Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Week 15 Sleepers and Pickups

And the playoffs keep rolling along. Awkward week last week. Lots of stars putting up pretty awful performances. A handful of no-names came out of nowhere.
Overall, the pick-ups here are pretty simple. When we get into the playoffs, I am far less likely to count on sleepers, so I don’t have any pickups for that either.
Basically, if you want to get anyone off of free agency, you are looking for great matchups, or injury fill-ins.
Biggest injury of the week has to go to DeMarco Murray. Felix Jones filled in and had a decent day. But I think that, for the most part, that we because the Giants did not game plan for him. The Cowboys have another good matchup though as they face the Bucs, who just gave up four touchdowns to Maurice Jones-Drew.
If Felix is still floating in free agency, I think he is a must add. He will be a great play for the next two weeks, facing the poor run defenses of Tampa Bay and Philadelphia. He will also be working with fullback Fiammetta, who has been largely credited with Murray’s success. The Cowboys just signed ex-Patriot Sammy Morris to the team. He could get some runs, and steal the goal line work, but I would not add him unless you are in a mind-blowingly deep league.
And the second major injury goes to Greg Jennings. While Jordy Nelson and Jermichael Finley will likely pick up most of his slack, Donald Driver and James Jones could be in free agency for you still. With so many receiving weapons on the Green Bay offense, neither one of them is a lock to get the biggest boost, but you can count on both of their stat lines improving with the injury.
Both should crack the top 50 as the GB offense is still explosive without Jennings, but neither of them are very solid if you have better options.
Matchup adds to consider this week are:
Christian Ponder. He had a huge day the last time he played at home. And going up against the Saints on home turf should mean a lot of passing and a lot of confidence. If you are suffering at the QB spot, he could be worth the gamble.
Jake Locker. I fully expect him to get the start. The Titans started off hot with Hasselbeck, but have slowed recently. The only surges that their offense has seen in recent weeks is when Locker takes the field. And you have to love everyone’s matchup when they are against the Colts.
Golden Tate. Mentioned him briefly last week, and I’ll do it again. He seems to be the man picking up Sidney Rice’s slack. His numbers haven’t been near elite, but he could make a good flex play if you need him. Seahawks are facing the Bears who have a solid run defense, meaning that Seattle could be forced to go to the air more often than in recent weeks.
Titus Young. He has come on pretty strong as of late. It’s damn hard to be comfortable with his numbers as he has been up and down all season. But the Lions are making a big playoff push right now, and defenses are spending all their time trying to contain Calvin Johnson. At this point, I would consider him a better play than fellow wideout not named Megatron, Nate Burleson.
Chaz Schillens. Keep in mind throughout this paragraph… this is a REACHHHHH. Deep leagues only need apply. Heyward-Bey left last week’s game. Moore and Ford both missed the game and neither are guaranteed to return this week. That would leave Oakland with the receiving talents of Schillens, Louis Murphy and T.J. Houshetc. Of the three, I like Schillens. Impossible to call which one would step up, but against the Lions, you know Carson Palmer will need to be throwing to somebody.
And for all you crazy SDS kids out there... I present your Sleeper Defense Picks.
I like... Cowboys at the Bucs. Titans at the Colts. Seahawks at the Bears. Cardinals at the Browns. Patriots at the Broncos.

8 comments:

  1. Well, thank God(hateslosers) for a first round bye, or I would have been toast. So, here we go round two of the playoffs. I'm gonna line up my team based on my thoughts, and Ill let you critique.

    Starters:
    QB: Tony Romo
    RB: Arian Foster
    WR: Calvin Johnson
    WR: Marques Colston
    Flex: A.J Green
    TE: Jermichael Finley
    K: David Akers
    Def: Baltimore

    Bench:
    Big Ben
    Darren McFadden
    Marion Barber
    Hakeem Nicks
    Aaron Hernandez
    Dan Bailey
    Detroit

    I'm really debating between Finley an Hernandez, but without Jennings Finley seems to be a better option then hernandez against a decent Denver defense. And then Colston over Nicks was my second big decision, since the match up is better for Colston. This is a standard scoring league. Thanks!

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  2. Thanks for all the advice this year GHL. Got knocked out of 4th place last week. The crappy thing was, I had one of my higher scoring games (132 in standard). But went up against the highest scoring team who had a ridiculous 162 pts. Oh well...Good luck in your leagues!

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  3. Shonne Greene or Reggie bush

    Vincent Jackson, tori smith, miles Austin, Laurent Robinson for 2 wide receiver spots?

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  4. Hey man, thanks for all the advice you posted before and during the season. You led me to finish 1st in the regular season and earn a first-round bye.

    Unfortunately, I'm getting hit with the injury bug at the wrong time. I lost Fred Jackson a few weeks ago, and just lost DeMarco Murray this week.

    My starting roster now looks like this:

    QB: Stafford
    WR: Megatron, Welker
    RB: McCoy, McGahee
    TE: Vernon Davis
    Flex: Gaffney
    D: Detroit
    K: Jason Hansen

    Bench: Tebow, Greg Little, Earl Bennett, Donald Brown, SEA Defense

    I had been running with a RB in my flex all season long, but I won't have that luxury anymore. Is Gaffney my best Flex option now? Looking at the FA wire, Demaryius Thomas is available (Tebow's magic + awful NE secondary worth it?), along with Driver, Burleson, Golden Tate, Johnny Knox, Meachem, Titus Young. As far as RBs, there's Bell, Gerhart, Keiland Williams, Redman, Woodhead.

    Any of those guys worth snagging for anyone I'm currently holding?

    Thanks for the advice!

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  5. Finley over Hernandez is the way to go. Like you said. Without Jennings, I really think it could finally become the Jermichael show in GB. He is their biggest body and should get a lot of action.

    Colston and Nicks are bothering me. Colston does have the good matchup. And both teams throw the ball a ton. And both teams have a myriad of receivers that they could go to. Colston has the hotter hand right now I think. It did take him a damn long time last week to do anything special, but I think he is coming on strong right now and should be worth a play.

    With Nicks, you have the consistency, but I think that Colston is more apt to hit the home run... on the same hand though, he also has the higher chance of going broke.

    If this is a tight matchup, you might want to consider Nicks for the consistency there. But if you need that big punch, go Colston.

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  6. Same thing happened to me this week. Was first place every single week of the regular reason. But I had my IDP star and both starting RBs (Peterson and Forte) out in the first week of playoffs. Needless to say. My team, dominant throughout the year, lost in Week 1 of the playoffs.

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  7. Both RBs should be in for higher than average scoring days if all goes off as planned. I have Bush higher and do like him more in this matchup.

    I honestly dont think it would be that crazy to start both Dallas WRs. Both had great points last week. Robinson has not missed a beat since Austin returned. But I think that Dez and Witten will both factor in more this week than last week.

    If you dont want to go with both Cowboys, I would favor Austin over Robinson and go with Jackson. SD is surging since Floyd got back.

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  8. Happy to help! Glad you got in first. Those injuries are not fun though. Luckily you have the RB bench to take care of it. Your benefit is definitely that McCoy and McGahee have great matchups this week.

    From here out. I would say that Flex definitely has to belong to a WR. Gaffney has a great matchup and Moss should be getting most of the heat. Gaffney has a good scoring chance here. I do love Thomas's matchup, but I honestly cant rely on Tebow as a passer, even with the matchup.

    If there was any week to start a Denver receiver, its this one. But I would stick with Gaffney.

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