Rising

Michael Vick, NYJ
Don’t look now, but the new Jets starting quarterback might be becoming a useful player in fantasy football. Vick followed up a decent Week 9 performance with the eleventh best quarterback score in the league in Week 10. He hasn’t cracked 200 passing yards as a starter, but he has put up some numbers on the ground and avoided turnovers. He won’t enter the ranks of the QB1s, but if Vick can continue to play turnover-free football, he should at least be serviceable for those that are desperate in deeper or multi-quarterback leagues.

Tony Romo, DAL
Last week, I expressed concern over Tony Romo’s back. Clearly there was nothing to be concerned about. Romo flew to London and picked apart the Jaguars on his way to his third-best fantasy game of the season. He will get a chance to rest in Week 11 with a bye, and come back looking to finish strong down the stretch for his fantasy owners. Romo is likely a weekly starter the rest of the season.

Andy Dalton has eight TDs in nine games and ranks 24th among fantasy quarterbacks for the season.

Falling

Jay Cutler, CHI
The Bears in general have been a mess in recent weeks. Cutler’s two worst outings of the season have come in his last three games. He hasn’t finish in the top 12 at quarterback in any week since Week 5. With all the weapons around him, Cutler should be pumping out QB1 scores week after week, but he just isn’t doing so. If you have come this far with him you’re probably stuck with him, but don’t be afraid to seek out an upgrade before your league’s trade deadline.

Andy Dalton, CIN
When Andy Dalton has a bad week, he really has a bad week. In nine games this season, Dalton has had three different instances of finishing outside the top 25 at the quarterback position. It’s hard to even call Dalton a matchup play, because his disaster games have all come against opponents that don’t really scare you that much. It’s tough to completely ignore him since he is capable of having huge weeks, but the constant threat of a terrible week makes it difficult to consider him for your fantasy lineup going forward.

Running Back

Rising

C.J. Anderson, DEN
There appears to be another round of next man up going on in Denver. After Montee Ball went down, Ronnie Hillman took the starting job and ran with it. In Week 10, Ronnie Hillman got dinged up, and C.J. Anderson seemed to take the job by the reins. With 13 carries for 90 yards, there’s no reason to believe that Denver won’t stick with Anderson going forward. Ball is on his way back soon and Hillman will return within a few weeks, but the Broncos aren’t known to mess with a good thing. If Anderson can sustain success with his opportunity, he will be the Broncos back to own for the rest of the season.

Mark Ingram, NO
Remember when Mark Ingram was looking like a bust? Me neither. With injuries to the rest of the backfield, Ingram has come on strong, rushing for at least 100 yards in three consecutive games. At some point, owners may have to deal with questions surrounding his usage when Khiry Robinson and Pierre Thomas return, but there’s no sign of that happening any time soon. Even if/when they do return, it would be hard to imagine the Saints taking anything away from Ingram. He is a matchup proof running back that should be started every week.

Terrance West, CLE
The Browns are still a committee when it comes to their running backs, but it seems Terrance West has taken the lead for the time being. West has led the team in touches for two weeks in a row, making him appear to be the safest Cleveland runner. The usage could shift to Isaiah Crowell or Ben Tate or any given moment, but until that time, it’s West you want in your lineup.

Falling

Le’Veon Bell, PIT
The matchups were tough the past couple weeks, but that doesn’t make Bell’s games any less disappointing. He has run for a combined 56 yards on 21 carries, for a lousy average of 2.67 yards per carry in the last two weeks. He remains a safe starter thanks to his weekly receiving output, but with his recent lack of success on the ground and low of touchdown total (three this season), he should be viewed as more of a low-end RB1 than a top of the line starter in standard leagues (though still elite in PPR).

LeSean McCoy, PHI
We keep on waiting for LeSean McCoy to have a huge breakout game, but it just isn’t happening. He showed serious signs of life for a while, with a four-game stretch of games with at least 80 yards rushing in all four and over 115 yards rushing in two, but a lack of touchdowns has been holding him back. McCoy did finally break through with a score in Week 10 (his first since Week 2), but it came in a game where he could only manage 19 yards on 12 attempts. His owners should keep running him out there, but it might be time to stop waiting for 2013 LeSean McCoy to arrive and lower expectations.

Darren McFadden, OAK
By no stretch of the imagination has Darren McFadden been a great fantasy option this season, but for a while he was looking very serviceable. A couple rough recent weeks may have marked the end of McFadden being serviceable. In the last two weeks, McFadden has only run for 34 yards on 20 carries. I’ll let you do the math on how poor that is. He remains the starter in Oakland, but he should not be a starter for you unless you are truly desperate at running back.

Wide Receiver

Rising

Martavis Bryant, PIT
I don’t ever remember seeing a wide receiver burst onto the fantasy scene quite like Martavis Bryant. He has scored six touchdowns in his first four games, and has been a top 10 wide receiver in each of his last three. He’s still splitting targets with Markus Wheaton as the co-number two options behind Antonio Brown, so there is some downside to him given the limited number of targets he’s seeing. Despite that downside, I’d be hard-pressed to bench Bryant right now the way he’s going.

Odell Beckham Jr., NYG
It took a few games, but Odell Beckham Jr. has come on strong as a replacement for Victor Cruz in the Giants lineup. In two games since the Giants bye week, Beckham has been targeted 20 times, totaling 15 receptions for 264 yards. With the emergence of Beckham and the aforementioned Bryant, the list of great rookie wide receivers just keeps on growing. You’re likely starting Beckham every week going forward if you own him.

Larry Fitzgerald, ARI
The season started in a disastrous way for Larry Fitzgerald. For a while it looked like his time as a fantasy starter was long over. Things have looked up recently though, as he’s had at least 5 receptions and 70 yards in four of the last five games, with at least 7 receptions and over 110 yards in two of the last three. However, with the injury to Carson Palmer, I will stop short of recommending that you return to viewing Fitzgerald as a weekly fantasy starter. If Fitzgerald can show any kind of chemistry with Drew Stanton this Sunday, I’ll officially be ready to give him that weekly starter label again.

Falling

Terrance Williams, DAL
I just went scrolling back through the wide receiver stat pages here on FFToday.com to check in on Terrance Williams weekly finishes. In standard scoring leagues, Williams has not finished better than 65th at the position in the last two weeks, and he hasn’t finished better than 33rd since Week 5. He has been targeted three times or less in three of the last five Cowboys games. Williams started off the season reasonably well, but at this point, Williams is not worth starting. In fact, he’s barely worth owning; only his presence in the Cowboys offense makes him worth holding on to for now.

Andre Holmes, OAK
The Andre Holmes breakout party has seemed to have stopped as quickly as it started. He had a two game stretch in Weeks 4 and 6 where he caught nine passes for 195 yards and three touchdowns. After those two big weeks, Holmes looked to be on a clear path to being a weekly fantasy starter. In his last four games since that apparent breakout, Holmes has only caught 10 passes for 131 yards and one touchdown. With the Raiders offense being what it is, it seems impossible to trust Andre Holmes for any reason going forward.

Rueben Randle, NYG
The numbers just don’t add up for Rueben Randle. Randle is 16th among wide receivers in targets in 2014, yet he’s 62nd in FPts/G. He has zero games this season with double digit fantasy points in standard scoring leagues, and has less than 50 yards receiving in seven of nine games. He is the top target in the Giants offense, but those targets just aren’t translating. I’d probably hold on in hopes that the targets do start translating, but I wouldn’t mind cutting the cord on Randle if roster space is needed.

Tight End

Rising

Austin Seferian-Jenkins, TB
He still isn’t a super fantasy option, but there have been some signs of life from the rookie in recent weeks. A.S.J. has found the end zone twice in the last three games, and in Week 10 he had his season high of targets with nine. In redraft leagues, he isn’t worth a pickup just yet, but track him over the next few weeks in case this physical freak of a rookie has a late season breakout.

Charles Clay, MIA
There has been a lot of ups and downs with Charles Clay this season, but it seems like we might be entering a permanent “up” territory, at least in PPR. After averaging five targets per game over the first eight games, Clay has seen a whopping 17 in the last two weeks. He has translated those targets into 10 receptions for 110 yards and one score. If he can maintain this recent bump in targets, Clay might finally become that safe, fringe TE1 people thought he was in the preseason.

Falling

Delanie Walker, TEN
Walker got off to a strong start to 2014, putting up huge numbers in the first four weeks of the season. In that first month, Walker was averaging 12.43 points per game in standard scoring leagues, an average that would have him ranked number three at the position if he maintained it over the whole season to this point. He has not maintained. Walker has averaged just 5.2 FPts/G over the last five weeks, an average that ranks him 26th at the position over that time. Delanie Walker is still a fine start given the lack of depth at the tight end position, but he’s not a difference maker.

Larry Donnell, NYG
Like Walker, Larry Donnell is a strong starter that has since gone downhill. It looked like Donnell had arrived when he had his three-touchdown game against Washington in Week 4, but that turned out to be the point where his scoring would begin to decline. He only has one game above 26 receiving yards in the last five weeks. The targets have still been there in recent weeks (averaging seven per game over the last three games), but not quite to the same level of success as the first month. Donnell is in the same boat as Walker: probably starting for you if you have him, but not at “must start” level.

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