Thursday Night Football Live Thread, Week 4: Ravens vs. Steelers

Stay classy Baltimore!

In what will be the official debut of “Don’t Give a Sh*t Era” Michael Vick, the 0-3 Ravens travel to Pittsburgh to see if their team is interested in a getting a win. Strangely enough, this was the first ever winless September for the Ravens. Unless you count in terms of public relations, then I would say, based on the picture above, that last season’s September winless record is still intact. The Steelers have their own set of issues with the aforementioned Michael Vick starting with Ben Roethlisberger suffering a MCL sprain last Sunday. While I’m sure still having Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell is nothing to scoff at, it’ll be interesting to see which Vick shows up tonight; will it be the “watch me earn salary I’m going to do nothing to justify” type of game or “I’m going to trigger my disability insurance” type of game. You’d think both would be similar performances, but then you’d be wrong. The game will probably come down to how productive Le’Veon Bell is, now his second official game coming off his suspension. Logic dictates that since Justin Forsett has been an absolute dumpster fire that the Ravens would not be familiar enough with the concept of a running game to be able to defend against it, but I guess we’ll see. On the bright side, the Ravens do have an elite quarterback…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

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The Injury Report, Week 4: Ben Roethlisberger’s (Sort of) Broken Knee

by: RotoLance

Last week I may have said something like “the worst part is we don’t know how these injuries will affect the players’ performances”. Then Chris Ivory was active without receiving a carry, which is to say there was no performance to affect. Ouch. But on the plus side, hey, he could have re-injured himself had he played, right? In a way it feels like the fantasy football season hasn’t truly begun until something like this happens. Because it happens. Every. Year. This week we need to discuss the injury situations for newly injured players such as: Ben Roethlisberger, Davante Adams (newly re-injured), Sammy Watkins, Jonathan Stewart, Crockett Gillmore and others. We’ll revisit some other players situations with notes on players (finally) nearing their returns. And if you are wondering about the order, the first section is by biggest affect to least affect on fantasy teams, “On The Mend” is by team.

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The Max Factor: Brown, Bell, and Ben

October 1, 2015 | 2015 Buy/Sell, 2015 Fantasy Football | 6 Comments

by: Max

We are starting to get more parity between teams. My 8-8 dream is dead. #$*%. I’ll get over it. Injuries are the most frustrating part of football. Every second play, someone gets hurt and I cringe and cry for them. I myself was destined for stardom as a Division 1 basketball player. At age 17, I subsequently destroyed both my ankles and was just a fraction of what I once was. I feel for Tony Romo, Drew Brees, Kelvin Benjamin, Jordy Nelson and others. I especially felt for Big Ben after watching his leg get caved in versus the Rams this past weekend. It slowly had me heartbroken for Antonio Brown owners, but felt happiness for Le’Veon Bell owners. Today we talk about the outlook of the next 4-6 weeks for Pittsburgh Steelers offense sans Ben Roethlisberger.

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IDP Rankings, Week 4: Another Borland?

October 1, 2015 | 2015 Fantasy Football, 2015 IDP Rankings, 2015 IDP Report | 19 Comments

by: Kevin Kumpf

Period	Accuracy	Ranking	High	Low	Percentile
Week 3	50.40%	10 out of 20	60.60%	37.00%	Top 50%
2015	60.9%	3 out of 19	62.7%	49.5%	Top 20%

In IDP leagues, it’s rare for a player to come completely out of nowhere. So much of a defensive player’s stats comes down to opportunity (rather than talent), and it is typically pretty clear who will be on the field each week. Chris Borland is an obvious exception, and he led many teams to championships in 2014. I’m not saying that he’ll be this year’s Borland, but Jordan Hicks is off to a better start than anyone could have imagined. After coming in for the injured Mychal Kendricks and Kiko Alonso, he put up 7 tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble in Week 2. He outdid himself last week in his first start, with 10 tackles, and interception and a fumble recovery. Most impressively to me, Hicks was on the field for 23 more snaps than presumptive starter DeMeco Ryans. The immediate (and long-term) future is cloudy for both Kendricks and Alonso, but as long as they’re out, Hicks looks like a must-start.

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Rankings, Week 4: A Return to Normalcy

October 1, 2015 | 2015 Fantasy Football, 2015 Weekly Rankings | 157 Comments

by: Jay

Period	Accuracy	Rank	High	Low	Percentile
Week 3	59.1%	18 out of 134	65.0%	42.1%	Top 15%
Week 2	53.4%	85 out of 135	65.2%	46.2%	Top 65%
Week 1	56.8%	54 out of 137	62.8%	46.3%	Top 40%
2015	56.4%	34 out of 132	60.8%	48.0%	Top 30%
2014	58.1%	31 out of 125	60.7%	50.6%	Top 25%

As the title states (as do the numbers) we are back to kicking ass and chewing bubble gum. And boy am I out of bubble gum. In last week’s rankings post, I mentioned that we would be putting forth a new process for ranking players (or I guess in this case, returning to my original process), and the results were telling. Small sample size (that’s what she said) will always been an issue, but I think the numbers produced were promising, and I’ll be keeping with the same methodology to better serve your Fantasy Football Teams. Here are your Week 4 Rankings…

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Who Are These Guys?, Week 4: I’m a Free Man

September 30, 2015 | 2015 Daily Fantasy, 2015 Roster Strategy | 38 Comments

by: malamoney

I really wish Devonta’s last name was Soulman. I’m a soul man would have been a much better title and then I could have linked you to a Youtube clip from the movie. Oh there’s a song too? I guess I could provide a link to that as well. Here’s week three’s team.

POS	Name	Points	Owned
QB	Andy Dalton	31.32	52%
RB	Devonta Freeman	39.8	63%
RB	Chris Johnson	27.5	42%
WR	Rishard Matthews	26.3	32%
WR	Rueben Randle	21.1	28%
TE	Gary Barnidge	19.5	0%
FL	Marvin Jones	17.9	20%
DST	Vikings	15	11%
K	Josh Brown	13	37%

Last week’s team combined for 201.84 points. Even that monster performance would fall short of this week’s selections. This group of waiver wire fodder has joined forces to score 211.42 points. Man… I need a freaking time machine so that I can get a hold of these posts a week early. Anyone have any leads on a flux capacitor?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Smokey Says, Week 4: Duke Gives ‘Em the Shocker

September 30, 2015 | 2015 Buy/Sell, 2015 Fantasy Football | 19 Comments

by: Smokey

When at the bottom, where else is there to go but up? Well, I guess for the quitters, you can just wallow for a bit, which basically in one sentence just summed up the Cleveland Browns football team. One look at the team and it’s obvious why they want Johnny Manziel at the helm. Because he looks sorta good, but not McCown bad. So it’s like dollar store loving in the 216. Since we already established that the quarterback situation is an awful boxed lunch of fantasy uselessness, lets move onto a position that may be helpful for you. One look at the Browns running back game and it’s pretty awful, but awful is where I come in point a finger and say: Hey, wait a minute! It may look ugly now, but take a deeper look at the plight of the Browns foot patrol. It’s supposedly led by Isiah Crowell. Totally exciting right? Well feast your eyes this week on someone different, Duke Johnson. The rookie RB will be a fantasy sneak-a-saurus this week, and I am here to be your crossing guard in the game of life, where life is all about fantasy.

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Disgrace and Delight, Week 4: The Rodfather is Here, Kiss the Ring

September 30, 2015 | 2015 Buy/Sell, 2015 Fantasy Football | 161 Comments

by: LT Murray IV

Greetings! What a time to be alive! We’ve all been allowed to witness the glorious gift of the Elder Gods, Tyrod Taylor, make gizzards out of three opposing secondaries. This young legend was COMPLETELY left out of a certain ESPN analyst’s weekly quarterback rankings last week, and I for one believe he deserves to be fired for committing such a despicable act of disgracefulness. After Blake Bortles treated their secondary like a porta-potty the previous week, any respectable man would have to assume Tygod would drop a double-dose of feces on those peasants. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills! What are people not seeing?! This stallion has every skill-set imaginable and should only improve from here on out. I’m a TAD concerned with Taylor not having Watkins and McCoy in the arsenal this week against the Giants, but I believe he’ll make up for that just by taking off and running a lot more. By the way, the Giants are DEAD LAST in the NFL in pass yards given up. Suck that in for a second. Oooohweeee, the Rodfather is a top-5 option this week at QB and a must-own in all formats. If you wanna keep hating, I’ll grant you a front row seat into my induction into the “writers wing” of the NFL Hall of Fame (as long as Jay continues editing my work).

I am Tehol Beddict and this is, Disgrace/Delight! Take heed!

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Through the Wire, Week 4: Karlos the Jackal

September 29, 2015 | 2015 Fantasy Football, 2015 Waiver Wire | 157 Comments

by: Geoff

Ahhhhh Fantasy Football, how I loathe you. Gentlemen and four ladies, we’re living in a world where Larry Fitzgerald, Dion Lewis, and Tyrod Taylor have more points than early rounders like DeMarco Murray, LeSean McCoy, and the bane of my existence, C.J. Anderson. Speaking of Crunk Juice Anderson, can I vent for a minute? I can? Thanks! So I’ve been playing in a league with some of my former co-workers for about nine years now. [Jay’s Note: This sounds familiar, almost as if I’ve read about this somewhere…] Over the years, the league has developed into a 14 team 0.5 ppr league with two keepers that can only be kept for a single year. For the first time in the league’s history, I missed the playoffs last year. Mostly due to a costly oversight on my part where I let Marshawn Lynch go as a first-round keeper for lesser players I perceived to be “better value”. Coming into this season, I found myself in a seemingly “better” situation with C.J. Anderson essentially free as a last-round keeper. I built a rather formidable squad on paper around Anderson drafting Antonio Brown, Peyton Manning, Jimmy Graham, and Lamar Miller. Not bad right? Well I’m 0-3, and the laughing stock of the league once again. Damn you Crunk Juice! Now, I’m not going to say all of those aforementioned lads are without fault this season, but none of them have sucked quite as bad as Anderson. So here’s the question I’ll pose for today: When is it time to move on from a player you heavily invested in? I’m not there yet with Anderson, but Ronnie Hillman is sitting on my bench and I wouldn’t be upset if Anderson missed a few games with an injury. Not wishing it on the guy, but it would make it easier to move on. Right? Anyway, we got byes this week and you might need to fill in a few spots, or maybe you own a sh*tbird or two you’re looking to dump. Well, not to worry, I have plenty of suggestions to fill your voids. Wait… what?

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Bear or Bull: M&M’s

September 29, 2015 | 2015 Buy/Sell, 2015 Fantasy Football | 16 Comments

by: Son

After the conclusion of the 2014 NFL season, the clock was on for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who “won” the right to select No. 1 in the NFL Draft. There was nary a doubt that they would select a quarterback with the top choice. Sorry to all the Josh McCown and Mike Glennon fan club members out there. The question became which one: Jameis Winston or Marcus Mariota?

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Love to Hate, Week 4: Eifert in Your General Direction

September 29, 2015 | 2015 Buy/Sell, 2015 Fantasy Football | 50 Comments

by: Brandon

Hello Razzball! This is the first in a series of weekly articles written by yours truly that will be looking into each of the week’s match-ups and picking out one player I Love and one player that I Hate from each game. Before I get into this week’s picks, I’ll give some background into how I make my picks. The first thing I look at is the Vegas betting lines, specifically the point spread and the over/under totals. These are two huge factors when making picks, especially for daily fantasy sites. If I’m ever debating between two similarly rated players for my Flex position, checking out the point totals could be a deciding factor for me. Of course, between now and kickoff, some of the lines could change by a few points, so it is important to check these again later in the week after some injury situations are cleared up. I’m also going to try and avoid making the obvious picks, as those won’t help anybody. Now, onto the picks!

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Packin’ in the Rain

September 29, 2015 | 2015 Fantasy Football, Fantasy Football Daily Notes | 120 Comments

by: Jay

HISTORY IN THE MAKING PEOPLE

In what was an oft-rainy night an Lambeau Field (IF ONLY IT WERE SNOW, WE’D ALL EXPLODE), our long national nightmare finally ended. No, Alex Smith did not retire. Instead, he finally threw a touchdown to a receiver (shown above), something that hadn’t happened in the Chiefs last 17 games. Or, in calendar terms, not since December 8th, 2013. Folks, Andy Reid’s long con has finally paid off. That being said, it’s so very Chiefs that the record-breaking extravaganza for a useless stat occurred in a game in which they basically got blown out. The garbage time was strong with this one (even almost bringing the game within one possession with 1:25 to play before botching the two-point conversion), but it’s abundantly clear that the Chiefs may not be that good at the footballs. In a striking follow-up point, the Packers have shown that they might be pretty good at the footballs. If someone made a movie based on my time here at Razzball, it would be called: An Analytical Life. Or quite possibly WHERE ARE MY DATES? I WAS PROMISED DATES. But enough about myself and my movies, let’s make fun of Alex Smith more…

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