Week 6: Taking Stock
The great thing about Fantazzle is that you’re never stuck with a bad player for an entire season because you are always selecting a new team to compete each week. By illustration, while you may be stuck with Willis Mcgahee or Tom Brady in your other fantasy leagues (for an entire season), you’re never stuck with guys like that at Fantazzle for longer than one week. But the fact is, nobody wants to make mistakes. Whether it’s for one week or thirteen weeks, you don’t want a buster on your roster. You want point machines each and every week. With that in mind, it’s about time you take stock of some of the surprising trends that have already occurred this season. Here are just a few examples of current trends that have defied our pre-season notions, which may help your weekly Fantazzle rosters:
Arizona Cardinals – you almost have to consider starting all major skill players (namely Fitzgerald) on the Cardinals and all major skill players going against the Cardinals. They seem to be in shootouts on a weekly basis because of their terrible secondary. Obviously, they have no trouble playing catch up in any of these shootouts either.
Matt Forte – given the right matchup, this kid can produce. And he is getting a ton of touches. Whether it’s the salary cap format or the Challenge format, you have to have Forte on your radar.
Dallas Cowboys – shaky on offense at times but do not be discouraged. These guys can move the ball with ease when properly motivated to do so. You could start all four major players (Romo, Barber, T.O. and Witten) on any given week and still get point distribution from each one. On the other side of the ball, it might be a good idea to start guys going against the Cowboys. This defense was thought to be stellar prior to the season, and we now realize they are porous at pretty much every defensive level.
Joseph Addai – not sure the Colts can turn the corner on offense and that spells trouble for Addai. While I’m confident that Dallas Clark and Reggie Wayne can be productive all season, I can’t say the same for Addai. He has obviously been downgraded in all formats.
Ronnie Brown – Can’t believe I’m plugging a Dolphin, but this guy is beasting it all over the field. Ronnie was burried on everyone’s depth chart at the start of the Fantazzle season and now he’s legit. He has to be on your radar now (I think i’m going to be sick).
Baltimore Ravens – Prior to the season we weren’t sure how good this defense was going to be and we weren’t sure if the offense was going to consistently put the defense in bad positions. Now we’re pretty sure. Ravens D is nasty and you want to try and avoid starting any skill players against them.
Brian Westbrook – if you’ve read my earlier work you remember that I anticipated the recent onset of injuries to Westbrook. I’m not saying he’s not a beast, but I am saying that these injuries seem to be piling up. He’s a nice start if he’s healthy. But he probably won’t be for at least a couple weeks.
Palmer/Housh/Ocho Cinco – Prior to the season you would have thought that at least 2 out of these 3 would be productive, but they’re not. This team is out of sync on so many levels and I’m not sure they have any startable players at this point. Maybe when Marvin Lewis finally gets fired things will turn around, but at this point these guys should only be considered in ideal matchup scenarios.
St. Louis Rams – the Rams are terrible in almost every facet of the game. They’re also pretty much unwatchable unless you are watching one of your fantasy players who happens to be going against them. That’s good news for Clinton Portis in Week 6 and for every Running Back thereafter, because the Rams run defense is pathetic. This season they’ve allowed the 2nd most Running Back points in the league. Even worse (or even better, depending on your perspective), the Rams have already allowed 9 TD’s from Running Backs this year.
Tennessee Titans – Pass defense on the Titans is stellar. You have to sit almost any wide receiver who is playing these guys as they have yet to allow a WR to enter the endzone. Very impressive.
Don’t be stubborn. Take note of the trends around the league and adjust your weekly selection accordingly. Good luck.
