Sunday Morning Huddle: Week Eleven
Let’s face it, there’s an enormous amount of information out there this morning. We’re not going to waste your time by repeating the news and notes about who’s in or out this week, since that’s really not what you visit us for. We’re also not going to do another article on starts or sits this week – we already have the personalized lineup advice for you on the premium content. Again, there are 100 places you can go for that, so we do something different on Sundays for our Premium Content subscribers every year.
The Sunday Morning Huddle goes through each game and states what we’re looking to see from a dynasty perspective. We’ll pick one player from each team who we have our eye on and describe why their weekend performance is a key one for them in relation to their dynasty value.
Early Games
NY Jets at Buffalo
It’s truly amazing how consistently inconsistent Geno Smith has been this year. After all, he’s scored in double figures in terms of fantasy performance in every odd numbered week and struggled in every even numbered week. Seriously, go check out his game log and you’ll be amazed. In his three outdoor road games this year, he has just one touchdown and seven interceptions. The Jets also had a bye last week, breaking the pattern of even to odd week performances. Â Is he good every other week he plays or is it really just the odd ones? Â We’ll find out today.
For the Bills, we need to continue our focus on CJ Spiller. The last time he faced the Jets and their top ranked run defense, he had just nine yards on ten carries. Buffalo says his ankle is fine, but he just doesn’t look like the same player. A breakout performance against a stout defense would do wonders for those who own him.
Atlanta at Tampa Bay
Roddy White made his triumphant return to the lineup last week with just one catch for 20 yards against Richard Sherman and the Seahawks. Things won’t get any easier this week with Darrelle Revis on tap, but he did play a high percentage of snaps last week, indicating he’s close to 100%. Much like Spiller, a solid performance from White could be a big confidence booster for his dynasty league owners as we enter the stretch run.
For the Bucs, they’re starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel in terms of running backs, but Bobby Rainey looked pretty sharp last week with 56 yards and a touchdown after Mike James went down with a season ending ankle injury. It’s likely the Bucs will still lean heavily on Brian Leonard, but Rainey will earn some more playing time this year with another good effort.
Detroit at Pittsburgh
Reggie Bush continues to squash the notion he can’t stay healthy or run through the tackles this season. With a Steelers defense that has given up the most touchdowns to running backs this season (12), Bush looks primed to make himself a top five running back option for the dynasty league playoffs, especially in PPR leagues.
Imagine if Antonio Brown actually scored touchdowns? Â In most PPR leagues, he’s already the WR7 with 67 catches for 805 yards. He’s only scored three times in his nine games, but he’s on pace for 119 catches and 1,431 yards this season. Sure, it would be nice to see him score more, but he’s been a bona fide WR1 in dynasty leagues since day one this year as one of the most consistent players playing on one of the most inconsistent teams.
Washington at Philadelphia
Slowly, but surely, RGIII has started to make his way back to the fantasy elite with two monster performances over the past month, including last week’s three touchdown performance against Minnesota. The Eagles have been like paper dolls in the secondary for most of the season, but have only allowed two passing touchdowns over the past four games while creating six interceptions over that same span. Something’s gotta give!
Fantasy football’s second best receiver over the past two weeks has been Riley Cooper!?! Yes, Cooper has been a manchild over the last couple of games with eight catches for 245 yards and five touchdowns. Nick Foles has found himself a nice second weapon opposite DeSean Jackson. While this show can’t possibly last forever (it’s not as if Cooper suddenly became incredibly gifted athletically), things will get interesting in a hurry with another good performance today.
Arizona at Jacksonville
At some point, Andre Ellington just has to get the football for the Cardinals. He’s looked much better than any other running back on the roster and seems to be rounding into form as a legitimate RB3/Flex play in dynasty leagues, even with the limited touches he’s been given. Let’s see if he can finally break through against the suddenly red hot Jaguars!
For the Jags, Mike Brown continues his audition for the future after the Justin Blackmon suspension. He’s cooled off as of late, but should have an opportunity to post a big line opposite Cecil Shorts again today.
Oakland at Houston
As of press time, it looks like Matt McGloin will be under center for the Raiders today. Terrelle Pryor has really struggled as of late and there’s certainly no guarantee he’s the quarterback of the future in Oakland. McGloin may just get his chance to show he can play at a high level. There’s no doubt he has a strong arm, so this could be interesting.
Speaking of interesting quarterback situations, Case Keenum is making a case to be the long term starter in Houston as he’s yet to throw an interception in his three starts. The more the Texans lose, the more likely they’ll take a quarterback in next year’s draft, so it behooves Keenum to get this team some wins. Today seems like an opportunity with the Raiders coming to town with a backup quarterback.
Baltimore at Chicago
We can pick six or seven players off the Ravens team to focus on, but let’s be honest – Ray Rice is a mess. With just 90 fantasy points in most leagues, he’s one of this year’s great disappointments. The Bears defense can be run on and Rice needs a big game today as much as he has in his entire career.
For the Bears, Alshon Jeffery has quietly put up another nice string of games with 18 catches for 279 yards and one touchdown over his past three games. Can he keep it going with Josh McCown at the helm?
Cleveland at Cincinnati
The Browns’ Jordan Cameron hasn’t been the same with just five catches for 85 yards over his last two games. Lucky for him, Jason Campbell is back under center and he should bounce back nicely from last week’s one catch, four yard outing. This is simply no time to panic.
The Bengals nearly pulled off an impossible win last week against the Ravens, but fell just short. In the process, it seems they lost track of Marvin Jones in their offense. After posting his monster four touchdown performance in week eight, Jones has just five catches for 68 yards over the past two weeks. Can Jones really emerge as the second option or will he continue to fade back into obscurity?
Late Games
San Diego at Miami
Has anyone else noticed who has eight straight double digit fantasy performances? Yep, it’s none other than Danny Woodhead, who has established himself as one of the best options at running back in PPR leagues this year. He’s not talked about at all, but he’s been consistently great all season.
So, which Rishard Matthews are we going to get today? Will it be the one who posted just two catches for 24 yards against the Bengals in week nine or the one who exploded for eleven catches for 120 yards and two scores against the Bucs on Monday night? The answer is likely in between, but what if…
Green Bay at NY Giants
I genuinely feel bad for Scott Tolzien, who has been thrown into the fire this week after injuries to Aaron Rodgers and Seneca Wallace. His performance today will tell us if we see another Packer performance from Matt Flynn in the near future. Regardless, he’s one to watch, especially if you own Jordy Nelson, James Jones or any other skill player for the Packers.
The Giants have struggled in the running game all season, but Andre Brown saved them last week with 115 yards and a touchdown on a robust 30 carries in his first game back after his injury. If he can produce like that and stay healthy in the process, you have yourselves an RB2 for the fantasy playoffs.
Minnesota at Seattle
When the Vikings lost Kyle Rudolph to injury, most just wrote off the tight end position for Minnesota. Enter John Carlson. With seven catches for 98 yards and a touchdown last week, Carlson was the leading tight end in all of fantasy football for one magical week. There’s no doubting his talent, but can he really do that again? If he can, we have ourselves a nice stop gap until Rudolph returns.
Percy Harvin is back for the Seahawks and ready to make his debut. There’s really nothing more to say – let’s just sit back and watch.
San Francisco at New Orleans
This is a huge game for both teams and the 49ers desperately need Colin Kaepernick to step up his game. As I noted in my Dynasty Aftermath column this week, if you take out his dominant opening game performance, he’s posted six touchdowns through the air, three on the ground and accounted for ten turnovers since. Yep, you read that right. Nine total touchdowns and ten turnovers over his last eight contests. Last week was awful as he recorded just 91 passing yards and an interception, while rushing for just 16 yards in a home loss against Carolina. If he can’t play better than that, there’s no way the 49ers can hang with the Saints and their chances of catching Seattle in the NFC West may just go up in smoke.
The Saints received a huge performance from Mark Ingram last week as he rushed for 145 yards and a touchdown on just 14 carries. To say Ingram has been a disappointment is a massive understatement, but he’s at least given owners a reason to hope after last week’s game. Let’s see if it was all just a mirage.
Sunday Night Football
Kansas City at Denver
This game is all about Alex Smith on the Chiefs side. There is no doubt he’ll be asked to be much more than a game manager against a team averaging 41 points per game. Yes, the Chiefs only allow 17 per game, but if you split the difference, you have to figure the Chiefs will need to score at least 28 to win the game. Can he do it? If so, you have a player who can be a nice QB2 for the foreseeable future. If not, you have, well, Alex Smith.
Can Knowshon Moreno really keep this up? It seems as if the Broncos are more willing to give Montee Ball more carries, so it’s going to be interesting to see the distribution of carries moving forward.
Ken is on Twitter at DLF_KenK
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