NFL Pick'Em: Week 5

This week our contestant in the NFL Pick'Em Challenge is Carlos Y. Carlos already has won entry into our end of the year raffle for the autographed Brian Dawkins' football. Now he is trying to knock off Basilio and Dominic at the top of our Pick'Em leaderboard. Let's take a look at his picks.

Jaguars over Buffalo
Indianapolis over Kansas City
Cincinnati over Tampa Bay
Green Bay over Washington
Detroit over St. Louis
Chicago over Carolina
Houston over New York Giants
Baltimore over Denver
Atlanta over Cleveland
New Orleans over Arizona
Dallas over Tennessee
San Diego over Oakland
San Francisco over Philadelphia
Minnesota over New York Jets

Good luck to you Carlos and to all our readers this weekend. Have a great Week 5.

Studs and Duds: Week 5

This week brings a number of skill players on a bye week or dealing with injuries that may negatively impact fantasy teams around the world. If you are scrambling for a last second pick up, here are some guys we recommend you start and some guys that you may want to think about sitting.

STUDS

Quarterbacks

Shaun Hill vs. St. Louis: I expect this game to be a shootout and Hill has been more than serviceable in fantasy this season. Given that RB Jahvid Best will be hurt again I like his odds at putting up some points to help your fantasy team.

David Garrard vs. Buffalo: The truth is the Bills are terrible against the run and slightly (by comparison) better against the pass. However, they are still bad and this is Garrard’s best opportunity to put up some big numbers. If you are scrambling for a quarterback, I’d definitely give him a look this week.

Running Backs

Michael Bush vs. San Diego: It is official, Darren McFadden is out this week and the load falls on Bush’s shoulders. The Chargers have the number one overall defense but they have struggled in recent years against the Raiders’ offensive line. Bush has a chance this week, but it is a gamble. Will you roll the dice with Bush?

Ryan Torain vs. Green Bay: Another running back with a difficult matchup. I like Torain to accumulate some stats simply for the reason that there is no one else there. He is going to get many opportunities to touch the ball so that gives him a huge upside that fantasy owners can’t ignore.

Wide Receivers

Danny Amendola vs. Detroit: As mentioned earlier, I expect this to be a shootout, especially late in the game. Amendola is the team leader in targets and I expect him to continue to get enough looks to produce for your team.

Pierre Garcon vs. Kansas City: Austin Collie is expected to miss this week’s game and that means all of his production falls on Garcon. This game is huge for Mr. Squiggly because it may be his one opportunity to re-establish himself in the Colt’s offense.

Tight End

Brent Celek vs. San Francisco: This season seemed lost for Celek once Kevin Kolb lost his job to Mike Vick. However, Kolb is back checking his passes down and that means more targets for Celek. The San Fran Defense is aggressive and it will force Kolb to get rid of the ball quickly which means a lot of Celek this week.

DUDS

Quarterbacks

Brett Favre vs. New York Jets: Everyone is expecting big things now that Randy Moss is back home in Minnesota. However, a quick turn around is not easy to maneuver in the NFL, especially against Darrelle Revis and the Jets. I look for the Vikes to take more shots down the field however their fate will continue to rest with Adrian Peterson.

Kyle Orton vs. Baltimore: Orton has been a pleasant surprise this season with his passing performance. The Broncos have the worst rushing attack in the league and have been depending on Orton and the pass attack to get their points. The Ravens can be run on due to the extra help that they are sending their secondary. That means that the Ravens will be expecting the pass and will surely be guarding against it. Which in turn means that Orton won’t have the lanes to throw.

Running Backs

Shonn Greene vs. Minnesota: The Vikes can be had on the ground but Greene still has not shown that he can be a versatile part enough of the Jets offense. I still like Tomlinson over Greene and I even think Mark Sanchez will have a bigger day with Santonio Holmes now in the mix.

Matt Forte vs. Carolina: With Cutler out, the Panthers can now play run first on nearly every first and second down. That means that Forte will need to find extremely small holes to gain yardage. Also expect him to stay in to block for starter, Todd Collins. It’s definitely not a positive outlook for Forte this weekend.

Wide Receivers

Marques Colston vs. Arizona: Colston has been doing his best impression of H.G. Well’s “The Invisible Man.” This season he has 18 catches for 190 yards and ZERO TOUCHDOWNS! These are not the stats you would expect from a top wide receiver. This week I expect the Saints to take an early lead and to eventually run the game out. If he doesn’t score early, then I don’t see him doing much this game.

Dwayne Bowe vs. Indianapolis: Bowe has been a total bust this season as the KC pass offense has been slow to get on a roll. Plus, the Colts are terrible against the run. Do I have to remind you what Arian Foster did to them in week one? It’s not impossible for the Chiefs to get a victory I just don’t see it happening through the air.

Tight End

Vernon Davis vs. Philadelphia: The Niners have showed improvement in their offense last week however Davis was barely involved sans a score on a screen. The Eagles are a good pass defense and I see them shutting the down the 49ers pass offense with ease. So this weekend’s prospects are not good for this 49er.

Starting 5 Challenge: Week 5

This week our contestant for the Starting 5 Challenge is Dennis S.  Dennis will try to gain entry into our end of the year raffle by beating us in this week's challenge.  Let's look at both teams as we prepare for the weekend.

Fantasy Football Post:

QB: Aaron Rodgers v. Washington
RB: Maurice Jones Drew v. Buffalo
WR: Austin Collie v. Kansas City
TE: Antonio Gates v. Oakland
K: Mike Nugent v. Tampa Bay

Dennis S.:

QB: Eli Manning v. Houston
RB: Ryan Mathews v. Oakland
WR: Randy Moss v. New York Jets
TE: Jason Witten v. Tennessee
K: Matt Bryant v. Cleveland

We'll see if we can survive a probable goose egg from Austin Collie (unlikely to play) and pull out a victory since week one.  Good luck Dennis and good luck to all this weekend.

What I learned This Weekend: Week 4

Let me start saying that I love the NFL. The league gives me something to look forward to every week and they make Mondays bearable by showing a game on the longest day of the week. However, there are some gripes that I do have about the league. I don’t have all day to bore you about what I do and don’t like about the NFL, however I have finally felt the sting of a local TV blackout. It hurt not being able to see my team go out and bounce back for a victory and it got me thinking about all the fantasy players that have blacked out fantasy teams from getting victories this season. So let’s go over a couple of guys that I learned are blacking out fantasy teams.


When talking about blackouts from this weekend one must start with Jay Cutler. I have heard many owners complaining how the Cutler blackout left them disappointed and with an extra loss. Given he was hurt but he teased owners so much the first three weeks with serviceable performances (so much that I annointed him the 8th best QB) and then he blacks out. Literally. This weekend I learned that there are a lot of owners who were affected by the Cutler blackout.

Another blackout occurred in Jacksonville, and I’m not talking about the game. I’m talking about Mike Sims-Walker. Sims-Walker managed to get another goose egg for his owners, his second of the season, and left his owners feeling foolish for drafting him as a #2 receiver. This weekend I learned that owners no longer trust Mike Sims-Walker.

The third blackout that I saw this weekend was in the Eagles/Redskins game. Santana Moss (How many of you saw that coming? You thought I was going to go Vick, didn’t you) manages a whopping 5 rushing yards. Seriously, 5 yards. That is a major blackout from such a little man especially in a game where the ‘Skins won. This weekend I learned that the Redskins’ offense is untrustworthy.

The last blackout has changed a lot of thoughts in the fantasy world and that is the blackout of Devin Aromashodu from the Bears offense. Aromashodu has not caught a pass since week 1 and this past week he was active, but not on the field. Going into the season he was a huge sleeper but it never really happened. This weekend I learned that barring a trade Aromashodu has become dead to fantasy owners. May his potential rest in peace.

Blackouts happen all the time. Sometimes they are a one-week occurrence, other times they are season or career long things. All I know is that they are hard to predict and when they happen you are left with the feeling of missing out. It is truly an empty feeling.

Challenges

I can't believe that we lost again! This week in our Starting 5 Challenge Dominic M. beat us 26-22 in a match that wasn't as close as the score makes it out to be.  Now Dominic will be in the running for the autographed Brian Dawkins football at the end of the year.

In our NFL Pick'Em Challenge, Manuel T. did the unthinkable, he finished below The Post.  Manuel scored 0.500 on his way to the low score of the year.  That means that for another week, Basilio and Dominic will be at the top of the leader board.

Do you want to top The Post in our Starting 5 Challenge?  Well, here is what you have to do.  First, pick one quarterback, running back, receiver, tight end, and kicker which are different from the ones that are selected at the bottom of the post.  Secondly, send your Starting 5 to postfantasyfootball@gmail.com with the headline: Starting 5 Challenge: Week 5.  Finally, check back on Thursday to see if you were selected.

If you want to turn in your picks for the NFL Pick'Em challenge, then email your picks to postfantasyfootball@gmail.com and in the subject line write: NFL Pick'Em: Week 5.  The weekly contestant will be selected on Saturday.  Good luck to all our contestants and readers in this week 5 of the fantasy season.

Fantasy Football Post: Starting 5

QB: Aaron Rodgers v. Washington
RB: Maurice Jones Drew v. Buffalo
WR: Austin Collie v. Kansas City
TE: Antonio Gates v. Oakland
K: Mike Nugent v. Tampa Bay