With a chill in the air and a bite to the wind, the Razzball Podcast is back! Nick had no other way to stay warm than pounding some Canadian whisky through the night, so he practiced the national remedy of hangover cures by sleeping outside naked in the negative temperature. Well, he said it was negative Celsius, I don’t understand no metric! Once Nick finally got into the studio, he and I recap week 12 on a frightfully cold Sunday including Josh Gordon’s big game, what to do with Tavon Austin at this point, and Nick’s strategy for DraftKings moving forward. Then Sky calls in to let us know who to grab from the wire in your playoff push. If you’re in a nail-biter in MNF, good luck tonight and have a great Thanksgiving!
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Ain’t Know(Sun)shon When He’s Gone
November 25, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Football, Fantasy Football Daily Notes | 156 Commentsby: Sky
Normally a big game from someone comes early in the day and I circle it, pin it on my 100 %recycled cork board and dictate the rest of my post in pieces here and there throughout but I’m not gonna lie: the Broncos vs Pats game I had circled. I just knew the name would come out of this game. I mean, we had all those stars and great storylines. Wes Welker returning to face his former team. Amendola living up to the hype of trying to replace Wes in New England. Peyton Manning doing his best nihilist impersonation. Gisele rushing onto the field and Tonya Harding’ing Welker also came to mind. But instead, out of all the storylines this game brought to life, it was really center stage for a guy who’s been under-appreciated for what he has meant to his team, been called out on twitter and in general gets no respect. I’m of course talking about Knowshon Moreno, the much maligned starting RB for the Broncos whose emergence started last year when Willis went down with an injury and rolled into this year while all the pundits said Montee Ball would be the star in Denver. And yet, through it all Moreno has put up some very solid fantasy numbers on the year. But I’m taking this second to point out a different part that’s just as important; what he means to his team. Moreno ‘gets it’ and Peyton knows it. He trusts him. When Moreno is out there, Manning knows he’s got a guy who knows the play and will be ready to block if the play changes and where he needs to be to make the team successful. Of course, twitter has been cruel to him but it’s also shed some light here and there as well. And despite the massive fantasy day, tallying 224 rushing yards on 37 carries to go with a TD, Moreno left the stadium in a walking boot and on crutches. I’m pointing all of this out to say it’s not just Moreno owners who should be worried about this injury as it could affect the offense as a whole if he misses significant time. You think I’m being melodramatic up in here? Think back on all those fumbles by Peyton on huge sacks. Guess who was in to pass block? Mmm-hmmm. He’s real football important and because of that his fake football persona is relevant. Montee Ball started the collapse for the Broncos in the second half with a fumble and has had pass pro issues. Ronnie Hillman has been in the inactive dog house since his fumble fiasco at the goal line in the Colts loss. CJ Anderson? Odd if they wanted him involved why they haven’t given him many reps since the Hill demotion. All this to say, Broncos thought it was cold Sunday Night. We might be finding out how warm it is when he’s away. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know…in other news from week 12 of the 2013 Fantasy Football season…
Please, blog, may I have some more?As a life long Panther fan, it’s usually been fantasy that’s carried me through the season, but flippity floppity and look at em go! In the midst of their 6-game win streak I’ve seen my fantasy teams go to way of the Nick Capozzi David Wilson hot tub. But I had decent starts in my leagues – I’m mostly around .500 on most teams (and mostly come out at night! mostly…) – so there’s a few weeks left to cross my fingers and hope my Writer’s League team can make the playoffs after starting 8-0. Because it’s looking really, really bad…
What’s great about the fantasy football season is that the pivotal weeks go down the next few weeks, and if I suffer a ridiculous Thanksgiving showing (something as nuts as say, Michael Floyd getting a bajillion points), I can just eat my pity away with Thanksgiving leftovers. I’ll go into the day like Shawn Kemp as a rookie and leave it like Kemp as a Cav. Except minus all the baby mamas! Tryptophan isn’t exactly an aphrodisiac… I hope you all have a great week 12 and Thanksgiving, and hope Razzball Nation crushes towards a 1st seed.
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The Handcuff Report – What can Donald Brown do for you?
November 23, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Football, Handcuff Report | 26 Commentsby: J-FOH
This might be old news or you might have been on a staycation and turned off all your electronic devices for the last week, but damn, why did the Colts trade for T-Rich? Donald Brown looked really good last week and being that he is averaging 5.9 YPC to T-Rich’s 2.8 you would think he would be the starter and the trade bust would be the waterboy. Oh wait a minute, wrong boy, not the waterboy, the piss boy. I know what you are all thinking, why talk about a guy that is the obvious add when we all know better than to play T-Rich? Because we here at razzball like to beat a dead horse till it’s all glue and dog food….and we still get lots of should I play T-Rich questions. Drop his ass like your internet date dropped you when she went to “the bathroom” and never came back. Last week and part of this week it was all raining Rainey up in here after that suspenseful build up and amazing delivery by the guy who got CUT by the Browns back in October. The Browns should’ve had Donald Brown thrown into the deal. Could you imagine the merch sales of the Brown Browns jersey?
The season is winding down, playoffs are a few hangovers away and Sky is starting to lose it. We need to stay sharp and start going with our best players, study our schedules weeks ahead, and maybe grab some handcuffs in case a stud gets shut down, injured or demoted. I’m not saying to go grab Gerhart in case AP gets hurt but I would stash Bryce Brown, Robert Turbin, Christian Michael, Montee Ball, Dennis Johnson, Bernard Pierce, and Kendall Hunter….oh what the hell, grab Gerhart if you’re really feeling an AP injury is coming. Before you all go WTF J-FOH, I’m not saying to drop someone usable, but if you have 6 WR’s and you are only going to play 3 or 4 of them, and the 6th guy won’t hurt you on someone else’s team then yeah go grab a stash. Rid yourself of your back up kickers and 3rd team defense. You want to be ahead of the game and think about situations that may occur in the last 2 weeks of the season. Most especially if your championship week is the last week of the season. By the way, I think that is the dumbest thing ever and damn all commishes that make the championship week the last week of the year. I can hear it now, ” Hey, I have Peyton, and he’s only playing a couple series this week and I need to start either EJ Manuel or Geno Smith for my championship matchup” I don’t want to see that and will only answer questions like that with really stupid questions. Be smart FFB’s and start stashing good upside guys that MIGHT get some PT. This also goes for WR’s. Lastly, I was really disappointed we had zero hecklers for Prezzi’s freestyles in football bash last weekend. I invite him back again to lay it down like an underground MC in an abandoned warehouse.
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The team that resides in the nation’s capital is having a real hard time lately. They have two key injuries this week and it’s starting to look bleak.
First they lost WR Leonard Hankerson for the season to a torn ACL. The doctors were checking his knee after an injury to his LCL suffered against Denver and that’s when they found the ACL damage.
Tight end Jordan Reed (concussion) is also up in the air for this week’s game too. He’s sat out the last couple days’ worth of practice and his status for Monday night against San Francisco is unknown. While he has the extra day this week, he’s not an advisable start this week.
I’d also be gunshy about playing RGIII for the same reason. He’s also starting to run out of receivers. It’s basically down to Santana Moss and Pierre Garcon, the latter of whom I am amazed is still healthy and upright at Week 12. Fred Davis isn’t inviting at the tight end spot. Alfred Morris adds nothing in the passing game (three receptions this season) so Roy Helu would be the only real pass-catching option out of the backfield.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Graham’atical Error?
November 22, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Football, Fantasy Football Daily Notes | 184 Commentsby: Sky
So here I am, cruising along with my fantasy year with Jimmy Graham a pick in one of my friends leagues. Then the whole foot issue comes up and my response is ‘O-M-G’ and I’m like ‘I’m a grown-ass man…why am I saying OMG?’ These are all important questions to evaluate as we dip into the psyche of a man who told you to SELL Graham not long ago. To be fair, Tehol and I discussed at length – read: he and I tweeted at each other and I asked ‘Is this bad?’ and he was like ‘bro, it’s bad’ and I was like ‘thanks, brah, you’re right’ and he was all ‘like totes no probs, breh’ and I was all like ‘this is terrible dialogue to post on a website’ and he was all like ‘true, bruh’ – so we felt we had this subject covered. To be fair, Graham has been much more hit/miss than many of his owners would’ve expected given the start. He was the cream of the crop at TE before the injury, how could the injury not affect that? That was a rhetorical question, of course, but thank you for the response. After catching 5 catches for 100 yards, scoring a TD and Shaquille O’Neal’ing a goal post, I think we have our answer. Graham is ‘Godzilla’ to us western folk and ‘Godjira’ to the East. You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him until his foot falls off. I 100% own that my sell call could’ve been wrong but remember, we still have 4 more weeks until the season is over; if his reduced workload caused you any fantasy playoff heartache, feel free to cry into my abundant bosom. Ok, my bosom isn’t that abundant, leave me go, weeping one. Anywho, I’m sure you’re gonna ask: what do we do with Graham ROS? Well, sell windows have most likely come and gone so that’s no longer an option. Add/drop…who’s dropping Graham and adding fluff? Not me. So your only hope is you start him all week, every week until it pans out right. He hasn’t been terrible since the injury, just frustrating compared to previous numbers. Only so much control can be contributed to this little world we live in for fantasy and sometimes, little jackwads like myself come along and tell you how to do things and find I’m wrong. In other news from TNF from week 12 of the 2013 Fantasy Football season…
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Weekly IDP Rankings: Week Twelve For 2013 Fantasy Football
November 21, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Football, Weekly Rankings | 20 Commentsby: Kevin Kumpf
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.”
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Bet the Farm: NFL Week 12 Betting Contest
November 21, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Football, Bet The Farm | 12 Commentsby: Josh Carey
Welcome to Bet the Farm, Razzball’s weekly NFL wagering contest. We’re back for our second season and ready to take you on over the course of 17 weeks of NFL play. For those new to the game, here are the rules:
- You start with $1,000 in contest money to make wagers with. You may join in any week.
- You can wager on the spread or Over/Under for any NFL game, so long as your pick is made by kickoff of that game. The Yahoo Sports Odds page is a good place to get betting lines: you may use the best line you find available when you make your post, but revisions to wagers are not allowed.
- Your wager must be in an increment of $10.
- You must beat the House: Therefore, you only receive 90% of your wager for a win ($9 on a $10 bet), but lose 100% of your wager on a loss.
- Your wager may be any amount between $10 and your full bankroll.
- New this year: If you lose your entire bankroll, you are allowed a re-buy for another $1,000. Unlimited re-buys are available.
- New this year: Bet the Farm staff will keep track of the full leaderboard for all participants. However, any player who has taken a re-buy will be listed below all players who have not taken a re-buy – even those with lower current balances. It’s always better to not lose all your money. Players with two re-buys will be listed below those with one re-buy, and so on.
What The Flacco Am I Thinking?
November 21, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Football, Weekly Rankings | 289 Commentsby: Sky
I think I’ve finally done it. I’ve done gone and lost my mind up in this. It’s week 12 and I’m telling you that Joe Flacco – yes that Joe Flacco – is a top ten QB this week. Man, I’m going so against the grain. How against the grain are you, Sky? I’m so against the grain right now, my wood shop teacher just retroactively expelled me for a week. *Crickets* Standup routine…yeah, I’m still working on it. But here’s the scenario: as boring as Flacco can be – and is and will forever be – oil and water don’t mix and by that I mean…hold on a minute *grabs flask and fills with water and oil*. See? Ok, science class is out for the day. Back to fantasy football. I don’t know if you noticed last weeks Jets vs Bills game – and unless you’re a huge fan of either, you probably didn’t – but EJ Manuel performed what would be described as a ‘vertical pass’ many a time and found himself to be very successful doing it. The big thing about that? His top receiving threats of Wood and Stevie J weren’t in. He was chucking to Goodwin and Graham who, though decent, are still young and, well, they ain’t the #1 and #2 on that team. So the Jets gave up a combined 155 yards to these two last week and it propelled EJ into the top 12 for QBs in scoring. And so enter the Flacco. Baltimore was successful last year with their running game but also with taking long shots down the field. For as much as I rag on Flacco, he does have a strong arm and he does throw an accurate deep ball. The cool thing about that? Jets gave up at least three passing plays that cleared 30 yards, two of them clearing 40. For all the good the Jets rushing defense has been, their passing defense has been equally bad. So with that in mind, Jacoby Jones gets a bit of a bump for the week and I think Flacco has a strong chance at a 250~275 yard passing day and 2 or 3 TDs. In other points of dissent, Ryan Mathews now has 10 or more points in four of his last 5 for standard scoring and faces a KC defense that for as strong as it is, can be run on. Since KC’s offense isn’t exactly an offensive juggernaut, there’s plenty of time for Mathews to get in his carries and pursue his 4th 100 yard game on the year (3 in his last 5). Oh and no AP in the top 5? Yeah, could come back to bite me but there were so many great matchups this week for above average RBs. It was hard to say any of the guys I put ahead of him don’t have a great chance to outshine him. Just note Andre Brown was my breaking point Even my insanity has its limits. Meanwhile, Kenny Stills with a 40 yard bomb and a TD in your WR3 spot sounds about right to me. Cotchery? Well, Antonio is gonna be Haden his stay in Cleveland and either he or Sanders is gonna have himself a fine day. If Sanders can’t go, Cotchery will probably steal his spot in the WR rankings…and your heart. And in Miami, if He-Man doesn’t score at least a TD with 60 or 70 yards, I will have to protest. Defensively, there’s a pile of interesting ones out there. Riaders? Decent against the run, they’re at home and Ryan Fitzpatrick is the Titans starting QB. Could be an under the radar top 10 play this week. Rams I just couldn’t let linger outside the top 10 after their showing in Indy and coming off a bye while playing at home. Could get an electric crowd and a big scoring day from them. This week I made 28 paper footballs and had my wife kick field goals on the table. Inside each, there was a name of a kicker. If she missed, those kickers didn’t make the top 10 and had to try again. Then we ate hot pockets and went to bed. Still a better love story than Twilight. Wait, what? Ok, that’s a wrap. Good luck to you this week, bad luck to your opponents and game on. Here’s the week 12 rankings for 2013 Fantasy Football…
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Week 12 Players to Play/Avoid: Different Shades of Brown
November 20, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Football, Rush & Pass Strategy | 59 Commentsby: Loudon
Although there are plenty of players capable of rising above a bad matchup, terms like “Revis Island” would not exist if it wasn’t at least somewhat true. Take T.Y. Hilton, for instance. After the loss of Reggie Wayne, Hilton has been an incredible asset for fantasy owners, but put him up against the Titans’ defense and suddenly he’s scoring less than 5 fantasy points. He should have a slightly easier time against Arizona this weekend, but I mean it when I say slightly. Cecil Shorts is a talented guy and he only managed 22 yards against Arizona last Sunday so start Hilton if you need him, but don’t expect WR1 production.
Speaking of Tennessee’s defense, they travel to Oakland this week and that makes the Raiders’ WRs unplayable. Rod Streater had a great outing this past weekend and Denarius Moore has been pretty consistent this weekend, but there are much better options this week.
Another consistent WR this year has been Antonio Brown, but this is definitely the week to sell high on him. Brown is still worth starting in many leagues. He hasn’t scored below six fantasy points in standard scoring leagues yet this season. However, Joe Haden is a special talent. If you were to rattle off a few receivers more talented than Antonio Brown, A.J. Green might be one of the people you list and Green was held to two catches for seven yards with Haden as his shadow. You never want to bench your best guys, but depending on your available options, you will want to consider it with Brown this week.
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DraftKings – On The Upswing, About To Get My Golden Ticket
November 20, 2013 | DraftKings | 6 Commentsby: JB Gilpin
DraftKings is back baby! And we’re one week closer to that HUGE WEEK 17 MILLIONAIRE FINALE, and while I’m still struggling in my attempts to win my ticket on the cheap, I’m slowly improving. Last week I was 234/862 and with another 233 players worth of improvement, a ticket is mine! I’m sticking with the $2 Fantasy Millionaire Qualifier to try and win the Ticket with just a few peanuts. That said, I’m feeling better about my roster than any other week, so I might branch out into some other contests for a nice payday. Bring it in the Millionaire Qualifier, Razzball Nation!
Please, blog, may I have some more? BuyBuy O’Riley
November 20, 2013 | 2013 Fantasy Football, Fantasy Football Buy/Sell | 171 Commentsby: Sky
Out here on the fields. He fights for his meals. He puts his back into his living. And then he gets wasted! And says something really dumb that you probably shouldn’t click on while at work. Deadspin, ya couldn’t censor the word in your title? What the Eff…see? You can get the point across without actually saying it. Neverthewho! It seems that our media darling Riley Cooper has torn the fantasyniks asunder. One side of the camp will tell you he’s been extremely lucky with the production he’s had since week 6. I mean, he’s only averaging 6 targets per game during that span. Want a little perspective on how low that is? Well, over the last 4 weeks, he’s outscored Demaryius Thomas (10.75 TPG), Pierre Garcon (10.5 TPG) and AJ Green (11.5 TPG). So somehow, he’s squeezing similar or better production from 40%-45% less targets. REGRESSION ALERT! Right? Well, maybe not so fast. You see, chemistry is a crazy thing between QB and receiver. This Foles to Cooper love affair could be spotted last year as the season wound down and has carried into this year. It’s not just that Foles likes throwing to Cooper because he’s a great receiver – I don’t think he is – or because he’s especially fast – he’s not – but because he trusts him. Trust goes a long way in those relationships. I have no doubt Foles and Cooper would excel at a marriage retreat with trust exercises. Catch me Coop I’m falling into your loving arms! That’s Foles. He calls him Coop, trust me. All this to say, Foles is willing to throw dangerous passes Riley’s way because he knows he’ll fight for them. Plus Cooper has this going for him: he’s not the best receiver on his own team. But, but Sky…you said to buy him…why would I not want the best receiver on the team? That’s the great thing about Riley and his situation. He doesn’t have to be to get results. DeSean pulls the toughest corner more often than not, the ground game threat usually keeps the safety playing up tight and Cooper is left by his lonesome to do some damage against the second best coverage player on the team. And because this topic is getting ridiculously long, I’d like to finish with a few notes. Consider this the lightening round portion of your reading info-tainment. Since becoming a starter, Foles is averaging 26.4 attempts per game. Remember when we all said ‘these stats can’t be sustained because of low target totals’? Well, Cooper has been 22.7% of Foles’ targets during that span. Perspective? Aforementioned DT has been 22.7% of Peyton’s all year. Yup, for as explosive as the Eagles offense has been for the year, many forget they’re a run-first team and Foles hasn’t had to attempt many passes to garner the success he’s had. Oh and Cooper’s last game was regression? FUGGEDABAHDIT. Dropped a would be 40+ yard bomb of a touchdown and got dropped at the one inch line for another TD opportunity. Cooper is as real as he needs to be, just had a ‘bad’ game and is on bye. BuyBuy O’Riley indeed. In other buy/sell news for 2013 Fantasy Football…
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