Every Saturday morning, Andy Richardson offers brief overviews of the upcoming Sunday games, including significant developments involving injuries. He'll also offer opinions on lineup questions over the course of the day.
Let me say up front that mostly I hope LeVeon Bell is OK and the concussion he suffered Thursday night is relatively minor. And then let me say, What on earth is the point of a rule that declares a play dead with the player in mid-air? It's not protecting him from injury, it's merely adding insult to injury, by denying a guy a scoring play by the most ridiculous interpretation of a rule possible.
In case you missed it, Bell rushed for a short touchdown Thursday, diving over the goal line late in the game. But he was hit and his helmet knocked off just short of the goal line, and they ruled the play dead with the ball still short of the end zone. Pittsburgh scored anyway so nobody cares besides those of us who started Bell. (Would I care if I hadn't started him? I like to think so.) But it is a pretty pointless rule that stops a play with a guy falling into the end zone. I understand why it was instituted, to keep Jason Witten from running 30 yards without a helmet on. But this? Really?
Bucs at Panthers: Tough situation for Tampa's offense. They're playing well these days, but I want no part of Rainey or anyone else this week. Starting Vincent Jackson, of course, but otherwise forget it. Less than ideal for the Panthers, too, but it sounds like DeAngelo Williams won't play and Mike Tolbert is iffy, so Jonathan Stewart could be more of a full-time running back. Against a solid Tampa defense.
Jaguars at Browns: Cecil Shorts gets Joe Haden, which pretty much negates any Jacksonville offensive value. The Browns are the Browns, so Josh Gordon looks great and nobody else does. At some point wouldn't you just give either Chris Ogbonnaya or Fozzy Whittaker 20-22 carries and see if they can handle it? What is the point of dividing carries three ways on this team? Whatever.
Patriots at Texans: This was originally a primetime game, so I guess it's good news that it got flexed out (of course, the alternative is equally terrible). Shane Vereen is the only New England running back I'd use. Ben Tate could be OK, but after getting burned on him last week, I would not want to trust him. Or anything connected with Houston, really.
Titans at Colts: I hate when divisional foes play twice in three or four weeks. I realize it's very tough to put together the NFL schedule, I'm just saying. I suppose you use Chris Johnson here, and Kendall Wright is a nice option. For the Colts, I'm probably going to use Coby Fleener, again, over banged-up Julius Thomas, and hope it pays off, but after last week I'm benching Andrew Luck for Philip Rivers. Multiple NFC teams better than the Colts are going to miss the playoffs while Indy hosts a playoff game.
Bears at Vikings: Yards and points galore. Neither of these teams is particularly good at stopping anything. Love the running backs, would happily start Chicago's passing game, would consider Cordarrelle Patterson. Debating Bears D in a turnover-TD only league over Buffalo versus Atlanta. Still going back and forth on it. My own rankings say Buffalo, so should probably stick with that.
Dolphins at Jets: It is a week, I think, to use Tannehill, Wallace and Hartline maybe. No interest in Lamar Miller against New York's defense. Love the Dolphins D. For the Jets, sounds like Chris Ivory will play; he and NY's defense are the only viable options.
Cardinals at Eagles: Sounds like Andre Ellington won't play, and even if he were healthy you couldn't trust Arizona to give him enough work. Good for Rashard Mendenhall, I guess, but I wouldn't use him. Passing game better than running in this one. Be interesting to see if Carson Palmer is clutch down the stretch. Arizona can actually grab a playoff spot, if he continues to play well. I have doubts.
Falcons versus Bills north of the border: Bills defense is nothing special, but Atlanta will probably kind of go through the motions, so tough to be happy about using anyone from the Falcons. Atlanta's defense is a disaster so you can consider Stevie Johnson and the running back tandem, but the problem will all tandems exists. Still, Spiller and FJax should be OK this week.
Rams at 49ersZac Stacy will start, so the Benny Cunningham pickups this week were wasted. Maybe the Rams won't underuse Stacy as much against this defense as Washington did with Alfred Morris, yes I'm bitter about it. San Francisco is tough but let's not overrate them, Morris didn't get enough chances. St. Louis got blown out at home, but I think they'll be competitive and maybe control San Francisco's offense a little.
Broncos at Kansas City: Toughest injury situations of the week. Knowshon Moreno and Julius Thomas will likely be out there. Moreno is probable, but how many carries will he lose? I have one league where I can't use him since I've got Peterson in that spot, used Bell already, and filled the flex spot with Nate freaking Burleson (zero). Now I'm choosing in another league between Moreno and Giovani Bernard. Advice welcome! Julius, I might bench for Fleener. The questionable tag worries me. For KC, I like Charles and Bowe. Denver's passing offense should be fine.
Bengals at Chargers: Looking forward to this game. I've kind of adopted the Chargers as the 5-6 team I hope sneaks into the playoffs. I don't know why, I guess I like Rivers. They probably won't and might even lose here. Rivers, Gates and Allen are the only Chargers I'd want to use. Bengals offense should be pretty good.
Giants at Washington: And so, the flex scheduling system gives us this eyesore. Not that Patriots-Texans would have been better, but at least one of those teams is going to the playoffs. And after last week, when The underutilization of Alfred Morris cost me a win by a half point, I really don't want to see Washington play again anytime soon. Can't imagine much enjoyment out of this one, lots of talk throughout about what's wrong with RGIII, will Shanahan be fired, yada yada. The Giants won't have Brandon Jacobs, so Andre Brown should be good, although Washington softest (inept) against the pass. I'd use Victor Cruz, but otherwise I've had enough of the Giants passing game. Sounds like Jordan Reed will play; he was really missed last week.
Saints at Seahawks: Huge game in NFL and fantasy terms; Drew Brees and Jimmy Graham are on a lot of playoff hopefuls, maybe Marshawn Lynch too. Saints might be the only team who can go into Seattle and get a win on the NFC side, one of the only ones anyway. Would be interesting to see Carolina rise up and steal that No. 2 seed.
As always, feel free to post questions, I will try to answer them. Enjoy the games.
