Week 8 Musings

It's looking like the miserable Chiefs may be bringing in Daunte Culpepper for a tryout. He can't possibly be worse than Tyler Thigpen, and would provide some needed QB depth with the season ending injury of Brodie Croyle. Gonzalez and Bowe keep producing steady low end starter numbers despite the merry go round at the quarterback position. LJ is potentially facing a suspension which will weaken the already crumbling offense. If you own Bowe I would hold him, but I would recommend dumping any other KC players you can get value for. Jamaal Charles is also worth holding as a long term prospect since he is worth little in trade. 

As I wrote last week, Mewelde Moore was a more than adequate fill in for FWP and managed to rack up 134 total yards and 3 TDs. I hope you started him! Parker may be back in a limited role this week but you can probably squeek one more successful start out of Moore. 

Colston was terrible in his first game back, but I expect that was mostly due to a lack of practice. I doubt he will have as much trouble this week against the Chargers. All you Lance Moore fanatics can crawl back into your hole now that Colston has returned. Moore is once again a poor flex play and barely adequate as bye week filler. The long term prospect to hold in this offense is Robert Meachem, the talented first rounder who is slowly progressing this year in his first season of play (he was injured all last year). 

Matt Jones has been suspended for three games, so if you are desperate for WR help you can see if Jerry Porter is available in your league (he should be) and use him for the next few games. He should see enough looks to be relevant until Jones returns. 

Vernon Davis was back to his typical one catch ways this week for SF, but the story was rookie Josh Morgan returning to the starting lineup fully recovered from his viral illness that caused him to lose 20 pounds early in the season. He looked great and could be an important physical downfield threat for the niners. Grab him and stash him if he is available. Or grab him and slot him in your lineup to cover week 8 bye troubles (as I did); He should be instantly productive. 

Pierre Thomas is the obvious pickup now that Reggie Bush is out for a month. Aaron Stecker will get some carries, but Thomas is the more versatile and talented back. I'm sure the Saints staff will use this period as another window to see what Thomas is capable of. Expect a 50/40/10% carry split between McCallister/Thomas/Stecker in coming weeks. 

With Maroney on IR see what you can do to acquire Sammy Morris. He will be a great RB2 through the rest of the season. He runs with great power and hits the hole hard every time. He rarely gets tackled for negative yardage. 

Don't get excited by Lendale White's 80 yard TD run. He is still fat and slow. In fact, the run was such a surprise that his coach commented after the game: "He must have had a salad last night for dinner." Lendale will remain a good flex play due to the strength of the Titans running game this year and his penchant for short yardage TDs. Chris Johnson also had an excellent day and routinely ripped off 10+ yard runs and capped them with a 66 yard TD scamper. Johnson remains a high end RB2 with upside. 

As I suspected, the Dolphins wildcat formation was shut down by the Ravens solid defense. Pennington had a good day throwing for almost 300 yards and adding a TD. The Dolphins face Buffalo this week and I would expect similar results from both the running and passing game of the Dolphins. Start Pennington if you need a filler QB for the week. 

Calvin Johnson had a nice game in fantasy numbers, but the disturbingly low catch total (2) should have owners worried with his production capacity under Orlovsky. I would keep expectations low as long as Orlovsky is the QB.