You win some and you lose some, and if you listened to me and my stupid, "Don't trust the Lions offense with
Shaun Hill at the wheel," nonsense last week, well ... I hope you didn't listen to that.
I don't care if the re-animated corpse of
Sammy Baugh is playing quarterback (he's dead, right?) -- play
Jahvid Best, no matter what I say.
But aside from that glaring bit of god-awful advice, I think I steered you pretty well last week. I told you to snag
Michael Vick off waivers and made sure you started him, warned you not to overreact to
Matt Ryan's bad Week 1, scared you off the Cowboys' running backs, nudged you to start
Marcedes Lewis, and coaxed you to pick up the
Chiefs' defense.
Whether that was enough for us to still be friends, well, I'll leave that up to you. After all, it's your fantasy team.
Here's this week's Gameday4Cast*:
*Your results may varySUNNY• QB: Tony Romo already leads the NFL in passing yards, and now he gets a crack at the Texans' porous pass defense. ... I know you were already going to start him, but
Tom Brady is 8-0 with a 105.1 passer rating at home against the Bills. Just sayin'. ... If
Brett Favre can't do anything against the Lions' lackluster secondary, he won't do much against anyone. Start him while you still can.
• RB: Pierre Thomas has scored rushing and receiving touchdowns in each of his past two games against the Falcons, and
Reggie Bush won't steal any of his touches for a while. ...
Jahvid Best went crazy on the Eagles last week, hurting them on the ground and as a receiver out of the backfield. You know another running back who is pretty good catching passes?
Maurice Jones-Drew. ... This week's big waiver wire prize was Chargers fullback
Mike Tolbert, who all of a sudden looks like a starting running back on a potent offense. And his short-yardage prowess give him value even after
Ryan Mathews returns.
• WR: See Romo, Tony and apply the same logic to
Miles Austin and
Dez Bryant. ... Call it a hunch, but I love
Josh Morgan against the Chiefs. Kansas City has allowed big plays to No. 2 receivers
Legedu Naanee and
Josh Cribbs, and
Brandon Flowers can only cover one guy. Assuming that's
Michael Crabtree, Morgan could have a nice day. ...
Matt Ryan has loved throwing to
Roddy White so far this year. No reason for that to change against the Saints. ...
Pierre Garcon is out, and
Reggie Wayne is likely to be wearing
Champ Bailey like spandex all day, so
Austin Collie is due for a big game against the Broncos.
• TE: Cowboys, Texans, blahblahblah. Yeah,
Jason Witten, too. ... Quick -- who leads the Browns in receptions? Did you say
Ben Watson? No, really. And Watson averages 19.3 yards per catch in his career against Baltimore. ... A big reason for Watson holding the team lead are his four catches for 62 yards against the Chiefs, who also gave up big numbers to
Antonio Gates. I like
Vernon Davis even more than usual.
• D/ST: After picking off
Joe Flacco four times last week, the
Bengals have to be licking their chops at the prospect of facing
Jimmy Clausen in his first NFL start.
PARTLY CLOUDY• QB: I still believe in
Joe Flacco, but if I had a good backup, I'd leave him on my bench for a week to make sure the first two weeks were a fluke. With that said, Flacco is 4-0 with a 95.9 passer rating against the Browns. ... It's scary to think about starting a rookie quarterback, but you really could do worse than
Sam Bradford against a Redskins defense that gave up darn near 500 passing yards last week.
• RB: For as much as I like the 49ers' passing game against Kansas City, the Chiefs have been pretty tough against the run. You'll still want to start
Frank Gore, but don't expect him to go crazy like last week. ... Either
Michael Turner or
Jason Snelling is probably going to have a pretty good game against the Saints. If you can figure out which one, start him. ... Good news --
Rashard Mendenhall is going to run the ball a ton. Bad news -- he has to do it against a pretty stout Bucs run defense.
• WR: It probably won't last forever, but
Jeremy Maclin has been on the receiving end of touchdown passes from
Michael Vick each of the first two games. Keep riding the hot hand while you can. ...
Demaryius Thomas is going to be pretty darn good. But he won't always be as good as he was last week, so temper your expectations, or better yet, sell high.
• TE: It's probably a little too early to be starting him at this point, but keep an eye on
Tony Moeaki of the Chiefs. He has been the team's most consistent receiver, so he's worth a stash if you'll need someone to cover a bye week soon. ...
Matt Ryan hasn't loved throwing to
Tony Gonzalez so far this year. Maybe that will change. Maybe it won't.
• D/ST: The
Eagles are catching a Jaguars team that turned it over six times last week against the Chargers. But the Eagles gave up 32 points last week against the Lions. Any other options?
STORM WARNING• QB: You have to be desperate to have
Jimmy Clausen on your roster. But you are not desperate enough to start him. Trust me. ... Remember how bad
Eli Manning looked against the Colts? The Titans are even better against the pass. Pass.
• RB: Jerome Harrison continues to cede too many carries to
Peyton Hillis, especially on the goal-line. ... Despite scoring a touchdown,
Brandon Jackson didn't inspire a ton of confidence last week against the Bills, and now he has to face the Bears and their No. 1 rush defense. Do not want. ... Dallas is good against the run, bad against the pass. That equals a bigger day for
Matt Schaub and Co. than for
Arian Foster. Don't bench him unless you have better options, but don't count on a huge day.
• WR: Remember the part about Jimmy
Clausen's first NFL start. Don't expect too much out of
Steve Smith (the Panthers one). ... I was a little nervous about
Hines Ward and
Mike Wallace with
Dennis Dixon at quarterback. I'm petrified with
Charlie Batch taking the snaps.
• TE: We had a
Greg Olsen sighting last week, but don't expect him to show up again. We're still worried about the tight end's role in Mike Martz's offense, and the Packers do a good job of stopping opposing tight ends. ... Let's go ahead and file
Brandon Pettigrew under "fluke" for now. If you're holding him to cover an upcoming bye, that's cool, but don't count on him as your regular starter until you see him develop more consistency.
• D/ST: The Texans chewed up the Colts with their running game and torched the Redskins through the air. How shall they dismantle the
Cowboys this week?