Fantasy Football: Advice and Discussion

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Vick is starting this week for reasons. 1) they are making sure about Kolb's concussion. Caution never hurts. 2) Philly's offensive line has been terible and Jacksonville will bring the house. This week Vick is the better option, I hate to say it, but he is.

 

The only critique I have is that Reid said that it's injury related (Kolb has been cleared to return) and he never said that this was a one-week option. In fact, it was quite the opposite - he even said that Vick would be the starter for the foreseeable future. That's a complete reversal from what I heard leading into the season, where from all appearances it was Kolb's job to lose. If he lost it after less than two quarters of play, that's not really a fair shake. Vick will be the starter so long as he continues to play well or gets injured.

That leaves the Eagles in a real pickle at the end of the year, as both Kolb's and Vick's contracts are up at the end of this season. Both will want to start somewhere next year, and both will want salaries commensurate with their starting position. It's the latter that is the sticking point for the Eagles - presuming that there is some sort of salary cap next season (and I suspect some sort of revenue sharing will be present in the next CBA), the Eagles are only going to be able to sign one of them.

If you stick with Vick at the end of the season, then you forked over millions of dollars and years of time to develop Kolb (I think he can be an above average QB), only to have some other teams enjoy the fruits of your labor. If you stick with Kolb, then it boggles the mind why he isn't starting NOW. This is his 4th year with the Eagles, and there's only so much you can learn holding a clipboard.

Finally, I'm being generous in saying the Eagles can put off the decision until the end of the season, as ESPN and SI are both reporting that the Eagles have received quite a few phone calls in recent days inquiring about the availability of Kolb in a trade. And that's a Catch-22 as well. If Vick is your guy, and Kolb's going to walk anyway, then it makes sense to get something in return for him. But how do you get fair value? The Eagles delt McNabb to the Redskins for a 2nd round pick, but there's no way with Kolb's limited body of work that someone is giving up a two. IMO, Reid created a mess where there didn't have to be one.

 

Tick me off - put up a great score in three leagues, and I may only win one of them. Really ticked off in the league where I had the second highest score of the week, and played the only freakin' guy in the league that had a higher score than me. I cannot believe I scored 130 in a standard scoring, no ppr league, and I lost. I scored 147 in another standard scoring league (thank you Vick and DeSean Jackson) and will win unless the Packers D puts up about 40 points tonight (I'm confident in that one). In the one ppr league I'm in, it's going to be close. I have 170 (it's ppr so the scores are higher) and I have a 32 point lead on my opponent who has Aaron Rodgers going tonight. It's 6 points per TD, 1 pt per 25 passing yards, with a bonus 5 points if you go over 300 yards passing - if Rodgers has a big game, he can get 32.

I also have a question that I think only Blades may be able to answer. In the car yesterday, I picked up the Eagles game on the radio. The announcers were referring to McCoy as "Shady" McCoy. Is there a reason for that nickname? I never heard it before.

 

I am undefeated so far in my league but that is mostly due to my waiver wire vulturing and prognosticating abilities. I had the #3 pick in my draft and went with Ryan Grant(Green bay's RB) because I just did not trust in the rest of teh RBs...call it a hunch. Then of course Grant went down in week one and is gone for the season. I immediately grabbed Peyton Hillis off the WW and with he my otherwise mostly solid drafting I am crushing everyone.

The guys in my league this year are not rookies but I wonder about some of them. Ben Rothlisberger went nearly undrafted( so I took him as a back-up QB to Tom Brady(my second pick in the second round) in the late rounds.

I just hope I don't have any more bad luck because I am not sure even MY talent for prediction and WW scouting can help me if I lose another RB.

In my league we start:

QB
RB
RB
WR
WR
TE
WR/RB(flex)
WR/TE(flex)
K
LB(IDP player)
DE(IDP)
DB(IDP)
D(IDP flex player)

No "team defense" nonsense.

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When I first started playing FF ten years ago, I was in just one league. The next year I was in THREE(I enjoyed that first year so much I thought having three leagues would triple the fun.).

Then I came to realize that being in a bunch of different FF leagues was pretty bad. In a way it is like cheating really. While I assume that most of us will probably have the decency to play out a league even when we start 0-6 or 3-8 and have no real shot at the playoffs, I think many are still likely to pay less attention to the leagues they are not winning and besides it is kind of like giving yourself multiple chances to get good results instead of just making the best decisions you can in a single league and hoping for the best.

Maybe it is an ego thing with me. I have been outright champion of different leagues I was in in different years like 6 times(and in only two or three of those years was I in multiple leagues and two of those were due to real life friends inviting me after I already had a yahoo league set up or something).

What's more I have very rarely ever been wrong in a prediction made. Every once in a great while I get caught off guard by someone...like Cedric Benson last year, but I always more than make up for it(i.e. by avoiding Cedric Benson this year. I cannot for the life of me understand why people thought Benson would be a top ten RB this year?! Because he had a 1,000+ yard season last year, overachieving for an overachieving team?! The same back who could not find a whole in Swiss Cheese during his tenure with the Bears?).

 

I am in three leagues myself, but it's not like I just sign up for multiple on-line leagues just to increase my chances of winning one. All of the leagues I play in are with people I know that have invited me to play. (Well, I at least know SOME of the people in the league, there are a few friends of friends in two of the three leagues, who I only see annually for the draft.)

Incidently, I do agree with your assessment of Benson - I like him a lot better if you happened to draft him as a second running back instead of a 1st running back (which if you went RB-RB with your first two picks, was possible). In all three of the drafts I participated in, he was selected in the second round.

That having been said, his numbers haven't been that bad this year. He had two TDs this weekend.

 

Damn it to hell. I start Vick on one of my fantasy teams, but got pretty good perfomrances from everyone else, and as a result, heading into last night's game, I was only behind by 9 points, and I had two players from the Patriots left - WR Randy Moss, and TE Aaron Hernandez in a standard scoring league (6 pts per TD, 1 pt per 10 yards receiving). I liked my odds.

Turns out I got 2 out of Hernandez and Moss didn't score a single point. Like I said - damn it to hell.

 

Bah, that is nothing. In the league I posted above I started Vick, Spiller, and S. Moss.

 

Trade question for everyone. I have Jason Witten as my TE. When Dallas was on skip week I picked up Aaron Hernendez (NE TE) to fill in. I like Hernendez and think he may end up being better then Witten.

Today I receved a trade request in which I would ship Hernendez and get Brandon Tate (NE WR). While I personally don't believe Tate is as good as Hernendez, Tate is a WR and therefore can be used in my flex position when I have bye week problems.. I'm really thinking about doing this, but I figured I would try to get some other opinions.

 

Now that the Patriots have agreed to a trade with the Seahawks to re-acquire Dion Branch, I don't like that trade. I would have otherwise, as Tate would be the clear #2 receiving option on the Patriots after Welker, but now Branch fills that role. I think Branch is the more desirable player, and he may be available on waivers in your league.

Hernandez on the other hand, won't have his production signficantly altered with Branch. Unless you are really hurting for a 3rd receiver, I'd stay away, especially if you could acquire Branch off waivers. If you are comfortable with Hernandez going forward, I'd shop Witten - he'd probably bring a better WR in return, just for his name recognition value. You certainly don't need both those TEs - both of them already had their bye week, so I agree that a trade makes sense - just not the one that is currently on the table.

I'm pissed off to all hell. I lost a game last night where I had a 2 point lead going in, with Randy Moss still to play, and all my opponent had left was a silly kicker - you know, that one that plays for the Jets who scored 19 points last night. Damn it all.

 

The Branch trade did make me cancel the trade.

I lost because of that Moss trade. My opponent had Moss who should have been on a bye, but because of the trade plays a 17th game this season and burned me.

 

Moss must have known he was being traded to the Vikings - he took his bye in Week 4 - just like the Vikings did. While he was present on the field against the Dolphins, he didn't catch a single pass.

I was serious about Witten though - if you are confident that Hernandez is the real deal and will serve you well at TE (which I concede is not an unreasonable opinion), then the TE you want to trade is Witten. Not many people will be as confident about Hernandez as you, and will not offer a great deal in return. However, Witten is a proven TE, and will command a decent bounty. I'm not saying Witten is necessarily better than Hernandez, but he's worth more on the trading block - one of those situations where perception trumps reality.

Now of course, you're looking at a limited pool of owners here. If an owner already has one of the top 5 or 6 TEs, he's not going to be interested in Witten. He either already has a TE better than Witten, or has a TE who is marginally worse than Witten, in which case there is little incentive to make the trade. So you're basically looking at half the league as possible trading partners.

 

Going into last week, I was 4-1, playing the only 5-0 team. I lost 132.5 to 132. Now, they are 6-0 and have a 2 game lead over 3 of us at 4-2. By the way, the 6-0 team is a managed by a chic. The only chic in our league. I talked a bunch of smack to her on the board before our game. It is all coming back my way now. Deservedly so... oh well. If I won, it would of been worth it.

 

I'm treating water in all of my leagues - either 3-4 or 4-3. The thing is, I LIKE my team in two of them. I've taken some bad beats this year, like agian this week, when I got a 160 dumped on me. I'm second overall in the league in scoring, and I have a losing record.

Can someone explain to me how this team is 3-4?

QBs: Vick/Roethlisberger (so mostly Big Ben since he returned from his suspension)
RBs: Steven Jackson, LeSean McCoy
Flex: Ahmad Bradshaw
Bench RBs: Peyton Hillis, Ryan Torain
WRs: Randy Moss, DeSean Jackson (but since he's hurt, the bench is...)
Bench WRs: Hines Ward, Santonio Holmes
TE: Aaron Hernandez
Kicker: Garrett Harley (at least for now - I play matchups here)
D/ST: Redskins (again, for now - I play matchups)

It is frustrating, especially in a week like this, where I had close to an optimal lineup set. Assuming Bradshaw scores at least 15 tonight, the only "mistake" I made in setting my roster this week was both Hillis and Torain had a better day than McCoy.

 

Oh I hear you. I did not think YOU were just signing up for leagues to have greater chances of winning and such. it's just that a LOT of people do do that and I myself get this nagging feeling when I am invited to join more leagues as if I would be doing something wrong, and so I just stick with one now days.

My luck has taken a turn for the worse since starting 3-0. I am now 3-4. One week I had 169 pts. and got beat by a guy scoring 170. Another week I had 174 and got beat by a guy scoring 180. And so on.
My team is still pretty freaking strong though so, unless I go on a Guiness world record streak of similar bad luck...I should make the playoffs.

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I have started Hillis every week since week 2 and it has paid dividends. I can't believe ANYONE would bench him ANY week after that trouncing he gave to Baltimore.

 

I frequently play him, but that week he was playing Pittsburgh. It was the "wrong" play because McCoy only got 5 points that week, while Hillis got 8. The best play that week as my 3rd RB was actually Torain, as he had 15 points, but I never seriously considered starting him. The only reason I even have him on the team is I needed another RB for this past weekend, when Bradshaw, McCoy, and Hillis were all on byes.

I have the luxury of having four RBs that are in the top 20 in scoring. So since I can only start 3, starting Hillis means sitting one of either Bradshaw, McCoy, or S-Jax. I'm not saying Hillis normally wouldn't be a weekly starter on just about any team - he's shown he's pretty much matchup-proof - but I have three other RBs that are also considered "must starts".

So I had S-Jax and Torain as my starting two RBs this weekend, played Santonio Holmes as my flex, with my starting WRs Moss and Ward. If you watched any football this weekend, you already know this was a bad weekend for my team.

 

I just won an nailbiter. I had a 60 point lead at the end of the 1pm games. I still had Josh Freeman and Wes Welker going. He had McFadden, Carlson, Breston, and Tolbert going. I thought it was in the bag until his guys starting putting up major points. I ended up winning by ten, but I was watching that TB/Arizona game on stattracker like a maniac.

 

I'm on the comeback trail! If all goes as planned tonight, I'll win all three leagues, to pull to an even 5-5 record in all of them. I own Vick in the two leagues where the outcome has yet to be decided. I'm only down by 5 points in the one league, so provided he doesn't get hurt, I should be fine there.

The other league I'm down by 30-something, but in addition to Vick, I also have McCoy and DeSean Jackson left. So that's an attainable number as well.

 

Vick bailed my ass out in two leagues last night. In both leagues I was down by 40+ points. I'm trying to decide if I spend this morning mocking my opponents or keeping a low profile.

 

Much mocking is usually in order. The only way you wouldn't get full mock rights is if you're something like 2-8 on the year. As long as you have something resembling a decent record, and aren't already eliminated from playoff competition, you are entitled to mock away.

I also am a Vick owner in two of my leagues. Like I said above, I was only down 5 points in one of them, so that was a sure thing. In the other, I was losing 99-66 entering last night's game. In addition to Vick, I also had McCoy and DeSean Jackson going. The three of them combined for 92 points, so I nearly could have defeated my opponent with just the three of them.

Won all three leagues, and I am officially on the comeback trail now. I probably cannot afford to lose any more games in any of the three leagues, But after getting through byes and injury issues, my teams are looking up. I think I should be able to run the table in at least one of those leagues.

 

I'm paranoid, I worry about karmic backlash