(Doc’s Note: Hey y’all, sign up for our Week 5 FanDuel Freeroll. You can join the league for free for a chance to win $250 bucks (1st-$100, 2nd-$50, 3rd-$30, 4th-$25, 5th-$20, 6th-$15, 7th-$10) and if your team scores higher than my team you get 5 whole dollars. I sucked pretty bad last week (again) so a whole bunch of you got 5 bucks. You are welcome by the way.)
Have you ever watched the Nickelodeon show ‘Hey Arnold’? It was a cartoon aired in the early 2000’s about a young boy named Arnold and his teenage friends. There was a girl named Helga who had a hidden, unhealthy obsession with Arnold to the point where she would build shrines to him in her closet made out of his used gum, locks of hair, and other loose items that were somehow unique. You can watch a small clip of the madness here.
You’re probably wondering what on earth this could have to do with fantasy football, and it’s a fair enough question. You see, the relationship between Helga and Arnold is one that I feel directly parallels Mike Shanahan and Terrell Davis. It seems that every single time we have a running back who looks like he could be somewhat productive, Shanahan comes along and reminds us why this guy could never live up to TD. I imagine Mike sitting in his room at night with a lock of hair from Davis, waxing poetic about his long lost love and fawning over a picture of the two of them smiling together.
I say all this to try and cover my ass for my recommendation of Tim Hightower last week. With Timmy, Helu, and Torain, your guess is as good as mine as to who is going to wind up with the stats on any given week. Hell, I’m still not convinced he won’t go out and sign Jim Brown, telling the media on Friday that he had a strong week of practice and deserves some carries. Start anyone in that backfield at your own risk, I’m done with it.
Before we move on to the good stuff, let’s recap a little more of what we saw last week. Welker was a man (he’s 40) once again, Sproles kept Sprolesing, and Rodgers is actually a cyborg. I’ll have to be given a Johnnie Cochran sized argument in order to not start them every week until they prove me wrong. Also, Nate Washington and Antonio Brown were severe disappointments as far as predictions go. I was really high on both, and Washington dropped a perfect pass from Hasselbeck in the endzone, while Brown was overthrown by Big Ben when standing wide open. I know such is the nature of fake fantastical futbol, but I wouldn’t have minded being regarded as a prophet by tribes on small south Pacific islands.
Isaac Redman $5600: This is one of those instances where it just feels like the perfect storm is brewing. Roethlisberger has a bum ankle, Mendenhall is out, and the coaching staff is most likely desperate for anything that might turn this train wreck around. I’m not even so sure that if Rashard was healthy he’d be getting more carries than Redman. If you look back to 2009, Tomlin had no problem benching him when he felt that he wasn’t getting 100% effort. I’ll be using him in quite a few of my lineups this weekend.
Curtis Painter $5600: Are you a believer yet? No, well neither am I, but potential value is exactly what it sounds like. He gets KC at home and didn’t look all that bad on Monday. With all of the weapons at his disposal, he’s a legitimate sleeper candidate with a bargain basement price tag (unheard of for a starting QB with significant upside.)  This is a gamble worth taking while you load up your other positions with star power. My bet is that Curtis paints the KC secondary red.
Stevan Ridley $5400: More people were in love with this guy during the preseason than you could shake a stick at (well, unless you found a really big stick.) Belichick is notorious for Shanahaning owners, but I doubt even he’ll be able to ignore Ridley’s almost 10 yards per carry against the crash landed Jets front 7.
Doug Baldwin $4800: TJax hasn’t been THAT bad this season, and with Sidney Rice putting in work opposite Baldwin, there is some real potential here. 4 catches, 70 yards, and a touchdown are hardly out of the question, and if you’re able to get that sort of production for so cheap, it would certainly put you ahead of the curve. He’s a hit or miss play for sure.
Julio Jones $6200: 17 targets. Last game. With Roddy White on the same team. It’s clear that Jones is a stud in the making, and with White lining up alongside him, Falcons fans have a bright, bright future to look forward to. He’s crossed the 100 yard mark each of the last two games, and the Packers are giving up the 3rd most points to opposing WR’s. Throw in the fact that FanDuel is PPR and you have a guy who can give you WR1 numbers at low end WR2 value. He’ll be on every lineup I submit this week.
Owen Daniels $6100/Jacoby Jones $5000: Yes, the Texans will most likely lean on the running game even more now with Foster healthy and AJ out, but someone will have to step up and catch a few passes from Matt Schaub. I believe Daniels will be the greatest beneficiary, being he is a proven commodity, but Jones is worth consideration with his low price tag. It’s rare to find a starting wideout with a good QB, for that small an investment.
Victor Cruz $5400: I know I talked about him last week, but now that I’m in love I feel compelled to mention him again. Manningham was back, and guess what, he did a whole lot of observing from the sidelines while Cruz played his role to the tune of 6 catches for 98 yards, proving the previous week was no fluke. While I don’t believe Manningham will lose his job to Cruz, I do predict that the Giants will leave Cruz on the outside for a while and continue seeing if he can post big numbers. Good Eli has been the signal caller for the past few weeks, and until Mr. Hyde shows up, I’ll continue trusting the G-men.
Other Notables: Matt Hasselbeck $7500, Darren Sproles $6700, Andy Dalton $6200, Nate Washington $6400, Denarius Moore $5900, Steve Breaston $5600, Preston Parker $4800, Greg Olsen $5900, Brandon Pettigrew $5600, Stephen Gostkowski $5300, New York Giants $5300.
And that wraps up this week’s value. If you’re into sports psychology at all I recommend watching some ‘Hey Arnold’ so you can understand what’s going on inside of Shanahan’s head. If nothing else it’s a great show…..errrr…..was a great show, I’m an adult now, I don’t watch cartoons (taking advice from a guy who watches Nicktoons should build Razzball’s credibility, right?)
