Fantasy Football Advice

The best wide receivers usually stay that way, thankfully, but us fantasy footballers have to roster quite a few wide receivers which means we have to grab value late.  I have our first 45 receivers up here today.  We’ll be adding even more, but this post was getting to be too tome-like.  And I teach the ADD riddled youth of America and know not to go on too long.

Tier 1

1. Andre Johnson 29 — The best receiver with the best situation.

2. Larry Fitzgerald 27 — He will make Leinart better.  He makes me better and I live on my couch.

3. Calvin Johnson 25 — Too young and talented not to rank high.  I think Stafford will pan out.

Tier 2

4. Vincent Jackson 27 — As long as he can keep from getting DUI’s, Rivers to Jackson will become annoying.

5. Reggie Wayne 31 — He’s rock steady.

6. Miles Austin 26 — I liked what I saw out of Austin last season and Romo continues to improve.

7. Brandon Marshall 26 — Not sure where he’ll end up, but he’s still young and very good and possibly a butt-head.

8. Roddy White 28 — He’s the main man in Atlanta.  Not much competition for catches.

Tier 3

9. Randy Moss 32 — He’s old, but has a few good years left.

10. DeSean Jackson 23 — He’s very young and very fast, but Maclin should steal from him.

11. Greg Jennings 27 — He’ll be living in Mr. Rodgers’ hood for years to come.

12. Marques Colston 27 — Great skills, but Brees spreads the ball around a little too much, bastard.

13. Santonio Holmes 26 — As long as Big Ben isn’t incarcerated he’ll be steady.

Tier 4

14. Michael Crabtree 23 –  He looked good even after couch sitting for part of the season.

15. Sidney Rice 24 — If his QB sitch was more stable he’d be higher.

16. Hakeem Nicks 22 – He looks poised to break out and continue to do so.

Tier 5

17. Steve Smith (CAR) 31 – How do I trust him? Dunno, but I know Moore does.

18. Wes Welker 29 – Too good too drop far because of his injury.

19. Steve Smith (NYG) 25 –This other Steve will go higher in ppr leagues.

20. Dwayne Bowe 26 – He has his troubles, but he is too good not to grab in the top 20.

21. Anquan Boldin 29 – Hard to put him this low, but he’s aging and been beat up.

Tier 6

22. Mike Sims-Walker 25 – He has the skill to thrill.

23. Percy Harvin 22 – His potential will be hard to live up to, but he has the potential to, uh, you know.

24. Chad Ochocinco 32 – Getting oldish, but he should continue to do what he do.

25. Pierre Garcon 24 – Looks like he Pipped Gonzalez.

26. Jeremy Maclin 22 – Young and on a pass first offense.

Tier 7

27. Robert Meachem 26 – Saints’ receivers are scary, but he showed his worth last season.

28. Kenny Britt 22 – He’s currently behind Gage and Washington, but not for long.

29. Eddie Royal 24 – McDaniels pulled a McDaniels on him, but he should turn it around.

30. Steve Breaston 27 – The #2 in Zona won’t be as productive as recent years, but he’s still good.

31. Devin Aromashodu 26 – His status next season isn’t a given, but I believe he’ll be the #1.

Tier 8

32. Braylon Edwards 27 – He is who he is.

33. Jerricho Cotchery 28 – More reliable than Edwards, but not as much upside (or the coinciding down side).

34. Hines Ward 34 – I love old, steady players in redrafts, but tough to foresee how long they’ll be around in dy-nastys.

35. Donald Driver 35 – Look up a centimeter.

Tier 9

36. Johnny Knox 23 – He will be the deep threat for Cutler and with Martz he should get his shots.

37. Mike Wallace 24 – He will be hit and miss with Ward in the picture, but his hits are usually TD’s.

38. Jacoby Jones 26 – Bringing Kevin Walter back hurts, but I think he’ll beat him out or up.

39. Malcolm Floyd 29 – He’s the #2 WR in a pass heavy offense.

Tier 10

40. Julian Edelman 24 – Tough to gauge his worth, but you know he’ll be good for the first half of next season.

41. Terrell Owens 36 – Depends on where he ends up, but he’s TOld.

42. Austin Collie 24 – If he’s in the slot and Peyton is throwing to him, well, you get it.

43. T.J. Houshmandzadeh 33 – Not even sure he should be this high, but Carroll’s offense will be pass happy.

44. Antonio Bryant 29 – I like him even if he is a freak.

45. Nate Burleson 29 – He should be happy to be across from Megatron.  Just hope he stays healthy.

It’s that time of the year where we look back on our stupid moves and pretend to learn from them.  Did you just waste away your life hoping Matt Forte would stop sucking? No! You have become a better person for it! Or, you are still curled up on your bathroom floor in the fetal position, either or. Let’s take a gander at some of the more sucky of the suckiest suckers in the NFL and laugh at them instead of ourselves!

I used Fantasy Football Calculator for 2009 ADP and ESPN fantasy points for how each player finished.

Matt Forte: 4th RB off the board, finished 17th — Why was Matt Forte such a high draft pick? Well, he scored 12 touchdowns, caught 63 passes and totaled 1700 yards in his first season for a team led by Kyle Orton.  If he comes close to that he’s a top fantasy back and there wasn’t much reason to think he couldn’t improve with a better QB at the helm.  But of course it didn’t work out the way we thought.  Will Forte bounce back from this season?  It’s hard not to see him getting into the end zone more than 4 times, but I’m hesitant to call for a huge year.  He says he was battling a MCL sprain all season and we know how poor the O-line play was, but he just doesn’t have the elite speed and open field ability to make his own yards.  As long as he continues to be the every down back he will be worth starting, but I’m already seeing him going very early in mock drafts and unless he falls he won’t be on my team.

Michael Turner: 3rd RB, finished 22nd — Turner is an interesting case.  A lot of perts have been patting themselves on the back for predicting Turner to have a down year, and of course they were correct, but a high ankle sprain doesn’t automatically come from overuse from the previous year.  It didn’t help, but there’s no reason to think he can’t heal completely from that injury and return to ‘08 numbers. This season he averaged 4.9 yards per carry and the 8th most fantasy points per game.  He also scored 10 touchdowns and is a certified TD machine. I am of course a little worried about his health, and there are a ton of good backs to choose from, but if he slides in ADP he will have value.

LaDainian Tomlinson: 6th RB, finished 20th — I was worried about LT going into the season, but I should have been more worried.  He was still 29 years old coming off a season with turf toe that I felt could heal up, but it wasn’t just the toe that was keeping him down.  His 12 touchdowns barely kept him in the top 20, which shows you just how bad his rushing and receiving stats must have been.  If he’s even in the league next season, there is absolutely no reason to draft him in the top 30 running backs.

Calvin Johnson: 4th WR, finished 23rd — In ‘08 he was able to play well on a horrible team with horrible QB’s.  We all were living in an ‘08 bubble of Megatron goodness and that bubble burst.  I haven’t seen too many mock drafts yet, but I don’t think he’s going to fall too far in drafts.  He was injured, has elite ability, and will have a lot of time to get in synch with Matthew Stafford in preseason.  I don’t see any reason to be scared away from him next season and if he falls just a little in drafts he could have value.

Steve Slaton: 9th RB, finished 35th — In many ways Slaton had a better ‘08 season than Forte.  He had much better yards per carry, his running style kept him from getting hit as much, and he was on a better offensive team.  But then the S.S. Slaton took a fateful trip into the Kubiak Triangle.  There is now talk that the Texans will draft a running back and you can’t discount Arian Foster’s play.  It’s a situation to stay away from.

Brandon Jacobs: 11th RB, finished 29th — Mr. Jacobs is an enigma wrapped in a monsterous package.  Ahmad Bradshaw clearly outplayed him this year and that was with two broken feet!  Jacobs broke down toward the end of the season and it’s impossible to trust his health or his playing time coming into next season.

Greg Jennings: 6th WR, finished 20th — Jennings came into the season with a lot of hype, including hype of the Razzball variety.  If you were to tell me at the beginning of the season that Aaron Rodgers would be the #1 fantasy quarterback and Greg Jennings wasn’t going to get hurt and finish as the 20th best receiver I would have punched you in the throat.

Brian Westbrook: 12th RB, finished 62nd — He was risky coming into the season so this outcome wasn’t too hard to foresee.  Him and the guy that follows are the reason you draft young and on the rise instead of . . .

Clinton Portis: 13th RB, finished 56th — old and on the skids.

Jason Witten: 1st TE, finished 8th — This year 10 tight ends finished with 100 points or more which is a record and there is no reason to think that number is going to start falling anytime soon.  Jason Witten didn’t have a horrible year, but he was nowhere close to being worth the 41st overall pick.  The 40th overall pick was Ray Rice.  Unless you are in a 2 TE league, and why would you be?, there is absolutely no reason to reach for one.  I’m not saying punt, just be patient.

Reggie Bush: 23rd RB, finished 40th — This is just to remind you that even though Reggie Bush can put up insane single game numbers, he won’t put up insane full season numbers.

Eddie Royal: 21st WR, finished 82nd — This is one of the most baffling drop-offs of the year.  He never seemed to get a chance and it’s hard to tell if that was due to his inability, Orton’s inability, or McDaniels’ stupidity.  McDaniels mentioned after the season was over that he regretted Royal not getting more work and who knows where Brandon Marshall will end up.  Royal is already hitting sleeper lists, and unless he gets hyped too much he’s probably worth a flier next season.

Pittsburgh Steelers: 1st D, finished 16th — The Steelers’ defense averaged as the 86th overall pick in last year’s draft.  This is the reason you do not draft a defense early.  Let’s take a look at some players that went after the Steelers; Percy Harvin, Ahmad Bradshaw, Derrick Mason, Tim Hightower, Brett Favre, Rashard Mendenhall, Miles Austin, etc… Yes, you might have drafted Lavernues Coles instead, but what are the chances that you will pick a defense that is startable every week?  None whatsoever!  The #1 defense in fantasy this year was the 49ers who weren’t even drafted this season and the #2 defense, the New York Jets, were drafted 127th overall.  Draft a defense with upside late in the draft, then stream the hot D (does that sound dirty?).

It’s the first annual Razzball Fantasy Football awards!!! This is your last chance to reminisce and pretend that football season’s not over with and that, after the playoffs, you won’t be stuck watching the NBA.

When the fantasy season ends, or when all their teams are out of contention, most people just shut it down until late August. I think it’s worth it to reflect on the year a little bit; it helps you to recognize trends and patterns that develop and sharpens your decision-making the following season. So if nothing else, this is an opportunity to do that.

Razzball Football is a 365 day a year operation. In this, our first season, we have built and expanded upon our fan base more than we thought possible. You can count on fresh content every single day of the year so if you’ve got a football itch, you know where to go to get it scratched.

Some of our readers may not have checked out the Razzball Baseball site yet. This is actually where Razzball began. Grey does an incredible job with baseball and he’s year-round as well. So if you play Fantasy Baseball, be sure to check out our baseball site and stay tuned all season long. It’ll pay huge dividends in the way of you winning your league this year.

Greatest Player in the History of the Universe (for 2009)

Chris Johnson: his preseason ADP was 12^th despite the huge numbers last year because people feared the newer, thinner version of LenDale White would steal touches. That turned out not to be the case. We have entered an age of the NFL where splitting touches between two or three running backs is the norm. In addition teams game plan to contain the biggest threat on the other team. Regardless of all of this Chris Johnson had a ridiculous season. Look at the numbers: 2,006 yards rushing, 50 catches for 503 yards.16  total touchdowns (14 rushing, 2 receiving). In .5 PPR Johnson put up 368 points for the season! The second best position player was Adrian Peterson with 304 points, a difference of over 4 fewer per game. On the surface I know people will say “It’s not that big a deal, one player always has a good season.” The distance from his competition, though, is shocking.  It’s akin to having owned Albert Pujols in Fantasy baseball last year. In 2010 Johnson will clearly be the consensus #1 player in every format. This year the big debate was “AP or MJD?” Some people threw Turner in the mix, which I thought was stupid. In 2010 we shouldn’t have to listen to any of that mind-numbing conversation.

MVP’s by Position

The end of the season brought a lot of surprises to the NFL. After clinching bye weeks in the playoffs several teams elected to sit their starters or bench them mid-game. This was disastrous for fantasy owners because these teams (Colts and Saints in particular) were high powered offenses and contained some of the best quarterbacks in the league. It’s uncertain what the long term ramifications will be; the NFL wants teams to go full strength the entire regular season. If that doesn’t happen we might have to occasionally re-think owning certain players. Personally, I’m hoping that Peyton Manning and Drew Brees’ value take a slight hit so I can own them next season on the cheap.

The reason I bring up the fact that a lot of teams rested their starters is that it mixed up this section of the awards, particularly at quarterback. Peyton Manning had a great statistical season and Drew Brees broke the record for completion percentage. But none of that mattered because they killed your team in weeks 16 and 17. Statistically speaking, Rodgers and Rivers hung with Peyton and Brees anyway. But the fact that the young guns carried you in the playoffs while the veterans hung you out to dry tips the scales in their favor. I put the runners up in parenthesis.

Quarterback: Aaron Rodgers (Phillip Rivers)

Running Back: Chris Johnson (Maurice Jones-Drew)

Wide Receiver: Andre Johnson (Larry Fitzgerald)

Tight End: Vernon Davis (Jason Witten)

Return League MVP

Josh Cribbs was a beast this season. Let’s just look at the numbers: 1,994 return yards, 4 return touchdowns. MONSTER season on that alone but then wait, there’s more: 20 receptions for 135 and a TD, 381 yards rushing with one TD, and he threw for 18 yards but no touchdown and there was an interception. So in other words if you were cagey enough to grab Josh Cribbs in the draft you ended up with 2,500 all purpose yards and 6 total touchdowns. In a year when there weren’t a lot of good return men that’s HUGE differential.

IDP MVP

Patrick Willis is a man-child. His hobbies include stomping kittens and single-handedly conquering small countries. His numbers this year were ridiculous: 152 tackles (114 of them solo), 4 sacks, 8 passes defended, 3 interceptions, and one touchdown. Basically, Lawrence Taylor but with less sacks and without the rampant cocaine use.

Sleeper(s) of the Year

You know all those Chuck Norris one-liners that make him out to be a deity? Basically you can cross his name out of all those and replace it with Jamaal Charles. Here at Razzball we’re not afraid to pat ourselves on the back. We were touting Charles from the beginning of the season as a player with huge breakout potential. He didn’t get much playing time until mid-season but once he did Charles became a top producer on a weekly basis. Through 9 weeks in .5 PPR he’d only accumulated 36.9 points. Consider that he finished with 207.7 points while only starting from week 10 on. Once he took over he averaged 24 Fantasy points per game! There were some nice sleepers this year in fantasy but in my mind there’s only one top Sleeper of the year- Jamaal Charles

Quarterback: Aaron Rodgers, Phillip Rivers

Running Back: Cedric Benson, Jamaal Charles, Jerome Harrison

Wide Receiver: Miles Austin, Mike Sims-Walker, Steve Smith (NYG), Sidney Rice

Tight End: Vernon Davis, Brent Celek

Team Defense: San Francisco 49’ers, NY Jets

Hyped Players that were Busts

What’s the secret to successful fantasy football? The first thing that comes to mind is “picking the best sleepers.” That is certainly a huge part of it, and probably the most fun thing about fantasy football. More important than that, however, is avoiding the biggest busts.

Each season certain players are touted by the fantasy universe as breakout candidates. We all target these players in our drafts and feel uber-smart when we get them, even if we reached. They are like sticks of dynamite on our roster, waiting to explode and carry our team to greatness.

Some of these players end up exploding like dynamite and having a huge impact on our team, but in a negative fashion. If you had several of these players on your team you probably didn’t fare too well.

Quarterback: Jay Cutler, Matt Ryan

Running Back: Matt Forte, Steve Slaton, Pierre Thomas

Wide Receiver: Eddie Royal, Calvin Johnson, Dwayne Bowe, Antonio Bryant, Roy Williams

Tight End: Zach Miller

Team Defense: NY Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers

Veteran Players that Busted

Quarterback: Matt Hasselbeck, Carson Palmer

Running Back: Marshawn Lynch, Derrick Ward, Brian Westbrook

Wide Receiver: Terrell Owens, Greg Jennings, T.J. Houshmandzadeh

Tight End: Surprisingly, there weren’t any players that fit in this category. Jason Witten was extremely disappointing early in the season but he finished really strong.

Rookie of the Year

Doing the awards for this season has makes you realize how very sub-par this draft class was. There are some nice players out there, I loves me some Jeremy Maclin for shizzle; but think about who would have been up for these awards last season and the type of numbers they put up. There’s a lot more talent overall in this year’s NFL draft class (which we’ll be covering extensively) and that’s exciting for Fantasy next year. I didn’t end up with hardly any of the rookies from this year’s class on my teams because they were being drafted too high for my blood- the monster 2008 rookie campaigns that Steve Slaton, Chris Johnson, etc. had boosted the price too high. Anyway, back to the awards:

Quarterback: Do we really have to give an award out for this one? Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco both played well and led their teams to the playoffs last season, making it difficult to pick who was better. This year we get to choose between Stafford and Sanchez, both of whom had flashes of brilliance but no consistency. As an aside if I were to choose between these two for next season I’d probably go with Stafford; but for this season, the award has to go to Mark Sanchez. Congratulations, Mark; don’t go all “Matt Leinart” on us (a.k.a. Poor Man’s Joe Namath) in the offseason now.

Running Back: It’s really surprising that none of these players took the bull by the horns and ran away with this award. Here’s a stat that’s hard to believe: number of rookie running backs with 1,000 yards rushing this season- 0. Clearly this is a race between Moreno, McCoy, and Beanie Wells. Knowshon you’re not a bad guy, I think you will be undervalued next season and I will probably own you, but you just didn’t do enough this season. Beanie Wells closed out the year solidly but Tim Hightower stealing the goal line work really killed his production. Congratulations LeSean McCoy, but don’t get too big of an ego. You wouldn’t have even been in the conversation for this award last year.

Wide Receiver: This was clearly the best position for Fantasy this year in terms of rookies. It’s a difficult position to come in to the NFL and be productive at. Jeremy Maclin put up huge numbers but wasn’t really integrated in to the game plan until mid season. Michael Crabtree was very productive but the holdout stymied him having a breakout season. The player who wins this award didn’t close out the season that strong, due to injuries and other factors. Even so, Percy Harvin compiled 60 receptions for 790 yards and 6 touchdowns. He also had 1,156 return yards and two touchdowns.

Tight End: There were no real impact rookies at Tight End this season. Brandon Pettigrew was the best with 30 receptions for 346 and two touchdowns. He went on IR but if he’s healthy coming in to next season I will definitely be touting him as a sleeper at TE.

Surprise Season from a Veteran Player

Quarterback: Brett Favre

Running Back: Thomas Jones (Ryan Grant)

Wide Receiver: Chad Ochocinco

Tight End: Visanthe Shiancoe

Best Kicker

David Akers, Nate Kaeding

Today is the end of the regular season.  I am not a happy camper. Like all good things, the season went by way too fast, but also like all good things, I will stretch it out and pound it into ground.  Join me won’t you!?

For the playoffs there are a lot of fantasy football choices out there, but I’m limiting myself to three this year.  The first is over at Sporting News where you can join our playoff league, password Schmohawk; the second is the playoff challenge at NFL.com where you can also join us; lastly you can find me making a bunch of teams over at Snapdraft which seems to have about 20 sites that host it, but whatever.

You’ll have to rip fantasy football from my cold, dead hands!!!

Here are a few thoughts before the games today.  Good luck!

Brandon Marshall: Josh McDaniels called his star receiver out for not playing with a hamstring strain.  And then to add insult to injury he benched him.  This has a load of interesting consequences that don’t really matter for week 17 so we won’t get into them now, but a top 5 start for this week is now on the bench.  This hurts Kyle Orton. Knowshon Moreno and Correll Buckhalter will get a lot of work.

Drew Brees: He’s going all out for the completion percentage record by sitting on the bench and texting Harry Conick Jr.  Sean Payton said earlier in the week that they would go “all out,” but I guess he meant they would go all out in their benching of starters. This seems to be the final word on the subject so bench your Saints because their scrubs will be playing the Panthers starters.

Ahmad Bradshaw: It’s looking like two broken feet might keep him out the Minnesota game.  What a wuss! If I had two broken feet I would easily be able to play running back in a NFL game!  Well, if he ends up not playing I don’t see Danny Ware or Gatrell Johnson doing much against a good rush defense.

Donald Brown: Chad Simpson won’t play and Joseph Addai will only play a series or two so it looks like Donald Brown will get the majority of work and the majority of the work against the Bisons means he could rack up some real yardage.

Billy Volek: The Native Americans have much of their defensive backfield in the infirmary and Volek will get a lot of playing time.  I may be trying to live in the past with Volek, but I could see him having a good game.

Chris Johnson: Seattle just gave up 6 touchdowns to the Packers and one of those was to the ghost of Ahman Green.  The Titans have absolutely nothing to play for except to make Chris Johnson the 6th player ever to accumulate 2,000 yards rushing.  He needs 128 to reach 2k and 234 to break Eric Dickerson’s record. He also has 2355 yards from scrimmage and only needs 75 yards to break Marshall Faulk’s record.  The no-doubt #1 pick next season should finish the season strong.  I’m glad I have NFL Red Zone so I can see some of it!

Jabar Gaffney: He becomes the de facto number one with Eddie Royal and Brandon Marshall out.  They will run and then get tackled and then run some more, but Gaffney will see an uptick in targets for sure.

Buffalo Bills: Donald Brown could rack up yardage, but Curtis Painter looks like he just got pulled from the stands.  If you are hurting for a defense today you could throw them out there like they threw Painter out there.

Vernon Davis: He currently has 12 receiving touchdowns which is one behind Randy Moss. If he ends up tied or in the lead, he would become the first tight end ever to lead the league in TD receptions.  He’s come a long way from being mooned on the sideline by Mike Singletary (I may have got my facts a little mixed up there).

Tony Sheffler: McDaniels also benched Sheffler, but he gets the bottom of the list since he doesn’t do much.  If you are hurting for a tight end, or if your tight end is hurting, you could play Daniel Graham.  With Marshall and Sheffler out he should get more targets. Sheffler is actually pretty good and McDaniels looks like he’s cleaning house (which you would think would come after they are eliminated from making the playoffs, not before).  If Sheffler can land in a better situation next year, he has a shot at being productive.

One last look at who might rest their players today:

Teams almost certain to wave the white flag Caldwell style: Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers and New Orleans Saints.

Teams whose starters will probably be playing craps on the sidelines at some point: Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers.

Team who has multiple personality disorder: Arizona Cardinals; if the Giants win the early game they play all out, if they lose, Warner motors his power chair to the bench.

Team that doesn’t need to win, but has the greatest chance to play their starters the longest: New England Patriots.

Today is the day! For most of us still going our championship game is today. We still don’t know what the Colts are going to do with their starters and I have a feeling Caldwell isn’t exactly sure either, which makes them a little risky no matter what your world view is. The Colts did sign Drew Willy Wonka off the practice squad which leads many to think they could rest Peyton at some point so Willy would be the backup to Curtis Painter. I have been on the fence about the whole thing with a slight tilt toward playing it safe, but this news gives me even more reason to play it safe.  I’m sitting Colts unless my second choice is pretty bad, or ugly bad.

DeAngelo Williams: He didn’t practice at all this week and is listed as doubtful, but did make the trip to NY. The Giants rush defense has been decent recently, but an every down Jonathan Stewart has proven he belongs in your lineup, so make sure you check the comments for the most recent actives and inactives today.

Percy Harvin: He has practiced in full this week and seems to be better and should be back into your lineups as a #3 receiver.

Correll Buckhalter: He is listed as probable and should return against Philadelphia. This makes Knowshon Moreno less desirable and with Bucky coming off the injury it also makes him a no go for fantasy rosters.

Hines Ward: He is probable with his hamstring injury, but of course with this kind of injury you have to worry about him reaggravating it during the game, well, you don’t have to worry about it; it’s actually something you shouldn’t get an ulcer over, but if you have someone else of equal startability, go with him.

Zach Miller: He looked good to go earlier in the week, but has been limited in practice the last couple days. Who knows what that means for someone with two concussions this year. Stay away.

Michael Bush: Justin Fargas won’t go which upgrades Michael Bush. You won’t be starting him over Jason Snelling or any starting back for that matter, but if you were gambling on Arian Foster last week and are still playing this week, I’d make the switch.

Pierre Garcon: He’s out for this week.  Austin Collie should see a decent amount of looks with Wayne being covered by Revis.

Ahmad Bradshaw: He didn’t practice all week, but is listed as probable.  He grabbed 2 touchdowns last week, but of course isn’t a safe bet to do the same this week, but who is really? I’d feel good about starting him as a flex against a poor Panthers rush defense.

Derrick Ward: The Buc’s running back carousel keeps on a turnin’. Last week Ward seemed to take over the starting duties, but this week he was a late addition to the injury report. If he doesn’t go Caddy should get all the work and would make an ok play against a weak Saints’ rush defense.

Julius Jones: He is listed as questionable, but practiced fully on Friday. He probably ate a big Christmas breakfast. This takes Justin Forsett pretty far out of the startable category against a good Packers rush defense.  If he doesn’t go, that would push Forsett up into a flex possibility.

Eddie Royal: Not that it matters, but he is out. Royal has been a fantasy pauper this year. His status for next year is not looking good.

Fred Taylor: He had practiced in full early in the week, but then was limited on Thursday and Friday.  I was worried about him taking touches away from Maroney, but it’s looking less likely now.

Ryan Fitzpatrick: He did not practice and it looks like Brian Brohm will get the start.  This should give Fred Jackson a lot of work against a poor Falcons’ rush defense.

Michael Turner: For some reason he is listed as questionable, but they would have to be as batty as Al Davis to play him in a meaningless game. Get Jason Snelling into your lineup.

Brian Westbrook: He practiced all week and will play against the poor Denver run defense, but is on a snap count.  If Dusty Baker was coaching the Eagles I’d say start him, but in reality he needs to be on your bench.

Joe Nedney: He is out, and since he is a kicker this escaped me, so in case it did you as well and you own him there’s that.