NFL Fantasy Help -- Week 7

[eagle eye]

Can you believe this? I mean really. Week 7? The season is almost half way over and I'm getting screwed left and right. First I lose Stevan Ridley to a season ending knee injury and now I pick up Brandon Bolden and Bill Belichick is only playing him on special teams. I think Belichick has some kind of screw EE in fantasy whenever possible. I believe after this season winds down I will never, ever take a New England Patriot again, unless it's Julian Edelman. Or Rob Gronkowski. Or Tom Brady.

This past week also saw the loss of some key players in both fantasy and real football.

RB Knowshon Moreno in his first game back since Week 2 - torn ACL, done for the season
RB Darren Sproles out 2-3 weeks with a sprained MCL
WR Victor Cruz lost for the season with a torn patellar tendon in his knee.
WR AJ Green is going to be out another week as he deals with a nagging toe injury
WR Calvin Johnson will miss another week with a bum ankle. Detroit will hold him out until he is completely healthy.
WR Eddie Royal will miss an undetermined amount of time with a rib injury. That was Monday but he practiced Wednesday and will likely play Sunday
TE Jimmy Graham is looking at missing 2-3 weeks with a shoulder injury.
RB Shonn Greene continues to battle a hamstring pull
RB Monte Ball looks to miss a couple of more weeks with a groin injury
RBs Ryan Matthews and Donald Brown continue to be sidelined.
RB Rashad Jennings out another week

So, who has benefitted from picking up the likes of Ronnie Hillman, or Brandon Oliver? How about Lamar Miller (I know he's been off the free agent market for a while now) or Mohammed Sanu? Guys I mentioned a pickups the past couple of weeks.

So who is going to take up the slack for Victor Cruz? How about rookie Odell Beckham? He made his debut two weeks ago and he certainly has the talent to do some good but, he is a rookie. I'll pull one out of left field, how about newly signed yesterday WR Kevin Ogletree? Yep, the same Kevin who played for the Cowboys. Ogletree has shown promise in the past and Cruz' injury may give him a shot a realizing his potential. Especially since the Giants face Ogletree's old team, the Cowboys this week. It's certainly a crap-shoot but the next guy with experience on the Giants roster is Preston Parker. Expect a bigger role for TE Larry Donnell as well.

How about taking another shot at the Ram's Tre Mason. Zac Stacy is done for the year with a torn ACL and Mason showed some spark in the Rams attack. He will share time with Bennie Cunningham but Mason should have a significant role in the offense which, let's face it, needs a spark.

Guess what? Maybe the Oakland Raiders finally have a coach in interim man Tony Sparano. Derek Carr looked like a 1st round pick last Sunday in the Raider's near upset of the San Diego Chargers. This means that maybe Darren McFadden is a good pickup and he's available or was on Monday. Saavy fantasy owners know an opportunity when they see it. Another guy who has a real value is WR Andre Holmes. Holmes is a big fast WR who began his career on the Cowboys practice squad. This past off season he was on the Patriots practice squad until he was released on May 10th. Last week in his first game as Raider (he served a 4 game suspension for performance enhancing substances) Holmes caught 4 balls for 121 yards and 2 TD's including a 77 yard catch and run. Holmes has been compared to Brandon Marshall by Sparano.

Browns have another RB on their roster who had a breakout game last week. Isaiah Crowell ran the ball 11 times for 77 yards and a TD compared to Ben Tate's 25 carries for 78 yards. Crowell's 7.0 YPC easily eclipsed 3.1 YPC average. Neither Crowell or Tate caught a pass last week.

[eagle eye]

Okay, I'm about 12 hours late with this but I'm 24 hours early for fantasy owners who don't yet know the Seattle traded Percy Harvin to the Jets yesterday afternoon. Seattle held on to Harvin as he dealt with injuries all last season so they could get him back for the playoffs where he did make a positive impact for the Legion of Boom. But, evidently there are off-field concerns about Harvin not to mention a minimal impact he's had for the Seahawks offense so far this year. The straw that broke the camel's back by have been last week's dud against the Cowboys. Harvin had six touches, 3 runs and 3 receptions, for a -1 yard. The Seahawks may have had some buyers remorse having to pay $41mm over the next 4 years of his contract for a negligible product. The off-field issues had to do with anger management issues. NFL.com is reporting that a source in Seattle said that Harvin had several physical altercations with teammates including on with fellow WR Golden Tate prior to Super Bowl XLVIII. So, the Seahawks get rid of a pain in the neck and get a conditional draft pick and they unass a big contract and the Jets get a very talented player with a high upside who is a freaking psycho and only have $11mm of his $41mm contract guaranteed. Sounds fair. Fantasy owners now must figure in how effective Harvin will be with Geno Smith at QB instead of Russell Wilson.

To make room for Harvin the Jets cut WR David Nelson who is a decent receiver who can't seem to stay healthy. Nelson certainly doesn't have the raw talent of Harvin but we'll see how Rex Ryan deals with a guy who has an extremely short fuse on his temper.


Injury updates:

> WR Calvin Johnson is questionable for this week. See game time decision here.
> WR AJ Green likely out.
> WR Kelvin Benjamin is practicing but still under the concussion protocol so his availability is up in the air right now.
> 49ers LB Patrick Willis is out for this week.
> The Seahawks have several players on defense out as well as the loss of Harvin. This may actually be a Rams weekend.
> The Packers CB Tramon Williams is questionable and CB Sam Shields and DT Datone Jones are out which means the Packers defense needs some help and it makes their game against Carolina a little different if you know what I mean.
> Need a RB? Carolina coach Ron Rivera says that Jonathan Stewart will start this week after missing several weeks.
> The Chiefs will be missing S Eric Berry and CB Chris Owens
> Jags RB Toby Gerhardt is out.
> Titans RB Shonn Greene is doubtful. Can you say hello to Bishop Sankey?
> I said in an earlier post that Jimmy Graham is out Sunday but he's been practicing and is listed as questionable.
> Donald Brown is out still suffering concussion sympoms. Brandon Oliver is still your man in SD.
> Carson Palmer survived his first week back and is a full go this week against the Raiders. Larry, Michael and John Brown are ecstatic!

[eagle eye]

I hate this coyness NFL coaches display with their injury reports. Cases in point;

> Jimmy Graham was out on Monday--today he's playing but it's expected he'll only be in on 3rd downs.
> Mark Ingram is active today and will play. If I knew this I would never have taken a chance on Brandon Bolden and got 1 whole point for my trouble.
> Calvin Johnson has been questionable all week, today he's a late scratch from the Lions lineup.
> Jake Locker and Shonn Greene are out for Tennessee meaning Charlie Whitehurst and Bishop Sankey are in.
> Zac Stacy is available against the Seahawks. Bad pickup here because the Rams O-line is not good.
> AJ Green is out for Cincy so Mohammed Sanu is a WR1 again this week.

[eagle eye]

Of all the things that happened today I wonder if we saw the rebirth of Colt McCoy as an NFL starting QB. He came in for the fully impotent Kirk Cousins to begin the second half and he led the offense challenged Redskins to 13 second half points including the game winning field goal as time ran out to end the game. The Redskins came into the game with only one win against 5 losses mainly because QB Cousins inability to either generate any meaningful offense or keep from turning the ball over. McCoy, who had his career virtually derailed by a sorry Cleveland Browns front office has been a backup at San Francisco and now at Washington. McCoy had to believe he would never in a million years see the field with RGIII and Cousins in front of him on the depth chart but Griffin has been injured and Cousins has been, in a word, awful. Hopefully, the new Redskins regime will give McCoy a shot going forward. Everyone knows I am no fan of the Texas Longhorns but Colt McCoy is a big exception to my prejudice. The kid has never shown anything but class and he's just a good person that I can't help but root for. I hope he gets his chance and I wish him well but the 'Skins play the Cowboys next week so while I hope he does well, I just can't hope the Redskins win. You understand. LOL>

[eagle eye]

Closing out Week 7 last night we saw, if you bothered to watch, Peyton Manning make history. He needed 3 TD passes to pass Brett Favre as the all time leader in TD passes. He broke the record in the first half. The first went to Emmanuel Sanders, the second to Wes Welker and the last to Demaryius Thomas. There were at least 2 that weren't completed because of pass interference penalties on the 49ers. Manning tossed a long bomb of a pass for an exclamation point score in the second half to Demaryius Thomas. We have had history unfold to us right before our eyes and I, for one, appreciate being in front of my TV to see it happen.
Demaryius Thomas has become relevant in fantasy again. That's a good thing. Another player we all who play fantasy football may have questioned his worth was Ronnie Hillman. Hillman was supposed to supplant Knowshon Moreno in Denver but Moreno solved his fumbling problems and was on the field consistently and Hillman suffered fumbleitis and it got him benched. When Moreno moved on to Miami the injury bug smacked Moreno right in the mouth with a dislocated elbow and a torn ACL. Hillman, because of his fumbling issue was buried on the depth chart behind Montee Ball but Ball was injured three weeks ago and Hillman has done a good job in Ball's place. Ronnie Hillman rushed for 73 yards and 2 TDs last night and even when Ball comes back Hillman seems to have earned his share of snaps going forward.