Twitter Reactions: Week Twelve
Each week I will be walking through the Twitterverse extracting some of the best commentary from trusted fantasy football minds. Twitter can be overwhelming with the amount of information that streams live, but it also proves to be one of the fastest and easiest ways to communicate. In 140 characters or less you can learn something about a player you may have never thought of from trends, stats or analysis.
Tweet of the Week
In an NFL that is impossible to predict on a weekly basis, I can appreciate the rock-solid reliability of the Redskins’ impotence.
— Chris Wesseling (@ChrisWesseling) November 23, 2014
Ouch. I loved this tweet because the NFL and fantasy football are so unpredictable, but the Redskins’ struggles are well documented and undeniable. P
Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson, WR WAS
Speaking of Washington, how bad has Robert Griffin been for this team? Besides the fact that the PR department should have all been fired after the numerous public comments being made, Griffin is no longer the dynamic playmaker we all saw during his rookie season. While I doubt anyone is relying on RG3 as their starting quarterback in fantasy, they are most likely counting on receivers Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson. Evan Silva commented on Garcon’s drop in production,
1. Garcon’s role has been reduced severely in Gruden’s O. Six or fewer targets in 8 straight games. 2. The QB sucks. Colt McCoy is better.
— Evan Silva (@evansilva) November 24, 2014
Garcon’s fantasy relevance cannot all be placed on Griffin as Evan noted, but in his last three starts, Pierre has only managed 55 yards on seven catches. DeSean has not been much better recently with Griffin failing to break 40 yards over the last two. Multiple people are citing that the playbook has been completely thrown out the window to account for all of Robert Griffin’s deficiencies recently. Moving forward the rest of the season I find it hard to start any Washington offensive player outside of Alfred Morris. Unfortunately for fantasy owners the long term uncertainty of whether Griffin or head coach Jay Gruden will remain with the team next season greatly diminishes any long term value.
Josh Gordon, WR CLE
I hope the wait was worth it. There was a lot of “coach speak” and posturing by the Cleveland Browns this week in regards to Gordon’s role his first game back. Most people I read, including myself, did not believe the explosive receiver would be limited, particularly when the coaches fully understand he provides the best option to put points on the board. Quarterback Brian Hoyer locked onto Gordon often as Tony DelSignore and Ryan McDowell tweeted,
16 targets for Josh Gordon. For everyone who was worried that he wouldn’t get enough work. Going to be a season changer down the stretch
— Tony DelSignore Jr (@TonyD_12) November 24, 2014
Only one player this season has had more than the 16 targets in a single game Josh Gordon had today- Jeffery had 17 last week.
— Ryan McDowell (@RyanMc23) November 24, 2014
Last season Gordon averaged just over 11 targets per game, so the volume should continue and he is a clear wide receiver one the remainder of the season. Even despite Hoyer’s questionable abilities, Gordon prevailed. Looking beyond this season he still carries the risk of another suspension, and with his rap sheet the suspensions would likely be season long. But where should you value him? The DLF rankings currently place him as the 14th overall receiver. Remove the suspension risk though and you have a dynamic, 23-year old receiver who has proven he can excel with even the most average of signal callers. Josh Gordon has top five talent and even with the risk I have him in the top 10.
Mark Sanchez, QB PHI
Mark Sanchez found a new home and became fantasy relevant again. Coach Chip Kelly has proven his system can turn out stats as Adam Pfifer tweeted,
Under Chip Kelly, Mark Sanchez has now thrown for 300 yards in three-straight games. Always fantasy relevant in this offense. #Eagles
— Adam Pfeifer (@aPfeiferFF) November 23, 2014
But with all those yards there has also been questionable real life play and of course the mounting turnovers. But as Raymond Summerlin shared, do we really care?
Sanchez is not playing well and will cost PHI an important game at some point. We just care about stats, though, and he will get those.
— Raymond Summerlin (@RMSummerlin) November 24, 2014
If your fantasy league does not really penalize for interceptions and fumbles, get a new league. Despite throwing for a ton of yards and one or two touchdowns, his negative stats are limiting his real upside. He is a fringe starter on a weekly basis because while his floor is pretty high, the turnovers lower the ceiling a good deal. Maybe he will continue to grow in Chip’s system and learn to limit mistakes, but despite some excitement and hype he is not going to carry your fantasy team. With two matchups against Dallas and Seattle sandwiched between in his next three starts, I would be looking elsewhere to win in the playoffs.
Jordan Matthews, WR PHI
One of the main benefactors of Sanchez starting the past few weeks has been rookie receiver Jordan Matthews. While Sanchez may look for the young receiver more, simply learning the offense and getting acclimated to the NFL likely plays a bigger role as Josh Moore shared,
Jordan Matthews played more snaps than Riley Cooper for the first time this season. Love his potential in this #Eagles O. #PraiseTheLord
— Josh Moore (@4for4_Josh) November 17, 2014
Along with the increased time on the field have also come the targets as Raymond Summerlin points out as well,
Jordan Mathews 8 more targets today. 29 targets in 4 games with Sanchez. 25 targets in Sanchez’s 3 starts.
— Raymond Summerlin (@RMSummerlin) November 24, 2014
Those 25 targets are just one less than Jeremy Maclin and both have caught the same number of passes. Matthews though has made more of his receptions with 132 more yards and two additional touchdowns. At this point in the season both Jordan and Jeremy appear to be options 1A and 1B. Look for Matthews to continue climbing the ranks as the season winds down as this amazing class of rookie receivers remains in constant flux as they continue to one up each other.
Zach Mettenberger, QB TEN
Unlike the rookie receiver class, the quarterback position has been a complete mess. Rotoworld’s Evan Silva delivered this tweet which is both sad and comical at the same time,
“Hot” but true take: Zach Mettenberger has been the best rookie quarterback so far & I’m not sure it’s particularly close. #Titans
— Evan Silva (@evansilva) November 24, 2014
Johnny Manziel is not playing, Derek Carr is not winning, Teddy Bridgewater can’t throw passes more than two yards past the line of scrimmage and Blake Bortles is Blake Bortles. Some of the other reviews on Zach from Sunday were mixed positive and realistically pessimistic.
Over 50% of Mettenberger’s yards gained yesterday were when he was under pressure. Overcoming the poor O Line performance is nice to see.
— Ty Miller (@Ty_In_StL) November 24, 2014
Mettenberger padded the stats in the fourth quarter, but whole lot of bad on show today. Bad accuracy and being a sloth most notable.
— Cian O’Fathaigh (@Cianaf) November 23, 2014
In comparison to the previously mentioned Sanchez, Mettenberger is averaging less than one fantasy point per game over their last three starts. There is still a long way to go to seeing how these young quarterbacks will develop and end up, but this guy might just be the best bet.
Dez Bryant, WR DAL
Currently sitting as the number one overall player in the DLF Top 100, Dez Bryant continues to impress. As Rich Hribar points out, Dez’s scoring ability is unmatched.
Dez Bryant has caught at least one touchdown in 26 games since 2012 and has 9 games of 2+ TD catches, both the most in the league.
— Rich Hribar (@LordReebs) November 24, 2014
It also helps when the offense he plays in remains pretty straightforward as John remarked,
Outside of Dez (7/86/2), it’s tough to trust any other Romo target. Most wks this O is narrow in scope. Feed Murray 20, hit Dez. #2MugsSNF
— Rummy (@RumfordJohnny) November 24, 2014
My only argument against Bryant as the number one dynasty player is the lower number of targets and yardage. With DeMarco Murray absolutely killing it in the run game, the Cowboys have not thrown as much and allowed for Dez to pile up yardage similar to players like Antonio Brown or Demaryius Thomas. Brown has also found the end zone with more consistency the last two seasons making it easy for anyone, including myself, to make a good argument for the top spot. Either way, Dez Bryant continues to dominate on a weekly basis and provides both max upside and weekly consistency.
Special call out to Pro Football Focus’ Premium Stats for providing a great tool to pull some of the data and information in this article.
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