Fantasy Football Fix September 8th 2010
Coach Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers has stated that he will take it easy and be mindful not to overwork Rashard Mendehall much like he may have done to Willie Parker in 2007 when he said he would run FWP until the wheels fell off….they did, on FWP’s 321st carry of the season. With Issac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer in the mix to steal some touches Tomlin will make sure he keeps Mendenhall fresh enough to be available for the entire season and hopefully the playoffs. This news puts a dent in Rashard Mendenhall’s fantasy value coming on the heels of Issac Redman being named the short-yardage back. Mendenhall is still an RB1 but you need to pair him with another RB1 to mitigate your risk.
Questions still remain about the health of Maurice Jones-Drew’s knee and fantasy owners should have handcuffed Rashard Jennings if they have MJD on their roster. MJD has been falling in recent drafts but remains one of the best bets for monstrous fantasy production in all of football. The good news here is MJD himself said there is no issue with his knee, and that’s who we should be relying on for information.
Louis Murphy has been predicted by Jerry McDonald of the Oakland Tribune to lead the Raiders in receiving yards and TD’s this season as the teams primary vertical threat. Jason Campbell commented that Murphy is the real deal as a deep threat and that is all we needed to hear to put him on all of our deeper rosters. We agree with McDonald and expect Murphy to surpass 900 yards receiving.
Jeff Fisher has no plans to ease Chris Johnson’s workload and will try to involve him in as many plays as the defense allows. This is good news for fantasy owners who spent the #1 overall pick on Chris Johnson in their drafts as CJ2K will be let loose. Lets all hope Chris Johnson can reach his stated goal of 2,500 rushing yards this season.
The St. Petersburg times points out that the additions of LeGarette Blount and Kregg Lumpkin are indicators that the Bucs would not be fully comfortable with Kareem Huggins as their feature back despite his preseason hype. If Caddy goes down we will like see a rotation of backs led by Kareem Huggins with Blount and Lumpkin providing the short-yardage roles and keeping Huggins fresh.
Kenny Britt claims that he has received coach Jeff Fishers wake-up call and we still like Britt the most out of any Titans receiver for fantasy purposes as he has 1000 yard and 6+ TD upside on a yearly basis. Britt is a flex option until further notice, but his upside is too high to ignore. Britt is a serious buy-low candidate.
Dustin Keller is expected to be the main beneficiary of the Jets revamped offense that now includes LaDanian Tomlinson, Santonio Holmes, Bimbo Coles and last season’s late addition Braylon Edwards. Keller will see plenty of linebacker coverage and will likely be able to torch them on a nightly basis. Keller is a fine low-end TE1.
Antwaan Randle El will be the Steelers emergency third QB on Sunday. Not really fantasy relevant at either position, but the Steelers WR3 just got a little more interesting for this weeks tilt.
