In most standard leagues Week 13 marks the end of the fantasy football regular season. If your league championship goes into Week 17, lead a mutiny and have your commissioner removed next year. The last week of meaningful football is Week 16, everyone with half a brain knows that.
If you were on the fence going into this week, these are the players who could have put you over the hump:
Week 13 Fantasy Studs:
1. Cam Newton QB CAR 204 passing/1 TD/0 INT/54 rushing/3 TD/1 rec/27 receiving, now THAT is stuffing the stat sheet
2. Percy Harvin WR MIN 175 total yards/8 rec/2 TD
3. Shonn Greene RB NYJ 114 total yards/3 TD
4. Pierre Garcon WR IND 9 rec/150 yards/2 TD
5. Chris Johnson RB TEN 157 total yards/2 TD, way to wait til the end of the season to show up.
6. Ray Rice RB BAL 214 total yards/1 TD, one of the few players to truly live up to their draft position
7. Demaryius Thomas WR DEN 4 rec/144 yards/2 TD, one week its Decker WR DEN the next its Thomas
8. Aaron Rodgers QB GB 369 passing/4 TD/1 INT/32 rushing, the guy who had Rodgers missed the playoffs, most likely because he had Hillis RB CLE
9. Rob Gronkowski TE NE 66 total yards/1 rushing TD/2 rec TD
10. Marshawn Lynch RB SEA 148 rushing/2 TDs and the highlight of the week featuring skittles
The run by Lynch was great, but the fact that he scarfed down a handful of skittles afterwards was the icing on the cake. Taste the rainbow.
There were plenty of players who broke hearts this week. If you needed a big week out of Josh Freeman QB TB, too bad. Guy didn’t even suit up. Here are some players who did make it on the field this weekend but had less than stellar outings (hint, think Chicago):
Week 13 Fantasy Duds:
1. Caleb Hanie QB CHI 133 passing/3 INT/0 TD, making Jay Cutler QB CHI look like an all-pro.
2. Matt Forte RB CHI 12 total yards and a sprained MCL. out 2-6 weeks aka the fantasy playoffs.
3. LeGarrette Blount RB TB 19 total yards, and to think this guy went as high as the 2nd round in some leagues.
4. Joe Flacco QB BAL 158 passing/0 TD/1 FL
5. Michael Turner RB ATL 44 rushing
6. Brandon Lloyd WR STL 1 rec/34 yards
7. Matt Hasselbeck QB TEN 140 passing/0 TD/0 INT
8. Steven Jackson RB STL 30 total yards
9. Steve Smith WR CAR 2 rec/32 yards, first game where Cam shines and Smith doesn’t
10. DeSean Jackson WR PHI 4 rec/39 total yards, I expected about 2.5x the production out of Jackson this year. What a disappointment.
With a few injuries be active on the waiver wire. You don’t want to blow your first round game because you were caught sleeping.
Must Add: Marion Barber RB CHI, Malcom Floyd WR SD, Demaryius Thomas WR DEN, Michael Crabtree WR SF, Dexter McCluster RB KC, Kahlil Bell RB CHI
Must Drop: Sidney Rice WR SEA, Jahvid Best RB DET, Chris Ogbonnaya RB CLE
Keep an Eye on: Matt Forte RB CHI (they might rush him back, but who knows)
There will be no BUY, SELL, HOLD this week. Instead I bring you Hook’s 2011 Fantasy First Team and Fantasy Worst Team.
Fantasy First Team
QB: Aaron Rodgers GB/Cam Newton CAR
RB1: LeSean McCoy PHI
RB2: Ray Rice BAL
WR1: Calvin Johnson DET
WR2: Wes Welker NE
WR3: Jordy Nelson GB
TE: Rob Gronkowski NE
Flex: Arian Foster HOU
K: David Akers SF
DEF: BAL
MVP: Aaron Rodgers GB
Worst Team:
QB: Michael Vick PHI
RB1: Peyton Hillis CLE
RB2: Felix Jones DAL
WR1: Chad Ochocinco NE
WR2: DeSean Jackson PHI
WR3: Andre Johnson HOU (underwhelming even when healthy this year)
TE: Marcedes Lewis JAX
Flex: Miles Austin DAL
K: Josh Brown STL
DEF: IND
LVP: Peyton Hillis CLE, Madden curse strikes again
The First Team is full of studs who rose to Fantasy Football glory. Jordy Nelson got a huge bump over some other players due to his low fantasy draft position. While Rodgers accounts for more fantasy points than Newton, based on his fantasy draft position and production I simply couldn’t leave him off the list.
I really wanted to put LeGarrett Blount on the worst team but he just missed the cut. If you were unfortunate to draft some of these players, you probably lost your league. I omitted players who were injured in the first couple of weeks, although they surely had negative affects on your season (Britt WR TEN, Charles RB KC to name a few).
Going into the playoffs be sure to check your lineups before gametime. Good Luck.
