight, I won’t be the first post you see Friday morning. Instead it will be our on-staff doctor as Andrew Nordmeier provides some insight to the bumps and bruises heading into the weekend. If ya need me, I’ll still field questions on this post so fear not! Just come on by and I’ll be here to answer. And with that let’s really get on with this weekly rankings for 2012 fantasy football…
It all comes down to this, at least for the vast majority of fantasy leagues. With fifteen weeks in the books, fantasy teams suddenly need to start worrying about which teams will bench their star players if the score gets out of hand. Luckily, no team’s playoff seed is in cement just yet so you should be able to start most of your studs with confidence.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Well here was the Monday Night Football game everyone no doubt had circled on their calendars this season. Truly one of the few games where Gruden’s ‘this guy/that guy’ analysis fits perfectly since we don’t really know who this or that guy is any better than he does. I had a better joke to lead this paragraph off with but felt starting and ending a paragraph with ‘The Jets’ would leave many wanting. But outside my sarcastic comments, there was still fantasy relevance to be had…well, there was very little to be had but we write about fantasy football so we feel obliged to dig and find some and what we came up with was Jake Locker. As I was doing rankings for QBs, I left him out of my top 20 QBs for 2012 but did decide to blurb on him as he was on everyone’s radar in 2011 and was being tabbed as a sleeper in 2012, especially for 2 QB leagues. Jake was the big armed, big bodied QB of the future for Tennessee and 2012 was going to be his year to showcase his skills. Well, a shoulder issue derailed him week 4 and he didn’t return until week 10 and then it took a couple of weeks to shake the rust off. Peering under the hood that is the Monday night spotlight game, what I saw was a very raw athlete and someone who doesn’t deserve a grade for his 2012 season, whether in his favor or punitive. Against a tough Jets secondary, Locker finished the night with a respectable line, completing 13/22 pass attempts for 149 yards without any touchdowns but, more importantly, no interceptions. Of course, this is not what made people interested in Jake coming into the year. Jake also finished the night with 43 rushing yards on 7 attempts with the game winning touchdown. As we all know, quarterbacks with great legs get fantasy owners hot and bothered. If you don’t believe me, just ask yourself how many times we’ve talked about Tim Tebow this year…you know, the guy with only 126 total yards on the season coming into the game. Legs change leagues like Tebow and Cam Newton did last year and Robert Griffin, III is doing this year. So the fever about Locker for that reason is understandable but some reality needs to get tossed into your fantasy, folks. Unless Locker can figure out how to cure inaccuracy issues and how to – good GAWD man – slide rather than hurdle himself into a defensive player head first, Locker’s chance at success ROS and beyond is going to be extremely hampered by inconsistency and leaving himself open to pointless injury and incessant ‘Hurt Locker’ puns. In other Monday Night Football news for 2012 fantasy football…
Please, blog, may I have some more?
At this time of year, everyone’s hurt. And the like the saying runs, “If you’re not hurt, you’re not playing.” You can imagine all the haggling with the insurance companies that the Doc has to do with these injury reports.
Let’s take a look at who’s all banged up and how they will impact you in your quest for fantasy victory.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
So, we’re doing something different with the FanDuel post this week. Not that I cleared it with my editor or anything, but they knew what kind of loose cannon they were getting when they brought me on board. Don’t worry, you’ll still get your standard excellent value plays, but this week I’m also going to toss in some of the higher value players you might consider targeting as well. We’ll call it the “stars and scrubs” breakdown. And you can use these “stars and scrubs” in this freeroll contest FanDuel put up for them being voted the top something or other. Who cares what, it’s free money!
Please, blog, may I have some more?The first couple of games we saw Nick Foles, he truly did play like a rookie. The game seemed too fast for him. He was throwing passes way too late and had to deal with the same struggles Vick dealt with concerning a porous offensive line. It really wasn’t the best set up for Nick to step into after Michael went down with a concussion and blurred vision a few weeks ago. But last week was encouraging as he was able to stay in the pocket a little bit and gain some confidence. Though I’m sure Bryce Brown and his antics were a huge part of it, that shouldn’t deter from a solid 251 yard 1 TD performance against a Dallas secondary that really isn’t that bad. Well this week was against a Buccaneers team that hasn’t been able to stop a passing attack all year. The set up could not have been better and Foles took full advantage to the tune of 381 passing yards to go with 24 rushing and 3 total touchdowns, one of which came on the ground, turning not one but two WRs – Jason Avant and Jeremy Maclin - into fantasy relevant players on the day and barely missed doing the same for Riley Cooper on the game-winning drive. Keep in mind this is a team that’s in shambles from the top down. Plenty of firings, plenty of injuries and plenty of angry Eagles fans to boot but with Michael Vick all but gone after the 2012 season from Philidelphia, I think it’s a good time to think about what Foles could do for 2013 and beyond. Hey, not all of us are in the fantasy playoffs people. Some of us have to look forward while we cry into our winter beards. If you wanna skip the next paragraph because you’re in the playoffs and don’t care, I won’t stop you but I warn you there might be a pop quiz later. So before we get on with Sunday highlights, let’s highlight Foles for 2013 fantasy football…
First off, let’s make some comparisons. Coming into the year, Foles had been compared to Chad Henne and even John Skelton. Personally, I think he looks more like Jon Heder and Ron Perlman’s lovechild…hrm, these comparisons aren’t off to a very good start. The Henne comparison is reasonable: a strong-armed pocket quarterback who, though not extremely mobile, isn’t Philip Rivers either. The two biggest knocks against Foles coming into the draft were the injury issues and that his big stats came from a ‘gimmicky’ offense with the Wildcats. In reality, all this is moot as even in training camp there were rumors that Foles should’ve received the starting job and given how stubborn Andy Reid has been in making the right moves over ‘sticking with his guys’, I think we’re seeing why now. Moving forward, my main concerns with Nick would be two things. One, how quickly will he make adjustments. It took him about 2 1/2 games to get his footing to perform over these last two games. These last three games – one against a stingy Cincinnati secondary and another against a Redskins secondary that is easy to beat but man-handled him the first time the two teams played – will tell a story of how we can view Foles looking forward. The second concern is the uncertainty of the Eagles themselves. Will Reid be back? If he isn’t, who takes over and how does that change the offense next year? Change isn’t always the best thing when you’re talking about a QB and playing within a system, even if the system has failed the last two years. Though it’s ridiculously early to make these calls, I’m gonna say I see a QB who gets to throw it often given how terrible the Eagles defense has been the last two years. As Tony Romo owners can confess to, it’s nice to own a QB who plays from behind most of the time. Foles can give his owners about 3700 passing yards, 24 touchdowns, 15 INT with plenty of room for upside/downside in the TD:INT ratio for the 2013 season. In re-draft leagues, I’d target him as a backup QB as long as the hype vultures don’t start circling in the off-season. In dynasty and keeper leagues, I’d be interested but not jumping out of my seat. I can tell I just got you all crazy excited for next year. You’re welcome. And now on with the news from the 2012 fantasy football season as it’s still rolling for some of us…
Alfred Morris – I said he’d end the day with 120 rushing yards and a touchdown. I didn’t realize he’d fumble it. Sorry about that, my Spidey senses went on the fritz, obviously. I guess this is as good a place as any to talk about it: Robert Griffin, III got hurt and it did not look good at all. Knees aren’t supposed to turn that way. I’m no doctor, but I once reattached a limb to a man’s body. Granted, I used superglue and it was a doll’s leg and said man was passed out at a party, but I was wearing a stethoscope while I did it. Oh and I’d be extremely surprised if RG3 is playing next week. It’s tough, but I did say to sell him way earlier this season for the very reason of health. I’m sure he carried many people into the playoffs this year but now might be taking those same teams out on a stretcher with him. And while we’re on the subject of Redskins, let’s just get this out of the way: Pierre Garcon cares not who throws to him, he shall catch a touchdown as he went for 5/87 with his final one coming from Kirk Cousins who is everyone’s distant relative, apparently.
Please, blog, may I have some more?I know I had a million other people I could’ve made the lead out of from yesterday’s games but I think you’ve already heard of them and you already know how good they are and what they do. Don’t worry, I’ll be able to talk about them below. What you need to realize is for all the accolades being shined on Luck and RGIII, Russell Wilson is putting together a strong year, both in real and fantasy football. The Seahawks took it slow with him to start the year, keeping the playbook simple which limited both his upside but also kept the ball in the hands of Marshawn Lynch and relied heavily on their defense. But as the month of November has passed and we head into December, it’s time to recognize that playbook is opening a little bit more for Wilson’s arm. After his 293 passing/71 yard rushing performance on Sunday to go with 2 touchdown passes, Wilson has put up 878 passing yards to go with 9 passing touchdowns in his last 4 games, not to mention 170 yards on the ground. Unlike the other two big name rookie QBs, Wilson landed on a very solid team. It’s rare he’s going to get a shot at a shootout due to his defense getting worked over. It’s also unlikely he’ll get as many shots at rushing touchdowns when you have a workhorse who can go for 87 and a touchdown against a stingy Bears defense like Lynch did yesterday.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Bet the Farm is Razzball’s weekly wagering column. Josh Carey and Zorboss compete against your picks in the comments. The rules?
- You start off with $1,000 (and can start playing along in the comments any time you want – even now)
- Every bet must be an increment of $10 up to your full bankroll ($1,000 or maybe more)
- You can bet on the over/under or spread for any NFL game (Yahoo Sports’ Odds page is a good place to pick your lines)
- Win, add $9 to your total for every $10 bet (you have to beat the rake).
I get it. It’s week 12 and you’re on the cusp in most of your leagues. You want to believe in something, anything that will get you through to the end. That one player that will push you over the edge so you can have your A Winner Is You moment and in many ways, Bryce Brown could and should be that guy. Despite the two fumbles on the night, Brown finished with almost 190 yards on 23 touches to go with two scores. That’s typically not a guy you throw back into the FA pool, regardless of how cake the matchup was. Yes, Carolina gives up the 10th most points to opposing fantasy running backs but the ‘real numbers’ say they’re more middle of the road in terms of opposing ‘real’ RB stats than anything else. With that all said, there are factors at play here. Namely, one factor and his name is LeSean McCoy. You know, the first round fantasy pick that wasn’t playing tonight who gave Bryce his time to shine and who’s signed to a reasonable contract through 2018. To further squelch things, let’s remember that last year Arian Foster was on and off the field with injury issues which led to Ben Tate being a fairly high handcuff pick for this year’s draft. Sure, injuries hampered Tate’s worth this year but the reality is Foster’s health was the bigger death knell for that story and the same is true for Brown. Look, Fantasy Football in many ways is no better than Plinko. You grab your chips at the beginning of the season and head to the top and drop them down in what looks like the surest route to the best result at the bottom.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
