Fantasy Football 2008

So the playoff spot is 99% clinched. My oppeonent this week would need to beat me by 80 pts to get ahead of me. Anyways……. time to gear up for the final stretch!
1. I now have Rivers and Matt Ryan going ahead. week 16 SD faced TB and ATL faces MN. Should I think of picking up Thigpen at all? should I even consider 3QBs?? or just go with Matt Ryan that week?
2. Addai, Forte, Hightower and Dunn going ahead. P Thomas, D Ward and Leon are out there. Forte - must start vs MN?
3. Wayne, White and Plaxico on the squad. Chambers, Gage, Muhsin out there.
4. Winslow and Fasano are scaring me…. but Camarillo just went down so should I gamble with Fasano this week?? Z Miller, J carlson and Heath Miller are out there. tho PIT has brutal matchups.

Yes, pick up Thigpen. His matchup against Miami in week 16 is great and if you get to the finals you could absolutely be playing him over Rivers and definitely Ryan.

Bush is coming back so I wouldn’t put too much stock in Pierre Thomas. I’d pick up Leon first and then Ward. Yeah Forte is pretty much a must start vs. anyone. Especially if you are in PPR league. Also keep an eye on Hightower. If he does nothing Thanksgiving night go ahead and drop him. He won’t have enough value worth to be worth playing in the playoffs.

Remember just because you don’t necessarily need to pick someone up doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Keeping a player away from another team is just as important. Which is why you should pick up Thigpen immediately.

You probably won’t be playing anyone over Wayne or White. But Gage is worth considering as would Mark Bradley if he is available.

Yeah Winslow is scaring me too. I’m going to be sticking with him in my league unless it starts getting really ugly. He was hurt last week and if he gets healthy he’s much better than any TE you can get off the wire. I would go with Heath though if you are looking for a potential backup. Don’t be scared with the matchups for Pittsburgh. A lot of times when they face a tough defense Roethlisberger looks to him more because the stuff to Ward and Santonio is shut down.

Also I don’t know who your defense is but don’t overlook Seattle in week 15 and SF in week 16. They both play STL in those weeks and we both know what defenses do against STL. If your defense isn’t automatic each week go ahead and stash these teams for those matchups.

Available on the WW are K Walter, M Mohammed, D Mason, B Engram, D Branch, L Moore, A Toomer. Could any one of these be a worthwhile pick up to replace V Jackson?

I’d probably ride out Jackson a bit longer. He hasn’t been too terrible. But from that list I’d look at branch first and then engram if you are set on replacing Jackson.

My RBs are Addai, Forte, Larry Johnson and Chester Taylor. I could pick up McClain for V Jackson and trade him and one of my recievers to a guy who needs RBs but has Jennings as a #3 on his bench. M Bush is out there too.

If you can get that Jennings trade to go through you have to make that trade. Regardless RB depth is always a good thing to have. Vincent Jackson is never going to get you too much from production or trade value but McClain has a ton of potential. So make that McClain pickup for Jackson.

Winslow is on bye… Carlson, Fasano, K Boss, Rosario and Shianco are available…. I just need someone for the bye week and then i could get back to Winslow. Any thoughts?

Carlson against the Giants then Fasano against SD would be the two best options to replace Winslow during his bye.

This week’s mailbag question features a waiver wire no brainer.

Ok, so heres my team:

Another guy in the league just dropped Santonio Holmes for E Royal! Should I pounce on Holmes …. or is there a reason he was dropped that i don’t know about. Is it the tough matchups that PIT has this season… or could it be just a first game disappointment. Just not exactly sure why he could’ve been dropped the 1st week, any ideas on what i should do? He might not be on the waiver wire for too long! (KB)

Add Santonio Holmes immediately. Talk about an overreaction drop. Once Brandon Marshall comes back Royal won’t get the same number of looks. But as for Holmes he is the Steelers main deep threat. I doubt whoever dropped him was looking at the Steelers extremely tough schedule but regardless he is still going to get plenty of looks. Sure he’ll have a few more games like last week but mostly because the Steelers will be dominating the game. Roethlisberger only threw the ball 14 times and completed 13 of them. They controlled the game with Willie Parker and looked mostly over the middle for Heath Miller and Hines Ward. It was just one of those weeks. There is no need to worry about Santonio Holmes going forward.

Not sure how your waiver wire works but you should look to add Santonio Holmes for his nice matchup against the Browns this week. If you were offered Santonio Holmes for Joey Galloway or even Roddy White you would accept that in about a nanosecond. So make this pickup as soon as possible.

Now that I drafted who do you like as immediate waiver wire pickups? (Sean - Jersey City, NJ)

A few names jump to mind. With Chris Brown out for the year in Houston, Steve Slaton moves up the depth chart and has fantasy relevance. The other three guys I’d keep an eye on were mentioned in our sleeper picks. Zach Miller (OAK, TE) might have been drafted in your league but if not and you are scraping the middle tier of TEs keep the trigger finger ready on him. Also Tim Hightower (ARI, RB) and Jason Wright (CLE, RB) are certainly worth a stash on your bench. Especially Hightower, since Edgerrin James is on the decline in Arizona and he should be getting some goal line looks.

Should I start Selvin Young against Oakland or Edgerrin James against SF in week 1? (Brad - Pittsburgh, PA)

I’m hoping this is not a question about your #1 RB spot. If it is, well, next year stay away from the Iron City while drafting. To answer your question though they both have remarkably similar situations going into the week. Both figure to not get goal line looks and both are going against mediocre defenses. That said Selvin Young is the better bet to break off a long TD run and really deliver something meaningful for you in week 1.

Thanks to all those who sent us their questions. If you have more questions, send them to fantasy@sportsoverdose.com and we will either send a direct response or post the answer in our next mailbag.

We are a relatively new site but our fantasy rankings and other articles are creating a buzz so we figured why not open our experts up to everyone. With that said, any fantasy issue you might have whether it be who to draft, who to start in week 5 or which guy to kick out of your league let us know. fantasy@sportsoverdose.com is the place to send any of these burning questions. We will either send a direct response or post the answer in our mailbag.

Sincerely,

Scott
SportsOverdose Fantasy Writer