Chet Gresham

The Morning After

Another Thriller for Spiller

Monday, September 17, 2012

Sell High

Danny Amendola – I still love me some Danny Scrapendola, but his upside is fairly low with his inability to put up big yards-after-the-catch. I’d be selling in non-PPR leagues, but holding onto him in PPR.

Alfred Morris: Without a touchdown this week, people may not be as high on him, but he still had a decent game against the poor Rams rush defense. I still see no long term value there.

Buy Low

Darren McFadden – The numbers aren’t pretty. There is no doubting that. But let’s take a look-see at just how ugly they are. On 26 attempts he has rushed for 54 yards. That is a nice 2.1 yards per carry! This is Run DMC we are talking about. In his last 336 carries he is averaging 5.3 yards a carry. That’s not going to just get sucked into a black hole, any black hole.

He’s still going to get his targets (25 so far) and he’s had two tough matchups. I’m fully on the McFadden bandwagon still.

Marques Colston – Drew Brees is having trouble hitting his deep passes and is relying on Darren Sproles and Jimmy Graham, but Colston has 15 targets over the last two games and just missed two touchdowns and Brees hasn’t lost it.

Dez Bryant – Talent-wise Dez Bryant is off the charts, but he can’t seem to get on the same page with Tony Romo. Am I worried? Maybe, but not enough to give up on him. He had 10 touchdowns last season and I still think he puts up better overall numbers this year. Grab him after this horrible game where he had three receptions for 17 yards.

Target Tease

I do the AFC/NFC Target Watch later in the week, but I figured I could give you a little taste before we got there with some interesting target numbers from Week 2.

1 – The number of targets Kevin Ogletree had after getting 11 last week.

2 – The number of targets Stephen Hill had for no catches, which also equals the number of touchdowns he had week one.

3 – The number of touchdowns Dante Rosario had with his four targets.

4 – The number of targets Justin Blackmon had with his zero receptions.

5 – The number of targets and receptions Seattle tight end Anthony McCoy had to pair with his touchdown and 41 yards.

6 - The number of targets and receptions Oakland tight end Brandon Myers had with his 86 yards.

7 – The number of targets Arian Foster had to go along with his 28 carries.

8 – The number of targets Brandon LaFell had with his six receptions and one carry for 115 yards.

9 – The number of targets Owen Daniels had compared to four; the number of targets Andre Johnson had.

10 – The number of targets Donnie Avery had with nine receptions for 111 yards.

11 – The number of targets Wes Welker had after backing up Julian Edelman (and Aaron Hernandez went down).

12 – The number of targets Brian Hartline had on his way to nine receptions for 111 yards.

13 – The number of targets Percy Harvin had in which he caught 12 for 104 yards. It wasn’t until week 14 last season that Harvin hit double digit targets.

14 – The number of targets “running back” Darren Sproles had to go with his 13 receptions for 128 yards. He now has 22 targets and zero rushing attempts.

15 – The number of targets Dennis Pitta had to go with his relatively lackluster eight receptions and 65 yards.

16 – The number of targets Danny Amendola had of which he caught 15 for 160 yards and one touchdown.

17 – The number of targets Week 2’s target hog champion had, Mr. Salsa himself, Victor Cruz!

Early Waiver Look

QB: Sam Bradford

RB: Mikel LeShoure, Andre Brown, Daryl Richardson, Bilal Powell

WR: Danny Amendola, Andrew Hawkins, Donnie Avery, Brian Hartline

TE: Martellus Bennett, Dennis Pitta, Brandon Myers, Scott Chandler

D/ST: Dallas Cowboys

Since taking over as the main running back, twice!, C.J. Spiller has put together an amazing string of games. In his last seven games, Spiller has 928 total yards and eight touchdowns on 122 touches equaling 7.6 yards each time he touches the ball. That’s Gale Sayers-like. Or another well-known running back as Adam Caplan of The Sideline View pointed out on Twitter, “He is the first player to average at least 10.0 yards per carry through his team’s first two games of a season since Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown in 1963.” That’s a’ight company.

And here’s a little fun with extrapolation! This season he is on pace for 2,920 total yards and 24 touchdowns. I’m going to go out on a limb and say he won’t quite reach those numbers, but there’s no reason he can’t keep up this incredible play.

He is of course used in all aspects of the offense, so the game won’t dictate his touches. His ability is so dynamic, it will be extremely difficult for a defense to shut him down completely. What happens when Fred Jackson returns? Good question voice in my head. I wish I knew, but if he continues to put up numbers even close to these, he’ll be nearly impossible to sit. I’m not selling high anytime soon.

Game Balls

Reggie Bush – He has been much maligned due to his innate ability to be sidelined due to an injury of some sort (by me mostly), but last year, and so far this season, he has taken his game to the next level.

He gashed the Raiders’ defense for 172 rushing yards and two touchdowns. And since Week 8 of last season he is averaging 125 total yards a game with eight touchdowns, with a nice 5.6 yards per carry. Don’t hide that under a bushel basket!

Trent Richardson – Mr. Richardson was on my “buy” list last week and probably everyone else’s and for good reason. He’s pretty good at the football.

Richardson rushed for 109 yards and one touchdown and caught four passes on five targets for 36 yards and a touchdown. Week 1 was training camp and preseason all wrapped up in one for TRich. He will continue to improve.

Robert Griffin III – Well, he backed up his Week 1 fantasy fireworks with another explosive show. The Native Americans didn’t get the win, but this thankfully is fake football we play.

RGIII didn’t throw for as many yards as Week 1, but he more than made up for it on the ground with 11 rushes for 82 yards and two touchdowns to go along with his 206 yards passing and one touchdown.

He’s lived up to the hype and then some. He’ll have to take a big step backwards or face the 49ers to not be a top-5 quarterback going forward.

Danny Amendola – Sticking with Danny instead of switching to Dan or Daniel at some point after you turn 18 is about as brave as finding soft spots over the middle, catching the ball, and then getting destroyed by a linebacker. And he did that many times in the first half of their game against the Native Americans on Sunday.

At halftime Danny had 12 receptions for 133 yards and a touchdown. He ended the day with 15 receptions on 16 targets! for 160 yards and that same old touchdown. You might think about covering that guy.

Hakeem Nicks/Victor Cruz/Eli Manning – At halftime Manning owners were ready to go smack him around after three interceptions, but when you are getting beat bad by a team with a poor pass defense at halftime, well, players like Manning, Nicks and Cruz are going to end up making your fantasy team happy.

Manning ended the game with 510 yards passing and three touchdowns, which 378 yards and two of those touchdowns went to Nicks and Cruz. I think Cruz may be over his drops and Nicks over his foot pain.

Cam Newton – Newton rushed for a career high 71 yards and a touchdown, while throwing for 253 yards and another touchdown on just 14 completions. Newton is a stud, no doubt, but can the Saints defense be any worse right now? They allowed 70% pass completion, 18 yards a reception, 219 yards rushing at a 5.3 yards per carry pace and 35 points. I’m thinking the Chiefs offense gets a shot in the arm next week.

Michael Vick – Vick is on pace to throw 48 interceptions on the season and also go 16-0. Now that would be cool! Of course neither will happen, but it was good to see Vick get his fantasy chops back this week with 371 yards passing, one passing touchdown, 34 yards rushing and one rushing touchdown to easily offset his two interceptions.

Rushing touchdowns for quarterbacks are end of the rainbow fantasy gold. In 2010 he had nine rushing touchdowns, but only one last season. Those turn Vick from an average fantasy player to a great fantasy player.

Of course the problem right now is Vick is getting hit way too often. I’m starting to worry.

Ben Tate/Arian Foster – This duo puts fear into any opposing defense and also into fantasy players. But when the game allows for plenty of rushes from each, they both can put up number one running back numbers like they did this week.

Together they rushed 40 times for 184 yards and three touchdowns with 10 receptions for 60 yards. Oh just think if that were one person. Stop drooling. I’ll break down their work below, so get ready for a party!

Sam Bradford – Bradford has been in a year-plus slump, but he busted out big time with 310 yards passing and three touchdowns. He only has one other three touchdown game and that came November 28^th 2010 in his rookie year. Last season he didn’t have a single double digit touchdown game. It’s not much of a stretch to say things are looking up for Bradford.

Andy Dalton – Dalton had been scuffling in a major way until yesterday. In his last 10 games he had averaged 218 yards passing, less than a touchdown a game and one interception a game. Then on Sunday he goes off for 318 yards and three touchdowns to go with one interception. Of course the Joe Haden-less Browns probably had something to do with that, but it’s still a big step up.