While looking back over a fantasy football season, the guys who round out the top 40 backs in our 2012 fantasy football rankings are usually a combination of injured studs and half season studs and this list will be no different. Of course, my favorites are the ‘yeah, but when did you start that guy?’ players on the list and there’ll be a few of those. Gotta love when RB2 production has been sitting on your bench or out on waivers for 75% of the season. But I digress, for the purposes of this review, we’ll be using yahoo’s end of season PPR rankings to look back on the season that was for the top 40 running backs of the 2012 fantasy football season…
Please, blog, may I have some more?Ryan Mathews
It started off as a simple idea. We thought to ourselves ‘man, we have a lot of writers this year. Why don’t we all start a league together? Wouldn’t that be fun?’. And then a few weeks passed. And then a few more. And then a week before the season started we thought to ourselves ‘man, we have a lot of writers this year. Why don’t we all start a league together? Wouldn’t that be fun?’. Only the second time we followed through and in the end, twelve Razzball writers entered the yahoo league and only one left the victor. For your reading pleasure, we bring to you the Razzball Writers League that was, in their own words…
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It’s championship week in most leagues, so there aren’t many roster holes that need to be plugged. There are teams everywhere who rode Adrian Peterson and Drew Brees to the title game, and they aren’t too worried. But there are also teams that got this far on the backs of Russell Wilson, James Jones and Dennis Pitta, and those owners might have some issues.
Please, blog, may I have some more?The link between Tom Hanks playing a quiet FedEx delivery man who finds himself stranded on a remote island and Russell Wilson’s rookie season is a bit more apropos (snooty word of the day!) than at first it would appear. In watching the movie, you get to observe Tom Hanks evolve before your eyes. Here’s a man who is a shining example of civilization. His main challenges for a typical day consist of showing up to work on time, doing a proper job and heading home. But what happens when you take this modern man and throw him back into a time that even the boy scouts can’t fully train you for? You get to watch as Hanks’ character is first beaten, matches and then eventually triumphs over a harsh environment. Considering Wilson was nothing more than an afterthought by most coming into regular redraft 1QB leagues, the Wilson we saw game 1 of this season is no longer playing. You know, the guy who was asked to hand it off to Marshawn Lynch over and over and let his defense do the dirty work. Just manage the game, the clock and the field position. Instead, what we have now is a hardened, smart and confident QB who is ready and willing to take over the offensive reigns in Seattle. Coming into the day, Wilson was the 15th ranked QB in terms of fantasy production according to yahoo and no doubt after today, that number will be a little higher. Though his last two weeks will be challenging with San Francisco and St Louis, they’re both at home, a place where the Seahawks as a team have excelled. We might be looking at a late season surge to be a QB1 on the year. Oh and the other movie connection? Both the movie and this rookie season have been done in near silence. Robert Griffin, III has been amazing and Andrew Luck had the Colts in playoff contention coming into Sunday and they were drafted higher. Of course ESPN is going to talk about them every chance they get. But after today’s 92 rushing yards to go with 3 touchdowns with a side of 205 yards through the air and another TD, Russell is leaving his owners Sleepless in Seattle with what the future brings. Now that last one was definitely a pointless and- if I do say so for myself – bad pun. Can’t all be apropos! In other fantasy football news for 2012 fantasy football…
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Let me start out by welcoming my loving, beautiful, adoring readers to the playoffs. If you didn’t make the playoffs you must just be reading for two possible reasons: 1) You want to hear how my pet chicken is doing or 2) You get off on reading borderline hateful, extremely spiteful, condescending rhetoric.
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?Before get start with the lead, can someone please explain to me what was up with the Tight End explosion this week? Garrett Graham, Benjamin Watson, and Marcedes Lewis all scored not one but two touchdowns apiece and unless you’re playing in a 20 team league with 10 flex positions, no one got in on any of that. Needless to say, the Fantasy Gods had a cruel sense of humor for most fantasy owners today which leads us to our main man, Justin Blackmon. Coming into the day, Blackmon had 250 yards on 26 receptions and at least 20 nonchalant attempts at the 59 targets he’d garnered through 9 games this season. For a wide receiver that was drafted in 5th overall, that stat line is not just bad but screams ‘bust’. Not at one point this year has Blackmon looked good. He’s looked lackadaisical, timid and many times unwilling to play over the middle. To tie things back in with the title, Justin has looked like Keith Richards out on the field: the only signs that he’s been actually alive is that he keeps coming out on stage but everything else questions whether an actual pulse can be found. Well something happened today. Something that the 22% who own him in yahoo leagues and 45% who own him in ESPN leagues did not see coming against a Houston Texans defense that has stifled many a fantasy owner in the past. In one game, Just managed to almost match his season total in terms of yardage with 236 on 7 receptions to go with a touchdown. Moving forward, I can honestly say I don’t know if I believe yet. If he was capable of this week 11, it means he was capable of this for the other 9 weeks and didn’t do it and I am not capable of finding any excuses to make up for that. Shorts managed to be fantasy relevant with Blaine Gabbert around as has Laurent Robinson since coming back from injury (ok, not this week…I don’t know where he went; maybe Blackmon went Highlander on him and stole his powers). What I’m trying to say is if it’s an effort thing, I don’t trust him and that’s what I think it is. You don’t work hard, you don’t play hard and that makes him a hard guy to get behind going forward.
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Bye weeks can be either a blessing or a curse for fantasy owners. Sometimes the byes can give you a much-needed edge over a superior team missing their studs, but sometimes they weed out a few of your players each week while your opponent loses no one, decimating your record.
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Doc doesn’t know what gives him a bigger headache between being a sub-.500 team in the Razzball Writers’ League or all of the quarterback concussions suffered last week. This time it’s the concussions that felled Michael Vick, Jay Cutler and Alex Smith.
More concerning was the injury that felled Ben Roethlisberger on Monday night against the Kansas City.
Please, blog, may I have some more?So this was it. This was the night that Matt Cassel could’ve saved his starting job. Could’ve saved the Chiefs from a 1-7 start and from forcing Chiefs fans into watching the Brady Quinn era unfold before their nearly gouged out eyes. Cassel could not have asked for a better matchup to prove his mettle as the Chargers ranked 10th worst in terms of fantasy QBs scoring against them. Ok, he could’ve asked for the New Orleans Saints but he already went against them and failed. This was supposed to be a hungry Matt. A Matt that wanted to reclaim his job and prove he was worthy of a starting quarterback job in the NFL. Instead of seeing resiliency, Cassel treated us to dormancy as he threw for only 181 yards while turning the ball over twice for defensive touchdowns. Sure, the INT could’ve been caught by his receiver but he could’ve thrown it a bit better. No reason to throw a bullet to a guy 10 feet away from you and if you do, maybe you shouldn’t throw it high and a little behind. Actually, if Matt were a country singer that should be his first single: ‘High And A Little Behind’. I’m picturing a sad ballad there. Decent drives turned to mush the moment the Chiefs got in scoring territory as I like to call it ‘the area where your QB needs to be accurate’. The death of fantasy relevance hangs heavy in Chiefdom tonight and the blood will be on Cassel’s hands. Welcome to Brady-ocrity, KC. In other fantasy football news…
Dwayne Bowe - Bowe looked like the WR2 you drafted tonight, despite the fumble: 79 yards on 8 receptions. If it weren’t for inaccuracy, he might’ve tacked on a touchdown. Now he’ll be stuck with the Charlie Sheen offense: Quinning! Doesn’t matter if you have Tiger Blood, you still need to get thrown to and Brady won’t be doing that much. Hard to think the offense could get worse than tonight but believe me, this Brady Bunch won’t be fantasy family friendly.
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