Post Week Nine NFL Team Rankings

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1. Kansas City- I hate to put the Chiefs atop the rankings but they’ve earned it. A 9-0 stand alone record.
2. San Francisco 49ers- I like the way the 49ers have rebalanced their team before their bye week. Seattle doesn’t look the same and the NFC seems to be setup for an easier run than the AFC is.
3. Denver Broncos- It’s November and the hot topic is the weather change. Can Manning avoid his paternalistic cold weather melt downs?
4. New England Patriots- If the Patriots key contributors on offense can stay healthy, they’ll be able to outscore most opponents even with a hindered defense.
5. Seattle Seahawks- There are some serious problems for the Seahawks. They need to diagnose what’s going on with their defense rather quickly. If not they’re going to end up being defeated by a wildcard team in the playoffs.
6. Cincinnati- They suffered a hiccup on Thursday night, but are in full control of their division. With the pressure off they should be able to gain forward as the season moves on.
7. New Orleans- The Saints have to lessen the burden on Drew Brees and get a running game in place.
8. Indianapolis- Second year quarterback Andrew Luck might have to much weight on his shoulders to handle at this stage. We will see if he can keep his heroics going.
9. Carolina Panthers- Quietly the Panthers are emerging as a serious threat. The next two games against the 49ers and Patriots will truly show how far they’ve come.
10. Detroit Lions- The type of win the Lions had before their bye week against the Cowboys is a rally type of win. The whole team has to be motivated now especially with divisional counterparts having issues at quarterback.
11. Green Bay Packers
12. Dallas Cowboys
13. San Diego Chargers
14. Philadelphia Eagles
15. NY Jets
16. Baltimore Ravens
17. Chicago Bears
18. Miami Dolphins
19. Arizona Cardinals
20. Tennessee Titans
21. Cleveland Browns
22. Washington Redskins
23. St. Louis Rams
24. Pittsburgh Steelers
25. Atlanta Falcons
26. Buffalo Bills
27. Oakland Raiders
28. NY Giants
29. Houston Texans
30. Minnesota Vikings
31. Jacksonville Jaguars
32. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Week Ten Potential Fourth Quarter Killers

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RG3
RG3 and the Redskins just don’t want to make things easy on themselves. While that has been the case, there has been a fantasy points spree from RG3 late in games as a result. Thursday games this season have not necessarily been fantasy friendly but RG3 will break that mold.

Carson Palmer
Houston is in a dire situation that does not look good. Case Keenum shined against the Colts but will be facing a higher grade defense in the Arizona Cardinals. They’ll shadow Andre Johnson much better than the Colts did. Arizona has also been stout on defense at stopping the run. This is a perfect setup game for Palmer to have a coming out party with his arm. Look for Arizona to beat a poor Houston secondary time after time.

Matt Forte
Forte has had two great games, one against Washington before the bye week and last week against the Packers. New head coach Marc Trestman is putting on a show with his play calling. Everyone wants to talk about the Eagles being the most potent offense, but the Bears have been scoring at a higher rate this season. Watch Forte have another strong performance that leads into the fourth quarter.

Rashad Jennings
With Darren McFadden out Jennings gets a chance to fill the role he embraced as MJD’s backup in Jacksonville. Oakland needs their running game to be successful to have any shot at aiding Terrelle Pryor. It may not happen immediately this weekend, but Jennings should continue the trend of Oakland being a consistent threat for an RB2 in fantasy football.

DeMaryius Thomas
When Denver has big leads they don’t let off the gas. Peyton will still call audibles at the line of scrimmage to get the most out of a play. Against the Washington Redskins it resulted in a few miscues with interceptions. Other times it led to big plays. DeMaryius Thomas is a big receiver that no one wants to take down in the fourth quarter.

Keenan Allen
San Diego is going to need to throw a ton to try and compete with the Broncos. Over the last six weeks, Keenan Allen has been an ignition in the Chargers offense. Philip Rivers will continue to lean on his rookie and the Chargers will draw up favorable play calls for both. This game may be closer than people think but San Diego will certainly be in passing situations.

Others: Marshawn Lynch, Le’Veon Bell, Anquan Boldin, Jason Witten, Mike James, Frank Gore, and Zac Stacy.

Who to Use For an Aaron Rodgers Fill In?

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A broken collarbone will cost Aaron Rodgers a crucial period in the regular season on the field and for fantasy football owners. Most people that drafted Rodgers high probably ignored the need for a fantasy backup quarterback. Similar to the way the Packers did with bringing in Seneca Wallace after preseason.

Fantasy owners figured they would just need a spot starter for one game. In all likelihood that led to you just swapping a bench player for a waiver wire quarterback acquisition for a week. Someone serviceable to just get you points at the position for one week. Now you must rethink how you are going to get points at the quarterback position with Rodgers out for at least three weeks.

Here are a few quarterbacks to think about picking up in the time being.

Christian Ponder
I know it draws the ire of Rodgers owners to even have to think about picking up Ponder. It is a tremendous downgrade. In terms of fantasy points though you are going to get a bargain with ponder. The negativity surrounding his name has high merit from his poor performances throughout the last year and a half. Last week he showed signs though with his legs and arm. If he can keep the passing game going with the force of AP, he is going to continue to get chunks of fantasy points with his legs. That’s the type of bonus you want to find at this juncture.

Carson Palmer
Palmer is another name that is one no one would want. He has been a turnover machine. But the Cardinals somehow have managed to be a .500 team and are coming off their bye week. The Cardinals can get themselves in contention for a wild card spot with a strong push. With newfound success with Andre Ellington at running back, the Cardinals are going to come out of the bye week with the ability to attack down the field. Don’t be surprised if Palmer performs better as teams are going to have to trust the Cardinals running game a bit more.

Others: Joe Flacco, Big Ben, and Case Keenum

Best Catches to Targets from Week Nine

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Mike Wallace
Wallace finally had a game where his catches to targets were a decent rate. Tannehill and Wallace have struggled all season at utilizing Wallace’s big play abilities. The story surrounding Miami’s offensive line has a lot to do with that. Tannehill has been planted on his back and not given enough time to get the football down the field. Maybe that will change. Thursday Wallace finished with six catches on eight targets.

Jason Witten
It’s about time we had a Jason Witten sighting. The tight end was the difference on a day that Dez Bryant was held in check. Witten looked in old form as he was able to get over the middle and even was able to get some yards after the catch. He had eight catches on ten targets.

Keenan Allen
Going into the season many Chargers fans and fantasy owners were worried at who Brees would target game to game. Antonio Gates has been steady, but it’s been the rookie Keenan Allen who has blown past expectations. He had one of the strongest months in October and has carried it over to the first game of November. He finished with eight catches on eleven targets.

Tony Gonazlez
Gonzalez was on his way to another career type of game against the Carolina Panthers. In the first half Matt Ryan was targeting Gonzalez nearly every pass play. I would have as well as the Carolina Panthers chose to play Gonzalez with just a linebacker. It was a mismatch every time and resulted in a close game at half at just 14-10. Ron Rivera and the Panthers did the smart thing and rethought their coverages on Gonzalez. The game flipped from there and Gonzalez only ended up with six catches on nine targets, mostly from the first half.

Brandon LaFell
LaFell almost ended up in the fantasy doghouse. He finished with six catches on nine targets but should have had eight catches on nine targets. On two deep ball throws in the second half Cam Newton placed the ball in good spots for LaFell. He just couldn’t find the ball and make the catch. His involvement with the offense was a good sign, but LaFell needs to get his hands on more balls.

Doug Baldwin
Baldwin is one of the unheralded Seahawks that has helped them get two wins, one against Houston and the comeback against Tampa Bay. The connection is just there and the Seahawks are going to need Baldwin on the field more until the offensive line gets better. Baldwin finished with six catches on ten targets.

Jerricho Cotchery
Cotchery had a game that may be his last big game of his career. Every athlete has one. Cotchery has been the third receiver on the Steelers for a few years now after a solid stint with the Jets. Sunday he made fantastic catches and scored three touchdowns. I would not recommend picking up Cotchery off the waiver wire.

Others: AJ Green 11 catches/19 targets, Dwayne Bowe 7 catches/12 targets, Lance Moore 6 catches/10 targets, Greg Jennings 6 catches/9 targets, Pierre Garcon 7 catches/11 targets, Rod Streater 5 catches/6 targets, Torrey Smith 5 catches/8 targets, Rob Gronkowski 9 catches/10 targets, TY Hilton 7 catches/11 targets, Brandon Marshall 7 catches/13 targets

Stretching the Field Post Week Nine

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Andre Johnson
The play calling for the Texans nose dived without head coach Gary Kubiak. For now though the Texans appear to have their new quarterback settled in Case Keenum. He revived Andre Johnson who had been held without a touchdown for a long time. He finished Sunday with two touchdowns on nine catches for over 220 yards.

Jimmy Graham
You have to think the rest of the season may get tougher for Graham. Marques Colston has been hobbled and Brees is having a tough time finding a main receiver to target frequently. For the first nine games of the season you’d can argue that Graham’s name deserves to be in the running for offensive MVP. He has been virtually unstoppable every game. He tacked on two more touchdowns Sunday.

Robert Meachem
Meachem didn’t get in the end zone but he did make four big catches. If Meachem can have half the impact that he did as a New Orleans Saint his first time around he can be of fantasy significance. With Colston nursing a knee injury, there is going to be an opportunity for Meachem to re-arise in the Saints offense.

Pierre Garcon
It was Garcon who talked about RG3 in the media about his knee brace. Since then the days of our lives media soap opera with RG3 has not been as near an issue. He has calmed down quite a bit and the sound bites have filtered down. Garcon has risen RG3’s game, when a year ago it was the opposite. Garcon is making phenomenal catches and finished with seven for over 170 yards.

Harry Douglas
Douglas continues to put up great stats as a number one receiver in spot duty over Julio Jones and Roddy White. Douglas had three catches for over eighty yards. He seemed to be having success for a couple of drives against Carolina before it all came to a halt. The ceiling for Douglas may have been reached, but the positive is that Roddy White should be back soon.

Riley Cooper and DeSean Jackson
Oakland’s secondary and defense obviously was not prepared to take on the Eagles assault. Once it started it was beginning of a marathon of nightmarish highlights for the Raiders. Now the Eagles get the spotlight again after the offense hadn’t clicked like that since week one. Cooper and Jackson will look to continue their show with Nick Foles at quarterback.

Greg Little
I wouldn’t rush to the waiver wire for Little, as he has been non-existent for much of the season. Sunday though the Ravens were the first defense to ensure Josh Gordon doesn’t beat them for big play after big play. They held him in check to just three catches for over forty yards. It was the other side that they struggled which led Little to a stellar game.

Aaron Dobson, Danny Amendola, and Rob Gronkowski
A game that was 24-all looked like it was on course to be a great finish. In a span of minutes the Patriots extended the lead with quick strike after quick strike. When the Steelers weren’t allowing big plays to Dobson, Amendola, and Gronk it came via pass interferences. We will see if the show can continue with all now healthy.

TY Hilton
Andrew Luck’s second half comeback heroics were similar to an NBA marksmen. Luck targeted TY Hilton and saw that the Texans couldn’t stop him once they got going. Hilton finished with seven catches for over 120 yards. Still, the Colts will have to find another receiver to step up in absence of Reggie Wayne.