Week 13 Player Rankings - UPDATED 11/26/08

QB

1. Tony Romo

2. Kurt Warner

3. Peyton Manning (more…)

Week 12 Player Rankings

QB

1. Peyton Manning

2. Kurt Warner

3. Aaron Rodgers

4. Drew Brees

5. Tony Romo

6. Jay Cutler (more…)

Week 15 Player Rankings - UPDATED 12/10/08

QB

1. Peyton Manning vs Detroit

2. Aaron Rodgers @ Jacksonville

3. Kurt Warner vs Minnesota

4. Tony Romo vs Giants

5. Drew Brees @ Chicago

6. Philip Rivers @ Kansas City

7. Tyler Thigpen vs San Diego

8. Donovan McNabb vs Cleveland

9. Jay Cutler @ Carolina

10. Matt Ryan vs Tampa Bay

11. Jeff Garcia @ Atlanta

12. Eli Mannings @ Dallas

13. Matt Cassel @ Oakland

14. Brett Favre vs Buffalo

15. Jake Delhomme vs Denver

16. Jason Campbell @ Cincinnati

17. Shaun Hill @ Miami

18. Matt Schaub vs Tennessee

19. David Gerrard vs Green Bay

20. Kyle Orton vs New Orleans

Matt Cassel can lick my balls: That is just what I felt like titling this week’s QB notes column. I wish he would have returned to the Cassel of old last week and thrown for 400 yards. He probably will this week now that I am not playing him. Lots of things to consider this week such as weather. I still like Drew Brees at Chicago. He played Chicago last year around this time in similar conditions and still threw 2 TD’s. They have so many weapons I don’t think the weather will affect him as much. Keep an eye on weather in Philadelphia to see if you want to play McNabb. I am actually traveling there tomorrow and it said rainy/snowy/windy all weekend. I don’t really like Jay Cutler this week vs Carolina. Too inconsistent.

RUNNING BACKS

1. Brian Westbrook vs Cleveland

2. DeAngelo Williams vs Denver

3. Matt Forte vs New Orleans

4. Adrian Peterson vs Arizona

5. Thomas Jones vs Buffalo

6. LaDainian Tomlinson @ Kansas City

7. Michael Turner vs Tampa Bay

8. Steven Jackson vs Seattle

9. Chris Johnson @ Houston

10. Steve Slaton vs Tennessee

11. Ronnie Brown vs San Francisco

12. Clinton Portis @ Cincinnati

13. Maurice Jones-Drew vs Green Bay

14. Ryan Grant @ Jacksonville

15. Joseph Addai vs Detroit

16. Pierre Thomas @ Chicago

17. Marion Barber vs Giants

18. Larry Johnson vs San Diego

19. Reggie Bush @ Chicago

20. Marshawn Lynch @ Jets

21. Jamal Lewis @ Philadelphia

22. Jonathan Stewart vs Denver

23. Dominic Rhodes vs Detroit

24. LenDale White @ Houston

25. Derrick Ward @ Dallas

The Packers and the Jaguars suck this year: That makes me sad. A lot of good matchups for runningbacks this week leads me to believe there are going to be some very high scores in your leagues this week. A few uncertainties at RB this week as well. Brandon Jacobs is banged up and might not play against Dallas. If he doesn’t I really like Derrick Ward. I like Derrick Ward anyways. I did not include Jacobs on the list because he might not play. Frank Gore is also not on the list because he is banged up. Even if he does play I do not like him because Miami has a tough run defense and he would not be playing at 100%. Deshaun Foster will see a lot of action but….he is not good. Dominic Rhodes makes an appearance because he is stealing time from the big disappointment that is Joeseph Addai. Marion Barber is in the middle of the pack because I am not sure if he will play….but I think he will.

WIDE RECEIVERS

1. Anquan Boldin vs Minnesota

2. Larry Fitzgerald vs Minnesota

3. Steve Smith vs Denver

4. Terrell Owens vs Giants

5. Greg Jennings @ Jacksonville

6. Roddy White vs Tampa Bay

7. Reggie Wayne vs Detroit

8. Andre Johnson vs Tennessee

9. Calvin Johnson @ Indianapolis

10. Brandon Marshall @ Carolina

11. Antonio Bryant @ Atlants

12. Dwayne Bowe vs San Diego

13. T.J Houshmanzadeh vs Washington

14. Lee Evans @ Jets

15. Amani Toomer @ Dallas

16. Wes Welker @ Oakland

17. Eddie Royal @ Carolina

18. Randy Moss @ Oakland

19. Marques Colston @ Chicago

20.Vincent Jackson @ Kansas City

21.Donald Driver @ Jacksonville

22. Santana Moss @ Cincinnati

The Week of the Running Back: Some tougher matchups for the WR’s this week than for the RB’s. Plus the poor weather benefits the RB’s and hurts the WR’s value. I like Dwayne Bowe a lot this week. I think it has a lot to do with Thigpen being on fire (except for last week, sort of). Can Vincent Jackson repeat his performance last week? Probably not but he should still have a nice game. Be sure that the Falcons will be conentrating on Antonio Bryant this week but he will still get his yards. I hope the Jets lose and Cotchery and Coles do nothing.

TIGHT ENDS

1. Tony Gonzalez vs San Diego

2. Dallas Clark vs Detroit

3. Jason Witten vs Giants

4. Antonio Gates @ Kansas City

5. John Carlson @ St Louis

6. Chris Cooley @ Cincinnati

7. Kevin Boss @ Dallas

8. Zach Miller vs New England

9. Dustin Keller vs Buffalo

10. Owen Daniels vs Tennessee

11. Bo Scaife @ Houston

12. Visanthe Shiancoe @ Arizona

Awesome: Visanthe Shiancoe makes the list only because he forgot (or didnt forget) to cover himself up on a live fox broacast in the locker room. That’s all I really have to say about this category.

DEFENSE

1. Baltimore vs Pitt

2. Philadelphia vs Cleveland

3. Pittsburgh @ Baltimore

4. Indianapolis vs Detroit

5. Tennessee @ Houston

6. New England @ Oakland

7. Giants @ Dallas

8. Washington @ Cincinnati

9. Miami vs San Francisco

10. Carolina vs Denver

11. Oakland vs New England

12. Jets vs Buffalo

13. San Diego @ Kansas City

14. Seattle @ St Louis

Believe me: Don’t think about playing your Seattle Defense over your Giants Defense this week. Dallas may score points but the Giants have a play-making defense that gets sacks and is capable of scoring touchdowns. If Seattle holds the Rams to 7 points you dont get nearly as many fantasy points if the Cowboys were to put up 28 on the Giants but force 3 turnovers and get 3 sacks. A soft opponent is always good, unless its a mediocre/bad defense going up against them.

Keep asking Mike those kicker questions, he loves them.

Questions/Comments on the rankings? Disagree? Did I knock you out of the playoffs? jon@rotodorks.com and I will tell you how wrong you are.

Many of the superstars actually lived up to expectations this weekend but there were still those who definitely failed to impress.

SUCK LIST

Tony Romo - Caught a lot of flack for ranking him 10th among QB’s this week but Sunday evening you saw exactly why. It will take him a game or two to get back into the swing of things but 198 yards 1 TD and 2 INT’s did not help you at all if you started him. He probably read Mike’s Haterade article before kickoff and got super nervous. That’s it.

Chad Pennington/Matt Ryan - Whatever happened to the studs who had pleasantly surprised the last few weeks? 6 points from Pennington and 9 from Ryan in standard leagues? I would be lying if I said we weren’t expecting much more from them against sub par defenses. They probably forgot to read everything I have written about how talented and great they are. A-Holes.

Tim Hightower - I told you all week that the way to beat Seattle was through the air and not to expect much from Hightower…so I can’t say this was completely unexpected.

Clinton Portis - Was doubtful all week and ended up playing, sort of. 68 yards…thats it. If you sat him and played Betts you lost out…and if you played Portis you lost out also. You basically lost if you had anything to do with Portis this weekend.

Willis McGahee - Ankler injury kept him out of the game as did the Giants destroying all hopes for a Baltimore rushing game by creating a huge first half lead. Check his status this week to see if he will play.

Brian Westbrook - I was thinking all week how unfair it was that Andy Reid’s job might be in trouble…..but then he only hands the ball to Westbrook 14 times….and gets him 3 receptions. McNabb threw 58 times. It is not like they were down by a lot and needed to throw the ball to catch up. Westbrook is by far the best person on this Eagles team. Pretty speechless about this one.

Marques Colston/Kevin Boss/Muhsin Muhammad - Only because I highly recommended all three of these guys all weekend, and during the chat….and they stunk it up. I will take the blame for this one.

Terrell Owens / Jason Witten - Next week they should finally have their big games but you were warned about Romo this past weekend….

Jake Delhomme/Steve Smith - I think Jake might be shaving points….how is he this bad all of the sudden? Personal problems? Wife not putting out? They played Detroit of all teams.

Adrian Peterson - Not that 85 yards is terrible….but c’mon guy you set the bar pretty high for yourself last week with 190+.

Antonio Gates - 10 yards. Nice job, buddy.

NOT SUCK LIST

Kurt Warner/Anquan Boldin/Larry Fitzgerald - Not gunna say it again…..you already know.

Matt Cassel - Ok so I should not be a weatherman….it didn’t rain as much as I thought it would but you can’t seriously think this will happen again. Or will it? No, it won’t.

Tyler Thigpen - I love this guy. Who would have thought? Continues being a top 5 fantasy QB over the last 6 weeks.

Shaun Hill - Niners might have something here….probably not but he is a good play depending on the match up.

DeAngelo Williams - What is more impressive than 120 yards rushing and 2 TD’s is that he managed to do it when Jonathan Stewart had a great game as well. DeAngelo is still the guy you want in this backfield.

Marion Barber - Actually received a few questions during the Last Minute Advice Chat (right here every Sunday before the first round of games) on whether people should start Marion Barber because of the match up. Barber should always be started. No excuses. He delivered and kept the Cowboys relevant for another week.

Maurice Jones-Drew - 93 all purpose yards and 2 TDs is great vs a Tennessee D that has been very stingy YTD. He gets all the goaline carries. Fred Taylor is droppable in most leagues.

Joseph Addai - I guess he still is alive.

Peyton Hillis - Productive game from this guy and got both the goal line carries but who knows what will happen next week after Tatum Bell gets in game shape.

In conclusion, since I have hated so hard on Braylon Edwards this week I am pretty sure he will most likely break out with one of those 7 catch 120 yard games and a TD, oh….especially since if he does that I will take a loss in a very important league. How about a Haterade article on him, Mike?

Week 11 Player Rankings

QB

1. Kurt Warner

2. Drew Brees

3. Peyton Manning

4. Matt Ryan - Last 4 games has had 21, 20, 19, 18 fantasy points. This week he gets Denver.

5. Donovan McNabb

6. Jay Cutler

7. Tyler Thigpen - More fantasy points than any other QB the last 3 weeks.

8. Jake Delhomme - Rebound game.

9. Aaron Rodgers

10. Tony Romo - Would be higher but play it safe until we see how healthy he is.

NOT MAKING THE CUT: Philip Rivers - West Coast team traveling cross country, tough Pitt D…don’t expect big things. Ben Roethlisberger - Practiced in full Thursday but I’m not comfortable with him. Brett Favre - Suppose to pour rain tonight in New England. Not good news for the passing game.

RUNNING BACKS

1. Frank Gore

2. Brian Westbrook (more…)