Every Sunday morning, fantasy owners face similar choices to the ones “dating” app users do on Saturday night. When faced with lots of options, do you want to swipe left and pass on potential opportunity or do you want to swipe right and open the door for exciting possibilities? Each week, we’ll talk about specific players and what you should do with them (particularly when setting your daily fantasy lineups). (You can check out daily fantasy here and here.)
Swipe Left
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Carson Palmer
Carson Palmer has been an excellent source of relatively low-cost fantasy production for most of the season, rewarding the clinically insane people who had full faith in him despite an up and down career. Somehow he’s straightened out the roller coaster, and been remarkably consistent this year. He’s scored at least 16 points in every game, something that not even Aaron Rodgers, Cam Newton or Drew Brees can claim. That mark is in jeopardy this week though, as he visits Seattle to face a defense that has held half of opposing quarterbacks under 9 fantasy points. Palmer’s excellent season has steadily driven his price tag up. Given his match-up this week, it’s too much money to risk.
Read More: Situation Impossible: Replacing Jonathan Hankins
LeSean McCoy
McCoy may have had a big game last week, but his chances of repeating it are both slim and shady. He has to play on Thursday night, where games are understandably sloppier due to lack of prep and recovery time. But even if he had 40 days to get ready for the Jets instead of four, he’d struggle to solve a rush defense that has allowed only one TD this year. Finally, Karlos Williams will continue to cut into his touches, as he makes a strong case for a bigger share of the offense seemingly every time he gets the ball. Add it all together and I’d much rather have cheaper options such as Lamar Miller, Darren McFadden and James Starks in my lineup this week.
Jason Witten
Along with the look on Andy Reid’s face when there is less than two minutes left, Jason Witten’s price tag remains one of the most confusing things in all of football. He hasn’t scored since week 1 and he hasn’t broken 75 yards the entire season. Yet he’s still one of the five most expensive options at the position. Perhaps he’ll justify the price when Tony Romo comes back, but until then, it’s like walking into a Best Buy and reaching over all the cheap Blu-ray players to pick up a similarly priced VCR. No thank you.
Swipe Right
Blake Bortles
This is a phrase that I had to turn off auto-correct to complete, but it’s time we take Blake Bortles seriously. You won’t see him on commercials any time soon, but he’s got a penchant for big plays as he’s shown excellent rapport with his receivers on deep balls, and he’s even a threat to break off a 20 yard run at any time. After torching a really tough Jets defense for 381 yards last week, he’s now averaging the 6th most points per week among fantasy quarterbacks. He’s been particularly good on the road, where he puts up over 300 yards and two scores a week. Now he gets to go into Baltimore to face a Ravens defense that is near the bottom of the league in pass defense. At just $5,600, he certainly offers the most bang for the buck at QB this week.
This week, give your fake money to real American LeGarrette Blount. Photo by Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports.
LeGarrette Blount
The injury to Dion Lewis was a big blow to the championship hopes of both the Patriots and his fantasy owners, but LeGarrette Blount stands to benefit. It’s always possible Bill Belichick walks into an Apple store this week and decides to turn one of the geniuses there into a Pro Bowl running back, but until then, Blount should receive the majority of the backfield action for the game’s best offense. They called his number 29 times last week, and while that number may go down a little bit, the Pats are going to need to run the ball to keep the Giants pass rush at bay. It’s probably your last chance to get Blount for less than $5,000, so I’d roll with him this week.
Jordan Reed
The team in Washington may be a perpetual dumpster fire, but Jordan Reed continues to burn bright. Two weeks ago, Reed put up a monster 11 catch, two TD line and followed it up with another score against the Pats last week. Sure, it might have been in garbage time, but that’s where the Redskins have the advantage of experience. Kirk Cousins leans heavily on Reed, as he’s second on the team in targets despite missing two games, and Cousins should look his way plenty this week against a Saints team that regularly struggles to contain tight ends. Reed is now averaging essentially the same number of points per game as Greg Olson, but costs a whopping $1,700 less. It’s fair to say that Cousins likes that and you should too.
