Week 5 Fantasy Reactions

After a one week hiatus the weekly fantasy reactions piece is back! I know you’re all excited. Before we get started, I want to give a shout out to my Cleveland Browns! Congrats on being the last win-less team in the NFL.

Injuries, Injuries, Injuries: It seems to me that this week had the biggest impact on teams with regards to injuries. Danny Amendola started off with an injury that actually could have killed him. His clavicle popped in nearly crushing his windpipe. Yikes…. There is not really a set timetable for his return as the Rams called every team in the league with none of them seeing an injury like this. His loss is huge for the Rams, and especially for PPR owners. Both Robert Griffin III and Jimmy Graham left their games and were not able to finish. This probably hurt a lot of teams, although neither looks to miss significant time at this point. The fantasy world lost two starting RBs this week in Cedric Benson and Ryan Williams. Benson is out at least 8 weeks and may go on I.R. while Williams is done for the season. It looks like both teams will go with a committee approach though both situations (Alex Green and James Starks in GB, LaRod Stephens-Howling/William Powell/Alfonso Smith) seem like lackluster options right now. Out of all of these backs, I think Green is the one to go get. The other possibility to watch is for either the Packers or Cardinals to bring in a Free Agent who would immediately be an upgrade.

Mendenhall is Back: Maybe this year’s theme is RBs coming back from serious knee injuries way ahead of schedule… Following in the footsteps of Adrian Peterson and Jamaal Charles, Rashard Mendenhall made his season debut off of his knee injury to go for 101 yards on 16 touches with a touchdown. I help off starting him in a few leagues because it was his first game back and faced a tough defense. Pittsburgh seemed to get a boost from Mendenhall’s return, and he has some favorable matchups in the coming weeks including this week against the Titans. You probably missed your window to buy low here.

Greg Coming Up Little: Excuse the pun here, but as a Browns fan I can tell you the Little has been as terrible as his stats look. I have held onto him in a few PPR leagues until this week, waiting for the light switch to go on. His week 2 performance probably made me hold on too long. After a solid rookie season in PPR leagues, Little has obviously regressed. Brandon Weeden is looking less and less confident in Little and I think it’s safe to drop him for now. He may make a return to relevancy mainly due to the opportunity still there in Cleveland’s receiving corps, but for now even Jordan Norwood is ahead of Little for PPR purposes.

Newton: Looks like I was a week early in selecting Cam Newton as a sit, as he was utterly horrible last week. Newton can bounce back talent-wise, but he clearly has to mature mentally. Defenses have noticed and are getting into his head. If I had Newton as my QB, I’d be a little worried that as things go bad it will perpetuate as he sulks and gets down on himself.

Alfred Morris: I think it’s time to consider that Morris is there to stay as the Redskins top RB. Roy Helu, Jr. is now on I.R. and Evan Royster has not seen the field much. Where we might really see Morris’ true value is if RGIII misses any time with his concussion. I sold several shares of Morris early this season and it looks like I probably didn’t get good value back in those deals.

What’s that Wattage?: This is just a reflection that I think JJ Watt might just be the best defensive player in the league. Now, the Jets can make almost anyone look good, but he has absolutely dominated all season long. He puts massive pressure on the QB and when he isn’t hitting him, he’s batting down passes like crazy. He makes the Texans defense one of three that I would not drop on a bye week, joining Chicago and San Francisco.

Monsters of the Midway, Pt. II: Speaking of Chicago, it seems that each year there is one defense that goes beyond solid and enters the difference-making category for fantasy purposes. This year it looks like Chicago is that defense. They are heads above the next closest defense (Houston). They have amassed 17 takeaways through 5 weeks and have turned those into 5 TDs. This defense doesn’t just look to create turnovers, they are trying to score.

Bills RBs: It’s official. The Fred Jackson/CJ Spiller situation is a mess for fantasy owners. It’s looking like a true 50/50 split, and the remaining schedule looks terrible. Check out their playoff run schedule (weeks 14-16). They face St. Louis, Seattle and Miami…..Yikes.

Giants RBs: Well, that didn’t last long. Ahmad Bradshaw put his stamp on the starting job in a huge way this weekend against Cleveland. Andre Brown suffered a concussion and might miss some time. David Wilson managed to do something with the opportunity with a long TD run to seal the victory and probably has moved back ahead of Brown. Bradshaw made it clear though that whoever is backing him up will clearly be just a backup for now.

Ravens Passing Game: So much for the Air Raid that was supposed to break out in Baltimore this season. Yes, they are throwing it a lot more, but we’re not really seeing results. At least, we’re not seeing many positive results. Torrey Smith seems to be the only Raven in the passing game worth a weekly start, with Dennis Pitta, Anquan Boldin and Joe Flacco putting up sporadic useful games. The biggest impact has been on Ray Rice owners who can only imagine how many more points he could be getting for them if the Ravens would return the game-plan to running through him instead of Flacco.

Gates Closed: I think it’s time for Antonio Gates owners to finally panic. He is ranking in the 25-35 range depending on league scoring. This week looked like one where he could enjoy a breakout considering New Orleans’ horrible defense. They actually have been decent against the TE, but Gates has always been more of a WR than TE in the passing game. Well he only managed 3 receptions for 19 yards. Ugh, that’s putrid. So much for all of the preseason hype about him finally being healthy. Can you drop him? Probably not yet, but if he’s your starter it might be time to reconsider and see what else is out there.

Owen Daniels: Remember a few years ago, oh…say 2007/2008, when Daniels looked like he could bust into the top-5 at the TE position? Well he’s had a few big injuries since then that stunted his growth but he was quietly a decent TE2 last season. This season he has been a top-5 TE and it looks like the trend might continue. He’s getting a lot of looks when the Texans are passing the ball, and his knee looks like it might be back to where it was pre-injury. I think he might be here to stay for the rest of the season and should easily be a top-10 TE the rest of the way.

Rudolph the Red-Headed TE: In keeping with the TE run of notes, Kyle Rudolph (a pre-season favorite of mine) has continued to see a lot of red-zone targets. Right now he is a beast inside the 20, with that alone making him a top-10 TE. Watch out when he starts getting the yardage to go along with that. He could be scary good. I have seen him out there in a few leagues still. If he is in your league, snatch him up quickly. The idea is to be ahead of the game and you’re running out of time.

Don’t Forget the Old Guys: Early in the preseason I was faced with the following decision in a trade offer. I could take either Torrey Smith or Reggie Wayne as part of a package. There was a lot of hype with the Ravens offense, Smith was very young and looked like a breakout candidate. Wayne was coming off of one of his worst years and had a rookie QB. I went with Smith. Now, it’s a keeper league so I may end up with the better player, but Wayne has been an unquestioned weekly starter while Smith has been a mix and match guy. The point is that there are often veterans that are discarded after one bad season that can be great draft-day values. Don’t always be so quick to discard them.