Latest WRAL SportsFan Column and Podcast, Injury Ramifications, and Week 4 Thursday Night Football Preview
What does Ferris Bueller have to do with fantasy football? Apparently, a lot. One of my two WRAL Sportsfan columns this
week highlights why Bueller’s fantasy team, The Sausage Kings, fared so poorly
season after season. If you have a day
off, study up on all things fantasy. Don’t
waste your time visiting art museums and moping in backyard pools.
Meanwhile, in my latest Winners & Whiners podcast with sports
editor Aaron Schoonmaker, we cram in injuries, backfield battles, bye week strategies,
trades, overrated and underrated players, and listener questions. We also learn that we might be
half-brothers. Who knew? As always, it’s only 30 minutes long—enough time
to get your fix on your way to work or while mowing the lawn:
Injury news: Dez Bryant hairline fracture in his knee means I made a
huge mistake dropping Cole Beasley Sunday morning. Beasley is a WR3 this week even if Dez plays
and is on the WR2 radar of Dez sits.
Terrance Williams also gets a bump to “weekly flex streamer” status.
Meanwhile, ESPN’s Rich Cimini reported yesterday evening that the Jets
are “concerned” about Eric Decker’s shoulder.
Who knows whether this will be a pain maintenance issue or an “out many weeks”
fantasy hardship. What I do know is that
Brandon Marshall was a huge buy-low WR before this news broke, and his value
surely will pop if Decker’s injury is serious.
Of course, the biggest beneficiary would be Quincy Enunwa, who would be a
must-start WR2/3 whenever Marshall or Decker miss time.
Turning to Thursday Night Football, an interesting stat I just
researched for about 30 seconds: Since the start of last season, home teams are
10-9 on TNF. I had thought the disparity
would be far greater. Heading into this
season I viewed Ryan Tannehill as sharply undervalued and Andy Dalton as somewhat
overvalued. So who will come out ahead
tonight?
Neither: I don’t see either QB finishing in the top 10 this week,
making each unstartable or barely startable in most 1-QB leagues. Instead, this contest will be about Cincy’s
running game and Miami’s lack of a running game. The Dolphins are yielding the NFL’s second
most rushing yards per game and are leading the league in opponents’ time of
possession (36:11 per game). The Bengals’
game plan will be to wear Miami down on defense.
But something else to consider: Cincinnati is 29th in the
league in red zone TDs (30%). Outside of
A.J. Green, Dalton simply doesn’t have the weapons he had last year (like
Marvin Jones and Tyler Eifert). I’m
eying top 5 kicker production from Mike Nugent.
I don’t like to end a column on a kicker production, so let’s add that Eifert
is now a must-add if you can afford to stash a top 8 TE for the next 1-3 weeks.