Fantasy Football Week 13: Start’em / Sit’em
Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
Last week: 28-11-6, Season: 217-124-20 (64%)
Week 12 Recap: Another strong week of picks which I hope you are taking advantage of because I’m having one of those years where I keep playing the league’s top scorer every week and losing regardless of my point total. I’m sure most of you can relate, but I have a league in which I have almost 200 more total points than the next closest team and I am 4-8. Luck is just part of the game.
Anyway, I had some big hits this week with Tony Romo (+16), Justin Forsett (+20), C.J. Anderson (+16), Jeremy Hill (+9), Latavius Murray (+18), Odell Beckham (+23), and Josh Gordon (+9) all making my Start’em picks looks good (14-8). I was off quite a bit on Jay Cutler (-10) and Cecil Shorts (-10), but the rest of my misses were within a few points, so not that damaging.
My Sit’em picks continue to smoke (14-3-2) and I’m now (41-7) on my Sit’em projections over the last three weeks. It makes it easy when Yahoo keeps projecting bums like T-Rich (-6), DMC (-6), Colin Kaepernick (-6), Vernon Davis (-6) and Matt Stafford (-8) to have big days. It’s not 2012 anymore. Are they not watching any of those guys play this year? Sitting Jonas Gray (-10), DeSean Jackson (-6), Pierre Garcon (-5), and Sammy Watkins (-8) all turned out well and I’ll admit it felt pretty good to correctly read Bill Belichick for once. I did miss on Ryan Matthews (+10), Julian Edelman (+4), and Mohammed Sanu (+3), but that’s it.
Since Thanksgiving is just a day away, here are a few fantasy related things I am thankful for:
– This years rookie WR class! Mike Evans, Kelvin Benjamin, Odell Beckham, Sammy Watkins, Jarvis Landry, and Jordan Matthews are all carrying a few of my fantasy squads into the playoffs and inflating my Start’em numbers as for the most part they have consistently over produced.
– I feel bad being thankful for an injury, but Ronnie Hillman getting hurt unleashed a fantasy beast in C.J. Anderson who has put up monster fantasy lines for 3 weeks in a row and kept a couple of my teams in the playoff hunt.
– I am thankful to Yahoo for projecting over 10 points for Trent Richardson every week (16 last week!) and giving me an easy win, even though he may be the worst starting RB in the NFL.
– I am especially thankful to FanDuel who makes it possible to have a stake in every football game and make up some of the money I’ve lost in the 10 yearly fantasy leagues I joined this season. One good day on FanDuel covered the entry fee of the four leagues that I’m going to miss the playoffs in. Thanks for existing FanDuel (and DraftKings).
– Thank you Tony Sparano for finally putting Latavius Murray (29 points this week) in the game and giving him a chance to show off his 4.3 speed. At 6’3, 225, Murray could be an impact fantasy player if ever given a chance… which I’ve been telling people for so long that I was starting to feel a little nuts.
– Last but certainly not least, thank you to Fansided and specifically BearGoggleson for giving me a chance to express my fantasy opinions to the masses. Or at least to the few people that read this column.
More from Bears Fantasy Football
- Justin Fields is showing that he is a major fantasy football riser
- Chicago Bears Fantasy Football: Should you draft Justin Fields?
- Two must-draft fantasy football players on the Chicago Bears
- 3 over/unders for Cole Kmet with Chicago Bears in 2022
- 5 Khalil Herbert over/unders in for Chicago Bears 2022
If you missed my week 1 post with the pick guidelines and qualifications, here is the link . Short version is that only players started in less than 75% of Yahoo leagues are eligible for the Start’em picks and only players over 10% for the Sit’em picks. I’m using Yahoo’s default scoring projections (w .5 PPR) as my projection guidelines. The Start’em picks are players I think will outplay their projected line, while the Sit’em picks are players I think will fall short of their Yahoo projected total.
If you have questions about specific players, hit me up on Twitter or in the comment section and I will get back to you before this weekends games. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday weekend. Now on to my Start’em / Sit’em picks for this week:
Start’em
QB
Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
Tony Romo, PHI (60%, 19) – Didn’t show any rust from the bye or back injury last week and faces a vulnerable Eagles secondary this week. I’m expecting a high scoring game and 3+ TD passes from Romo.
Philip Rivers, @BAL (39%, 16) – Without CB Jimmy Smith the Ravens secondary isn’t good and I think Rivers will be able to pick them apart with the short to intermediate passing game.
Ryan Tannehill, @NYJ (38%, 19) – Might be the most underrated fantasy QB. The development of rookie Jarvin Landry gives Tannehill three legit weapons (Wallace, Clay) and he will get you a sneaky 40-50 rushing yards as well.
Ben Roethlisberger, NO (31%, 19) – I’ve been wrong on Ben the last 4 times I listed him as a start or sit, I’m due.
Cam Newton, @MIN (29%, 15) – This is Cam’s first appearance on my Start list. I think people have finally realized that he’s not “Superman” Cam anymore, but against a Vikings defense that gave up almost 500 total yards to the Bears two weeks ago, I think Cam can put up 20 fantasy points on the Vikes this week.
Eli Manning, @JAX (18%, 13) – Coming off a three TD game against a decent Dallas D, but Yahoo doesn’t think the Eli can crack 15 fantasy points against the Jags? Have they seen Odell Beckham? Having Rashad Jennings back makes this a more balanced offense as well and I think the Giants put up 30 plus points in this one.