NFL Week 16 Fantasy Notes

NOTE: Our advice, as it does on our FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER weekly program (Thursdays, 9-11 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com), is based on helping you determine which of your marginal starters are worth a play this week. Hopefully, your initial draft/auction efforts were successful, because frankly, “playing the matchups” is far from an exact science regardless of what you will be told by other advisory services claiming to possess a crystal ball. But our weekly game notes are designed to try to help you maximize the potential of your situation. We will post this preface to the notes every week to remind you of the context of our advice.

Saturday, Dec. 22
Dallas at Carolina, 8:15 pm RB J. Jones has a nice matchup here, the Carolina backs do not.

Sunday, Dec. 23
Cleveland at Cincinnati 1:00 pm All in!
Green Bay at Chicago 1:00 pm RB Grant has pretty much become an every-week play and WRs Berrian and Muhammad should see nice action in a shootout.
Houston at Indianapolis 1:00 pm All in!
Kansas City at Detroit 1:00 pm Young WRs Bowe, McDonald and Johnson will rack up some points here.
Miami at New England 1:00 pm Nobody on New England is really marginal anymore, but WR Booker for Miami should prosper in garbage time, which will start really early. By the way, why is the #1 announcing team for CBS on this game?
N.Y. Giants at Buffalo 1:00 pm In this Super Bowl 25 rematch, you can't go "wide right" of the mark with Jacobs, Toomer and Evans here.
Oakland at Jacksonville 1:00 pm Curry and Porter will pick up the slack offensively for the injured Fargas -- Rhodes will start but is not a great play. Garrard should continue his recent roll in this game.
Philadelphia at New Orleans 1:00 pm All in on the Bayou!
Washington at Minnesota 8:15 pm No marginal Vikes look good, while Moss and Randle El may provide help for your team better late than never.
Atlanta at Arizona 4:05 pm WRs White and B. Johnson are the only marginal plays worth a look here.
Baltimore at Seattle 4:15 pm With new QB T. Smith at the helm for Baltimore and coach-on-the-banana-peel Billick not having much faith in him, we don't like any marginal Raven plays. For the Hawks, stay away from either of the two RBs, but we like WRs Engram, Branch, Burleson and Hackett to all have a good chance to put up points.
N.Y. Jets at Tennessee 4:15 pm If you can avoid RB Jones (which we know you might not be able to, especially in a 12-team league), you should do so. RB White, however, is worth your while yet again.
Tampa Bay at San Francisco 4:05 pm This game, correctly deemed "Not Ready for Prime Time" by NBC, sees the Bucs all-in and the 49'ers all-out!

Mon., Dec. 24
Denver at San Diego, 8:00 pm Henry, Marshall, Jackson and Chambers will be feasting the night before Christmas.

FDH Insider: NFL Week 15 (Thurs. Dec. 13)

THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER makes its final appearance for the 2007 calendar year this Thursday, December 13 during its usual 9-11 PM EST timeslot on SportsTalkNetwork.com. We will be off the air for the holidays December 20 and December 27, returning on January 3, 2008, but keep checking the blog as we will have our usual week-by-week fantasy football notes and other helpful fantasy content over the holidays.

Here's the rundown for this Thursday:

9 PM: NFL Week 15 game-by-game analysis. Check our notes directly below this post for our thoughts on the games.

10:00 PM: We recap our college football team bowl draft from last week's program.

10:15 PM: The world premier of the top-rated baseball players on our Ultimate Quality Baseline (standard deviation from the mean) statistic heading into the 2008 season.

10:45 PM: We preview the calendar heading into a heavy niche sport drafting season in January and February.

NFL Week 15 Fantasy Notes

NOTE: Our advice, as it does on our FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER weekly program (Thursdays, 9-11 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com), is based on helping you determine which of your marginal starters are worth a play this week. Hopefully, your initial draft/auction efforts were successful, because frankly, “playing the matchups” is far from an exact science regardless of what you will be told by other advisory services claiming to possess a crystal ball. But our weekly game notes are designed to try to help you maximize the potential of your situation. We will post this preface to the notes every week to remind you of the context of our advice.

Thursday, Dec. 13
Denver at Houston, 8:15 pm RB Walker had his coming-out party last week and will continue to rack up pointage against Denver's poor run defense. QB Cutler will have a good opportunity also against a porous Texan pass D.

Saturday, Dec. 15
Cincinnati at San Francisco, 8:00 pm Cincinnati is usually an all-in team, regardless of how poor the record on the field is. Even against a bad Bengal D, we can't recommend any marginal San Fran receivers with Shaun Hill at the helm.

Sunday, Dec. 16
Arizona at New Orleans 1:00 pm You could probably do worse than TE Patrick given Warner's fondness for use of that position. No marginal Saint players (with Brees and Colston not included) are consistent enough to warrant consideration.
Atlanta at Tampa Bay 1:00 pm With or without Petrino, the Falcon offense is worthless (and yes, WR White is still not to be trusted in terms of production). With Garcia back, he merits a start, as do Hilliard, Galloway and Graham.
Baltimore at Miami 1:00 pm Even with bad defenses (except Baltimore vs. the run), this is an all-out game for marginal players because of the even worst offenses.
Buffalo at Cleveland 1:00 pm The Browns' defense is slowly improving and the Bills' defense is completely fraudulent, so all-in!
Green Bay at St. Louis 1:00 pm With Bulger back, this looms as an all-in shootout in the dome.
Jacksonville at Pittsburgh 1:00 pm The token vulnerability for either defense is Jacksonville vs. the pass, so Ward and Holmes stand out here. RB Taylor joins Jones-Drew as a decent scoring option out of the Jax backfield. Both QBs have been efficient statistically and should have decent but not explosive games.
N.Y. Jets at New England 1:00 pm Cotch and Coles aren't healthy, but they'll be seeing a lot of action as the Jets battle back from a big early deficit.
Seattle at Carolina 1:00 pm The Seattle RB situation is still muddled, so Alexander has fallen from the ranks of the must-starts. We can't recommend Foster or Williams to run on the Seahawks.
Tennessee at Kansas City 1:00 pm Only the young and relatively unproven stand out here, as RB White and WR Bowe look the strongest.
Indianapolis at Oakland 4:05 pm Not too many surprises here: Fargas yes as well as all of your Colts.
Detroit at San Diego 4:15 pm The poor Detroit passing D makes Chambers and Jackson more valuable than usual -- the same for Rivers.
Philadelphia at Dallas 4:15 pm Philly will struggle to keep up, driving up the value this week of inconsistent WRs Curtis and Brown.
Washington at N.Y. Giants 8:15 pm Toomer looms as the best matchup play in this game against a depleted Redskin secondary.

Mon., Dec. 17
Chicago at Minnesota, 8:30 pm Don't buy into the Minnesota passing game just yet. With the bad Viking pass defense, Berrian should get a look.

FDH Insider: NFL Week 14 (Dec. 6)

This Thursday's edition of THE FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER on SportsTalkNetwork.com (9-11 PM EST) will feature the usual array of content you have come to expect from the FDH brand.

9 PM: We begin the show with our college football team bowl mock draft. Much like with the NCAA basketball tournament, office pools and similar arrangements are often used to leverage additional enjoyment from the process. But as usual, fantasy sports principles are more fun! We'll show you how to set up a pool in which each person has a handful of teams able to accrue points through victory. Here's our suggested league guidelines, as well as links to a bowl schedule and a compilation of all pointspreads.

10 PM: We deliver our NFL Week 14 game-by-game breakdown. Check the blog post just below this one for our notes for this week.

10:40 PM: Proof positive on why the FDH principles work. Our Senior Editor Jason Jones gives you the lowdown on how his 15 (yes, 15!!!) teams have thrived this year.

NFL Week 14 Fantasy Notes

NOTE: Our advice, as it does on our FANTASYDRAFTHELP.COM INSIDER weekly program (Thursdays, 9-11 PM EDT on SportsTalkNetwork.com), is based on helping you determine which of your marginal starters are worth a play this week. Hopefully, your initial draft/auction efforts were successful, because frankly, “playing the matchups” is far from an exact science regardless of what you will be told by other advisory services claiming to possess a crystal ball. But our weekly game notes are designed to try to help you maximize the potential of your situation. We will post this preface to the notes every week to remind you of the context of our advice.

Thursday, Dec. 6
Chicago at Washington, 8:15 pm In this battle of desperate teams, "the other" Adrian Peterson is the only offensive starter worth little here -- because the only strong element of either team's defense is the Skins' run D.

Sunday, Dec. 9
Carolina at Jacksonville 1:00 pm All four of the main RBs in this game have value because of the suspect passing games on both sides (Garrard is certainly very competent, but has no stud WRs)
Dallas at Detroit 1:00 pm The Williams injury just makes WR Johnson that much more valuable. Cowboy starters are of course all-in until further notice.
Miami at Buffalo 1:00 pm If Lynch can't go, RB Jackson will feast on Fish.
N.Y. Giants at Philadelphia 1:00 pm The Philly passing game is in flux and the WRs have underachieved all year long. With RB Ward out, Droughns and his six rushing TDs look even better right now, if only as a goal-line vulture.
Oakland at Green Bay 1:00 pm This Super Bowl II rematch will see RB Grant hit new heights against a surprisingly poor Raider run defense. If the unthinkable happens and Favre can't go, Rodgers showed against Dallas that he is ready.
Pittsburgh at New England 1:00 pm Particularly with the recent Patriot defensive slippage, this is certainly all-in!
San Diego at Tennessee 1:00 pm With two capable defenses that should be at full-throttle in a key game for both teams, this one looks to be all-out in terms of marginal players.
St. Louis at Cincinnati 1:00 pm Offensively at least, both teams are back. All in!
Tampa Bay at Houston 1:00 pm RB Graham is the key marginal player worth starting here against a mediocre Texan run defense.
Arizona at Seattle 4:05 pm WR Johnson should benefit from the injuries of the "Big Two" in Arizona. RB Alexander is still one of the players you have to start, even if this is not a great matchup.
Minnesota at San Francisco 4:05 pm There are no marginal players likely to make an impact in this one. All out.
Cleveland at N.Y. Jets 4:15 pm The Browns' D has been a tad better over the last few games, but the Jets should still be all-in -- the Browns as well because RB Lewis should be very successful against New York.
Kansas City at Denver 4:15 pm RB Smith will roll against the anemic Bronco run defense.
Indianapolis at Baltimore 8:15 pm With a slightly improved Raven O, Mason will benefit and will also see action when garbage time inevitably rolls around.

Mon., Dec. 10
New Orleans at Atlanta, 8:30 pm Even with two underwhelming defenses, the offenses are even more so and hence, the game is all-out.