Fantasy football strategy, rankings, and podcasts

The weeks in the middle of the season that include the bye weeks are always crucial in a confidence pool. There aren’t as many points to get during the week so every game and every point are crucial.

Lucky for you, you are following my picks! After a week that saw 12 of 14 games picked correctly you should be close to if not on top of your league.

Let’s keep it going!

WEEK 9 – HERE WE GO!!

(HOME TEAM IN ALL CAPS)

13 – NEW ENGLAND over Washington – Ho-hum, what do you know? The Patriots are at the top of our list again. Probably something you should just get used to.

12 – CINCINNATI over Cleveland – The Bengals are undefeated…and are playing at home…against the Browns…who will have Johnny Manziel starting…need anything else?

11 – NEW ORLEANS over Tennessee – Drew Brees tied the NFL record last week with seven touchdown passes. His reward? A game against the Titans.

10 – NEW YORK JETS over Jacksonville – The Jets were completely shut down last week in Oakland. They need a game against the Jaguars to get some confidence back.

9 – MINNESOTA over St. Louis – Minnesota is really solidifying their spot as a playoff contender in the NFC. They may have what it takes to slow down the unstoppable tank known as Todd Gurley.

8 – Atlanta over SAN FRANCISCO – Blaine Gabbert is under center for the Niners and Pierre Thomas is now in the backfield after spending the first eight weeks of the season without a team…best of luck with all that.

7 – BUFFALO over Miami – A healthier Bills’ team gets a home game against a team that they blew out on the road just a few weeks ago.

6 – SAN DIEGO over Chicago – After this game, ESPN will be working feverishly on a logistical way to move the flexing ability from Sunday night games to Monday night.

5 – Denver over INDIANAPOLIS – Peyton Manning came as close to the old Peyton as he has this season last week against the Packers. I expect more of the same as he heads back to his old stomping grounds.

4 – Green Bay over CAROLINA – Speaking of the Packers, after reaching their low point of the season last week (by far!) they have a lot of aggression to take out on the unbeaten Panthers. No more unbeatens in the NFC.

3 – Philadelphia over DALLAS – Dez Bryant should have more balls thrown his way this week – unfortunately those balls will still be thrown by not Tony Romo.

2 – Oakland over PITTSBURGH – Another HUGE game for the Raiders after a big win last week. My BOLD PREDICTION this week is NOT ONLY WILL THE RAIDERS MAKE THE PLAYOFFS, BUT THEY WILL WIN A PLAYOFF GAME.

1 – New York Giants over TAMPA BAY – Tampa seems to play their best only when they’re on the road against the division…this game is neither of those.

We have hit double digits in weeks now – week 10!

Playoff contenders are starting to take shape and where you stand in your pool should be taking shape as well. Let’s make sure we continue strengthening our lock on that top spot.

Week 10 – HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!

(HOME TEAM IN ALL CAPS)

14 – CINCINNATI over Houston – The week ends with what will probably be a Monday Night yawner. Bengals easily remain undefeated.

13 – GREEN BAY over Detroit – The Packers are on a bit of a slide…but that “slide” was against two undefeated teams. They’re playing pretty much the opposite this week hosting the Lions.

12 – Carolina over TENNESSEE – We saw some signs of life last week from the Titans under their new coaching regime – but that wasn’t against the Panthers.

11 – PITTSBURGH over Cleveland – Ben Roethlisberger is on the shelf once again. As long as Landry Jones realizes that Antonio Brown is also on the field, the Steelers should be just fine against the Browns.

10 – PHILADELPHIA over Miami – Once again the Dolphins are not playing a team destined for the top 10 of the draft. Pretty easy to pick against them.

9 – New England over NEW YORK GIANTS – The Giants are pretty familiar with handing the Patriots their first loss. This, however, is not a Super Bowl Giants team.

8 – DENVER over Kansas City – After literally handing the Broncos a win earlier in the season, the Chiefs will be out for a sense of retribution. Unfortunately for them they have a much worse team than they did in the first game.

7 – ST LOUIS over Chicago – The Bears have been showing some signs of life as of late. The Rams have the defense to slow that role down though.

6 – OAKLAND over Minnesota – I actually read a story giving Derek Carr a bit of MVP credibility. How he bounces back against close loses like last week will test that hypothesis.

5 – NEW YORK JETS over Buffalo – Rex Ryan returns to MetLife Stadium and does so with a captain that knocked out the Jets quarterback. The Jets will be amped for this one.

4 – SEATTLE over Arizona – Seattle will be holding on to whatever chance of winning the division they have this week and should be able to squeak out the win against division-leading Arizona.

3 – TAMPA BAY over Dallas – Does anybody else feel as odd as I do saying that the Cowboys need Tony Romo as much as they do?

2 – WASHINGTON over New Orleans – Drew Brees has brought spark back to the Saints offense to make them exciting to watch again. I don’t expect that to happen here, so this game just won’t be exciting.

1 - Jacksonville over BALTIMORE – Normally I would just say that if you pick the Jags to win a road game, they should be on the one point line. But along with that, with how wide open the Colts have left the division door open, my BOLD PREDICTION for this week is that THE JAGUARS WILL WIN THE AFC SOUTH.

Well, after last week, now seems like a good time to go over another feature of the concept of the confidence pool. A lot of times pools will have a feature where, in an effort to weed out a fluke bad week, the lowest score of your season will be thrown out and not counted towards your final season score. Let’s just hope that your pool includes that feature.

That’s all we need to say about week 10, time to move on!

Week 11 – HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!

(HOME TEAM IN ALL CAPS)

14 – NEW ENGLAND over Buffalo – Some say that the Patriots cleared their biggest hurdle on their way to a 16-0 season. Hard to argue that one.

13 – CAROLINA over Washington – The Redskins get to play an undefeated team for their second straight road game. Pretty sure this will turn out as “close” as it did in Foxboro a couple weeks ago.

12 – ATLANTA over Indianapolis – Atlanta got an extra week to prepare for an Andrew Luck-less Colts team. They probably didn’t need it, but they got it!

11 – SEATTLE over San Francisco – Just a couple years ago these two teams were competing for the top spot in the West…now they battle to stay out of the cellar. At least the Seahawks still look like they know what they’re doing on the field…at times.

10 – SAN DIEGO over Kansas City – I’m pretty confident that the Chiefs spent all of their “road division power points” last week in Denver. I don’t see that magic happening again this week.

9 – ARIZONA over Cincinnati – The Texans? Seriously? The Texans?? AT HOME??? Maybe the Bengals aren’t as dominant as their once-undefeated record led us to believe. Unfortunately for them they go against a Cardinals team that seems to be as people think.

8 – MINNESOTA over Green Bay – The Lions? Seriously? The Lions?? AT HOME??? Well while that was happening, the Vikings were showing the league that they are a legit contender.

7 – JACKSONVILLE over Tennessee – If the Jags want to make good on my bold prediction of them winning the division, they need to win what should be considered to be very winnable games.

6 – PHILADELPHIA over Tampa Bay – The Eagles took a blow losing Sam Bradford last week. Mark Sanchez should at least be able to do enough to beat the young Bucs.

5 – Oakland over DETROIT – Well, I guess this isn’t the year for the Raiders to complete their resurrection. Lucky for them they play a Lions team that may still just be riding a high from their win last weeks.

4 – BALTIMORE over St. Louis – Besides watching Todd Gurley be Todd Gurley, what’s the point of caring about this game?

3 – Dallas over MIAMI – Tony Romo is back (that cheering you hear in the background is coming from fans in Texas). My BOLD PREDICTION for this week is that IN HIS RETURN GAME, ROMO WILL PASS FOR AT LEAST 300 YARDS.

2 – HOUSTON over New York Jets – Well apparently TJ Yates is a franchise quarterback since the Texans always seem to find a way to win with him under center.

1 – CHICAGO over Denver – I would say that picking the Bears to pull the upset is because they won’t have to worry about playing against Peyton Manning…but does anyone think that would make a difference this season?

Everyone is back!

Bye weeks are a thing of the past – which means that the points are there to be had for the rest of the season. This part of the season is very crucial – we have a pretty strong understanding of how good these teams are and it’s just before some of the dominant teams start to pump the brakes to rest up for the playoffs.

Take advantage of the points while you can!

Week 12 – HERE WE GO!!!!!!!!

(HOME TEAM IN ALL CAPS)

16 – GREEN BAY over Chicago – The Packers took control of the NFC North back last week and showed that they are still a threat to the NFC. That’s bad news for the Bears.

15 – CINCINNATI over St Louis – The Bengals are reeling. They’ll be motivated to make a statement this week.

14 – NEW YORK JETS over Miami – A pick this high is more on how bad the Dolphins have been rather than how good the Jets have been.

13 – Arizona over SAN FRANCISCO – Kaep is out for the year, and possibly out of San Francisco. That’s a good start for the 49ers, but it won’t help them this year against the hottest NFC team this side of Carolina.

12 – KANSAS CITY over Buffalo – The Chiefs are peaking at the right time. They seem to be running on all cylinders…literally since it seems they can just drop any random running back behind Alex Smith and they can be productive!

11 – JACKSONVILLE over San Diego – As “peaking” as the Chiefs are, that’s as, uh, well the opposite of peaking the Chargers are. They just seem out of sorts and they travel across the country to face a young Jags team hungry for a potential division title.

10 – Carolina over DALLAS – Dallas knows that they will need to contain Cam to have a chance…and it won’t matter! It won’t be as good as last week, but my BOLD PREDICTION is that CAM NEWTON WILL HAVE ANOTHER 4 TOUCHDOWN (PASS AND RUSH) GAME.

9 – SEATTLE over Pittsburgh – Seahawk fans were worried about a tough decision that would probably be made about the future of Marshawn Lynch this upcoming off-season. Thomas Rawls has done an amazing job of calming those worries!

8 – CLEVELAND over Baltimore – The Browns are the Browns and the Ravens have one of the worst records in the league and lost Steve Smith … and Justin Forsett … and Joe Flacco. Howard Cossell is rolling over in his grave that this is the late season Monday Night Football matchup.

7 – New England over DENVER – What a great matchup of undefeated tea…well another chapter in the epic Tom Brady vs Peyton Manning sto…uh, yeah doesn’t exactly have the same allure as it did this time last month.

6 – Tampa Bay over INDIANAPOLIS – Jameis Winston seems to be getting used to this whole NFL quarterback thing. Plus the Bucs are on the road…which apparently is a good thing for them!

5 – New York Giants over WASHINGTON – Confession time – it’s really hard to say anything interesting about the NFC at this point…

4 – DETROIT over Philadelphia – Two teams that have talent but no will to win. At least the Lions are at home.

3 – Minnesota over ATLANTA – The Vikings need this game to show the league they aren’t just fading away after losing at home to Green Bay last week. I see them squeaking this one out to keep pace with the Pack.

2 – New Orleans over HOUSTON – I would have picked the Texans, but how can you have confidence on a team that decides to bench the most reliable quarterback in their franchise – TJ Yates!

1 – TENNESSEE over Oakland – After a pretty strong glimmer of hope, the Raiders and their fans are back to a familiar place this time of year – looking at mocks for next April’s draft.