On any given NFL weekend, many different players score touchdowns. Most of them are frequently started on fantasy football rosters. But others come out of nowhere to vulture touchdowns or beat a third-string cornerback repeatedly for a career-day. In fantasy, these are our That Helps No One champions. The players whose success leads to the imminent demise of countless fantasy teams. All season long, we'll be tracking and crowning a That Helps No One winner each week on NFL Fantasy LIVE. Below are the top candidates for Week 8.
WINNER -- Frank Summers, FB, Buffalo Bills
We'll kick things off this week with a double-whammy of That Helps No One pain. First off, as you can see HERE, Sammy Watkins got caught celebrating too early on what would have been an 86-yard touchdown. Oh, rookies. Watkins was brought down inside the 5-yard line instead of the end zone, paving the way for the Frank Summers touchdown you'll see to the right. Had Watkins finished out his run, the extra six-plus points would have pushed him over 27 fantasy points and made him the third-highest scoring wideout on the week. Instead, we were treated to Summers falling forward into the end zone. Sigh.
Paging Brian Hartline. Paging Brian Hartline. After getting his sizeable contract, Hartline has slowly been performing a disappearing act in the Dolphins pass attack. First he was getting phased out by talented rookie Jarvis Landry, but now he's losing targets to Rishard Matthews? Come on, Brian. And Ryan Tannehill for that matter. Couldn't you have thrown it to Mike Wallace? What was wrong with him yesterday? Or Lamar Miller? You're killing us Tannehill. We expected better of you ... especially against the Jaguars.
There were a string of meaningless tight end touchdowns on Sunday, so let's start with Austin Seferian-Jenkins'. The matchup between the Buccaneers and Vikings seemed like one that could net a fair number of points for fantasy enthusiasts (although most fantasy players likely aren't overly enthused if their team is made up of primarily Vikings and Buccaneers, but I digress). Unfortunately, one of the two offensive touchdowns in the game went to ASJ, and while I've liked his upside in dynasty leagues and for the future ... let your teammates score in the now, kid. It would have been great to see that score go to the likes of Vincent Jackson, Mike Evans or even bust-monster Doug Martin. To make things worse, once overtime started ASJ fumbled away any chance we had at getting some more garbage points. Ugh.
This one hurt for a number of reasons. First of all, this game kicked off at 6:30 a.m. on the west coast, so owners who had Falcons or Lions players were up early to see if their players could get into the end zone. Secondly, I received a ton of questions on Sunday morning as to whether or not the Falcons could even move the ball against the stingy Lions defense. Not going to lie, I sort of feared for Matt Ryan's life behind his patchwork offensive line. So when the Falcons started driving down the field with relative ease, it was a sight for sore eye. Until Ryan decided to cap off one of his team's touchdown drives with a scoring toss ... to Bear Pascoe. I almost spit my mouthful of coffee onto the screen in disgust. Thanks for nothing, Ryan, except making us all more tired later in the day.
This is the third straight week Kendricks has found his way into this column. He has four catches over the last three weeks, and three of them have gone for touchdowns. What else can we say about this guy? Unless you grabbed him as a desperation spot-start at tight end, he's helping absolutely no one.
Lee Smith, TE, Buffalo Bills
Kyle Orton was dealing on Sunday. Wow, can't believe I just typed that, but it's true. The journeyman quarterback who forced the Cowboys to release him this offseason tossed four touchdowns on Sunday for the Bills, including one to Sammy Watkins, so we can't be that upset. However, we can be upset that he looked Lee Smith's way at all. I mean, come on Kyle, I'm sure you and Lee might be buddies off the field, but keep that bromance to the confines of the cooler of light beer you inevitably use to celebrate wins. Instead, keep feeding the ball to your talented young wideouts, or at least the running backs that countless fanasy owners picked up with Fred Jackson and C.J. Spiller sidelined. We'd appreciate it.
So who do you think should take home the Week 8 #ThatHelpsNoOne crown? Weigh in on Twitter with #ThatHelpsNoOne and be sure to tune in to NFL Fantasy LIVE (weekdays at 5pm ET on NFL Network) to see who is crowned the Week 8 winner!
-- Follow Alex on Twitter @AlexGelhar.
