Target: Court E. Mann of ProFootballWeekly.com
Article: Start ‘em or sit ‘em – Week Four

I can’t say that I’ve spent much time at the Pro Football Weekly site, a fact I am sure the FFToday editors appreciate. If you Google “fantasy football”, you will begin to understand how many fantasy football sites are on the Internet. Most of them are garbage while some have interesting nuggets. I am lazy, so I hit only a handful of sites every day, providing me all the information my beer-weakened brain can process. Mann is my first exposure to Pro Football Weekly, so let’s see if he has a clue and thereby determining whether I will be making a return trip via Internet Explorer. The following is his list of start and bench guys for Week Four. Drum roll please…

Quarterbacks

Jay Cutler – Start: Really? What has Cutler done this year to justify a start? By the way, his favorite receiver was banged up and not expected to play. Through three weeks, Cutler had three touchdowns and four interceptions – hardly inspiring numbers. Week Four saw him throwing for 131 yards, one TD, and one interception. He managed to get another touchdown with his legs, salvaging this pick from being absolute crap, but it still was a far cry from a must start.

Marc Bulger – Start: I know I’m not the only football writer who watches football, but I am beginning to think that a lot of “experts” don’t bother with little details like actually viewing the games they are talking about. The Rams offense has been a freaking train wreck, Steven Jackson is out, and Bulger has been beaten up so much behind his sieve of a line that he has a couple broken ribs to show for it. Now he knows what life is like through David Carr’s eyes. Week Four saw Bulger racking up 114 yards and an interception before getting yanked for Gus Frerotte. Yeah, Gus Frerotte – didn’t think he was still in the NFL did you? Not only was this a bad pick, it was also stupid.

Eli Manning – Bench: Eli had 135 yards passing with a touchdown and an interception, making Mann correct in his recommendation to avoid the Giants’ QB. Hurrah for the expert! Everyone who watched this painful game quickly realized neither team is very good.

Matt Schaub – Bench: This benching wasn’t nearly as good. Schaub managed 317 yards and a touchdown plus another 19 yards rushing. While he didn’t light the fantasy world on fire while throwing to the talent-less Kevin Walter and Andre Davis, he secured some solid numbers.

Mann got it right on Manning and that was it. Cutler was a bit below average while Schaub a bit above. If he had reversed these selections it would have brought him closer to reality. Recommending owners start Bulger was just idiotic. Sometimes I can see how an “expert” arrives at his selections, occasionally even agreeing with his logic even when it doesn’t work out. Everyone saw St. Louis going down in flames other than this expert. By the way, Mann’s starters garnered a combined 245 passing yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions while his two benched guys got 452 yards, 2 TDs, and a single INT. The win goes to the bench players and everyone who ignored this experts’ advice.

Running Backs

Cedric Benson – Start: Why does anyone still believe Benson is a good running back? Other than mopping up games for Thomas Jones, he has been a complete waste of a draft pick. This week he had a great opportunity to silence his critics playing the “no defense” Lions. Instead he managed to get himself pulled from the game by fumbling for the third time this season. Seventy-four yards sucks from your #2 RB. Corey Dillon, answer your phone!

Ron Dayne – Start: A 74 yard effort doesn’t make owners happy, especially against a crappy Atlanta defense. The fat man did what was expected of him this weekend: buffets destroyed – 12, touchdowns scored – 0.

Jamal Lewis – Bench: Lewis slogged along and got 64 yards and a touchdown. He looked very unimpressive but got lucky with a TD, making him a better start than either of the experts’ picks.

Kenny Watson – Bench: With Rudi Johnson out, owners were scrambling for a replacement but would have been better off benching all their Bengals. Watson was only able to get 63 combined yards, making him comparable to both of the experts’ starters and similarly disappointing.

Here is a case where, for the most part, I understand why the expert picked who he did. Jamal Lewis is looking more and more like Ron Dayne with his two yards and a cloud of dust running style but Benson and Dayne could have done well this week against poor defenses and Watson was certain to struggle against the mighty Patriots. It didn’t work out exactly as planned. Starters: 148 yards and no TDs, bench: 127 yards and a touchdown. The bench wins for a second time and we are again reminded that most experts get poor reviews when their advice is analyzed. Why was it again? Oh, yeah – because a strung-out hooker gives better football advice, with benefits.

Wide Receivers

Derrick Mason – Start: Tough pick here as the Baltimore offense continues to look like its being run by a “bed & breakfast” owner. Wait – that was last year’s Raiders, but the similarities are striking. Mason caught ten balls for 78 yards – decent but not impressive. Until the Ravens figure out how to score, it is hard to start any of them. And remember this effort came against the Cleveland Browns.

Shaun McDonald – Start: Detroit is becoming more and more of a Mike Martz team, passing on every down and ignoring the defensive side of the ball. With Calvin Johnson out, McDonald was expected to have a decent game against a Chicago defense reeling from injuries to its secondary. Forty combined yards and a touchdown were a middling effort.

Reggie Brown – Sit: Other than Lee Evans, there isn’t another receiver easier to pick on than the hapless Brown. Even when the Eagles were able to score in Week Three, Brown got no love. This was a pretty obvious pick and he only got 17 yards on the day. Ironically, our expert almost got burned when Brown had a TD catch called back because McNabb was three yards over the line of scrimmage when he threw the pass.

Mann didn’t have to watch his bench outscore his starters for a third time, if only because he put a single guy on the bench versus two starters. However, the two starters totaled a whopping 118 yards and a touchdown, numbers not worth starting but infinitely better than anything from the Eagles offense. At least Mann didn’t hurt anyone with his picks here. He didn’t really help, but it is a step in the right direction for him.

Tight Ends

Heath Miller – Start: Three catches for 46 yards or, in other words, an average day for a tight end. Even with Hines Ward not on the field competing for looks Miller couldn’t get much done.

Jeff King – Bench: For readers not familiar with King, he is the Panthers’ TE who, through three weeks, had amassed 13 catches for 130 yards and a touchdown. This week he had a single catch for 14 yards. I am not sure it’s fair to bench a guy most people have never heard of, but if you can’t come up with anything better….And it isn’t like anyone had high hopes for the Carolina offense with David Carr at the helm. I am restraining myself from using all the obvious “Carr Wreck” jokes….

Another boring week for tight ends. Neither of these guys did anything exceptional but King sucked worse than Miller. I guess that is a win for the expert.

When an expert selects seven different guys to represent him and the most impressive numbers come from one of his benched guys, everyone knows these picks sucked. When readers realize that “best performance” was Jamal Lewis’ 64 yard, one TD effort, the expert completely hosed it.

Not a single one of his “start” guys did anything justifying their starting position. Cutler’s two TDs were largely offset by an interception and meager yardage total, and that was the best starting pick the expert had, which is just sad. I don’t mind giving a guy the benefit of the doubt if he steps up and makes some bold predictions, but none of Mann’s ideas were anything more than middling players with decent matchups to start or players in terrible situations to bench. I won’t be going back to Pro Football Weekly if this is the best they’ve got. Mann would have found more success by reversing his picks for the week or, in other worlds, he hurt readers more than he helped. Another expert’s recommendations go into the big, stinking, crap pile….

On to the picks from my Shot Caller’s Report. Hopefully, most of them stayed out of the shameful discard pile. I can say whatever I want, but the proof is in the results, so let’s look at some of them.

Quarterbacks

Best Pick: Benching Carson Palmer
Worst Pick: Benching Derek Anderson

Anderson did much better than I expected against the Ravens defense. His yardage totals weren’t impressive nor was his interception, but anytime a quarterback gets a couple touchdowns, I shouldn’t be calling for him to be on the bench. Palmer didn’t have a completely miserable game against the Patriots yet I consider this pick an excellent one. Telling owners to bench a top five QB is tough, watching him throw for 234 yards, one TD, and two interceptions is even harder if you didn’t listen and started him anyway.

Running Backs

Best Pick: Starting Adrian Peterson
Worst Picks: Benching Edgerrin James and Marshawn Lynch

I received a few colorful emails about my pick of Peterson before the games began. Even with Chester Taylor back on the field, AP is obviously the better back and looked like it during the first half. For some reason known only to the Minnesota coaching staff, he barely sniffed the ball the rest of the game. Still, 118 combined yards is respectable. I fully expected Edge to struggle against the stingy Pittsburgh defense and Lynch to fare poorly with a new quarterback. Instead, the Cardinals handled the Steelers and Trent Edwards easily looked better than the dreadful J.P. Losman behind center.

Wide Receivers

Best Pick: Starting Santonio Holmes
Worst Pick: Benching Brandon Marshall

As expected, with Hines Ward sidelined Holmes was more than capable of picking up the slack, finishing with 128 yards and two touchdowns. Marshall managed to grab a TD along with his 23 yards. His numbers weren’t huge by any means, but good enough to be my worst receiver pick.

Things are starting to get a little more predictable now that we have hit Week Four. Not for Court E. Mann of ProFootballWeekly.com though. His picks were not only horrible, they were uninspired as well. Anyone can take some middling guys and guess if they will have a good or bad game based on matchups. At least I thought so before looking at Mann’s analysis. He got many more wrong than right, even with the relatively low bar he set for himself. If nothing else, this installment of Analyzing the Experts helps us appreciate the talent and knowledge we have at FFToday. It is amazing how smart we all look next to an idiot.