Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

Week 7 featured all kinds of fun, a couple of broken records (the good kind), trick plays, last minute victories and Cecil Shorts and Barkevious Mingo on the field at the same time (a drinkfive wet dream).

- I would be remiss in my duties if I did not start this article without Peyton Manning's record breaking night. Brett Favre, the former record holder, threw 508 TD's in his career, spanning 302 games (1.68 per game). As of Sunday night, Peyton Manning now has 510 TD's in only 246 games (2.07 per game). If Manning continues at this clip and plays as many games as Favre, he will finish his career with 626 TD's. Absolutely crazy.

- The Jaguars can win, after all. With their victory over the up-and-down Browns came a glimmer of hope with their run game. Denard Robinson came to life when given a full workload. 22 attempts netted him 127 yards and 1 touchdown, but more importantly, it may have netted him the starting spot in Jacksonville. The Jags are desperate for stability anywhere, and look for them to go with the hot hand approach. Robinson will be a very popular waiver wire addition this week.

- Jerick McKinnon had another good showing, even if his team did not. McKinnon had 19 carries for 103 yards against Buffalo, a team with a tough run defense. McKinnon's match-ups coming up are against Tampa, Washington and Chicago. Buy low on him and take advantage of the weaker part of Minnesota's schedule.

- Ever since Aaron Rodgers told the good folks of Wisconsin to just "relax", they've done nothing but win games. Putting up 38 or more points in three of the last four games, Rodgers has thrown for 13 TD's during that span. Jordy Nelson has also catapulted to the top of the league in receiving yards (though Antonio Brown can pass him with a good game Monday night).

- The Bears continue to struggle at home and are now 0-3 there on the season. It's really the same story we always hear. Cutler struggled and Matt Forte put up numbers anyways. Forte does have two down games this year, but every other game he scored 17 or more points, going for over 20 in his last three games. This kind of consistency is very rewarding with all of the turmoil at the top of the RB draft board this year.

- The Bengals became the third team this season to be shut-out. After having none the first four weeks of the season, we've now seen one three weeks in a row. The Bengals are by far the best offense to be shut down during that stretch, but I think credit needs to be given to the Colts defense. The Colts limited the Bengals to 8 first downs, 135 total yards on offense and the Bengals didn't have a snap in Colts territory until well into the 4th quarter, on a drive that resulted in no points. They only sniffed it once more at the end of the game for just a moment.

- Jeff Fisher has a lot of special teams tricks, and he decided that the best time to showcase them was when the Super Bowl champs came to town. The Rams handed Seattle their second loss in a row, something that Russell Wilson has only experienced once before in his career. The fake punt deep in your own end at the end of the game probably took more balls than brains, but the play I'm in love with is the punt return. The punt return in the second quarter faked out nearly the entire Seahawks special teams unit, which is bizarre considering they ought to know what side of the field their punter is kicking it to.

- One thing from the other side of that game became apparent as well. Russell Wilson is shaping up to be an elite fantasy QB. Two games over 34 points this year and only one game with a low of 11 have him up to 142 points on the season, good for fifth overall. Keep in mind, he has already had his bye week and three of the guys ahead of him have not taken a break yet. Wilson is definitely on pace to finish this season as a top 5 guy.

- The Cowboys keep rolling and Demarco Murray is leading the way. With his record breaking seventh 100 yard game to start the season, he has an astounding 913 yards through 7 games. He has not scored below 17.1 points this season, making him one of the best weekly guarantee since Arian Foster in 2010, heck, maybe since LaDainian Tomlinson's golden years. Expect Murray to stay match-up proof and hope they keep riding him as much as they have, because hey, fantasy football only lasts a year at a time.

- Back to the Broncos, who had a stellar night which might have been overshadowed by Peyton's big record. Demaryius Thomas is living up to his draft position, maybe more than most first/early second rounders. He started slow, but after the bye has scored 34, 18 and 29 points over the last three weeks. In fact, he's the only thing keeping Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb from being the top two fantasy receivers by points.

Week 14 was the start of the fantasy football playoffs and some big things went down before, during and after all the games. In case you haven’t yet, make sure you check out all the crazy stats that Le’Veon Bell racked up on Sunday.

• -          Two NFC South receivers sat out. Sitting out isn’t usually the end of the world because you have a chance to get someone else in the lineup, but missing Julio Jones (turf toe) and Michael Thomas (foot) definitely had an effect on some team’s fantasy playoff outcome. Both guys are questionable to start in Week 15, so keep your eyes peeled to those injury reports.

• -          Two top flight RB’s went down very early in their game. Matt Forte exited the game early with a knee injury, paving the way for Bilal Powell to have a monster game that by all rights should have gone to Forte owners, but hey, “them’s the breaks”! Melvin Gordon was carted off the field with a hip injury and is currently anywhere between being just fine and inches from his deathbed. I suspect he’s more week-to-week and will not be a good bet for Week 15’s lineups. Forte plays on Saturday night, so at least you have plenty of time to plan for alternates if he does not play.

• -          Jeff Fisher was fired as the Rams head coach, just a few games shy of breaking the all-time loss record for head coaches. The Rams were abysmal this season, handing the 49ers their only victory, they left their #1 overall pick on the bench far longer than anyone thought reasonable and they just can’t seem to figure out this thing called “offense”.

• -          Ryan Tannehill exited Sunday’s game with a suspected ACL tear. While he seems to have escaped a full tear, he will not be playing any more games in the regular season. He’s out of the mix as a QB2 and this is a downgrade for Jarvis Landry and Devante Parker, who now have to catch passes from career-backup Matt Moore. I don’t see much of a change for Jay Ajayi who should have success against the Jets and Bills, provided that Moore is not awful.

• -          Aaron Rodgers hurt his calf on the third play of the game, apparently. He didn’t seem too affected by his injury, if so, because he ripped the Seahawks apart much like in the playoffs two years ago. Unlike two years ago, his team held the lead. Rodgers should be just fine going forward, but I suppose it always something you need to keep an eye on.

• -          Matt Stafford made it 8-4^th quarter comebacks on Sunday, but at the expense of his middle finger on his throwing hand. This is an injury he’s expected to play through, but just take note that this is similar to Derek Carr’s injury, and he hasn’t been the same since.

• -          Darren Sproles and fellow backfield mate Wendell Smallwood both exited the game on Sunday due to injury. Smallwood wound up going to the IR for the remainder of the season, but is a hold in dynasty formats. Sproles is in the concussion protocol and needs to get cleared. If he sits on Sunday, then Ryan Mathews is worth a look.

• -          Teams need to start focusing on their extra points more, particularly not getting them returned for 2. Arizona arguably lost the game on Sunday due to not making a single extra point in two attempts, one of them being returned the other way for 2 points. That’s a 4 point swing in a game where they lost by 3. In overtime. Yep, it’s been that kind of season for the Cardinals.

• -          Bryce Petty started and won a game! Granted it was against the hapless 49ers, but this is yet another young QB getting starts and wins before #1 overall pick Jared Goff can get his first. Goff has to go to Seattle this Thursday night, so I really think that RG3 has a better chance at a win this week.

• -          It might have been NBC trying to stir the pot, but the image of Ezekiel Elliott standing next to Tony Romo on the sidelines in the 4^th quarter of the Cowboys game really sticks with me. You know those guys were thinking “Why the hell am I not out there?” I have to say, I agree with them. Despite an 11-2 record, the Cowboys have no business thinking they will win games in December and January when they can only complete 1 out of 9 passes to Dez Bryant and are relying on Cole Beasley and Lance Dunbar for late game heroics. I’m all for keeping Dak Prescott in at QB, but you must keep his weapons around him (and keep them finely honed, not rusty). Of course, now it also seems like he can’t beat the Giants.