Hey there again, fellow fantasy dorks! We are now fully all up in week 12, which means for many of you that playoffs are right around the corner, and for others, well, I dunno, go outside and do something productive. I myself have a few teams that aren't going to be around much longer, so I have been trying to pay more attention to my 5-5ish teams, making last minute desperation moves in order to make the final cut. For example, I was severely lacking at RB for one team a couple of weeks ago, so I took a chance on Pats RB Benjarvus Green-Ellis while Sammy Morris was out, and it paid off, until last week, when my benched and forgotten Kevin Faulk got most of the run work. Very annoying. Anyway, I've dropped 'em both now in favor of Bucs RB Warrick Dunn, being that Earnest Graham is done for the season. Also, I can finally start Detroit RB Kevin Smith to fill in some voids as well. It only took 10 weeks for him to get going. Luckily, patience is one of my better virtues.
Week 9 is over and many of us are finding ourselves half-crazy, halfway to gone, half-drunk on the drama that has been the 2008 NFL season. Ah, it seems like just yesterday that the Heartbreak Kid Tom Brady broke the hearts of many a fantasy owner that took him with their oh-so important first pick, going down in the first game with a season-ending injury. Then there was Willie Parker looking like this year's LT right out of the gates, only to fall to injury for most of the first half. Some of you thought that this would be the breakout year for Vince Young and the Titans. Well, you were half right. Then, there were those of us that took the Lions' 4-0 preseason start as a sign of a fantastic year. I believe I actually said to someone, "Our road to the Super Bowl starts in Atlanta!" Sigh. My delusions aside, there have been some really incredible and incredibly dreadful performances that warrant some recognition, an award if you will. Being that I think each player is unique, I have named these awards to personally match the players themselves. I have no actual trophies to hand out, but being mentioned on the pages of a website of such high repute as the FFC is a fine prize in itself. So congrats to those of you savvy owners who found success in the first half, and to those who didn't: There is still time to draft a fantasy basketball team.
The Dallas Cowboys have gone from 3-0 to 4-2 in the last 3 weeks. They entered the season as one of the favorites in the NFC, and started 3-0, but the team now appears in disarray after the overtime loss to the Cardinals on Sunday. That was only the beginning of their strange week.
In a season chock full of surprises, the Tennessee Titans have become big news by getting off to a 4-0 start. Most experts overlooked the Titans when making their pick for a likely winner of the AFC South, a division in which the Indianapolis Colts and the Jacksonville Jaguars get most of the attention. But with the Colts and Jags struggling early, along with a lack of heat coming from the Houston Texans, the Titans find themselves in fine position to lead the charge for a playoff run. And considering that the Titans are accomplishing all of this without the services of their supposed franchise QB Vince Young, one would be compelled to wonder how all of this success came about. Well, I definitely think it is a worthy pursuit to dig around a little and take a look at the team as a whole.
Like
countless other fantasy football players who thought they were making
the right choice benching or trading him, I was sorely dismayed to see
the game Ronnie Brown had last week against the Patriots. I let Ronnie
go before the season started, along with Kellen Winslow, Peyton, and
Patrick Crayton, in exchange for Jay Cutler, Todd Heap, Torry
Holt, and Adrian Peterson (the Minnesota one, naturally). I think
history will bear the trade out as one of the most dead-even in FF
history - as long as Brown can stop scoring five touchdowns a
game, for crying out loud.