Fantasy Football

Sort of an odd duck week for fantasy football. Production was kind of low again, yes, and the players who actually showed up weren’t the standard game breakers nor were they the bottom rung NFL players who probably aren’t even on a fantasy roster (with obvious exceptions to both the former and the latter). We are actually stunned with our degree of inaccuracy for week ten.

I think the best way to describe the brand of player with statistical output in week 10 would be as a second tier starter. What is this bullshit? One might ask. Well, someone that qualifies as a second-tier starter would be a player that is a regular fixture in your starting lineup, but someone you aren’t overly loyal to and would consider replacing for a reserve if they have a favorable matchup. Or probably even more common: Someone you aren’t exactly heartbroken to see on a bye week.

There are several players who fit this mold, like Marques Colston. This is specific to this season because in the past two years Colston has been a top-tier wideout (even when you could line him up at tight end). But this season? Well, in the games he had actually played in, he had only totaled five catches for 222 yards and no touchdowns on the season. Naturally, what did he do yesterday? Seven catches for 140 yards. He still failed to get into the end zone but those numbers are more than sufficient and a promising sign for the second half of the season. Who would of thought that the best passing team in the league would actually use their best receiver? Crazy.

In short, if you had Colston, Maurice Jones-Drew, Thomas Jones, Todd Heap, Bo Scaife, D’Angelo Williams or Wes Welker (demoted to second-tier with Brady’s injury), then you probably fared pretty well this week assuming you drafted adequately in the first five rounds of your draft. If you do not have any of these players, then you probably feel incredibly bitter and shitty about the bad beat you just took (especially if you went up against Jones-Drew or Jones).

We also continued the season of mediocrity from pro-bowlers and miscellaneous, inexplicably phenomenal performances from previous no-names (more on both tomorrow). In respect to the latter, if you or someone else in your league lucked out with a big Jerious Norwood game, I’m sure they railed on about their foresight to put him in the starting lineup. But more likely than not, their performance fell to the wayside that is this year’s waiver wire or was positioned firmly on someone’s bench.