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…
Adrian Peterson – There are no words for this. He had 8 yards on 8 carries to start the game. He finished with 212 rushing yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. AP must’ve went to the same doctor that Henry Rowengartner kid did. Now if only Christian Ponder could break his arm and get sent there. Wait, arm’s fine. Does he do anything for decision making? Can we break his head?
Kirk Cousins – We have a QB controversy on our hands! For all the teams that didn’t draft Kirk and are starting guys like Brandon Weeden. Finished with 329 passing yards and 2 touchdowns against a decent defensive squad in the Browns. If RG3 is still out, he gets the Eagles next week who – though they looked good on Thursday – have been terrible defensively for most of the year. Might still be a good time to go with Captain Kirk.
Dennis Pitta – The pitta patta of Dennis’ feet were heard in the end zone as he finished the day with 125 yards on 7 receptions and two touchdowns. Others had him ranked as a fringe TE start this week at 11. I placed him at 4. I also whip my hair back and forth from time to time so I won’t say I make the right call every week.
Alfred Morris – There were a lot of ‘should I start X running back or David Wilson‘ this week. I got one about The Butler and I shook my finger at them like I was Dikembe Mutombo. Alfred finished the day with 87 yards on 27 carries to go with 2 touchdowns. He even threw in 2 catches for 6 yards. Though Alfred got off to a rough start, Kirk finally got rolling and opened up the rushing lanes. Morris could be found after the game Kissing Cousins.
Drew Brees – Two weeks after ruining the chance of some teams getting into the playoffs and one week after possibly killing a team’s round 1 chances, Brees returns for 307 and 4 TDs. I’d like to take this opportunity for Brees owners to say, ‘Thank you very much for this week, Drew.’ Of course, if he knocked you out already, mad lib the heck out of that ‘Thank’.
Josh Freeman – No words to describe how bad that was. The Saints defense just held the Buccaneers scoreless. Doug Martin finished with 16 yards on 9 carries to go with 19 yards on 3 receptions and Freeman had 5 turnovers. I was asked multiple times whether or not to start Matt Ryan over Josh. I said Josh every time for multiple reasons and none of those reasons came to be. Freeman wasn’t even close on half his interceptions and missed quite a few wide open shots, including a potential touchdown pass to Mike Williams. Here’s to hoping Freeman owners still pulled out the win because I won’t be a free man from that call for a long while. Fun stat: there were three teams shut out in terms of scoring on the day (Buccs/Giants/Chiefs) and two teams that only scored field goals (Raiders/Jaguars). And by ‘fun stat’ I mean some fantasy teams got hosed.
James Jones/Leonard Hankerson/Mike Tolbert – Scored 7 combined touchdowns today and no one started them. I blame the media.
Mark Ingram – Had 90 yards on 14 carries in the destruction of the Buccs. I didn’t like him coming into the season. I was right then. I started liking him around the time of this post and I called him a good flex option. Basically, he’s been Michael Turner since that call which means…yep, he’s been a decent flex option and pretty freaking boring outside of that. If the Saints ever decided to trade away some of their running back depth, Ingram would get interesting.
Knowshon Moreno – So much hate/disrespect for a running back whose worst yardage output as a starter this season was 83. Like I said in the weekly rankings, he takes advantage of good matchups. The Ravens were a good matchup. He finished the day with 118 rushing yards on 22 carries and a touchdown to go with 8 yards on 2 receptions. Could’ve had another TD but it was clearly Jacob Hester‘s time to shine.
Eric Decker – Of course last week was the start to something beautiful…of course. Finished the day with 8 receptions for 133 yards and a touchdown as he finally didn’t trip over grass or yardage lines in the open field.
Arian Foster – After 27 carries for 165 yards and 2 receptions for 4 yards, Foster has 325 carries and 36 receptions on the year. Future me just came back from 2013 and told me not to draft Arian in the first round next year. Future me also got his eyebrows waxed. Gotta say I look pretty good in 2013.
Andre Johnson – Has basically been Brandon Marshall since week 11. Which is to say, if Matt Schaub is throwing the ball, he’s looking at Andre and no one else. If you just heard that ‘boooooooo’, it was coming from Owen Daniels owners.
Darren McFadden – Playing in a game that should only be watched if you have a Raider or a Chief player on your fantasy team, finished with 110 rushing yards on 30 carries to go with 4 receptions for 39 yards and a fumble. The only person to score on the day was Sebastian Janikowski but he was drunk and she looked liked a reject from an audition to be Snooki’s friend…wait, what were we talking about? Oh right, this game was terrible but DMC did good. Oh and so did Rod Streater (5 for 62 to lead the team in receiving). Take that last little nugget and tuck it under your hat, or in your back pocket or wherever you typically tuck nuggets.
Beanie Wells – Ah, the winner of circumstance. Lions turn the ball over twice and the Cardinals defense gets the ball within the 5 and Wells takes advantage. Then for good measure he runs it for 31 on a beleaguered Lions defense in the 4th for his 3rd and final touchdown to finish the day with 67 yards on 17 carries. How many teams have scored 38 points when their QB goes 14/21 for 104 yards, no touchdowns and an INT? And now the team that lost 58-0 in week 14 have a better record than the Lions on the season at 5-9…yep, both real and fantasy football make no sense sometimes. The fact I’m not talking about Wells tells you just how much I give a flip about his day.
Aaron Rodgers– For all of those people who’ve been frustrated with Aaron this season, shhhh, don’t tell anyone but I have a secret for you. He’s still good: 291 passing yards and 3 touchdown passes. Last season was pretty magical for most QBs, don’t hold 2011 against Discount Double Check.
Dez Bryant – Caught a touchdown and 4 passes for 59 yards with only nine fingers. He gave me one of his middle working ones for distrusting him this week.
Ryan Mathews – Beautiful disaster…had 22 yards on 4 carries and then left the game with a broken left clavicle. No, not the one he broke to start the season. The other one. I don’t know what’s been more disappointing with Mathews this season. The suck that happened for 14 weeks or the promise of a good game that got dashed in week 15. I’m sure owners will opt for C) All Of The Above. At least you can drop him with disdain at this point…just try to not drop him too hard. He breaks easy.
And just as we’ve done for most of the season, our Sunday Night Football specialist jaywrong will bring up the rear end and after he does that, he’ll talk about football. Stay tuned!
