What we are talking about:
Eddie Lacy
What do we do with him?
Matthew Stafford
Nice game last week, but still don't trust him.
"Star Wars" trailer
Why would you not buy tickets in advance!?
Oh, Eddie Lacy.
I play host to a fantasy draft for Sea Coast Grace in Orange County every year. I mingle. I tell some jokes with folks. And every once in a while I will give some draft advice. I don't have a team, but I have helped my friend Chris with her draft every year. In fact, two years ago I implored her to stash Knowshon Moreno on her bench. Boom. And last year, it was C.J. Anderson and Jeremy Hill as a few late-round steals. Nailed it.
So this year, she said she had learned enough and she was going to give it a go on her own. Which his totally cool. And then right before the draft she asked me, "Whom should I take with my first pick?"
"Eddie Lacy," I told her.
"Are you absolutely sure?" she inquired.
"Without a doubt," I shot back.
Yeah, about that. I swear; if I didn't have the most adorable little girl, I'm not sure she would ever talk to me again.
So things can get a little bit prickly as we nosh at Don Ramon's in Huntington Beach and the subject of fantasy football comes up. Not that I blame her. (Though in my defense, my other suggestion was Antonio Brown, which has also worked out just great. Though, in fairness, that's all on Mike Vick more than anything. Besides, I'm suffering with Brown all over the fantasy world.)
Thankfully she is a very sweet person and instead of haranguing me like I deserve, she simply asked me, "What the heck are we supposed to do with Lacy moving forward?" Good question.
So here's my advice: Cut him right now.
Really?
No, not really.
I know. This has been a huge disappointment. Probably the biggest of the year. I thought he was going to be the best fantasy running back this season. But there are a few reasons to hold out hope.
Coach Mike McCarthy said that Lacy was "beat up." The offensive line hasn't played that great this season. And the Packers have played some of the toughest defenses going.
Of course, to believe that you would have to ignore the evidence that Lacy hasn't been on the injury report, Jimmy Starks found a way to run through those holes and had success against the Chargers. So yeah, there is that.
But I do see a little bit of a similar parallel to last year. Lacy started off kind of slow and then he rallied at the end of the season. I mean, look at his first four games last year. He averaged less than four-yards per attempt in every game; less than three in two of them. But people seem to forget that because nobody invested a first-round pick on Lacy in 2014. However, he finished as one of the best in the business. Hence the optimism for this season.
And it should be pointed out, we've seen this (expletive) from Starks in the past. He had that monster game against Washington in Week 2 of 2013.
So for all of you who have struggled with Lacy I'm going to tell you all what I told Chris. Order some extra guacamole and just chill out. You can't cut him (even though NFL.com made him a droppable player, which is ridiculous). You can't trade him to anybody (well other than me, I'll happily take him). So you might as well just sit through this bye week and look forward to what he can do against the Broncos. OK, maybe we will wait until Week 9 and start him against the Panthers. Damn it, Week 10. Vengeance will definitely be ours in Week 10!
A big hand to stats maven Careen Falcone for dropping the knowledge.
And without further ado ...
Tom Brady said he wanted to play for 10 more years. That translates to 15 more hairstyles.
Ryan Fitzpatrick is also fine if you need a matchup guy. The Patriots have allowed the seventh-most points to quarterbacks this year. Plus my wife watched his mic'd up segment on Showtime and said, "How could you not root for the guy?" She has a point.
Philip Rivers is on pace for 472 completions and 5,643 passing yards this year which would break the single-season records held by Drew Brees and Peyton Manning.
Carson Palmer is my top quarterback this week. Palmer is amazing, but the Ravens have allowed the most points to fantasy quarterbacks this year. The most!
Brian Hoyer would be a fun spot-start this week. He's thrown five touchdown passes in the last two weeks. He's had at least 17 fantasy points in three consecutive games.
If you want to be super dangerous, why not go with Landry Jones? He's got too much talent around him. You'd have to be a pretty bad quarterback to fail with that.
ImageI hope you all know there is a new movie coming out that I'm very excited about. Of course I'm talking about the "Gilmore Girls" reunion. Oh my god! Finally, we might get some closure on the Luke and Lorelei situation. I had just kind of imagined nothing has changed and they've gotten back together and broken up about six times since we last saw them. I'd also imagine Rory is the liberal chick on FOX news.
ImageI don't want to say I've watched the "Star Wars" trailer a lot. Actually, I do want to say that. But I've seen it so often, that I can instantly recognize the music once somebody in our newsroom fires it up. And then I promptly go out and watch the trailer like six times after that. Boba Fett is also at the 1:23 mark. NBD.
You should start your daily fantasy league teams with Todd Gurley and Devonta Freeman and build out from there. Gurley has the Browns who have allowed the third-most points to RBs. The Titans are a tough matchup for Freeman, but I don't care.
Mark Ingram has a great matchup against the Colts who still can't stop anybody on the ground. I would even give Khiry Robinson a look if you are super desperate.
I was worried about Chris Ivory last week because of a perceived poor matchup against Washington. How'd that go? I'm going with Doug Martin this week.
I wouldn't sweat Dion Lewis this week, either. I know, the Jets are brutal against runners. But Lewis is the better fit for this matchup.
I'm pretty big on the Dolphins. I love PC Principal, new head coach Dan Campbell. You just had to know somebody who loves Metallica would feature a strong run game. So go with Lamar Miller. Because nothing else matters.
ImageSpeaking of music, Blink 182 will have a new album soon with a new lead singer. Normally, I'm a little dubious when a front man is replaced in a band. But I really do believe this could work with Matt Skiba and I welcome the new album. Plus, Mark Hoppus always lent vocals to songs, too. So it won't be totally jarring.
ImageBlink 182 (along with the Beastie Boys) had some of the best music videos ever. And damn it, I miss music videos. So, in what I hope becomes a weekly part of this program, is to offer you a cool music video from days past and put it out there for you to check out. So in honor of Blink 182, here is "Josie".
Antonio Brown will have a bounce-back game this week. He has to. The Chiefs are terrible against the pass. Watch, you'll fall in love with Landry Jones this week, too.
Mike Evans hasn't been great this year. But Washington has allowed the eighth-most fantasy points to receivers over the last four weeks.
The Colts have allowed nine TDs to wide receivers this season, the third-highest total in the league. The Saints receiver I would want to roll with is Willie Snead.
Brandon Marshall has scored a receiving touchdown in four of his last five games this year. And the Patriots are pretty vulnerable through the air.
Both Allen Robinson and Allen Hurns are good plays this week. I'd prefer Hurns because the Bills are great against No. 1 receivers. But both guys are safe.
John Brown had a major breakout last week. He's got another nice matchup this week against the Ravens. Just once, though, I'd like him to have a big TD and yardage game.
Image Hey look Stone Cold Steve Austin showed up! The Shield almost reunited! And the New Day! That was basically the highlight of RAW. That was pretty much it. A week before a PPV. But truth be told, that New Day unicorn shirt is probably going to make its way to Madden NFL Live at some point this season.
Antonio Gates is going to be my top TE of the week. The Raiders have allowed more fantasy points to TEs than anybody. Even the Seahawks, if you can believe that.
Julius Thomas has a pretty good matchup against the Bills so he's also a very capable starter. As is Charles Clay on the other side, too.
If you need a tight end who might be available on the wire this week, give a check for Delanie Walker.
Image Some more thoughts on the "Star Wars" trailer. I feel like Rey is going to be the Luke Skywalker-type of the film. The desert rat who is destined for great things. The one thing is that we have yet to see Luke Skywalker in any of the promotions. We do see the robot hand on R2-D2 which is assumed to be him. So my wild theory is Luke is Kylo Ren. What if Luke/Kylo is now the Darth Vader-like servant of Ezra who was able to channel into the dark side. Ezra has grappled with rage in "Star Wars Rebels." I'm sure this is part of J.J. Abrams' plan to keep the speculation high. And it's working.
Congratulations to Matthew Stafford. He finally figured out that he should throw it to Megatron. Of course it had to come against the mighty Chicago Bears.
I won't buy into Stafford this week. The matchup isn't that great. And real talk here; it's Stafford. Many of you were shocked he didn't throw a game-ending pick.
Sam Bradford has thrown multiple interceptions in four of six games. That's Kirk Cousins-level of awful. That's almost Mike Vick awful.
Four of Bradford's interceptions have come in the end zone. Since we started tracking picks in the end zone in 1990, no QB has thrown more than five of those in a season. (Brett Favre, Drew Brees and Vinny Testaverde.)
Image Can we please stop with the NFL coaches to USC thing? Sean Payton was the latest. If my count were correct, that would be four coaches linked to USC. Chip Kelly, John Harbaugh, Pete Carroll and now Payton (and don't get me started about his background check). Why would an NFL coach ever leave the pinnacle of their career to go back to college? That would never happen. Except for Nick Saban. And Bobby Petrino. And Jim Harbaugh. And Lou Holtz. Fine, but USC isn't hiring a current NFL coach. Look at its history of coaching hires. It ain't happening.
Image Congratulations to Chuck Pagano who likely took himself out of the USC coaching debate with that fake punt against the Colts. Seriously dude. Pagano would have looked less out of place if he dropped the phrase "on fleek" in his postgame presser.
How is it possible that Wisconsin running backs are so bad in the NFL? But dude, Melvin Gordon isn't going to play a lot for the Chargers in the next few weeks.
Frank Gore has played well in recent weeks, but I believe we have finally seen him at the end of his run, so to speak.
Joseph Randle isn't very good when you compare him to other NFL running backs. It's amazing how the Cowboys have the best line but can't find an RB to run behind it.
I really wish Ameer Abdullah had played better for all of us this year. I was so excited about him headed into the season. But this has been brutal. I would still hang on to him. I feel like I'm the band on the Titanic playing sad music as the ship sinks, though.
The Jets have allowed the fewest points to fantasy running backs this year. So that leaves LeGarrette Blount on the bench.
Charcandrick West went from the most-added player in one week, to the most dropped. And if you kept him, the Steelers are a tough matchup for him this week.
Image Terrible ending for the Chicago Cubs. I feel everybody outside of the Mets fans (or NL Central rivals) rooted for them this postseason. Seems like an undignified way for this team to go out. Although, if they ever rebooted the "Major League" franchise, wouldn't the ultimate end for the movie be the Cubs win over Cardinals? Because the Indians only win the division in the original "Major League."
Image So I guess the new "Major League 2" would be for the Cubs to sign Zach Greinke in the offseason. And Greinke would be the perfect bad guy for this. And the Cubs would eventually get over the hump and win the World Series. Or maybe make it like "Taking Care of Business" where they lose to the Angels in the series.
I am so bloody sick of Jordan Matthews. And the worst part is that it seems like the week that I take him out of the lineup, he's going to end up having one of the all-time games of his career. I mean, it's coming, right? How long must I continue to ride with Matthews? The Panthers are a tough defense. So the Josh Norman effect is enough to justify putting Matthews on the bench. So I'm doing it.
If you left your draft with C.J. Anderson, Jeremy Hill, Matthews and Brandin Cooks, you probably thought you had a championship. None of those guys are starters this week. The two running backs because of byes, but you can't trust the WRs.
The Chargers are very tough against opposing receivers. So if you've counted on Amari Cooper as a flex guy, you might want to put him on your bench.
Travis Benjamin has been a nice find. As has Josh McCown. But St. Louis is finally the defense we figured it would be at the beginning of the season. So bench him.
Andrew Luck has struggled when he targets Andre Johnson. Luck's passer rating is 12.2 when he targets Johnson. Even if you didn't know football, that's pretty bad.
Image I hate to admit this (well not enough to keep me from admitting this) but I somehow got hooked on the "Real Housewives of the OC" which I believe I've mentioned previously. So I was all hyper for the reunion show on Monday night. I mean seriously, we had "Star Wars," "RAW" and the "RHOC" reunion? But imagine my chagrin that just when (expletive) started to get real on the reunion, I found it the show was a three-parter! The second-biggest disappointment after Matthews.
Benjamin Watson had a career game against the Falcons, but this week's matchup against the Colts is tough. Indy has allowed one receiving TD to tight ends this year.
I'm still reeling as I sit back and wonder how I lost to a team that started Zach Ertz last week. I don't like the matchup against Carolina this week.
Image I have my tickets for "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" in December. I will be doing the 1:45 a.m. showing. That's right. But a few haters have asked why people would buy tickets in advance. Which my question is, wait you're not? I mean, it would seem rather foolish to pull up to Levi Stadium on Feb. 2 and expect to purchase a Super Bowl ticket from the booth on the day of the game. That's not the way that (expletive) works. And if you find that example to be too far-fetched, you realize most concerts sell out way in advance. Well, unless it's a band Fabiano likes. Then they are likely playing at the fair grounds for free.
For the record, you can submit your fantasy questions to NFL Fantasy Live or me on Twitter. But realize, NFL Fantasy Live has 300K followers. Me? Just 14. See, the odds are better I will answer your question, so hit me up both via Twitter or via Facebook (if you're RG3). And if you follow me on Sundays, I'll quote "The Wolf" from "Pulp Fiction" and then it's game on! Although, it's tough to catch me on Facebook. Twitter is your go-to." Plus seriously people, I'm not taking your tweets after Midnight. I'm into the #HashtagWars via @Midnight. I've started to mute people who ask me questions at that time.