Week 11 Waiver Pick-ups: Deadline's Approaching

So before I get into the pick-ups this week I would like to remind you all that the trade deadline is this coming Wednesday (Nov. 19) at noon. If you want to make a trade it must be accepted by whoever you are trading with by this time in order for the trade to go through. This week saw a little pre-trade deadline dealing as there were two trades to go with 11 pick-ups off the wire.

Trade #1
Baghdad Bombers: receives Julian Edelman, Marques Colston, and Phil Dawson
Show Me Them TD's: receives Denard Robinson, Keenan Allen, and Brandon McManus

So last week I needed a running back who I could sub in for the injured Gio Bernard. After sending a few trades proposals to different owners, I finally found a willing trade partner. Unfortunately it was too late for the trade to process in time so that I could use Robinson for my game last week. However, I do have another running back on my team now to help out in case Gio doesn't come back this week, Jonathon Stewart doesn't play this week, or if I want to simply start him in the flex spot. I happily able to exchange Colston for Allen in the trade (which would probably be considered a wash but I really wanted him gone). Josh got a decent receiver in Edelman that he can use in the flex spot and maybe get a spot start out of in the playoffs if he makes it there. The best part of this trade was throwing in the kickers. Both of these kickers were our back-ups so I felt it was only necessary that we exchange kickers to boost this deal. As you will see throughout this post, Josh was only interested in Edelman in this trade, but can you really blame him?

Trade #2
Rolling Meadows Mustangs: receives Alshon Jeffrey
Team Mustangs: receives Odell Beckham Jr.

Oh the Brotherly Love! This trade caught me by surprise. Both of these receivers are expected to put up double digit point efforts each week so they are definitely fantasy starters, although both of them play in struggling offenses. I was very surprised that T was willing to cut offer up Jeffrey being that he is a Bears fan, but I'm sure Zach jumped at the opportunity. Overall, if I had to give the advantage in the trade to one team or the other I would give it to Team Mustangs for one reason. The reason is Odell Beckham Jr. is the primary receiver (and also unstoppable in NCAA Football games) in the Giants offense where as Jeffrey is the second option behind Brandon Marshall in the Bears offense. Other than that, these two seem to be even. I really hope that if these two teams meet up in the playoffs, this trade is the deciding factor.

Waiver Pick-ups:
Baghdad Bombers: add Micheal Crabtree, drop Phil Dawson

That didn't take long. After getting Dawson in the trade with me, Josh went and got a player who can actually contribute to his team (he already has a kicker). Crabtree had some big games early in the season but has seen a limited number of targets lately. He does, however, have a nice meeting with the Raiders during playoff time for this league, so the Bombers may just be storing him for that moment (that is if the Bombers make the playoffs).

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs: add Mark Sanchez, drop Lorenzo Taliaferro

I don't know if I've ever seen a quarterback be so criticized and scrutinized while on one team and then go to a different team, play one game, and be anointed as a great quarterback quite like I have with Sanchez in the past week. I think it is a major over reaction, but hey what do I know. Sanchez will at least get to play in a high powered offense that is predicated on quick short plays. The drop of Taliaferro isn't surprising, as he has lost nearly all is carries to Justin Forsett. Tom's master plan of picking up both Ravens running backs to see which one will win the job looks like it has finally paid off.

Team Mustangs: add Blair Walsh, drop Mike Nugent

NO FUCKING CLUE!

I'm Ball Murray: add Vikings D/ST, drop Matt Bryant

The thought that the Vikings defense will be a decent fantasy defense going forward puts John right on the edge of falling into the crazy pool. Sure they had some good games recently, but those were against some of the worst teams in the league. I'm glad to see John at least kept the Dolphins as his starting defense, but why drop a backup kicker for a backup defense I have no idea. Oddly enough, Matt Bryant had a great game on Sunday, going 4-4 on field goals and making an extra point, but he is unneeded since I'm Ball Murray already has Cody Parkey (who has been surprisingly great this year).

Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add Bills D/ST, drop Joe Flacco

Now that Andrew Luck's bye week is over, Zach obviously doesn't feel the need to carry a backup quarterback anymore. Rarely do you see a QB dropped for a defense, but this isn't just any defense. The Bills lead the league in sacks (I think) and are playing the Dolphins as I am typing this. Zach chose to start the Bills defense over the Seahawks this week which was a bit surprising being that the Seahawks opponent is the offensively challenged Kansas City Chiefs. As of right now, though, the Bills D/ST has only allowed 3 points at the half and has scored 11 fantasy points thanks to a fumble and a sack.


Baghdad Bombers: add Robert Griffin III, drop Marques Colston

So apparently Josh didn't really want anyone but Edelman in our trade (no surprise there, in fact I begged him to take Colston in the deal). Colston has been a major disappointment in the Saints offense, but that's what you get when you take a receiver from a team who passes to anybody. Drew Brees would pass to the ushers (not Usher) at the stadium if he could. Wait, just imagine how awesome it would be to see Usher come out of the stands to catch a pass from Drew Brees and run to the end zone singing U Got It Bad. Anyways, back to the actual reasoning behind this pick-up. I'm guessing Josh picked up RG III because he is a long lost Bomber (if you recall Josh drafted RG III and started him until the injury). Josh just couldn't handle seeing him on any other team but his own.

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Graham Gano, drop Dan Bailey

I do have a clue on this one. Bailey is on bye, so Louie needed a kicker. And for those of you wondering, yes analyzing kicker swaps is the most ridiculous thing I do every week my favorite part of these posts.

Wisconsin ArcticCats: add Packers D/ST

This move is brought to you by the national federation of Gunnar have no clue how to use the waiver wire. On top of that the Packers play a strong offensive team in the Philadelphia Eagles, so this is a bit of a questionable pick-up. However, his other option would be starting the Panthers D/ST and after Monday night's game, just about any defense would be better than that.

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs: add C.J. Anderson, drop Cam Newton

This just in, Cam Newton has been replaced by the kid in his NFL Play 60 commercial. At least that kid can be Mrs. Newton's favorite player, and Mr. Newton's (Cam's father) favorite player for that matter too, that is if he pays somewhere between $120,000-$180,000. Cam simply looked beat up on Monday night and I wouldn't be surprised if the Panthers pulled him off the field soon as this is starting to get out of control. Since coming into the league, Cam has been hit almost twice as much as any other quarterback. He is finally learning, or at least feeling, that just because he is big, it doesn't mean he can withstand being hit by defensive lineman over and over again. The pick-up of C.J. Anderson is interesting because he is the third string running back in Denver. However, with the current injuries to Hillman and Ball, Anderson will most likely get at least this week to put up some solid fantasy points.

Baghdad Bombers: add Steelers D/ST, drop Cowboys D/ST

This move was made because the Cowboys are on bye this week. The Steelers play the Titans, who are just above a pee wee team when it comes to offensive efficiency, so this should turn out to be a good pick-up.


Baghdad Bombers: add Mychal Rivera, drop Owen Daniels

Daniels is on bye, but the real issue here is who the hell is Mychal Rivera? My only guess is that its the girl from that Spanish soap opera that Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are doing advertisements for.

Week 10 Waiver Pick-ups: Holy Shit There's a Ton

Similar to what Louie said last week, when I took a look at the waiver pick-ups on Wednesday morning the first though that came to my mind was holy shit! Many teams made multiple moves, with Josh leading the way with 4 transactions. Here they are:

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Adrian Peterson, drop Brandon Oliver

Brandon Oliver was arguably the hottest pickup of the year in fantasy football a few weeks ago, but with the other Chargers backs getting healthy and going into a bye week this week it was apparently time for Louie to make a change. The pickup of AP is interesting because it is a total gamble because nobody knows if he will play again this year. But then again, that may not matter to Louie. Given his record, this may have simply been a move to add a player to have as a keeper. Taking a look at his roster, the only other player even close to keeper status is Demaryius Thomas, but even he probably wouldn't go till the 2nd or third round. When AP comes back he will be a top fantasy running back again, so this is without a doubt a solid move for the future.

Smokin Blunts N Drinkin FORTEs: add Martavis Bryant, drop Isiah Crowell

After missing the first 6 games of the season, Bryant has put up double digits in each of the following 3 weeks. Bryant has been the beneficiary of a few out this world performances by Big Ben. This week the Steelers play the traveling idiot show that is the Jets, who also have a terrible secondary, so there's every reason to believe another double digit performance is on the way. Crowell was an interesting add early in the year when the Browns backfield was a mess. However now that Ben Tate and Terrance West are back and have taken over the top two spots on the depth chart, there is no room for Crowell. Crowell may get 1 or 2 carries a game on a good day so there it makes perfect sense to drop him.

Baghdad Bombers: add Cowboys D/ST, drop Bengals D/ST

The Cowboys are playing the Jaguars this week, the end.

Wisconsin ArcticCats: add Shuan Suisham, drop Victor Cruz and Bernard Pierce

I'm still convinced Gunnar has no clue how to use the waiver wire system. Once again he dropped two players on Tuesday and only picked up 1 on Wednesday. At least both of the players he dropped won't be making a contribution to his team anyways. I was glad to see Victor Cruz finally get dropped because I was beginning to question whether Gunnar had fallen victim to Dr. Panda disease after last week where you keep players on your bench who won't play all year and start players who are on a bye. Thank God he hasn't, and with the pick up of Shaun Suisham, he will have a full starting roster once again.

Money, money, money....MONEY!

Team Mustangs: add Mike Evans, drop Andrew Hawkins

Both of these two players have been hot and cold all year after. Since being drafted 7th overall in this years NFL draft, Evans has been a decent 2nd option next to Vincent Jackson. However, last week he had a huge game, going off for 24 fantasy points, and Hawkins finally cooled off after he put up 25 points total in the previous two weeks. With the return of Calvin Johnson, T may not need Evans after this week (T.Y. Hilton is on bye for T) but a spot start for the 6' 5" receiver against a terrible Falcons pass defense may be just enough to propel his Mustangs to victory over the ArcticCats this week in what is being projected as a close game.

Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add Jared Cook, drop Robbie Gould

This move needed to be made for two reasons. First of all, Zach needed a tight end to fill in for Dwayne Allen who is on bye. Secondly, because he was carrying 2 kickers following Robbie Gould's bye week last week. It is notable that Zach is dropping Gould and sticking with Hauschka going forward after Zach had been rolling with Gould all year. It does, however, make sense because Hauschka is averaging 9 points a game, where as Gould is only averaging 5.5 points a game so far this season.

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs: add Lions D/ST, drop Vikings D/ST

So this move was made based off the fact that the Vikings are on bye this week and, you know, the Lions have the best statistical defense in the league to this point. I wouldn't be surprised to see this pick-up end up being the every week defense for Tom going forward.

Baghdad Bombers: add Matt Asiata, drop Doug Martin

This one has to sting a little being that Josh drafted the muscle hamster in the second round this year. Unfortunately he has not been healthy, and even when he is healthy he splits time with Bobby Rainey. Matt Asiata on the other hand is a red zone machine. Usually, Asiata doesn't get a ton of carries throughout the game unless it's a short yard situation. However, stealing the red zone touches from Jerick McKinnon helps make Asiata valuable. Last week was a great example of this as he only had 10 carries for 26 yards, but he had 3 touchdowns which tallied up to 25 fantasy points. Asiata is on bye this week, but moving forward he could be a good fill in starter for the Bombers.

Team Mustangs: add Mike Nugent, drop Blair Walsh

Bye week = Kicker swap

Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add Odell Beckham Jr., drop Wes Welker

I don't know if he is afraid to go across the middle now, or if Peyton is just afraid to throw him the ball, but Wes Welker has been non-existent this year. Looking at the 6 games he has actually played in, he is averaging just over 4 points a game, a far cry from the player he used to be before all his concussion issues. Odell Beckham Jr has now become the best option for Eli Manning now that Victor Cruz is out for the season. He has put up double digits games in 3 of the last 4 games (he didn't play the first four weeks). This was not a pick-up of a guy that Zach needed to start, but instead it was simply a move to better his bench in case he has an injury or needs to insert a new receiver into his lineup. Smooth move by a guy on the path to perfection.

Baghdad Bombers: add Owen Daniels, drop Zach Ertz

Daniels was a beast for the Badgers

The production from Ertz has been continuously dropping over the past couple weeks and now with Nick Foles out, who knows what kind of numbers he will put up with Sanchize. The weird thing about this pick-up is that Owen Daniels has been equally as quite over the past few weeks. I'm not really sure what Josh is going for here outside of maybe looking at who each team plays this week (Daniels plays Tennessee, Ertz plays Carolina). Lucky for Josh, this will only matter for one week since he has Rob Gronkowski (bye week) sitting on his bench.

Baghdad Bombers: add Brandon McManus, drop Kendall Wright

McManus was the kicker and punter at Temple

Kendall Wright has been hot and cold over the last couple weeks, but I was surprised to see Josh drop him after he called me and said how great Wright had been playing just a couple weeks ago. Now he did need a kicker for this week since Adam Vinatieri is on bye, so that's why he picked up McManus. However, I believe it might have been a better move to drop Doug Baldwin instead of Wright. Either way, both of those receivers are close to equal and one had to go, so Josh becomes a little thinner at a position where he already had two solid starters. He should be fine, and maybe just maybe McManus will hit a couple bombs against Oakland and help Josh end Zach's perfect season.

Week 8 Pick-ups: Dropping Bombs

There were a bunch of waiver wire pick-ups this week. However, four of the nine were from one team, Baghdad Bombers. It seems like many people are chasing points, none more evident then the first pick-up by Josh.

Baghadad Bombers: add Doug Baldwin, drop Andre Holmes

So it looks like Josh is chasing good wide receiver performances. Last week, Josh picked up Andre Holmes after he had a 24 point game the week before against the Chargers. He preceded to only score 3 this week which lead to Josh dropping him for the receiver who had a great performance the week before, Doug Baldwin. Other than last week, Baldwin has been awful this year so this move is quite shocking. It does make a little more sense being that Percy Harvin is gone so Baldwin may get a few more targets. Either way this move screams chasing points and next week Josh will probably try to pick up some other guy that did great this week.

Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add Malcom Floyd, drop Micheal Crabtree

Malcom Floyd was the player Josh dropped last week for Andre Holmes. I figured someone would pick him up soon and that was the case. I'm guessing the reason this move happened was because Zach wanted a more consistent receiver than Crabtree, who has been up and down all year. Floyd has a better quarterback and has an easier schedule going forward so it makes Floyd look a little more desirable. I wouldn't be surprised to see someone pick up Crabtree soon though.

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs: add Ciaro Santos, drop Phil Dawson

Kicker Swap!! After Phil Dawson kicked 9 field goals in 2 games, he has come back to normal the past few weeks. Ciaro Santos on the other hand has been ok this year but not great. However, Dawson is on bye and Tom needed a kicker, so he picked up the Brazilian kicker. Hurray for trying to analyze kickers!

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Charles Clay, drop Jace Amaro

Last week Louie picked up Jace Amaro after his big game the week before against the Broncos. Well after not doing much of anything last Thursday against the Patriots, Louie decided to drop him for Charles Clay who finally became part of the Dolphins offense last week, all be it against the Bears defense. Clay also has a matchup against the Jaguars this week which is always good for fantasy players not on the Cleveland Browns, where as Amaro goes up against the Bills who have a solid defense. I'm guessing this is only a one week fix but it should work out fine for the purpose.

Baghdad Bombers: add Kendall Wright, drop Bengals D/ST

When Josh called me Monday night he was all excited about how good Kendall Wright has been playing so I figured this move was coming. Wright has had double digits performances in 2 of his last 3 games (surprisingly the game he didn't was against the Jaguars). It should be interesting to see how many targets Wright receives this week now that the rookie Zach Mettenberger is starting for the Titans. The Bengals D/ST was alright last week, but was god awful for two weeks before that. The move to get rid of them makes sense when you look farther down on this post and see he picked up the Dolphins D/ST.

Only refs can stop Tre

Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add Tre Mason, drop Mark Ingram

The hottest pickup of the week throughout any league was Tre Mason. He had a breakout game against the defending Super Bowl champs last week, and it looks like he has taken over the starting role from Zack Stacy and Benny Cunningham. Now it is the smallest of small samples (one game) but what he showed on Sunday looked like it could translate to the rest of the year. The one knock on Mason is that he is small so he may not get a lot of goal line carries, so there may be valuable fantasy points left out there for Stacy and Cunningham. Mark Ingram finally came back from his injury last week and he was completely bottled up by the tremendous front line of the Lions defense. Though Ingram was playing very well the first two weeks of the season before he got hurt, it looks like it may take some time for him to get back into the swing of things.

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs: add Cowboys D/ST, drop Seahawks D/ST and Teddy Bridgewater

Tom dropping Teddy hurt him more than this hit

So Tom decided to pull off the rare add one player drop two players move. I'm not sure why he did this unless there is a certain player he is waiting to pick up at the end of the week. Teddy Bridgewater has not been good outside of his one game against the Falcons, and though he may be a decent fantasy quarterback in the future, he simply isn't right now. Now when it comes to switching defenses, this would have made everyone concerned for your mental health at the beginning of the year. The Seahawks were far and away the best defense in the league and coming off a Super Bowl championship they won based heavily on their strong defense. The cowboys defense on the other hand was record setting for all the wrong reasons. For as good as the Seahawks were, the Cowboys were that bad and more. However, this year the Seahawks defense just isn't the same, most notably they aren't getting turnovers (they have forced only 4 turnover through the first 6 games). The Cowboys defense is still pretty bad but it has been much better than last year. I'm guessing the idea here was to pick them up for the week because they play the Colt McCoy led redskins this week at home which should end up being a solid day defensively for the Cowboys.

Baghdad Bombers: add Ryan Tannehill, drop Ben Roethlisberger

Ryan Tannehill has been playing great in his last 3 games so this move looks good on the surface, and maybe it is but here is the problem, the three teams he played have average to below average defenses. Tannehill strikes me as the kind of player that is great against the teams he should be great against but can't figure it out in big games when his team needs him to step it up. Now Josh has Phillip Rivers (damn it!) so he won't be starting Tannehill this week I would imagine, but he would have to start him week 10 against the #1 rated defense, the Detroit Lions. Yikes! Might want to think about making another move Josh. Roethlisberger has been a middle of the line quarterback practically all year. He is not a guy that is going to put up huge numbers, but he also won't be sucktastic either. He plays the Jets in week 10 and something tells me I shouldn't be surprised if this move if flip flopped before that game (if someone hasn't already picked up Big Ben).

Baghdad Bombers: add Dolphins D/ST, drop Browns D/ST

The Jags are only losing by 17 in the 3rd quarter!?

So here is what I was talking about earlier when I said Josh's defensive moves make sense (except for the fact that he was carrying two defenses...why would you do that??). the Dolphins go up against the Jaguars, which the Browns did last week and struggled, but the difference is the Dolphins have a good defense and the Jags can't possibly put two good weeks together. It funny however that this week the Browns play the Raiders, who are the only winless team in the league, but Josh didn't want to go with them. Overall, I'm just glad Josh got out of the tandem defense strategy. Seriously someone tell me how in any way that is a good idea.

Week 7 Waiver Pick-ups

Do I actually do work Wednesday Mornings?

So I've decided to make a bit of a change to when I do the waiver wire pick ups post. I'm going to post it on Thursday from now on for two reasons. The first reason is because I always end up posting stuff Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and then not posting anything the rest of the week. This will help spread out the posts a little more. The second and more important reason is because my work production on Wednesday's looks very sketchy. In an effort to even out when I write the blog so my productivity numbers to lag behind in the beginning of the week, I'm going to write part of the post on Wednesday and just save the draft and then write the rest of it Thursday and post the whole thing then. This also means that if you pick up a player after the waiver wire transactions go through on Wednesday morning but before about 10 am Thursday, they will be added to the waiver pickups post. Now that I've got that settled, there were a lot of waiver transactions this week including another trade. Here they are:

Trade!! Show Me Them TD's receives Terrance Williams, Im Ball Murray receives C.J. Spiller

For any of you that were in the fantasy baseball league, are you really surprised I was involved in another trade. I can't help it, I just love making trades, so after gauging the trade market for certain receivers, I decided to offer this trade to John which was accepted a day or so later. My thought process in this deal was that I wanted a better receiver who I can trust to put up at least 8 to 9 points a game since Marques Colston and Reggie Wayne just can't do that anymore. I traded away C.J. Spiller since he was the odd man left out on my roster after trading for Gio Bernard, but he was too good to just leave sitting on my bench. When looking for people to trade with, Im Ball Murray was the best option. John didn't have a good second running back to go with Demarcco Murray. He also already has Brandon Marshall and Jeremy Maclin in the reciever spots, and he is sticking with Cordarelle Patterson in the flex position, hoping he finally regains the fantasy value he had last year. So in the end this trade helped both of us bolster one of our weakest spots. Even though this trade went through Sunday morning before the games, we both sat these guys, but this week it looks like we both have them in the starting lineup so we can now see how the trade will pay off.

Smokin Blunts N Drinkin FORTEs: add Ronnie Hillman, drop Matt Asiata

Hillman has taken over for the injured Montee Ball, and has played very well. He ran for over 100 yards last week, and even though he didn't find the end zone, he still put up a nice double digit performance. It looks like Ball will be out for at least two more weeks, which means this will be a nice stop gap pick-up for a few weeks. Dropping Asiata isn't that surprising. He has struggled the last two weeks, and it looks like Jerick McKinnon has taken over the starting running back role. Not to mention, Asiata and the Vikings play Buffalo this week, who has allowed the least fantasy points to running backs so far this season.


Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add Joe Flacco, drop Kirk Cousins

After last week's performance, it was fairly obvious that somebody was going to pick up Flacco. He picked apart the Bucs defense to the ton of 5 touchdowns in the first 18 minutes of the game. Flacco has always been considered a decent QB but never a must have guy. However, Zach has Andrew Luck so the only week Flacco is likely to be in his starting lineup is when the Colts are on bye (week 10). That week the Ravens go up against the Tennessee Titans, who are ranked an awful 25th against the pass, which means this pick up will likely lead to a nice fantasy matchup for Zach. Captain Kirk Cousins on the the other hand is about to lose all his fantasy value. According to reports, RG3 is only about 2-3 weeks away from coming back. Even though Cousins has been a decent fantasy quarterback, despite his losing in real life, this was a good move to get ahead of the curve.





Multiple Scoregasms: add Darren McFadden, drop Chris Johnson

Imagine seeing this cross the waiver wire just a couple years ago. Neither one of these two are good anymore, but the only reason this makes sense is because at least McFadden is getting some carries. McFadden has averaged about 13 carries a game where as Chris Johnson is losing the small role he had in the Jets offense and is reduced to only about 5 carries a game. Taking a look at Jason's team, his running backs are a mess. They cost him a win last week, and I'm guessing a couple other wins in weeks before that. His two starters are the extremely under performing Eddie Lacy and the injured/ under performing Reggie Bush. He has Ickey Woods Jeremy Hill on the bench who is decent, but he's not a starter so it's hard to expect a lot from him week in and week out. I wouldn't be surprised if the Scoregasms try to make a trade with someone to try to get a decent running back and climb out of last place in the league.

Show Me Them TD's: add Carson Palmer, drop Eli Manning

I said in the recap of my game Tuesday, that my experiment with the Giants players is over. This was the start of the destruction of Giants players on my roster. Eli Manning was awful last week and has now lost possibly his best weapon, Victor Cruz. For as good as the Giants looked for a three week stretch, they looked equally as bad last week. It was time to find a different backup quarterback, so when I saw Palmer was back it was a done deal. Palmer is most likely not going to have any huge games, but he is good for a solid 18 points or so a week. There is a possibility that I might even start him over Matt Ryan in certain weeks because when Ryan is on the road he usually struggles mightily. Looking back I'm starting to think I should've traded Matt Ryan to the Baghdad Bombers instead of Phillip Rivers...oops.

Baghdad Bombers: add Malcom Floyd, drop Kendall Wright

With Phillip Rivers having a MVP type season, it makes sense to pick up one of his best targets. Floyd has put up solid numbers every game, except week 2 against Seattle, and he is averaging an incredible 21 yards per catch. He is definitely the deep threat for Rivers, and since he averages a touchdown every other game, his stock goes up even more. Kendall Wright was a guy that people went crazy about after his 20 point performance against the Browns in week 5. He came off that performance to play the Jaguars and put up a big 0. That's right, going against possibly the worst team in the league, Wright did nothing. It doesn't help that he doesn't have a competent quarterback throwing him the ball. As I said when Josh picked him up, he would be a decent fantasy receiver on with a different QB, but until that happens you can't count on him to be productive.

Multiple Scoregasms: add Chandler Catanzaro, drop Saun Suisham


Kicker Swap! Chandler Catanzaro, not George Castanza (which would be awesome!), has had a lot of good kicking weeks so far this year. Suisham on the other hand has put up 5 or less points in the last 3 weeks so it was obviously time for a change. I think Jason is feeling some regret after letting Phil Dawson go after week 3 and now watching him make field goal after field goal on his way to putting up 46 points combined over the last three weeks for Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs.

Baghdad Bombers: add Pierre Thomas, drop Stevan Ridley

This move was obviously going to happen since Ridley is done for the year. So unfortunately for Josh, he had to go out and find some medial talent on the waiver wire to replace Ridley. Insert Pierre Thomas into that spot. Thomas doesn't get many carries in the Saints offense, but what he does get is a lot of receptions. He seems to be the guy that they love to run screen routes with so he does have some value. The overlying problem here is that Mark Ingram will be back soon which will take away even more touches from Thomas, but then again Josh may just pick up Ingram and drop Thomas when that happens (that would probably be a smart move).

Show Me Them TD's: add Jordan Reed, drop Larry Donnell

Again, I'm getting rid of the Giants players. Donnell did nothing the last two weeks and was probably just a flash in the pan. This wouldn't have bothered me much since I figured I only needed a back up tight end for one week, however now Jimmy Graham is out a couple weeks and I am scrambling to find a recent replacement for that time. The replacement I found is Jordan Reed. Reed finally came back last week against the Cardinals and had a solid 9 point game. Reed has at time shown the talent to be a top ten tight end if he could stay healthy, but therein lies the problem. Reed has been nagged all year by injury so who knows how long he will stay healthy. I'm really hoping he can stay on the field for a couple of weeks and find some of that chemistry he had with Kirk Cousins from the end of last year.

Baghdad Bombers: add Browns D/ST, drop Chargers D/ST

Defense Swap! Josh got burnt last week when the Chargers got lit up by the 0-5 Oakland Raiders, I feel your pain (I had them in another league). Normally I would still say that the Chargers are a better defense and special teams option that the Browns, however the Browns play the Jaguars this week which swings the weight to the Browns side. Sadly the Jags haven't put up more than 17 points in a game yet this year, so I think this pick up is a fairly safe lock for the Bombers.

Week 6 Waiver Pick-ups

Not a whole lot of action on the waiver wire this week as only 4 players were picked up. I attribute most of this to the fact that there are only two teams on bye this week so there isn't a ton of roster switching going on. Here are the four moves that went through today:

Team Mustangs: add Ravens D/ST, drop Donald Brown

The move to drop Donald Brown is not surprising. Though he was a must add player when the rest of the Chargers backfield went down, he now has a concussion and looks like he won't play this week against the Raiders. On top of that, there is a good chance he won't be the starter when he comes back after the performance Branden Oliver put up (which I will get to in a bit). However, what is suprising is that he picked up the Ravens defense. The Ravens go up against an improved Tamp Bay team that has been able to move the ball and put up a lot of points in their last couple games. This wouldn't be as surprising if it weren't for the fact that T has Denver's defense already and they are playing the New York Our Quarterback Turns The Ball Over Every Other Play Jets. That has to be one of the best defensive match-ups for the week, and yet T is choosing to sit the Broncos for the Ravens. Also, by making this move T drops down to only 3 running backs on his entire team and 2 defenses (not exactly the ratio most people would want). Of those 3 running backs, only one came into the season as the starter (Toby Gerhart, who hasn't been good at all). T could definitely use some work in the backfield if he wants to make it back to the championship game for the third year in a row.

Team Mustangs: add Jared Cook, drop Browns D/ST

So after talking about how rolling with two defenses is probably not the best scenario, I noticed that T had another defense on his team before this, the Browns D/ST. In fact looking at the entire season so far, T's Mustangs have had two defenses on their roster every week and it's always been the Broncos and somebody else (Saints, Browns, Ravens). The funny thing is the Broncos haven't been very good on defense all year and therefore they rank 21st among fantasy defenses. So, T hasn't started them the last 3 weeks yet he still feels the need to use a bench spot on them. Anyways back to the Browns, they were a one week filler that didn't work out. They only put up 3 fantasy points because they were destroyed to the tune of 28 points in the first half last week. The add of Jared Cook is one of the few things that does make sense out of this whole conundrum. T's starting tight end, Travis Kelce, is on bye so he decided to go with the best option he could find on the waiver wire. Cook is a big tight end with the physical ability to be dominant in this league, the problem is he has trouble catching and holding on to the ball, which I guess is something your supposed to do according to Austin Davis. He is, however, a good pickup for T this week in order to fill his starting lineup.

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin FORTEs: add Phil Dawson, drop Mike Nugent

Kicker swap! Surprisingly this kicker swap actually has a plausible premise, which is the 49ers have decided that their offense should only move the ball to about the 15 yard line and then kick a field goal. In the last two weeks, Phil Dawson has made 9 of 9 field goals raking up a total of 37 points. This is the same Phil Dawson that Multiple Scoregasms dropped after his one point performance in week 3. Had Jason kept him, he would've won this week and wouldn't be sitting in last place in the league at 1-4. However, none of that really matters for Tom's sake since he gets to upgrade at the kicking position, at least for now because nobody really knows how good a kicker is going to do from week to week. Oh and Tom dropped Mike Nugent because he wasn't Ted Nugent. That is the only logical reason.

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Branden Oliver, drop Julian Edelman

Enter the new Darren Sproles. At least that's what it looked like Sunday afternoon when Donald Brown went down with a concussion and Oliver stepped in. Not only does the man look like Sproles out on the field, but he put up Sproles-like numbers on Sunday rushing for 117 yards to go along with 68 yards receiving and a pair of touchdowns. With the Chargers backfield losing guys left and right, Oliver may be the starter for the long term, especially if he can recapture some of the magic from last week. It will help that this week he plays the Raiders, who may the the single worst football team I've seen since the 0-16 Lions from 2008, they just suck at everything. Julian Edelman is an interesting drop though because he is one of the few targets that Tom Brady has. However, after starting off the year with multiple double digit games, Edelman has cooled way off, possibly because of the resurgence of Rob Gronkowski. Also, looking at Louie's roster, this move makes a little more sense because he has a lot of options at receiver and Edelman was at the bottom of that list.

Week 5 Waiver Pick-ups

There weren't a ton of pick-ups when the waivers first went through this morning (5 to be exact) but as the day has gone on, I added to the list along with Jason. Overall there ended up being 9 pick-ups this week between five teams, four of which added a running back, and then I went crazy adding Giants to my bench. Here they are:

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Jerick McKinnon, drop Adrian Peterson

I knew this was coming at some point. Obviously Peterson is out and will, in all likelihood, be done for the season, so there is no reason to keep him at this point. It's especially unfortunete for Louie because he used his keeper on Peterson, which of coarse means it cost him his first round pick. Im guessing someone will see that name in the free agents and eventually pick him up but for now it's nice to see he is not on a team, now if only Chris would drop Ray Rice. Jerick McKinnon had a breakout performance Sunday against the Falcons, and looks to be a much better running back than current Vikings starter Matt Asiata. The carries were split evenly between the two backs but I would expect McKinnon to start taking over the majority of the carries, although Asiata will probably steal some goal line carries since he's a much bigger back. Going into Thursday night's game against the Packers, it wouldn't suprise me if Louie started McKinnon because the Packers have struggled to stop the run.

Show Me Them TD's: add Eli Manning, drop Charles Clay

So as I stated above, I went on a New York Giants binge picking up three of their players this week. The first of which was the guy I said I wanted to do bad the rest of the year in yesterday's post. However, the fact is I think the Giants are going to be a decent team this year and the offense looks like its coming around. Since I traded Philip Rivers to Josh last week, I wanted a good back-up quarterback to ocassionally use if Matt Ryan has a bad matchup and for his bye week. Charles Clay really hasn't done anything so far. His highest point total for a week is 3 points in a Dolphins offense that at times looks terrible. Since I have Jimmy Graham I really don't feel the need to worry about a back-up tight end for any other week but next week (the Saints are on bye next week). As you will see later I went and picked up another Giants player to fill that back-up role as well.

Multiple Scoregasms: add Eddie Royal, drop Kendall Wright

This is a Charlie Whitehurst

Over the last two weeks Eddie Royal has had fantastic games. Similar to the begining of last year, Royal has been a touchdown catching machine. The next two weeks he plays the Jets and the Raiders, not exactly great pass defenses. This is part of the reason I think Jason picked up Royal, to go along with the fact that he actually has a competent quarterback to throw to him. Kendall Wright on the other hand has a usually injured Jake Locker or something called a Charlie Whitehurst. On a different team, Kendall Wright may be a decent fantasy option, but as long as he's stuck in Tennessee with those quarterbacks, he's not going to do much.

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin Fortes: add Lorenzo Taliaferro, drop Lions D/ST

Looks like Tom has now decided that if he can't figure out who the starting running back is for the Ravens, he'll just try to own all the guys fighting for the job. At one point in the season, Tom had Bernard Pierce, but then decided that Justin Forsett was probably the bettter option since Pierce fumbles alot. Now Forsett has lost a majority of playing time to Taliaferro, who has put together two double digit permances in a row. So, of course, Tom went and picked him up. Overall, the Ravens backfield is going to be a guessing game. When Pierce gets healthy and comes back they are going to have 3 average running backs that can all do about the same thing. Im guessing its just going to be a situation where whoever gets hot will get the most carries, and Tom's got 2/3 of the backfield so the odds are in his favor. Dropping the Lions defense was an easy decision I'm sure. Tom has the Seahawks D/ST and just needed a stop gap for last week while they were on bye.

Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add LaGarrette Blount, drop Darren McFadden

Darren McFadden has not been good all year. The most rushing yards he's had in a game is 59 and with his bye week coming up this week it was time for Zach to let him go. The interesting part of this is that Zach picked up another guy who hasn't done much this season (he did have a good week 3). The Steelers have been relying mostly on LeVeon Bell, who has been one of the highest scoring fantasy players so far this year, and therefore Blount isn't getting many carries. I understand that Zach wanted a back-up running back, but I feel like he could've went with someone who is going to get more carries, like Roy Helu or maybe Andre Williams, oh wait....

Show Me Them TD's: add Andre Williams, drop James Starks

Williams is the second Giants player I picked up, and I'll make this short and sweet. This was simply a swap of back-up running backs. The Packers running game hasn't been good and Starks has recieved minimal carries. Andre Williams, on the other hand, is getting more and more carries in the newly improved Giants offense. Though Williams is still solidly behind Rashaad Jennings in New York, I believe he will get more carries (especially in goal line situations) than Starks will in Green Bay, which is why I pulled the trigger on this move.

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Steelers D/ST, drop Dolphins D/ST

The one and only defensive swap is brought to you by Louie for the sole purpose of needing a new defense becasue the Dolphins are on bye this week. The Steelers D/ST hasn't been all that great this year but they play Jacksonville this week so they should be fine. The Jaguars are the worst offense in the league and are starting a rookie quarterback which will most likely lead to turnovers and scoring 14 or less points. I believe we may see alot of picking up defenses who play Jacksonville throughout the season.


Smokin Blounts N Drinkin Fortes: add Mike Nugent, drop Dan Carpenter

Kicker Swap! Dan Carpenter has had two straight weeks of only putting up 5 points and with the Bills offense struggling who knows if those numbers will increase. By adding Nugent, Tom can atleast rest assured that the Bengals are a good team which has an offense that can drive down the field consistenly and set up field goal oppurtunities for their kicker.

Show Me Them TD's: add Larry Donnell, drop Riley Cooper

This was my third and final Giants player that I picked up. Donnell has been a hot pick up in many leagues after his huge performance against the Redskins last Thursday. It looks like he is the most targeted guy for Eli, especially in the red zone. I picked him up because he could be a good young tight end and I wanted a back up tight end since I got rid of Charles Clay this week, and I wanted someone decent for Jimmy Graham's bye week next week. The Giants play the Eagles that week so I think Donnell will have a solid game since the Eagles pass defense is very not good. I dropped Riley Cooper becasue he hasn't done jack shit all year. In that explosive Eagles offense, Cooper seems to get little to no targets (they all go to Sproles and Maclin). I also had no problem getting rid of him since the wide reciever position is so deep.

Week 4 Waiver pick-ups and a trade!

Some of the highlights of this week's wavier wire were that the first trade of the season took place, also Louie and Tom decided to do the double switch by getting rid of their kicker and defense and picking up new ones. In fact, Tom decided to do the rare double switch on his defense he just picked up this morning. We have also learned that Gunnar doesn't understand how to properly use the waiver wire (I'll get to this in his recap). But before I get to that, I would like to point out a couple interesting things about teams who didn't pick anyone up. First off, Multiple Scoregasms didn't pick up a defense yet which is something he might want to do considering the one defense he has is on bye. The other team team that suprisingly didn't pick anyone up was the Kalamazoo Red Hawks. The Red Hawks have 4 starters on bye this week including their one and only quarterback Peyton Manning. It is troubling to see Chris hasn't tried to make a move yet, especially since he is still carrrying Ray Rice on his bench. I will be monitoring this team throughout the week to see if he puts together a full roster. If not, I'm going to have to walk over to his house and have a talk with him. Now on to the pick-ups.

TRADE:
Show Me Them TD's recieve Giovani Bernard and EJ Manuel
Baghdad Bombers recieve Phillip Rivers and Frank Gore

So the first trade in our league this year was very quick to develop. Last week Josh called me a couple times, each time he mentioned that his quarterback postition (at the time held by RG3) was bringing him down. I offered him this trade after he mentioned he would be interested in Phillip Rivers, and he accepted it right away. At first sight it might seem like he got a way better deal here, and maybe he did. But Frank Gore is slowly loosing his starting job to Carlos Hyde so he is becoming less valuable and I really wanted a running back I could trust to get me double digit points each week. Bernard is that guy, he has put up double digits in each of the first three weeks for the undeafeted Bengals. Unfortunetly, he is on bye so I won't be able to use him this week. On Josh's side of the deal, he gets a solid fantasy qb in Rivers (although he now has Cousins who looked great last week). He will atleast have a couple of good options at that position, and even though I said Gore is loosing his job, he will still gets enough carries to put up decent points. Josh needed a solid running back for the next week or two while Jamaal Charles and Doug Martin are dinged up and now he's got one. I forgot to mention EJ Manuel. I just threw him in the trade to even it out at two players a peice, but I will most likely drop him soon.
 
Wisconsin ArticCats: add Jordan Matthews, drop Danny Amendola

For the third time this year Gunnar decided to drop a player before the waiver period on Wednesday. Instead of dropping and adding players at the same time like everyone else, Gunnar has decided to split his adds and drops for whatever reason. I have a fealing he may just not understand how to use the waiver wire and therefore just drops people at the begining of the week to make room for the guys he wants when they magically appear on his team on Wednesday. Anyway, last Sunday Jordan Matthews had a huge 17 point game, thanks mostly to the 2 touchdwons he caught. Prior to that Matthews had a total of 4 points through 2 weeks. Normally I would call this a reach by Gunnar to just pick up someone who had one good week, but looking at who he dropped I don't think it was that bad of a move. Amendola has not been part of the Patriots offense at all so far this season. Amendola has 1 point from week one, and has not caught a pass since that game. The Patriots offense has not looked sharp this year and Amendola has suffered becasue of it. Also, Gronkowski and Edelman seem to get all the passes thrown thier way anyway.

the rare white guy running back

Team Mustangs: add Donald Brown, drop Shonn Greene

These are two backs that are heading in different directions. Donald Brown has become the starter in San Diego thanks to injuries to both Ryan Matthews and Danny Woodhead. It doesn't look like either one of them will be back for the next few weeks and even when Matthews comes back he'll probably just get hurt again becasue it seems like that what happens to him. This could be a great pick-up for the rest of the season for the Mustangs. Shonn Greene is going the other way, slowly losing playing time to Bishop Sankey in Tennessee. It was only a matter of time before this happened since everyone knew the Titans wanted Sankey to eventually take over and be the running back of the future.

Rolling Meadows Mustangs: add Dwayne Allen, drop Carlos Hyde

This one suprised me becasue, as I mentioned in the trade between Josh and myself, I think Carlos Hyde is slowly going to take over the starting running back job for the 49ers. Dwayne Allen, though, is coming of a good game agaisnt the Jaguars on Sunday and he looks to be the number one tight end target over Coby Fleener for Andrew Luck. When I looked at Zach's roster, the reason for the move was obvious, Zach's only tight end is on bye this week. As I have mentioned before, Zach's team is pretty stacked so it gives a little more sence to why he dropped Hyde in order to fill the empty tight end spot with Allen.


Smokin Blounts N Drinkin Fortes: add Bears D/ST, drop 49ers D/ST, drop Bears D/ST, add Lions D/ST

Fresh off his second 57 point game week, Tom decided to blow everyones mind by picking up a defense only to drop them a few hours later for another defense. The origianl dropped defense, the niners D/ST, have struggled this year with so many key players either hurt or suspended. they also have tough matchup against the Eagles coming up this week, so it miakes sence to drop them. Here's where it starts to get crazy, Tom picked up the Bears D/ST only to drop them 5 hours later. My guess is after seeing he got the Bears d, he realized there was a better defense out there that he could pick up for this week. That better defense is the Lions. They shut down the Packers offense last week, as well as putting up a touchdown and a safety. This week they play the Jets, which should almost gurantee them a couple of turnovers. For at least this week, this move makes since for the Tom and maybe just maybe he will score more than 57 points this week agaisnt the AtrcticCats.

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Codey Parkey, drop Stevan Hauschka

Codey Parkey or high scool freshman?

Kicker swap! As you will see in the next couple pick-ups, Louie decided to get rid of the bottom three starting guys on his lineup (TE, K, D/ST). Like I've said before I really don't have any criteria to judge kickers swaps, but this move is easy to figure out. Hauschka is on bye so Louie needed a kicker, why not get the kicker from a team that scores a ton of points week in and week out. Parkey has put up double digit games every week so far and there is no reason to believe he won't continue to do that.

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Owen Daniels, drop Kyle Rudolph

This is another easy move to disect. Rudolph has to have sports hernia surgery and will be out atleast 6 weeks, and he was Louie's only tight end. MAJD BTSY was luckiy enough to scoop up Owen Daniels, who has had one double digit point game this year so far, to replace him. His numbers should improve going forward since Dennis Pitta injured his hip and is probably done for the year. Daniels becomes the number one tight end on the team and a great red zone option for Joe Flacco.

MeAndJulioDown ByTheSchoolYard: add Dolphins D/ST, drop Chiefs D/ST

To complete the trio Louie made a defense swap! The Chiefs D/ST has been hurt with injuries and they yet to force a turnover this season, leading to some low weekly scores. The Dolphins, on the other hand have been more oppurtunitsic by forcing 4 turnoves in the first 3 games. To make things better for the Dolphins defense, they play the Raiders this week (the most likely reason Louie picked them up). It would not suprised if this defensive swap nets Louie somewhere in the 10-15 points range this weekend.

Smokin Blounts N Drinkin Fortes: add Dan Carpenter, drop Shayne Graham

Kicker Swap! I have no explanation for why this switch was made. Graham is not on bye and he plays for the Saints who are always going to put up points. Carpenter has had a couple of better weeks to start the year but I don't know if that was the reson for the swap. In the end it's a toss up so I decided to flip a coin, heads this was a bad move, tails it was a good move.....and its tails! Woohoo, way to go Tom, looks like you made a good move.

Show Me Them TD's: add Colts D/ST, drop Texans D/ST

This was a move I felt I had to make since the Texans D/ST got torched by the Giants last weekend. Anytime your defense get picked apart by the Giants they should be put down, so I decided to get rid of them. The Colts defense hasn't been good outside of thier big week last week agaisnt the worst team in the league, the Jaguars. However, I believe they can keep the momentum from the Jags game this week when they play at home agaisnt the Titans who haven't been very good offensivley this season. Looking ahead, the Colts play the Ravens and the Texans after the Titans so this may be a 3 week stint on my team before I find a different defense.