As we enter the final week of the fantasy regular season, there are three types of teams out there. First, the teams that have been eliminated. You can still play spoiler and ruin your friend’s year, but unless there is a weekly points prize, you don’t have much to play for. Next, there are the […]

After Week 10, everyone was all “Vincent Rey this” and “Vincent Rey that,” and “Did you hear that Vincent Rey is the new IDP sheriff Cincinnati with Maualuga hurt?” Well Week 11 showed that you can shoot the sheriff, but you cannot kill the deputy. The deputy in this case is Vontaze Burfict, who had an all-world performance against the Browns with 15 tackles and a forced fumble, which he then recovered and took to the house. Burfict’s big Week 11 pushed him above Kiko Alonso to the top spot among all IDPs this season. There was some thought preseason that Burfict’s 2012 was a fluke, and Cincy’s bizarre fascination with Rey Maualuga would prevent Burfict from putting up true LB1 numbers, but those thoughts have been firmly put to rest.

Alas, Burfict is on a bye this week, but out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind. It might be more difficult now, but if Burfict’s owner needs LB stats this week, and your team has already clinched the playoffs, make an offer on the idle LB and see what happens. If you’re in an especially shallow league and Burfict’s owner dropped him due to the bye, make room on your bench for the man who I recently, like 200 words ago, nicknamed “The Deputy.”

Here are some other IDP happenings as we head into Week 12:

Alas, Burfict is on a bye this week, but out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind. It might be more difficult now, but if Burfict’s owner needs LB stats this week, and your team has already clinched the playoffs, make an offer on the idle LB and see what happens. If you’re in an especially shallow league and Burfict’s owner dropped him due to the bye, make room on your bench for the man who I recently, like 200 words ago, nicknamed “The Deputy.”

As we enter the home stretch of the regular season, there are no more surprises. Any sleeper who is going to break out (Robert Quinn, Kiko Alonso, Barry Church), has already made the leap. Any veteran who is going to lose a step (Justin Smith, London Fletcher, Yeremiah Bell), has already disappointed. At this point in the season there are no surprises, and, barring injury, most players are who they are.

Here are some notable performances or possible one-week wonders from Week 10 that are worth looking at for the final three weeks of the regular season:

Before I get started talking IDPs for this week, it’s time to put you all at ease. I’m sure many of you spent your entire week tirelessly coming up with nicknames for Robert Quinn and Chris Long, as I suggested last week. But it turns out that they beat us to the punch. Though no announcers ever mention it, the two dominant pass-rushers in St. Louis have nicknamed themselves Black Thunder and White Lightning, and together they are Thunderstorm. I love this for too many reasons. First, it sounds like an ice cream flavor, and the Rams should immediately capitalize on that in their concession stands. Second, and most importantly, it pays homage to one of my favorite sports movies, Major League 2. Tell me you don’t get chills when you see this scene. Chuck Sheen and Randy Quaid at their best if you ask me.

I’ve spent most of the week in deep thought about one of the more important things in life right now: Why don’t Robert Quinn and Chris Long have a nickname yet? Bash Brothers is already taken. I was thinking something like Ebony and Ivory, but I guess we probably want to avoid the race issue. Then I got to thinking that the word sack should probably be included, but that evokes memory of another duo. Regardless of what you call them, you have to call their performance on Monday Night Football spectacular. On a night when the St. Louis offense couldn’t close the deal, their defense gave them a chance to win.

Quinn and Long combined for 9 tackles and 6 sacks in one of the more dominant pass rush displays we’ve seen by a team this year. Their impact performances were nearly matched by Bruce Irvin, who had 8 tackles, a sack, an interception and a forced fumble in just his 4^th game back from a suspension. There were plenty more great games in Week 8, as well as some not-so-great games, so let’s take a closer look.

I’d like to start this week with my condolences to those of you who lost Brian Cushing this week. He’s always been one of my favorite IDPs due to the way he ran train on Jersey HS football during my senior year, and he emerged as a steal in drafts this year. Before suffering another devastating season-ending injury this past week, he was LB14 on the year coming of his first torn ACL. For those of you in dynasty leagues, here’s to hoping that he comes back next year chalk full of even more PEDs and better than ever.

But on to happier news…