But then Monday morning rolled into Monday afternoon and I couldn't help but take a peek at the early week rankings and before I knew it I was back wondering about whether I should stick with Kelvin Benjamin this week or was DeAndre Hopkins worth a shot after last week's disappointing performance.
The frustration with fantasy football doesn't stem from a feeling of losing per se, although that is part of it, it's more about the incredulity you feel when a player doesn't meet your expectations. These expectations might be high or low but the feeling of being wronged or let down by not only that player but numerous fantasy experts is what really hurts.
In an attempt to avoid that this week I wanted to construct a line up without being influenced by stats, previews, rankings etc.. I called it my 'pursuit for purity' (patent pending). The 'purity' aspect is of course a misnomer as I couldn't help but be swayed by information and opinions I had accumulated during the previous weeks of research but by and large I picked this team based on my own knowledge and gut feeling. The point of this article is to offer my thought process behind my picks at an early stage in the week and to see how that might differ as the week goes on.
Quarterback
Jay Cutler $7,900: The Bears are at home and although they haven't been great there this year I always like to pick players playing at home if possible. They have a potent offense with top 10 caliber players at every skill position. I feel like Cutler is always good for a 2 TD 250 yards sort of day and with two of last week's studs Flacco and Newton right around his price point I don't think he will be highly owned. Miami's defense has been of the good-not-great variety and going on the basis of 3x the salary I think Cutler is good for a 24 point day.
Running Backs
Jamaal Charles $6,700: This one jumped off the list for me. Now I will say that I own Charles in my fantasy team and it's practically impossible to not be swayed into picking players I'm going to be routing for anyway, *side note-that may be one of the many reason my bank roll has been decreasing these past week*, but he was a consensus top 3 pick before the year began and the top RB in football last year. He always catches a few passes out of the back field and when he's at full health he's a devastating runner. He's the 6th most expensive running back on Draft Kings this week and due to his injury and the bye week I think he might get somewhat forgotten about what with Forte and Murray putting up huge numbers. I initially wanted to build my team around Forte as I've had some success with him recently but he's prohibitively expensive this week.
Ben Tate $5,300: JACKSONVILLE! I'm tempted to leave it at that but to state the obvious you can score on the Jags. Except for Pittsburgh for some reason. Without checking the numbers he doesn't seem to have gone up in price after a high scoring performance last week and he seems to be the No.1 back in what is shaping up to be a pretty potent offense. Volume is probably the most important thing I look for in RB's, he's going to get the majority of the carries and just like Bernard last week there's always a chance of a missed block or tackle leading to a 90 yard run. Probably going to be highly owned but I'd rather be on him this week than not.
Wide Receivers
Brandon Marshall $6,300: The Cutler stack. Honestly I thought about stacking Forte with Cutler as he gets targeted so much in the passing game but I went with Marshall. The reasoning was much the same as Cutler and I still think he's the No.1 option ahead of Jeffrey even though he's $300 cheaper. I feel like he hasn't scored in a few weeks either so he's bound to find the end zone soon. Pretty sound reasoning there I think you'll agree. Oh also he's yet another super star coming back from injury that people might not trust, one trend I've noticed in recent weeks is they are often part of a GPP winning team. Arian Foster two weeks ago and Cam Newton last week. They had been underperforming and struggling with injuries and out of nowhere put in huge performances to help people win a whole heap of cash. Marshall's not quite in that category but it's something I'm looking out for this week.
Rueben Randle $5,300: Going back to the well on this one. He burned me last week along with many others which would always make me think he's worth another shot to get some low ownership percentages. The Cruz injury puts that rationale in doubt as he's going to be the de-facto no.1 now but he's at such a low price point for someone who is now the focal point of what was up until last week a pretty potent offense. A lot of ifs and buts in this one and highly likely to change later in the week but the match up with Dallas is a classic trap game for the Cowboys and I think the Giants bounce back.
Golden Tate $5,900: This is very similar to Randle, in fact so much so that I can almost guarantee one or both of these will change later in the week. The only difference is that I had very little exposure to Golden (I feel like people should start referring to him by his first name) last week. He's coming off a poor week, he's at home and it looks like Megatron won't be back for a while. He's also facing the New Orleans secondary. They are bound to score points. Although I think his price dropped this week I don't necessarily see a huge amount of value as I think he was way over priced last week.
Tight End
Jordan Cameron $4,600: Another guy on my fantasy team who I didn't start last week, curse you Larry Donnell. Although I often like to fade players coming off big weeks almost out of nowhere I can't get away from Cameron's price point. Having him on the same line up as Tate (Ben that is) is not ideal but as I've been emphasizing throughout this post I tried to force myself to pick this team based purely on my gut instinct and Cameron jumped off the list of TE's. He's an athletic tight end that Hoyer likes to target in the end zone and with Gronk playing on Thursday and my continued strategy of fading Julius Thomas (going well so far) I felt happy with this pick.
Flex
Lamar Miller $5,300: This was the one pick that was unavoidably influenced by some recent information. Right before I selected this team I saw the headline about Moreno being out for the year. So there really isn't too much more to say about this pick. He's going to be the main running back in Miami's offense and, as with most of this article, I stand to be corrected but I don't believe his price is representative of that fact. He's going to be highly owned so he's another one I'd consider fading later in the week but as of right now he's my lock of the week which means he's going to get hurt on the first play of the game or rush for about 34 yards on 16 attempts. I'm looking at you Frank Gore.Defense/Special Teams
Steelers $2,700: Defense is so variable that I never like to pay up for it unless it's paying up for a team I think nobody else will be on. The main factors I look for are a team at home playing against a shaky/terrible QB. I don't think Ryan Fitzpatrick is terrible but he's definitely got to be considered for inclusion in the shaky category. The biggest boost your D/ST can get is through a pick six and although the Steelers have been pretty terrible lately I'm willing to ride with them this week at home as I think they'll get back to the form they showed against the Panthers in week three.So there is it. I ended up using all $50,000 which fills my waste hating heart with joy. My plan is to post my stats/previews/research influenced team later in the week but until then I encourage, nay demand, that you leave comments below.
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