nlrobert

Palmer was just ruled out for ARZ, so Floyd is a risky play since the QB play for AZ is an unknown.

Normally I would completely agree, but I like Brown's match up this week against Tennessee and I'm leery about the San Fran match up.

I can start 3 WR's and have Dez Bryant, Randal Cobb, Reggie Wayne, and Antonio Brown. I'm going to start Bryant and Brown for sure and need to decide between Cobb and Wayne for the 3rd spot. The colts have a better match up against Oakland and Cobb is facing the 49ers in San Fran. I'm leaning towards starting Wayne over Cobb because of the matchups. Scoring rules are 3/4 pt per reception, 6 pt TD, and 1 pt per 10 yds Any advice?

Thanks for the input. Any other thoughts? I'm still on the fence for this one.

Normally I would go with Eli based on matchups, but the Giants will be without Nicks, Hixon, and Bradshaw tonight. I'm concerned the panthers will simply double team Cruz and Eli's numbers will suffer. Rivers is playing at home, but the Falcons have been playing really well on defense and the Chargers may try to run the ball more with Matthews back. What are everyones thoughts? Scoring rules: 4 pts per passing TD 1 pt per 25yds passing -1 for interceptions and fumbles no points for sacks

I've got Arizona in my lineup right now and I'm definitely leaning towards sticking with Arizona. I would like to have a horse in the race during the game tonight, but I think AZ is the best play. Thanks for the input. Also...I love Cleveland's matchup this week as well.

I'm sitting Austin this week, but I also have Vincent Jackson, Nicks, and Santonio Holmes to start in his absence. I also have Ray Rice in my lineup, which I think will be a poor production week, so I can't afford to take a chance on both Rice and Austin being shut down. Revis is death to WR numbers, so hopefully he will stay on Dez and Austin will produce. I just can't take that risk.

I'm looking for advice on which defense to start this week. I have Green Bay at home against New Orleans or Arizona at home against Carolina. Defenses in our league are awarded points for sacks, interceptions, points allowed, yards allowed, and special team and defensive scores. I like GB at home, but New Orleans should put up decent yardage and points. I really like Arizona against Carolina and Cam Newton and I think Cam is going to make several mistakes. Recommendations? Thanks

The lines will definitely change, but I just listed the opening lines for point of reference. I will be in Vegas this weekend, so I'm trying to get my game plan together. I like San Diego the best out of all 4 games. If they get 8 or more points, then I really like that bet. Indy always seems to start very slow in their first round game and the Chargers typically give them fits. Gates and Harrison are question marks, but I like San Diego a lot. I don't know if they will win outright, but I think it will be a close game in the end.

What are the lock picks for this week? What are the "Sites" saying? Seattle at Green Bay (-8.5 opening line) Jax at New England (-11.5 opening line) San Diego at Indy (-8 opening line) New York at Dallas (-7.5 opening line) Right now I am leaning toward the following: Seattle New England San Diego Dallas

Our fanball site, as well as ESPN, Fox Sports, USA Today, and Sportsline all credited Ryan Grant with 5 yards receiving last week against St Louis. However, NFL.com only credits Grant with 3 yards receiving. The area of confusion seems to occur at the 7:28 mark in the first quarter. Grant catches a pass from Farve and then fumbles the ball. The NFL site indicates that the catch was for 1 yard, but every other sports site indicates that the catch was for 3 yards. As crazy as it sounds, this 0.2 points in receiving yards will determine a win and loss in our league and will ultimiately be the difference between second and third place in our final payouts. We have always used the NFL site as our official scoring source if any questions come up, but I'm a little sceptical since every other site has it a different way. Is there any other official NFL source besides the game center box scores on NFL.com?

I have to choose 4: Tomlinson Marshawn Lynch Torry Holt Roddy White Aaron Stecker David Patten Issac Bruce Tomlinson and Lynch are definites, but I'm up in the air for the other two spots. I'm leaning toward Holt and Stecker, but I am on the fence between Holt and Roddy White. St Louis is at home and Pittsburgh will likely shut down the run of St.Louis, but I'm worried that Bulger will be on his back the entire night and Holt won't see many passes. White has been solid and has no weather issues in Arizona. Stecker is even a risk if Bush comes back this week. I am in the points lead for my league and I have already won the best record championship. So, I just need to score points this week. Thoughts?

I've been the commissioner in my league for 10 years now and we actually tweaked our scoring rules almost every year for the first 6 or 7 years. Our rules have actually been pretty stable for the last 3 years and everyone seems to like the system for its fairness and balance. The rules are: All WR's, TE's and RB's get 0.1 points per yard earned. QB's get .0125 points per yard passing (equates to 1pt per 25 yards). We do not award any yardage points for skill players that also earn special teams yardage. All rushing and receiving TD's are 6 points and passing TD's are 4 points. TE's recieve 1 point per catch, WR's receive 0.5 point per catch, and RB's get no points for receptions. Interceptions and Fumbles are -1 points Kickers get 1 pt for PAT, 3 points for 0-39 YD FG, 4 points for 40-49 yd FG, and 5 points for 50+ yd FG We use team defense/ST scoring, but it's pretty standard so I won't list all the rules. We have 14 teams in our league, so the waiver wire is pretty thin. As a result, we only require 1 RB and 1 WR and then allow the owner to flex between a WR or RB for the remaining 2 skill spots. Everyone has to start a TE. We also switched to double headers about 3 years ago and everyone seems to like it much better than the 1 game a week system. We allow owners to start different lineups in each game as well, which provides more flexability to owners based on matchups in each game. Owners are also allowed to start or bench players up to 5 minutes prior to the players kick off time. Our league has no playoff system. The league is pretty high dollar ($5000 in the pot right now) and the consensus was that the best team across the entire season should win and not some crap team that limps into the playoff and lucks out a win. There's just too much money involved to reward a mid-tier team that happens to luck up one game in the playoff. So, we payout the top 4 spots for best overall record and most total points scored. This model truly rewards the best teams for the entire season of work. Our scoring system seems to provide a very good balance between RB's, WR's and TE's. The positions aren't exactly equal, but the top players tend to be very close in point production and the points per catch, combined with our flex skill rules, give owners a lot of options to help further level the playing field. Here are the year to date fantasy point totals for the top QB, WR, and TE. Brady - 361 pts (Brady is an anomoly this year so I am also listing Romo since he represents the typical top QB performance) Romo - 299 pts Moss - 291 pts Tomlinson - 277 pts Witten - 236

I have been a commissioner in my league for over 15 years and I spend a lot of time (probably more than I should) researching players, statistics, and trends. I typically finish at the top or near the top of my league every year, so I like to think my research pays off. Luck always has a lot to do with things, but drafting smart always factors heavily into the equation. The scoring and position rules for a given league always play a big part in how you draft, but the last few years have really changed the value of running backs in my opinion. The speed of the game is night and day compared to 5 years ago, and the size and strength of the players has increased as well. The simple truth is that running backs are getting injured at a much more significant pace than any other position and NFL teams are now moving toward the two-headed backfield model. About 40% of the NFL teams are currently using the two-headed backfield approach, and this number seems to grow each year. Even the teams that try and use a single back system seem to lose their starter for at least 2 or 3 games on average due to injruy. I did a quick scan of the running back statistics this season and only 8 of the top 20 running backs (preseason draft rankings) have played in all of their games this year. This number (8) will actually go down after this week due to injuries that happened last week or today. While running back injuries are on the rise and actual running back touches continue to decline, NFL offenses have been redesigned to pass first and run second. The TE position has seen the most significant benefit to this trend over the past 3 years and this once thin position is now very deep across the league. In fact, many leagues still reward TE's with extra points per catch, which elevates the top TE's above most WR's and RB's in many leagues. The extra points per TE reception were originally incorporated into most leagues to help make the TE position relevant. This same theme was also used for receivers to help keep them on par with running backs, but the times have changed and now the TE's and WR's are actually outscoring most RB's. Based on these trends, my objective this year was to trade up in our draft to take Tomlinson at number one or trade down and pick up extra middle round picks. Tomlinson is the only sure thing RB in my mind. He doesn't get injured and he also declines the cover of Madden every year (had to put that in there). I have been able to get LT 2 out of the past 3 years, and my strategy has paid off because I have finished at the top of my league all 3 years. We are in a 14 team league and I traded up to get LT this year. My 2nd pick overall came in the middle of the 4th round, so I literally sold the farm to get LT. However, my one stud/stable running back, combined with 3 solid WR's and 1 top 5 TE has propelled me to the top of my league this year. Most teams grab 2 and sometimes 3 RB's in the first 3 rounds, and the odds say that most of those RB picks either don't produce up to expectations or miss significant time due to injuries. A solid WR in the 3rd or 4th round will typically outperform a RB taken in the mid to late first round, but people still put their faith in running backs and just throw away their early draft picks on players that simply want live up to expectations. My recommendation is to take Tomlinson at 1 or trade down and load up on good WR's and a top TE. You then grab 1 or two decent middle tier RB's and then load up on 2 or 3 of the best backup running backs in the league. History indicates that a portion of the top running backs are going to go down at some point during the season, and a good nest egg of quality backups will pay off huge in the long run. By mid season your team will likely be less impacted by injuries and you will be able to capitalize on running back injuries throughout the league, which strengthens your team and weakens others. This has been my approach for the past few years and it has paid off each season. It will also be my same approach next year!

You gotta love this crap in week 14. I'm leading my league and I'm playing two of the top 4 teams this week (doubleheaders). I now have to worry about Lynch splitting time or potentially giving the majority of his carries over to Jackson. I also have the luxury of having Torry Holt with Brock Berlin starting at QB. I don't know whether I shoud go with Lynch or roll the dice and start Jackson, assuming the bills get up big on the Dolphins and rest Lynch in the second half.