Fantasy Nation Week 6

[eagle eye]

How the landscape has changed. The Atlanta Falcons were favorites to go to the Super Bowl and now it looks like they may not even make the playoffs. To make matters worse for fantasy football players their rosters have taken a big hit due to the nagging injury to Roddy White, the loss of Steven Jackson for the past 3-1/2 games and now Julius Jones may be lost for the season with a lisfranc foot injury. Who would have thought Harry Douglas would be a main actor in the Falcons play? Standing at 1-4 the Falcons are sitting in third place in the NFC South 4 games back of New Orleans who is running away with the division at this time. The only team more disappointing in 2013 based on expectations is the NY Giants.

Brian Hoyer is done for the year. A week ago tomorrow night the guy who was giving the Browns hope went down in the first half in a game the Browns gutted out a big win. They are tied for first in the AFC North but I'm not sure they will actually do much going forward. There was a noticable difference in the way Brandon Weeden played compared with Hoyer. Hoyer was more decisive and got rid of the ball quicker than Weeden and he was more accurate too. Cleveland has a top notch defense (fantasy hint) and they will be needed IMO. I think the fantasy stock for Jordan Cameron and Josh Gordon are diminished and both have been money in fantasy. I look for Willis McGahee to be more involved with the loss of Chris Ogbanaya. He's getting more involved because he's getting into game shape since he was signed after the Trent Richardson trade and now Cleveland is running out of choices in their backfield.

It's not like Houston hasn't got enough problems with Matt Schaub struggling and getting harassed at his home but now the Texans will not have Owen Daniels for the remainer of the regular season due to a broken leg. Garrett Grahams fantasy value has just risen by a mile. Both to the Texans and to fantasy owners.

There seems to be some question about whether or not Michael Vick's hamstring will keep him out of this week's game against the winless Buccaneers in Tampa. Nick Foles has been taking the first team snaps but NFL.com is reporting that Vick is feeling surprisingly good only a couple of days removed from pulling his hamstring in the Eagles win over the Giants. Realistically, Foles is most likely getting his first start of 2013 however. Foles is a better passer and he makes DeSean Jackson better as a result. If Vick plays then the run game will be more up front and LeSean McCoy with be the main feature. Either way, I hope the Eagles lose but I hope DeSean Jackson does well for my fantasy teams.

[eagle eye]

Giants at Bears fantasy plays for tonight:

Chicago Starts
> Jay Cutler
> Matt Forte
> Brandon Marshall
> Chicago Def/ST

Possible plays
> Martellus Bennett

Sleeper - Alshon Jeffery. Jeffery has been coming on of late and if you're a Roddy White of Julius Jones owner and need a WR Jeffery could be an option.

Giants Starts
> Eli Manning (I know he's not winning but he's still putting up good numbers for fantasy owners
> Victor Cruz
> Hakeem Nicks

I doesn't look good for the Giants actually winning the game tonight. They are terrible on the offensive line and their defense can't stop Port Neches-Groves. They will probably get better as the year goes on and injured players return but this week against da Bears won't be it.
BTW odds for tonight's game are Bears -8.5. I might actually take the Giants and points tonight---Nah, I'll take the Bears and give the 8.5.

[eagle eye]

Here are my starts and sits for Week 6.

QB Starts

Matt Schaub vs St Louis (This may be just hopeful thinking but Schaub is due to come out of his funk and Arian Foster and Ben Tate should take the pressure off. Houston's offense is a definite up this week.)
Andrew Luck vs San Diego
Tony Romo vs Washington
RGIII vs the Dallas

Sleeper Pick - Matt Cassel vs Carolina and Nick Foles vs Tampa Bay

QB Sits

Terrelle Pryor vs Kansas City
Sam Bradford vs Houston
Carson Palmer vs San Francisco
Russell Wilson vs Tennessee

Owners Beware - Phillip Rivers vs Indianapolis (Indy D very underrated)

RB Starts

Knowshon Moreno vs Jacksonville
Alfred Morris vs Dallas
Adrian Peterson vs Carolina (A normal no-brainer but he may have an extra emotional stake--he may be in Optimus Prime mode this week.

Sleeper - DeMarco Murray vs Washington and Willis McGahee vs Detroit

RB Sits

Rashard Mendenhall vs San Francisco
Maurice Jones-Drew vs Denver
Eddie Lacey vs Baltimore
Darren McFadden/Rashard Jennings, etc vs Kansas City

WR Starts

Torrey Smith vs Green Bay
Reggie Wayne/T Y Hilton vs San Diego
Dez Bryant vs Washington
Steve Smith vs Minnesota

Sleeper - Vincent Jackson vs Philadelphia (Philly D is not great but I'm afraid of TB's Mike Glennon. He was less than impressive in his first start last week.)

WR Sits

Anquan Bolden vs Arizona
DeSean Jackson vs Tampa Bay (He'll be on Reavis Island this week)
Larry Fitzgerald vs San Francisco
Tavon Austin vs Houston

TE Starts

Garrett Graham vs St Louis
Julius Thomas vs Jacksonville
Jermichael Finley vs Baltimore
Jason Witten vs Washington
Jordan Reed vs Dallas
Cameron Jordan vs Detroit

TE Sits

Heath Miller vs New York Jets
Jared Cook vs Houston
Jermaine Gresham vs Buffalo
Brent Celek vs Tampa Bay