Some of Sunday's biggest surprises weren't surprises at all. Here's why the results made sense:
- If you were sleeping on Russell Wilson the first 10 weeks of the season, that's unfortunate. In his past three games, Wilson has been nothing short of phenomenal, with a 12-0 TD-INT ratio and 92 fantasy points. As I told the Sports Fix radio show on Friday, Seattle is a team on the upswing, with a very soft upcoming schedule and a must-win mentality to reach the playoffs. Wilson dominated yesterday and will continue to be a QB1 every week going forward.
- A couple weeks ago, Cincy's OC Hue Jackson sat down with Jeremy Hill and had a seemingly blunt "Here's why you need to play better" conversation. It should be no surprise that Hill has since enjoyed back-to-back solid YPC performances, including low-end RB1 numbers yesterday, while Gio Bernard's role has diminished each of the past two weeks. Some of you have wondered why I've pushed so hard on Hill this season--even when things looked bleak. It's never been about talent, but rather about (in my opinion) desire. Coach Jackson connected with Hill, and the young RB has been markedly more efficient ever since. We should expect similar effectiveness in the fantasy playoffs.
- What would possess me to pick up the Dolphins D in two leagues and start them over the Seahawks? I Tweeted about it before game time (https://twitter.com/bjrudell/status/673563762344009728). Made sense to take a chance on a wildly underperforming unit facing a mistake-prone Ravens offense at home. This 27th highest scoring DST through 12 weeks came through with 15 standard league points--tied for third among all DSTs. But don't jump on the bandwagon. With remaining games against the Giants, Chargers, and Colts, this will be a middling unit at best the rest of the way.
The path to victory lies not only with players everyone expects to dominate, but also with players few expect to dominate. If you know something that 90% of the fantasy community doesn't--and if you have the guts to act on it--you're playing the game the right way.
- If you were sleeping on Russell Wilson the first 10 weeks of the season, that's unfortunate. In his past three games, Wilson has been nothing short of phenomenal, with a 12-0 TD-INT ratio and 92 fantasy points. As I told the Sports Fix radio show on Friday, Seattle is a team on the upswing, with a very soft upcoming schedule and a must-win mentality to reach the playoffs. Wilson dominated yesterday and will continue to be a QB1 every week going forward.
- A couple weeks ago, Cincy's OC Hue Jackson sat down with Jeremy Hill and had a seemingly blunt "Here's why you need to play better" conversation. It should be no surprise that Hill has since enjoyed back-to-back solid YPC performances, including low-end RB1 numbers yesterday, while Gio Bernard's role has diminished each of the past two weeks. Some of you have wondered why I've pushed so hard on Hill this season--even when things looked bleak. It's never been about talent, but rather about (in my opinion) desire. Coach Jackson connected with Hill, and the young RB has been markedly more efficient ever since. We should expect similar effectiveness in the fantasy playoffs.
- What would possess me to pick up the Dolphins D in two leagues and start them over the Seahawks? I Tweeted about it before game time (https://twitter.com/bjrudell/status/673563762344009728). Made sense to take a chance on a wildly underperforming unit facing a mistake-prone Ravens offense at home. This 27th highest scoring DST through 12 weeks came through with 15 standard league points--tied for third among all DSTs. But don't jump on the bandwagon. With remaining games against the Giants, Chargers, and Colts, this will be a middling unit at best the rest of the way.
The path to victory lies not only with players everyone expects to dominate, but also with players few expect to dominate. If you know something that 90% of the fantasy community doesn't--and if you have the guts to act on it--you're playing the game the right way.