Since I’m releasing weekly positional rankings this season, it occurred to me that the Love ‘Em & Leave ‘Em picks were a little repetitive and lack context without discussing the player-by-player rankings as well. So going forward, I’m going to use a similar format, but I’ll often be referring to my positional rankings so that readers can get a sense of how I feel that player will perform against his peers.
It’s probably easier to dive right in than try to explain what’s bouncing around in my head. As always, I will still focus on those players that you’ll only start under certain circumstances (i.e. good matchups), so if you have a stud, just go ahead and plug them in.
Three lower-end fantasy QB1s — Matt Ryan (#7), Eli Manning (#6) and Joe Flacco (#8) — all have very nice matchups this week. I have Eli the highest because the Texans have the worst pass defense in the league and that’s the game that has the best chance at turning into a shootout. I could see the ATL/CLE and BAL/DEN games devolving into lower-scoring affairs…The Jaguars have given up 304 yards and 2.3 pass TDs per game this season, which is why I have Ryan Fitzpatrick ranked at #9. Fitzy is available in a lot of leagues, so if you need a readily available sleeper at QB, look no further…I think I’m probably higher on Kyle Orton (#11) this week than most fantasy ‘experts.’ It’s true that he has a very tough matchup, but with Knowshon Moreno still sidelined, the Broncos are going to have to spread the Ravens out and throw the ball a lot. Orton faced two pretty tough pass defenses in the last two weeks (IND and TEN) and he shredded both of them. The guy is just in a groove right now…Shaun Hill (#12) has averaged 301 yards and 1.7 TDs over the past three weeks, but the Rams are playing pretty good defense at the moment. Still, Hill has done it against three solid defenses (PHI, MIN, GB), so he should have a nice week.
