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?
Only four more games left in the fantasy regular season before playoffs! This is the time to either make that final push for the fantasy postseason or if you're sitting pretty that final push first-round bye week. There will also be some managers that have given up on their teams at this point; hopefully, you're lucky enough to play against them. FOUR teams are on bye this week; Colts, Raiders, Bills and Lions. Good luck!
Note: all waiver picks listed here will have only been owned in 50% or less of Yahoo! leagues at the time of publication.
Quarterback
Trevor Siemian (DEN) - 14% owned - Siemian has not been great this year, but if you're in a pinch he does get to play against the New Orleans Saints this week. The Saints are allowing a league worst 300 yards per game to opposing passers.
Honorable mention: Joe Flacco (BAL) - 25% owned
Running Back
Dion Lewis (NE) - 39% owned - Lewis has resumed practicing and is eligible to return off PUP this week. It still remains to be seen if he will immediately replace James White as the passing back or not, but he's worth an add this week to see how it shakes out due to his high upside.
Rob Kelley (WAS) - 30% owned - The Redskins are coming off their bye week and Jay Gruden has already announced that Kelley will be the lead back after his impressive week 8 performance. I still think there will be some kind of time share with Matt Jones returning, but Jones looks to be one bad play away from being benched in favor of Kelley.
Honorable mentions: James Starks (GB) - 19% owned, Kapri Bibbs (DEN) - 6% owned
Wide Receiver
J.J. Nelson (ARZ) - 15% owned - Nelson was a recommended add and stash last week through the Cardinals week 9 bye after he posted 79 yards and two touchdowns on 8 catches in week 8. Bruce Arians has gone as far to say that Nelson will be a starting wide receiver in their offense moving forward.
Steve Smith SR (BAL) - 50% owned - Smith is officially off the injury report and draws a great matchup against a terrible Browns passing defense. Expect the Ravens to be throwing a lot in this game which means Smith should be grabbed and played if available.
Honorable mentions: Kenny Britt (LA) - 50% owned, Rishard Matthews (TEN) - 30% owned
Tight End
There are a lot of TEs all just above 50% owned in Yahoo! leagues that I would consider decent plays this week so I'll just list them in order of how I like them and one should be available for you!
Dennis Pitta (BAL) - 55% owned
Zach Miller (CHI) - 53% owned
Zach Ertz (PHI) - 56% owned
Cameron Brate (TB) - 54% owned
Defense/Special Teams
San Diego Chargers (SD) - 39% owned - The Chargers are up against the Dolphins in week 10. The Dolphins strength lately has been their running game, but the Chargers are only allowing an average of 85 yards per game to opposing rushers and have forced 5 fumbles over their past 4 games.
Week 10 is here, and if you're in one of my fantasy leagues, this means Rivalry Week! This probably doesn't mean much to most of you, but for me it's 3 opportunities to beat Dave. Now you're excited, right? Here are our consensus rankings, basically the mid-point of our fantasy football rankings.
This week, make sure you get Carson Palmer into your lineup against the 49ers. On the other side in that game, put DuJuan Harris in if Carlos Hyde sits out again. At receiver, Stefon Diggs and Mike Wallace are both guys that need to be starting for you. Finally, Jason Witten is having a little renaissance right now, get in on it before it goes away.
So far, if you have picked against the Browns every week, you have won every time in your survivor pool. Last week I had the Cowboys who smoked the Browns 35-10, easily covering the spread. This week should be no different with the Ravens being 10.5 point favorites over the pathetic Browns tonight on Thursday Night Football. However, I have peeped the remainder of Cleveland's schedule and I can't find another opponent as weak as Baltimore. For this reason I will shy away from picking this game. I cannot deny the Lions greatness in achieving the only 0-16 record in NFL history. Thursday games are funny so pick at your own risk.
My pick for this week will be the Arizona Cardinals. I had them earlier in the year in a loss to the Rams, so I tossed them back in my available teams. They are the largest favorite of the week at 13.5 points over the San Francisco 49ers. With the extra preparation Arizona has coming off the bye week, I see no way they drop this one at home vs a team battling for the 1st pick in next year’s draft.
Cheers! Drink Five!