With Nick Foles showing the world why Michael Vick was the starting quarterback for Philadelphia, Reggie Wayne tearing his ACL, Doug Martin injuring his shoulder (DO NOT DROP HIM YET), and the future of both Arian Foster and Ben Tate now up in the air following their bye week, this week has been a mess, but we still have to press on. Here are your bad and good matchups for week 8.
Please, blog, may I have some more?My biggest reason for digging daily fantasy leagues, and DraftKings is by far my favorite, is I can brag right away. As in, “HAHA Nick I owned you this week!” While I still finished just out of the money, I had a solid team and can still brag to dear Nicholas. If you didn’t catch it last week, Nick and I tweeted out our line-ups and my immediate response to his was “Josh Freeman?!” This just isn’t Nick’s year for football… And with DraftKings you get immediate bragging rights unlike your yearly leagues. Sure my 7-0 Writer’s League Team is going to do better than Nick’s 1-6 team, but hey, at least I know for sure I won DraftKings!
Nick and I are going to face off again in the same $1 challenge to see if I can go double-or-nothing against him. We’re putting our teams together now and will tweet them out right before kickoff on Sunday as well. Razzball Nation is of course invited to join and track our teams and see how you stack up against us in the same challenge. And pick Josh Freeman again Nick!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Alright everybody. It’s that time. Grab your fingerless, studded leather gloves, tease your hair out so it looks like you stuck your finger in a light socket and send your red leather jacket through a paper shredder. Yes, we’re gonna rock out to some Billy Idol and listen to the buy low tale of Alfred Morris. But wait, what, huh? How’s a guy who’s performing well – currently a mid-range RB2 in most formats – be close to consideration as a buy low you ask? Well, under the hood there’s some stats. Morris is currently 4th in rushing yards per game (78.7), 8th in total rushing yards (472 with his bye week already passed), tied for second for 20+ yard runs on the year (5) and 4th in yards per attempt (5.2). With all of that, how in the world could he be underrated you ask? Simple: touchdowns. Morris is currently tied with a plethora – word of the day – of guys who are stuck at 3 rushing touchdowns ranging from Brandon Jacobs (yuck sauce) to Kendall Hunter (yes, a backup RB). This whole pile is 1 TD behind Morris’ teammate Roy Helu. You know, the guy who got every rushing TD in the game on Sunday. Three actually. Frustration creates opportunity if you’re ready to seize it. Given the dearth of injuries this last week and the steady nature of The Butler, a ROS RB6 or RB7 is well within sight and this could be your last chance to get in on that. Buy while you still can and let out a little Rebel Yell while you do. In other buy/sell news for 2013 Fantasy Football…
Please, blog, may I have some more?Week 7 in the NFL was like the first five minutes of Saving Private Ryan – carnage. It was one rough week with big-name players left battered, broken, concussed and crying . Sing it, Bono: Sunday, bloody Sunday. The Bucs’ Doug Martin is out for the year with a torn labrum. So much for that number one pick. The Colts’ Reggie Wayne suffered a season-ending torn ACL. The Rams’ Sam Bradford is gone for the year with the same injury. In the Fantasy Football world, ACL stands for: All Championships Lost. Jay Cutler broke his groin and no amount of Kristin Cavallari massaging is going to fix it; he’s out 6 weeks. Philly’s new favorite son Nick Foles appears done and is sitting in a dark room with his drool cup after suffering the dreaded “C” word the NFL hates to hear – concussion. Packers tight end Jermichael Finley went down with his second serious head injury this season and spent the night in the ICU thinking he was at Disney World. Arian Foster was lost to a hammy, Brian Cushing broke his leg, Lance Briggs is out with a fractured shoulder, Champ Bailey hurt his foot and Peyton Manning’s forehead is still the color of a baboon’s ass. Oh, its always like that. Good news for Peyton owners. With so many roster shattering injuries and six teams on byes this week, it’s time to do some deep digging into the waiver wire medical bag. Get me a morphine drip and let’s jam it or cram it.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
When the next meeting of the designers of those inspiration posters goes down, one of them will be forced to suggest a picture of my Writer’s League team when the word “Perfection” comes up. Perfection is a tricky thing. On one hand, I’m expected to win every week now, and on the other, screw it I’m 7-0 baby! I don’t think I’ve ever had a 7-0 team in any competitive leagues in over 10 years of playing fantasy football, it’s a tough feat to accomplish. The perfect record puts me in a class with only 4 other RCL teams which you can check out atop the full interactive 2013-2014 RCL Standings tab up under “Leagues” that shows you how you’re stacking up against your Razzball competitors in your journey to RCL glory.
TOP SCORER: If you missed this week’s Pod, then you missed that Release the KRAKEN! from the Take On Jaywrong 2 league was the top scoring team through Sunday this week, and it held up through MNF to officially lead the RCL in scoring. Kraken released! With big weeks from VJax, Forte and Jacquizz, it was the big game from Jordan Reed as Kraken’s bye-week fill-in for Jimmy Graham that put him over the top with 195.56 points. I’m pretty sure this was the first week no RCL team topped 200, but that diminishes nothing Kraken! He moves to 6-1 and atop JayWrong’s second league and gets a very tough matchup against Fish’s Official Team in week 8 to try and keep the #1 spot. Congrats again Kraken and keep Jay being Wrong!
The narrative of tonight’s game would best be read in a Sam Elliott voice. No, I’m not talking about those crappy Dodge commercials. No again, I’m not talking about his turn as the Chupadogra in Marmaduke. How’d you even know he was that without Wikipedia anyways? Nah, I’m rocking The Big Lebowski on this one and going with ‘The Stranger’. Sometimes there’s a man…I won’t say a hero, ’cause, what’s a hero? But sometimes, there’s a man. And I’m talkin’ about Peyton Hillis here. Sometimes, there’s a man, well, he’s the man for his time and place. He fits right in there. And that’s Hillis, in New Jersey. And even if he’s a lazy man – and Hillis was most certainly that. Quite possibly the laziest in Bergen County, which would place him high in the runnin’ back world for laziest worldwide. But sometimes there’s a man…sometimes, there’s a man…Aw, I lost my train of thought here. But what I do know is on a night rife with Fantasy futility, the the bridge to a winning week was brought down by the unlikeliest of guys on a night of the unlikeliest suckitude we’ve seen in prime time so far this year. Hillis gave us his best Hynoski impersonation for most of the night as he rumbled for 81 tough yards and a touchdown to help hold down the first win of the NFL season for his beleaguered team mates. Indeed, sometimes there’s a man…who doesn’t really matter and will never be heard from again. You can call Peyton Hillis the dude and I’m just fine with that. But he’s not the capitalized ‘Dude’. He’s some schmo that stumbled onto an 0-6 team and whose lead back for the week got hurt and needed a spark for the night and he was it. And with this narrative, I fully expect the first question to be ‘should I pick up Hillis’ because I’ve trained you all well in the art of snark. Good lord, this game was terrible. Thank you, voice of Sam Elliott in my head, for making it palpable. In other 2013 Fantasy Football news…
Please, blog, may I have some more?Week 7 is (mostly) in the books, and despite the worst MNF game ever, it was a huge week capped off with the Battle of 1812 (yeah, that one took me a split second…). JayWrong goes over that game and everything AFC (including yet another Chargers win), then I go over the NFC notes including a Panthers win and a rant about how the St. Louis Rams carried themselves. But I do wish the best to Sam Bradford… Fluke injury. Murph then calls in reporting on that and all the other injuries from Sunday, and lists himself in the report after suffering a loss to my 7-0 Writer’s Team! Or so I assume, Muprh! Drink more of that moonshine I sent ya that kept ya out last week! Erases memories… Good luck to everyone in week 8!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Good tidings everyone and welcome, once again, to this quickly/drunkenly-typed post of one handsome man’s observations of Sunday Night Football. I’d like to thank Sky for covering my slot last week, as, if you didn’t hear, was because my birthday weekend finally arrived after a year-long wait. Sky seemed to understand that a three-day alcohol binge was not the best precursor to write a Sunday Night Football recap… Naw, I’m just messing with you, he didn’t mention that at all. He was actually wondering why that weekend would be any different then my normal routine. Well played sir, well played. The difference? More crying. Goodbye age-30, my self-labeled peak. Hello early 30’s. So, football… hey, wait a second… are you kidding me? Peyton Manning returned to Indy last night? No one told me! Way to downplay a narrative sports media! Let us go over this premier horse game. Hey, John Elway, why the long face? HAR HAR.
Please, blog, may I have some more?There was a lot of buzz about the Chicago Bears offense heading into the season. B-Marsh was gonna have a great year and Alshon was going to improve upon a decent but unhealthy rookie campaign. Cutler was going to have his most productive QB year yet. And underneath it all, Matt Forte was just kinda there. Sure, much of the offense was tailored to a guy like Forte but in most rankings, Forte wasn’t cracking the top 5 running backs. I’m not just talking for myself here – I put him 14th in PPR for RBs…you can berate me in the comments -he was getting treated like what he has been in most seasons coming into 2013. A low touchdown back who had strong PPR value and would gain you over 1000 yards on the ground. Nothing to go crazy over by any means. But clearly the value-flip has switched. After today’s effort of 19/91/3 to go with 2/18 through the air, Forte is pacing out to be a guy that’ll clear 1700 yards on the year to go with 13 touchdowns and a whopping 80 receptions. I doubt the reception numbers on many levels but if he finishes in the 60 range, color me not surprised. He’s been a bit of an unsung RB hero this year in a draft full of disappointments and here’s me standing up and saluting Matt and his efforts. Let’s hope he doesn’t have to do it much with McCown moving forward. In other news from week 7 for 2013 Fantasy Football…
Please, blog, may I have some more?Ugh. My bench calls last week, in a way to sum them up, is like the Vikings this season. AP has to go through an unimaginable tragedy, then there’s rumors of him being traded, then they bring in a scrapheap of a QB in Josh Freeman who is going to start. On a lighter note, ESPN wants the head of whomever scheduled the Monday Night Football games this year. Wait – that’s lighter? Ummm, yea if Joe Pesci is the head-deliverer!
I hated going into LSD this week. Haha, a sentence I never thought I’d say… But yeah, it was a brutal week, and despite utterly clobbering the other Razzball Writers and being one of the handful of teams undefeated in RCLs, I just can’t quite seem to hit my stride in Last Second Decisions so far this year. But what is hitting its stride is RCL Basketball, and we’re gearing up for the best and biggest season we’ve ever had over there on hoops. If you need your fantasy get-me-over when NFL is over and until Baseball and daily Grey-dates (what I call Grey updates, but now realize that sounds like a Cougar dating site term), hoops is you perfect go-to through the second half of Winter to early Spring.
Please, blog, may I have some more?For those of you that had week 6 in your DeMarco Murray injury pool then enjoy your winnings and for those of you that had Joseph Randle stashed I call bullshizz. What’s that diligent razzball commenter, “hey J, you had Lance Dunbar listed as the handcuff the last 4 weeks”. I know and who would of thunk the guy with ZERO touches all season would be the guy to replace the guy. I’m not here to get all googly eyed over Randle even though Randle is the word of the week right now in fantasy football. First, you have the knee injury to Randall Cobb, who I always thought was this guy, and then you have Rueben Randle, the very relevant the last two weeks WR from the Giants who likes to battle with David Wilson on Twitter. Now Joseph Randle doesn’t really add to the sexy mix like the other two, but he is the starter this week and may be needed as a bye week stand in. If you don’t need him then I wouldn’t drop anyone worthy to stash him. Last week vs. the Skins he managed only 1.4 YPC for a total of 17 yards on 11 carries with a long of 14 yards. That means he averaged 0.3 yards for the other 10 carries, that’s a little less than a foot per carry against one of the worst run defenses. He did catch two balls out of the backfield and considering he is playing the Eagles this week might be good for 8-10 points and maybe more in a PPR league. Everyone on the list below him is droppable to stream, and we might see a different Randle this week compared to last when he gets all week to prepare and mentally get ready to be the main ball carrier. But again, I wouldn’t put my stock too high. Sorry readers this post will be a little short this week for I am going on a trip to see our leader Sky and have a lot of things to handle before I leave town. I also want to wish our Razzball icon on the baseball side a happy bachelor party weekend, may it turn out as exciting as this one. I will be available throughout the weekend for Q&A and via Twitter for those that prefer that route…..damn I went link crazy this week!
Please, blog, may I have some more?This week’s injury report is brought to you by hurt hamstrings. These seem to be all the rage around the league right now and make up a majority of the injuries we’re seeing on this week’s report. The good news is that once old Doc here can figure out how to heal them, a lot of players should be coming back.
Hamstrings are the muscles in the back of the leg that help allow you to bend your knee. Imagine yourself trying to kick a football but you couldn’t bend your leg. That would be what life is like with a hamstring injury. Kicking is tough, running is hard and slow and they don’t seem to heal quickly for anything.
Let’s take a look at who is all on the training table this week. All injuries are hamstring unless noted otherwise.
Please, blog, may I have some more?