The DeCon’s Week 13 Fantasy Football Picks

Big week, HUGE!!!  Many playoff lives at stake this week in the world of Fantasy Football and the DeCon wants to deliver to you the winning formula to gain a playoff berth.  I am in the playoffs in 3 out of my 3 leagues.  Once you get into the playoffs, ANYTHING can happen and it usually does!!!  If you are one of the teams on the outside looking in, please do your best to still try to win this week.  You could be messing up division winners and seedings for the playoffs.  This is one of the simple fantasy football commandments…Thou shall try to win EVERY game!!!  No tanking, please.

Week 12 was a tough week for RBs with Frank Gore being lost for the season.  My advice is to pick up Brian Westbrook immediately.  He proved he still has a little something left in the tank.  Also, Anthony Dixon should see a fair share of carries for a SF offense that is used to their RB being a big part of what they do and they have a favorable playoff schedule, but I don’t recommend starting either of them this week versus the Packers who just came off a tough loss to Atlanta and have a stout defense.  All Day Adrian Peterson also suffered an ankle sprain and could miss this week’s game, so Toby Gerhart is another great pickup since the Vikings face the woeful Bills run defense this week.  There should be more new on AP today and you should monitor his status all week.  Even if he plays, Gerhart could be in line for more touches than usual.

On to my other picks…after the jump…

Guys I Like

• DeSean Jackson vs Houston – Djax was terrible against the Bears and Andy Reid called him out in front of the team…the good news, he gets to face the worst pass defense in the league and I think he atones for last week in a big way.
• Jonathan Stewart @ Seattle – While Stewart didn’t score last week, he did top 90 yards on the ground and facing a Seattle defense that just gave up a ton of yards on the ground to KC, I think Stewart finally has the fantasy week many have been waiting for all season.
• Ben Obamanu vs Carolina – With Mike Williams likely not playing or at least hindered by injury, Obamanu is a sleeper that should get strong consideration after a solid game last week versus KC that included a LONG TD catch.
• Michael Turner @ Tampa Bay – The Falcons will attempt to show the Bucs who the real team in in the NFC South and with Tampa’s 27th ranked rush defense, I think the burner goes off.
• Matt Forte @ Detroit – Forte has been maddening this season, but I actually think the Bears O-line is coming together.  Forte has been averaging 4.7 YPC in his last 3 games and I think Martz will really try to exploit the Lions 24th ranked rush defense.

Guys I Don’t Like

• BenJarvus Green-Ellis vs NY Jets – Despite a solid game last week, I don’t expect much from BJGE…as I have said before, NO ONE runs on the Jets, unless your last name is Hills.
• Calvin Johnson vs Bears – With Drew Stanton likely starting, there is not much to like about Megatron if you have any other viable options with good matchups.  I will actually have him benched on one of my teams this week.  If Hill ends up starting then so does Megatron for me.
• Darren McFadden @ San Diego – I warned Boomer about this guy weeks ago and it is all coming to fruition…he hasn’t had a TD since week 7 and has only gone over 100 yds rushing once since then…if your playoff life is on the line, you can’t trust him, especially against the Chargers D.
• Cedric Benson vs New Orleans – On paper this looks like a decent matchup for what has been a disappointing season for Ced, but when the Saints go up big, I just don’t see the Bungles sticking with the run game.  Ced will have to bust one early for him to have any upside and I just don’t see it.
• Fred Jackson @ Minnesota – I know Jackson has done well the last couple of weeks (although most of his fantasy production last week came on one big play), but the Metrodome is a tough place to play and Leslie Frazier seems to have the Vikings D playing a bit more inspired.

CAN I GET AN AMEN?!?!?!?!?!?!

The DeCon has spoken, so let it be written, so let it be done…