No Brady or Tebow this week, how will any of our fantasy teams survive? Considering how many weapons Brady has at his disposal, having The Patriots on bye does cut the number of eligible fantasy receivers approximately in half, but there is still plenty of talent available if you look hard enough. No, I’m not talking about Cecil Shorts this time, although he did have eight catches for 116 yards against The Packers just last week.
What team in the NFL is the absolute worst at covering the pass this year? If you said anything but The Saints, you clearly haven’t been watching much football this year which might explain why you’re doing so poorly in fantasy football. The Saints are giving up approximately 700 passing yards per game. Ok, maybe it’s not that high, but it’s still high. This means it might finally be the week for Michael Vick to bust loose a bit. That is, assuming he keeps his starting job through the rest of this week. There are reports that The Eagles will likely start Nick Foles this week, but despite a stalled offense against Atlanta, at least he didn’t turn the ball over. This means that if Vick’s a go, he should be a go for your fantasy team as well. The same goes for DeSean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin.
The Chiefs are also faced with a relatively easy matchup this week. I don’t know if I’d go as far as saying you should start Matt Cassel, but Dwayne Bowe should absolutely be in your starting lineup. After three disappointing weeks in a row (4 if you include the bye week), Bowe should be back over the century mark in yardage with a score against The Chargers. Brandon Weeden didn’t do all that well against them last weekend, but is he on your Fantasy team? I didn’t think so.
If you’ve been as frustrated with Cam Newton and Steve Smith as I have this year, this might finally be your week as well. The Redskins have a talented offense this year, but their defense is a lot more pedestrian. Look for Newton to finally hook up with Smith for a TD this week and possibly find LaFell as well. I don’t think 3 all-purpose TDs would be too much to ask from Newton this week even though he has only done that one other time this season.
The worst game for QBs and WRs this week is the Vikings/Seahawks game. Neither Christian Ponder nor Russel Wilson are all that attractive of an option at QB and with both teams touting excellent pass coverage, we will likely see two teams with less than 400 combined yards through the air. Yes, it was nice to see Sidney Rice catch a TD pass again this past week and Percy Harvin has been one of the most reliable WRs this year, but don’t count on either of them for too much action this Sunday.
The Giants are also in a tough spot this week facing The Steelers. RGIII only managed 177 yards and a TD against them last weekend and although Eli Manning may be the more experienced QB, and let’s be honest, better QB for now, The Steelers still present him with an enormous challenge. I would never tell you to bench Victor Cruz, but just go into this game knowing his matchup is more challenging than usual. He did, after all, only catch 2 passes for 23 yards last week.
Finally, The Falcons made The Eagles look almost foolishly bad this past weekend and I doubt The Cowboys will fare much better. Jason Witten may still have a pretty decent day, but I think you can safely say he won’t be catching 18 passes for 167 yards again. In fact, you can safely say that about almost everyone in the NFL. Still, don’t look for Miles Austin or Dez Bryant to catch for more than 75 yards this Sunday night. Their chances of a TD are also diminished.
