Union

Weekly Twitter Observations

Luke Wetta Posted On December 16, 2014
Save To Favorites

twitter

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.

Quote of the Week

I loved this quote. Unfortunately it does not matter how many articles you read, how many stats you crunch or how much film you actually watch, fantasy football remains unpredictable and holds a certain amount of luck. My goal at the start of every season is to make the playoffs and have the best starting lineup possible when I get there.

Odell Beckham Jr., WR NYG

Despite all the top performances from rookies this season, the Giants Odell Beckham, Jr. is easily rising to the top. The most impressive thing about Beckham is that he truly appears to get better with every game. More targets, more catches, more yards and more touchdowns continue to pile up. He is also breaking records as Ryan Asselta pointed out,

Over the last four weeks, Beckham is averaging an insane 10 catches for 127 yards per game. Josh Moore pointed just how elite the receiver has been tweeting,

Antonio Brown has been one of the most consistent receivers over the last two years and currently is my number one overall dynasty player. So it begs the question, where does Odell fall? A number of the diligent staff at DLF have updated their wide receiver rankings as of yesterday with the lowest coming in at 10th and the highest at number two! I would love to know where everyone else has him ranked as of today and what the price to acquire his services in fantasy might be.

Antonio Brown, WR PIT

While on the subject of greatness and before you quickly anoint the previously mentioned Beckham Jr. the greatest receiver of all time, Antonio Brown continues to make a case for the top spot. As two esteemed fantasy analysts pointed out, Brown is having quite a season.

In terms of dynasty rankings, comparing players still remains very subjective. You could easily argue for Beckham Jr., Brown or a number of other players as the best fantasy player around and be unable to prove your case to everyone. So I share the Antonio Brown stats to highlight the point that understanding your opponents perceptions and rankings is sometimes more important than knowing your own. If you still think Dez Bryant is the best fantasy receiver out there and own a player like Brown or Beckham Jr., make an offer. I am still surprised to this day how my opinions on a player can differ so much from another owner’s views.

Jeremy Hill, RB CIN

Before the start of games in week 15 of the NFL, the Cincinnati Bengals made a point that they would be moving towards one main running back. As Nick Mensio shared, that man was Jeremy Hill.

Hill was afforded 25 carries, which he turned into 148 yards rushing and two touchdowns. It was a truly solid performance albeit against an extremely suspect defense and a team in the Browns that were unable to put up a single point offensively. Graham Barfield also provided a stat helps understand the move by the Bengals to focus on Hill as their lead back.

Moving forward we should assume that Jeremy Hill will continue to be the lead back in Cincinnati and that running mate Giovani Bernard will be involved but play a more specialized role. In fantasy, owning a running back that could see 20 touches a game and handle goal line duties is rare so Hill’s value should only continue to climb. The Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson has always shown a preference to pounding the football on the ground so the presence of Bernard may not truly impact Hill. Instead, he should help keep him fresh and removed from the 400 plus touches a back like DeMarco Murray is receiving. Hill has become a clear top ten option at running back and should be for the foreseeable future.

Peyton Manning, QB DEN

Peyton Manning set the real and fantasy world on fire last season. Coming into 2014 much of the same was expected as his receiving options were upgraded and despite being 38 years old looked to still have enough juice in the tank. Everything was still looking good for Peyton until the last weeks as Evan Silva noted,


While he still may sit as the number three overall quarterback in terms of total points, he has not been worthy of start when it counts the most. Part of the reason may be age and wearing down, partly due to recent competition but a major factor appears to be the change in offensive philosophy has Adam Levitan highlighted,

Chris Wesseling highlighted how rare the recent pass/run ratio has been for Manning tweeting,


If the Broncos are truly going to begin to limit Manning’s opportunities due to scheme or need to save his old bones then his value considerably lessens. While you likely still have to start him the rest of this season, looking ahead to next year and beyond Manning is unlikely a top 10 option at quarterback in dynasty. Even if he does have one more season in him, you will be considered about another late season drop off making the necessity to have a strong option behind him even more important. It has been a great run but the race appears to be coming to an end.

Colin Kaepernick, QB SF

49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick came into the season sitting around tenth overall at the quarterback position in dynasty. He was never going to be a prolific passer like Andrew Luck, but his ability to run and score still made him a solid fantasy option. Last season, Kaepernick had four rushing touchdowns to go along with seven different multiple touchdown passing games. In contrast, this year he has not rushed for a single touchdown and has recorded only three multiple touchdown passing games, the last one of which was in week six. Adam Levitan had a truly great comparison that shows the depths of his fantasy production stating,

You likely won’t find Alex Smith in the top 30 of dynasty rankings for quarterbacks, so what should you expect from Colin? At this point he is somewhere in the high teens but should no longer be looked at as a weekly starting option even in deeper leagues.

Fantasy Football

Touching back on the initial quote from Sigmund Bloom at the beginning of this article, fantasy football contains high variability and one play can make all the difference between winning and losing. I am sure there are thousands of fantasy owners sharing Ryan Burns’ sentiments on Jordy Nelson still today.


And what about the inside knowledge on injuries we all rely on so much? Josh Moore showed why we are all still guessing most of the time and hope to get more right than wrong.

Finally one of the most humorous sides of fantasy football highlighted by DLF’s Scott Fish,


In the end, you should play to win but understand you will lose despite all your best thoughts and intentions. Good luck to everyone still fighting for championships and for those who are not, the 2015 starts today.

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.

Luke Wetta
Latest posts by Luke Wetta (see all)

Related Items:

Latest Articles

See All Articles
Group-3386-min

Part of the Betsperts Media and Technology Group

Betsperts
BNF - horizontal - dark
Betsperts Golf
Bleachernation
4for4

Copyright 2006-2025 Betsperts Media Group. All rights are reserved.

Find us here