Last week I picked a team based purely on
my initial feelings early on Tuesday afternoon, then spent the week researching
and made any changes to that team later in the week. The modified team
performed to an adequate level and so I’m back this week in an attempt to seek
out more mediocre performance levels. After all, when you crack the code on how
to place 6,385th in the millionaire maker you don’t just bask in the glory,
models and fast cars that get thrown at you, you take that sh*t to the
bank.
I forced myself to pick them team as
quickly as possible using only the schedule and the other information offered
on the site. The first thing I noticed was that there seemed to be more players
missing than normal, the London game of course!
It’s only one game and I know you can pick
teams before kick off on Sunday but you soon realize how many big name fantasy
players there are missing for the Sunday slate of games. Peyton and the rest of
the Broncos, Philip Rivers and his hot and cold WR’s, the formally match up
proof Julio Jones, and the sneaky-good Joique Bell with the possibility of Megatron
coming back. With all that talent missing I think I’m going to stick one or two
more teams than usual in the Thursday night competitions.
And while I’m on the Thursday night games,
can we stop with the ‘Thursday night games are awful’, stuff. It seems like no matter what happens
there is an army of people who are intent on moaning about the Thursday night
game. Once Green Bay destroyed the Vikings to complete a third blowout game in
a row it seemed the Thursday night game was forever to be labelled as some sort
of sub football, not worthy of our eyes that were being forced to watch.
If you really think that, here’s a thought:
don’t watch them. But don’t
attempt to blame that on the fact they are being played on Thursday night. You
never hear anyone, ever complain about the quality of the Sunday night games
but the average margin of victory in those games this year is 18.8. Pretty
similar to the Thursday night average of 21.7. And if you look even closer you
realize that the first Sunday night game between the Broncos and the Colts was,
for all intents and purposes, also a blow out as the Broncos led with by 14
points with 4.15 left in the 4th.
It’s similar to the U2/itunes mess last
month where people were in uproar over something they were been given for free.
FOR FREE! People just love to complain but then again I’m just complaining
about those people complaining and perpetuating the complaining! Bottom line is
that there is no conclusive proof the Thursday night games are any less
competitive than any other games. There are blowouts every single week in the
NFL, there just happened to be a few of them in a row on Thursday.
Anyway, on to the team. Just as a reminder,
this team is selected without research or fact checking so this is basically a
disclaimer for anything that might be incorrect and/or complete rubbish below.
I’ll post a fully researched team later in the week to see what changes I want
to make after studying the numbers.
!http://i59.tinypic.com/5nn56v.jpg!
h2. Quarterback
h3. Andrew Luck - $8,800
I had trouble with this one straight away
as nothing jumped off the list for me. I actually left this pick second to last
to let my remaining budget be the biggest deciding factor. I went with Luck as
he’s just so damn reliable and not in an ‘only for cash game’ type of way like
say Andre Johnson has become. He’s almost guaranteed to get you 25+ points with
the possibility of putting up numbers like Wilson did last week. He’s averaging
28.6 points on Draft Kings with his lowest total of 19.88 coming in week two.
His price has dropped by $900 and I think Rodgers, Brees and Wilson will all
have a higher ownership percentage than him this week.
h2. Running Backs
h3. Le’Veon Bell - $6,300
This one was easy. He’s probably going to
be my Jamaal Charles of last week as I’ll have him in nearly all of my GPP and
cash game line-ups. Monday night’s performance hasn’t been factored into his
price as he’s actually dropped by $300 this week. He’s a monster in the passing
game, hauling in 8 passes last week. He’s going to be highly owned but
ultimately that won’t matter if he manages to score 4x times his salary. I’d be
very surprised if he doesn’t make the cut for my team later in the week as well.
h3. Justin Forsett - $5,100
I was split between three guys here.
Forsett, McKinnon and Shady McCoy. McCoy’s price has come down after the bye
and even though I heard countless people say you wouldn’t get a talent like McCoy for as cheap as $6,000 again this year
you can take him this week for $5,800.
I just didn’t want to pay that much for my second RB and Arizona has a
pretty decent run D even with Philadelphia’s offensive line improving every
week. I think McKinnon will be highly owned and both players have the problem
of other RB’s vulturing their goal line opportunities but I just trust
Baltimore’s offense more than Minnesota’s right now.
h2. Wide Receivers
h3. Dez Bryant - $6,900
After Bell, Dez was the next name that
jumped out to me. I’ve been consistently fading Dallas (apart from an
occasional dabbling in some DeMarco Murray stock) in both DFS and straight up
gambling. This has not been one of my strongest strategies. Bryant looked great
last week and his price has come down by $600. I really fancied Antonio Brown
in this spot but it seems like the Indy D is pretty legit. Generally I like to
go against the grain and pick top players coming off lacklustre performances, i.e
the Bears but I just can’t trust Cutler and his WR’s after all the crap that
has come out this week.
Michael Floyd $4,900 & Jeremy Maclin
$5,500
I put these two together as I found picking
this position without looking at stats etc. to be pretty tricky. Both players
are no.1 receivers going up against pretty mediocre secondary’s. Floyd is at a
decent price point and although he’s only averaging 12.1 points a game he’s
always a threat to bust a big play. With Carson Palmer definitely back under
centre and after a full week of practice, Floyd could have a big game. As you
can tell I’m a stickler for picking players with a significant price drop or coming
after a poor performance. When I can get both, I can’t say no. Maclin’s price
has dropped $1,300 after a 3.6 point outing against the Giants and a bye week.
I’ll take that.
Tight End
Greg Olsen $5,500
He’s the Andrew Luck of the tight end
position. He’s been consistently great all year but he’ never been as highly
owned as people like Graham, Gronk and Thomas. I was torn between him and Jordan Reed as both the Seahawks
and the Cowboys are weak against opposing tight ends. Reed is cheaper but it’s
looking like he’ll have Colt McCoy throwing him the ball so who knows how that
will go. I’ve been burned by Cameron and Donnell in this position over the last
two weeks so I’m paying up and trying to guarantee at least some points this
week. You can construct the greatest roster of all time but if you get between
0-1 points at one position it’s pretty hard to place highly in any competition.
Outside of one game where he scored 5 points, Olsen’s lowest scoring day was
13.2. I’ll take it.
Flex
James Jones $4,300
I’ll be honest, I had no clue who to go
with here. Maybe I don’t know as much about football as I had first assumed.
I’m going with Jones as his name is alliterative and I remember him catching
all those touchdowns from Aaron Rodgers that year. Also he’s probably going to
be up against Joe Haden who has been awful this year and he gets more targets
than his fellow Oakland wide receiver Andre Holmes. So Jones very tentatively
makes the cut this week but don’t get comfortable James…
Defense
Cleveland Browns $2,700
If you read anything I wrote last week
you’ll know my feelings towards this position. Total crapshoot. The Browns are
cheap, they’re up against a rookie QB and they’re home. That’ll do.
Ok, that’s it. I found it really hard to
pick this team and I’m glad they’re only been entered into a $2 GPP as I don’t
feel confident with a lot of positions. I’ve somehow managed to leave writing
this up until Thursday afternoon again so I’m off to begin my proper research
now before the Broncos whoop the Chargers tonight. The researched team is 1-0
against the gut team so far so we’ll see how it goes this week. Thanks for
reading and feel free to leave comments/criticism below.
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