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:
Lightning Storm – It wouldn’t be a Razzball IDP column if I didn’t talk about Chris Long and Robert Quinn. In the Rams’ shocking demolition of Indy, Black Thunder and White Lightning combined for 8 tackles and 3 sacks, along with a TD for Long. If St. Louis can figure things out on offense, they have an excellent young defense with James Laurinaitis, Alec Ogletree, and these two pass-rushing terrors.
Cameron Heyward – He has been (appropriately) labeled as a first round bust in Pittsburgh, but Heyward has quietly put up three straight games of 5+ tackles, recording a sack in his last two. The Steelers are known for being patient with their pass rushers (James Harrison, LaMarr Woodley and Joey Porter all took at least two years before becoming sack masters), so this could be another case of Dick LeBeau magic. If you lost someone like Geno Atkins or Vince Wilfork and have been streaming the DL position, Heyward is worth a flier.
Vincent Rey – You can’t talk about the LB position in Week 10 without talking about Rey. No matter what scoring system you’re working with, 15 tackles, 3 sacks and a pick are ridiculous numbers. Rey is only seeing the field because Rey Maualuga is hurt, but with performances like that, it’s tough to imagine him getting benched any time soon. I like Rey in the short term, but this past week was obviously his ceiling. Another “no name” who I like more also made a statement last week…
Paul Worrilow – Back to back games of 19 tackles? Sign me up! With Stephen Nicholas battling a quad injury, Worrilow has been in on seemingly every play for Atlanta. As an undrafted rookie out of Delaware, I was more than ready to chalk up his Week 9 performance to a great LB matchup with Carolina. Seattle was still a good matchup, but putting up those kind of stats two weeks in a row is difficult to do no matter who the opponent is. Atlanta has nothing much to play for, other than driving Tony Gonzalez closer and closer to suicide, so I’d expect Worrilow to be on the field as much as possible so that Mike Smith’s coaching staff can see what they have in the former Blue Hen. Make a move for him if he’s available.
Andrew Sendejo – It doesn’t seem to matter who is lining up at Safety for Minnesota, they all end up as top-10 DBs. First it was Harrison Smith, who got hurt and opened up a spot for Jamarca Sanford, who also got hurt, and opened up a spot for Sendejo. All Sendejo did was respond with 16 tackles against the DB-friendly Redskins. If Sanford is still out against the Seahawks, Sendejo makes a great streaming option.
Antrel Rolle – The 2013 season for Rolle is a perfect example of why it’s smart to stream DBs, and not smart to pay for them in the draft. I had Rolle ranked as a top 20 option at DB before the season. By Week 5, I didn’t put him in my top 40. Now? He’s right back in the thick of things. The Giants’ secondary has been a mess of injuries and inconsistency this year, but after putting up double digit fantasy points in 5 of his last 6 games, I like Rolle as the best of the bunch. He gets a great slate of matchups in the next month too, with the Packers, Cowboys, Redskins and Chargers on tap.
Week 11 IDP Rankings:
