|
Must Start:
Rudi Johnson
v. STL: It used to be that Cincinnati sucked each year, but
owners could count on Johnson regardless of his team’s struggles.
Mr. Consistency has been banged up and getting some competition
this year from Kenny Watson and DeDe Dorsey, and not just in obvious
passing situations. However, it looks like his workload is on
the rise, he is healthy once again, and he has scored in each
of the last two weeks.
Ryan Grant v. OAK: Halfway through the season, Green Bay had
no ground game. Suddenly, some guy no one has ever heard of gets
the start due to multiple injuries ahead of him on the depth chart
and, bam, a running game is born. And not a crappy one, but a
pretty darn good one, with Grant routinely chugging out 100 yard
games and touchdowns. As a bonus, this week Grant gets to run
against the eleven guys Oakland trots out onto the field and calls
a defense.
Edgerrin James @ SEA: The Arizona receivers are dropping like
freshman at their first keg party, leaving the Cardinals with
no choice but to lean on their outstanding running back. It obviously
pains the coaching staff to run the ball routinely, but since
all their shiny toys are broken, they don’t have a lot of
choice. Last week, with wide outs occupying stretchers up and
down the Arizona sideline, Edge rushed 24 times for 114 yards.
No touchdown, which is disturbing against the Brownies, but he
is getting opportunities.
Marion Barber @ DET: For a while this season, Detroit was the
top ranked fantasy defense in the land. That was a mirage of course,
as Detroit’s defense wasn’t stopping anyone, but lots
of return touchdowns helped their cause. The entire Lions team
is crashing back to Earth with four straight losses. Once again,
the powers of the universe have spoken: it is just unnatural for
Detroit to have a winning record.
Going Out On a Limb:
Chris Brown v. SD: Yeah, I’m not too excited about this
guy either, but in Week 14, there just isn’t much left in
leagues with more than six competent teams. LenWhale is banged
up, although the Fat Man is expected to play, and Brown has been
seeing a decent number of touches, including a touchdown last
week. With the volume of running back injuries this year, someone
will have to use Brown.
Grab A Gatorade:
LenDale White v. SD: Since we are talking about Tennessee anyway, we
might as well discuss the fortunes of Mr. Roly-Poly. He hasn’t
topped 13 rushes or 60 rushing yards the last four weeks and Chris
Brown is looking a little more explosive, which isn’t hard.
LenWhale needs 25 carries to wear down a defense with his appreciable
bulk and he won’t get them this week.
Frank Gore v. MIN: Owners with Gore on their roster probably
don’t have a lot of other options, but explore them fully
before slotting Gore into your starting line up this week. The
only reason more people aren’t making up jokes about the
49ers is because they are distracted by the odor from Miami. Excluding
his two touchdowns in Week 12, Gore hasn’t scored since
Week Two. Oh, yeah, the Vikings are pretty good at stopping the
run, too.
Kevin Jones v. DAL: After receiving 22 touches against Green
Bay Week 12, Jones got a total of six during Week 13’s game
in Minnesota. The Vikings are good, but at least pretending to
run the ball occasionally might have been helpful. Oh well, another
Detroit loss as Mad Mike Martz experiments with our fantasy players.
KJ owners have to be putting Martz on the same level of hatred
as Mike Shanahan gets from all owners.
Laurence
Maroney v. PIT: Best case is Maroney getting 15 touches with
the Patriots spreading the field continually, making it easier
for Tom Brady to read the blitzes he will face all day. Maroney
might get lucky and break one, but the presence of Kevin Faulk
and Heath Evans splits the small New England running pie into
slices that are way too small to fill anyone up.
Jesse Chatman
@ BUF: After aggravating his ankle injury last week, Chatman gets
a cakewalk match up in Buffalo. The problem is he may not be healthy
enough to shoulder a full rushing load, leading to more Samkon
Gado sightings. Since rookie quarterback John Beck began starting,
Chatman has scored exactly zero touchdowns, even against last
week’s porous Jets run defense.
Wide Receivers
|
