I am a co-founder and the editor of drinkfive.com. In order to stave off fantasy football insanity, Dave and I have branched out to cover a variety of interests. When I'm not knee deep in wikipedia pages, I like to hang out at breweries or a disc golf course (especially both in the same day). FSWA Member for 5+ years.
We’re on to week 10 of the fantasy football season, and if you want to make the playoffs, you better be winning games! There’s only two weeks left of byes, this week we’re contending with Atlanta, Indianapolis, San Diego and San Francisco taking the week off. Make sure you also check out all of the injuries from week 9, and update yourself on people possibly returning for week 10.
Josh McCown should return to Cleveland’s lineup this week, and he can slight right into your lineup if you have someone on bye, or a big name that has been struggling. The Steelers gave up 301 yards and 4 passing TD’s to Derek Carr last week – McCown has the potential to put up at least 300 yds and 3 TD. Ryan Tannehill’s resurgence may be short lived, and after a bad game last week he now has to face Philadelphia. The Eagles have held all of their opponents except Kirk Cousins and Matt Cassel to under 19 fantasy points. We suggest starting McCown over Tannehill.
LeSean McCoy is reportedly just fine and will start on Thursday night against the Jets. Don’t let the difficult matchup or injury deter you – the Buffalo run game has been outstanding most of the year, and the Jets have had a hard time stopping anyone over the last three weeks. In Denver, you may be tempted to go ahead and start C.J. Anderson after seeing Ronnie Hillman’s 7 carry, 1 yard performance, but stay away! Starting a Denver RB this year gives you a 90% chance of a headache, and unless it’s a pork headache, you don’t want any of that.
James Jones needs to find his way into your lineup this week. His ecr is a lowly 33, but we’ve got him as your #19 WR this week. The Packers passing game seems to finally be back on track, and with a cupcake matchup this week against Detroit, I expect the aerial attack to continue to do well…the ground game is another matter. DeSean Jackson is back in the lineup in Washington, and he’s on the WR3 radar for some people, but we say sit him. He’s a deep threat receiver in an offense that only has short and medium passes, and his floor is just way too low to start him this late in the fantasy season.
Crockett Gillmore could be a decent fill in TE this week, as he was on bye last week and might still be available on your waiver wire. Gillmore could wind up being one of the top pass catchers over the rest of the season in Baltmore, after Steve Smith Sr. was put on IR.
Well, it's time we all moved on from super injury Sunday and get down to the business of setting up your week 9 lineups. This week, Arizona, Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, Kansas City and Seattle are all on bye. This is the only week of the year with 6 teams on bye, so this is as bad as it gets.
Tyrod Taylor should return to the lineup this week, and he deserves to return to yours as well, with a decent matchup against Miami, whom they beat up on earlier this season. This time they're playing at home and the Bills should rebound nicely after a bye week. Andrew Luck who is also at home this week, ought to take a seat for this week. After seeing what the Broncos did last week to Aaron Rodgers, you don't want to start Luck.
If you're in need of a flex play, Ryan Mathews should find some running room against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night (if he’s healthy). He's looked like a better fit for the Philly offense (and has the most rushing yards on the team), it's only a matter of time before Chip Kelly admits it. Melvin Gordon, despite lots of touches, continues to do nothing with them. Leave him on your bench this week in favor of Mathews or Matt Jones.
Don't worry about last week's disappearing act by James Jones - that Denver defense is just special. Even against the Panthers, I expect the Pack to return to form, including Jones. Brandon LaFell is starting to return to form, but he needs another week to work the kinks out, so keep him out of your lineup until next week.
Julius Thomas is a guy who has worked out most of his kinks, and after a bye week, should be a fine TE1 option. This is despite their matchup with the Jets. Start him over this week's hot pickup, Heath Miller. Even though Ben is back, I expect him to spread the ball out to his receivers more than having to dump it off to Miller.
Week 8 was a rough one, so grab a beer and try not to cry over it while you drop all of the players that are done for the year. This week, we're joined on the podcast by our buddy Mike Mocerino to share some wisdom and bombers. We went over all of the injuries from Week 8, and boy were there a lot of them. We also did our own weekly draft - last week I won, so Dave and I are now 1-1. I'm a bit excited for the stakes we're playing for this week...no pun intended.
(Listen to the Fantasy Football Podcast: 11/04/15, Week 9 Preview)
Time to lean on some rookies to come through for you in these lean bye weeks. Check out who to start this week from Shawn Foss, our resident rookie expert.
Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes to get notifications whenever we release a new episode. We also broadcast the shows live at http://www.mixlr.com/drinkfive on Tuesday nights at 8:30pm CT. Feel free to browse over and join in the discussion in the chat room!
Week 8 was one of the worst injury weeks in recent memory. Even the return of Dez Bryant and Ben Roethlisberger couldn't soften the blow. Several big names went down in a set of noon games that seemed to have a new injury every 15 minutes. So, pardon my slight exaggeration as we get on with this week's casualty report.
Quarterbacks -
Josh McCown has been injured two weeks in a row. He hurt his shoulder week 7, and now his ribs in week 8. He left the game with a few minutes remaining, and now his status for week 9's Thursday night matchup with Cincinnati is up in the air. McCown has averaged 20 points/game over his last 6 games.
Ryan Fitzpatrick injured the thumb on his non-throwing hand and his status is currently day to day. Geno Smith inspired no confidence from the Jets, who were reportedly calling around for a QB before the game was even over. We'll know later on in the week if he'll be starting against the Jags Sunday.
Running Backs -
Le'Veon Bell has been placed on IR, and his torn MCL means that his season is done. He seemed to pick right up where he left off, so it's a shame that he goes down right as Big Ben comes back. He'll be back in full force next year, and for now, he makes Deangelo Williams the hottest waiver pick up this week.
Matt Forte exited Sunday's game against the Vikings, and of course, the Bears were very hush-hush about it. They did clue us in a little bit later on - Forte hurt his MCL, but doesn't need surgery and should only miss a couple weeks. Forte's absence makes Jeremy Langford possibly the second hottest waiver pickup this week.
Reggie Bush slipped on some concrete and tore his ACL, ending his season, and possibly his career. The 49ers are one of the biggest messes in recent memory, so whoever does wind up replacing Bush will have a really hard time being fantasy relevant. The only hope for fantasy value there is when Carlos Hyde returns.
Khiry Robinson wins the most painful injury of the week award - the worst award you can win on a weekly basis. A broken tibia will end his season, where from fantasy football's perspective, he was just vulturing TD's from Mark Ingram. The Saints will likely sign a third guy, but look for Ingram to monopolize the Saints backfield for now.
Wide Receivers -
Steve Smith Sr. is a guy who I've come to really admire as an NFL player. He's of the toughest players that I can remember watching, so seeing him be carried off the field with a towel covering his face was a little hard to watch. I don't want to see this be his last moment on an NFL field, and hope, like Jim Harbaugh, that he comes back next year. For the rest of 2015, Kamar Aiken will move up to the #1 WR spot in Baltimore. Aiken is still young, and won't be able to produce anywhere close to Smith's numbers.
Calvin Johnson suffered an ankle injury which was probably minor, but since it occurred in a blowout loss, he didn't return to the game. The Lions have the week off coming back from London, so we won't know a lot about Johnson until next week, but there's no reason to think he'll miss week 10.
Keenan Allen has an interesting injury track from the game Sunday. He left, reportedly with a shoulder injury, then it was called back spasms, but now the Chargers report that he is out indefinitely with a kidney injury. It's pretty safe to assume that he will miss week 9 and try to get back after the Chargers' week 10 bye.
Kendall Wright suffered a sprained MCL, which reportedly feels "horrible". Hey, it's nice to know that not everyone has a canned cliché response about an injury. Wright's absence from the lineup may finally lead the way to Dorial Green-Beckham getting some action week 9, when Marcus Mariota is expected to return.
John Brown is a savage, apparently. Go read his twitter if you're trying to figure that one out. Brown disappointed everyone who started him this week by pulling the rare move of being active, but not getting into the game. Clearly, his hamstrings are an issue, but he has a bye week to heal up and we'll know more about his week 10 status a week from now.
Tight Ends -
Larry Donnell was carted off the field in New Orleans, but his injury was just apparently a muscle spasm in his shoulder or neck, which is good news (relatively speaking). It's not clear if he'll be playing week 9 yet, we'll know more by Wednesday. Either way, he's not fantasy relevant for now.
Ladarius Green was in line to get a lot of work with a hobbled Antonio Gates, but then went down with his own injury in the first quarter. With Gates back on the field, the Chargers won't rush Green back, though they really are hurting with injuries this year. The Chargers play Monday night, which means we won't have an official injury report until Thursday night.
Garrett Celek left the game with a concussion, but is now the top tight end in San Francisco with Vernon Davis being traded to the Broncos. Celek won't be a TE-1, especially on this anemic offense.