Seth Vigdor
NFL Week 7 is in the books and it was another exciting weekend around the league. The drama is starting to build as we approach the half way point of the season. I don’t want to keep you guys waiting any longer, so let’s take a look at my Week 7 review.
Five key storylines from Week 7
1. Houston, we have a problem
The season of the injury continues and this time Arian Foster has fallen victim to the injury bug. Arian Foster suffered a torn ACL on Sunday against the Dolphins. It’s another tough break for Foster, who has seen his shares of injuries over his career. Foster will be 30 prior to next season and RBs are known to go into a decline in their 30s. It’ll be interesting to see how Foster’s recovery process goes, but one thing is for certain and that is that the Texans are doomed this year.
2. Miami Muscle
The surge of the once left for dead Miami Dolphins continued this weekend when the Dolphins smashed the Texans 44-26. Led by Ryan Tannehill, Jarvis Landry, Lamar Miller and that fired up defense, they made grown ass men look like little boys. These guys are looking like a team that’s ready to make a run at the playoffs. We’ll find out if they’re ready for prime time this coming week, when they travel up to Foxboro to play the still undefeated Patriots on Thursday Night Football.
3. How ’bout them Cowboys?
I’d be a liar if I told you that I didn’t love to see the Dallas Cowboy players and their fans suffer. They’ve been on a downward spiral since the lost Tony Romo and Dez Bryant due to injuries. The Assboys lost again this week, this time to division rival the Giants 27-20. But, the main action took place on the sideline when the wife-beater and all-around douchebag, Greg Hardy got into a sideline spat with the mom-beater, Dez Bryant. Here’s how it started:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJURSpNYyF8
Does this surprise you? It doesn’t shock me. When you get a team full of degenerates together, altercations are inevitable. It’ll be interesting to see how Jerry Jones spins this to protect his criminals, I mean players. But, expect to hear a lot of words like “passionate”, “competitors”, etc… instead of hearing things like “we have released the trash that we never should’ve signed.” Either way, get your popcorn ready because things are getting juicy in Dallas.
Thank you, Jerry Jones!
4. The Colts are blowing up
Speaking of disasters, there have been leaks to the machine of the once mighty Indianapolis organization. Last week there was the worst play call ever and now comes word from ProFootballTalk that Colts Owner Jim Irsay had a heated conversation with General Manager Ryan Grigson in the team’s locker room after their latest loss to New Orleans on Sunday. This shouldn’t come as a shock because you knew that when the Colts went out and signed Frank Gore and Andre Johnson in the offseason, that if they didn’t win, people would start losing jobs. It’s been well documented how passionate Jim Irsay is and there’s no doubt in my mind that if the Colts don’t get their act together, Irsay will start to clean house. Expect new Coaches and a new General Manager in Indianapolis sooner rather than later because I don’t see this one ending well for anyone not named Jim Irsay.
5. The Steelers need Big Ben back now
The Pittsburgh Steelers are struggling big time without their leader Ben Roethlisberger. They dropped another one this weekend to the woeful Chiefs 23-13. Their offense just isn’t clicking regardless of what Schmo they throw in at quarterback. Michael Vick and Landry Jones just won’t cut it. Antonio Brown and Le’Veion Bell’s production have taken a major hit with Big Ben out. Big Ben will eye a return to the lineup in Week 8, but we’ll see if the Coaching staff allows it. Regardless, Pittsburgh isn’t doing anything positive without him. Once he gets back in the lineup, expect the offense to do big things.
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Waiver Wire Watch (*Keep an eye on, **Time to consider it, *** MUST Grab)
Each week, I will supply you with a list of players that you should consider adding from the waiver wire. Above, I listed the three tiers of players they are. So let’s take a look at the guys that you should be paying attention to. To qualify as a Waiver Wire guy, I’ll only consider those players that are owned in less than 60% of Yahoo! leagues at the time of this writing.
***Stefon Diggs (MIN– WR) – 59% owned – Stefon Diggs had 6 receptions for 108 yards and 1 touchdown against the Lions this week. That’s back to back 100+ yards receiving games for him and he’s by far the best receiver that the Vikings own. Look for him to get more balls thrown his way going forward. Diggs is a must own player now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp2Y43hWRCo
*Miami Dolphins (DEF) – 39% owned – Now that it appears that the Dolphins are getting back on track, a big part of it is their defense. Keep in mind that this week they play the Patriots, so it wouldn’t be wise not to use them. However, there aren’t too many dynamic Fantasy defenses out there this year, so I’m pretty sure they’re better than what you have currently at your defensive slot. If you have space to stash and you’ve been getting no production from your D/ST, these guys could be your savior.
**Darren McFadden (DAL – RB) – 34% owned –McFadden went off this week for 152 yards and 1 touchdown against the Giants. The Cowboys RB situation changes from week to week, but the fact that McFadden could pull off a performance like this means that he definitely needs to be monitored closely as an add.
**Alfred Blue (HOU – RB) – 14% owned – With Arian Foster done for the season with the torn ACL, the Texans need to turn to someone at the RB position. While I think that Chris Polk is the better runner, we know that the Texans coaching staff prefers Alfred Blue. Blue is what he is. He’ll suck most weeks and then go off for a monster week out of nowhere and then proceed to revert back to typical sucky Alfred Blue. He’s worth a flier though if he’s going to get a bulk of the carries in Houston for the rest of the season.
***Rishard Matthews (MIA – WR) – 59% owned – Matthews had one bad game against the Jets in London a few weeks back and a lot of people gave up hope. That was a mistake. Jarvis Landry and Rishard Matthews are ballin’ under their new head coach. While Landry is the #1 guy in Miami, Matthews will continue to get targets and he’s capable of making things happen quickly. Do me a favor and grab this guy off the wire this week if he was dropped in your league.
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Here are Week 7’s Studs:
Quarterbacks
1. Ryan Tannehill (MIA vs. HOU) – 18/19 for 282 yards and 4 touchdowns – The Dolphins are back and so is Ryan Tannehill. He only had 1 incompletion on Sunday. That’s pretty impressive.
2. Kirk Cousins (WAS vs. TB) – 33/40 for 317 yards and 3 touchdowns – Credit Tampa Bay for sucking so much for Kirk Cousins being on this list. The Redskins are awful, but they’ve managed to win a couple games in the final minutes this year. A win is a win, but my god is Cousins lucky.
3. Tom Brady (NE vs. NYJ) – 34/54 for 355 yards and 2 touchdowns – This should be no surprise that Brady is on this list again. He just gets it done every week and this time it was against a game Jets team. It’s hard to imagine any other team winning the Super Bowl this year.
Running Backs
1. Lamar Miller (MIA vs. HOU) – 14 carries, 175 yards and 1 touchdown. Miller also had 3 receptions for 61 yards and 1 receiving touchdown. He’s looking great under his new coach. Let’s see if he can keep this going.
2. Todd Gurley (STL vs. CLE) – 19 carries, 128 yards and 2 touchdowns – Gurley is feasting right now and he shows no signs of slowing down.
3. Darren McFadden (DAL vs. NYG) – 29 carries for 152 yards and 1 touchdown – I damn near had a heart attack when I saw this. I’m stunned that McFadden didn’t get injured after 1 carry. But, kudos to him for this performance. The Cowboys still lost and are still trash, but McFadden was great here.
Wide Receivers
1. T.Y. Hilton (IND vs. NO) – 4 receptions for 150 yards and 2 touchdowns – Finally! Hilton decided to show up this week and while the Colts still lost, this is certainly promising for Hilton owners.
2. Nate Washington (HOU vs. MIA) – 9 receptions for 127 yards and 2 touchdowns –This isn’t going to happen again for Washington, so get a good look at these stats and treasure it if you have Washington on your team.
3. Mike Evans (TB vs. WAS) – 8 receptions for 164 yards and 1 touchdown – Well hello there, Mr. Evans. So nice of you to decide to join us in the 2015 season. Please do this again.
Tight Ends
1. Jordan Reed (WAS vs. TB) – 11 receptions for 72 yards and 2 touchdowns – Reed was a big reason for Washington’s comeback win against Tampa Bay. He had the game winning touchdown with 24 seconds left in the game. When healthy, Reed is a big time weapon.
2. Rob Gronkowski (NE vs. NYJ) – 11 receptions for 108 yards and 1 touchdown – Another week of Gronk just being Gronk. This dude is unreal and he seems unstoppable, much like the Patriots.
3. Gary Barnidge (CLE vs. STL) – 6 receptions for 101 yards – He had 101 receiving yards against a tough Rams defense in St. Louis. If there was any questions as to whether Barnidge was legit, this should put all of those thoughts to bed.
Defense
St. Louis Rams (vs. CLE) – 4 sacks, 4 fumble recoveries and 1 touchdown – The Rams D were all over the Browns like flies on manure. The Browns had absolutely no shot.
Kickers
Blair Walsh (MIN vs. DET) – 5/5 FGM with 1 XP for 20 Fantasy points. He’s the main reason the Vikings beat the Lions and if he was on your team, you probably did very well.
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Here are Week 7’s Duds:
Quarterbacks
1. Colin Kaepernick (SF vs. SEA) –He’s baaaaccck!!!! It seems like he never left this list. Oh wait, he hasn’t. He was 13/24 for 124 yards in this week’s loss to the Seahwaks. Dude sucks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JtDMxx—4
Even the Dragonfly hates Kaepernick.
2. Matt Cassell (DAL vs. NYG) – 17/27 for 227 yards, 1 touchdown and 3 interception – Ewww!!! Without Cassell, the Cowboys could’ve won this game.
3. Eli Manning (NYG vs. DAL) – 13/24 for 170 yards and 0 touchdowns – This is two poor performances in a row for Manning and this one was against an awful Cowboys team.
Running Backs
1. Chris Ivory (NYJ vs. NE) – 17 carries for 41 yards. Sure Ivory has been killin’ it this year and sure the Jets went up against the Patriots, but the Jets might’ve won if Ivory played better.
2. Isaiah Crowell (CLE vs. STL) – 8 carries for 9 yards – Lol! How this guy was ever talked about in the Fantasy community to start the season as a potential good running back I’ll never understand. He stinks.
3. Toby Gerhart (JAX vs. BUF) – 6 carries for 8 yards and got stuffed 3 times in a row in a goal line situation from the 1 yard line. I have no clue why the Jags turned to him to rush the ball at all, let alone on the goal line three times in a row. But, that series shows how bad Toby is.
Wide Receivers
1. Odell Beckham Jr. (NYG vs. DAL) – 4 receptions for 35 yards – This can’t happen from one of the best (if not the best) receivers in the game. He’ll bounce back. Don’t worry.
2. Jordan Matthews (PHI vs. CAR) – 3 receptions for 14 yards – Why oh why can’t this man catch a ball that is thrown in his hands? Shout out to all the people that drafted him in the second or third rounds of your drafts. How are your teams doing?
3. Vincent Jackson (TB vs. WAS) – 1 reception for 13 yards – Booo!!!!! If I had a tomato, I’d throw it at him. What a joke…
Tight Ends
1. Julius Thomas (JAX vs. BUF) – 1 reception for 4 yards. Welp, this certainly isn’t a good stat line. Bortles has too much confidence in Robinson and Hurns that he’s not even paying anyone else any mind. You should know by now that this won’t be the Julius Thomas that played in Denver last year.
2. Jimmy Graham (SEA vs. SF) – 2 receptions for 31 yards – It’s a shame how misused he is in Seattle. Maybe they’ll realize that when they don’t make the playoffs.
Defense
Buffalo Bills (vs. JAX) – Gave up 34 points to the Jags in what should’ve been a gimme game for the Bills. Shame on them!
Kickers
Greg Zuerlein (STL vs. CLE) – 1/3 FGM, 3 XP’s for 4 Fantasy points. The Rams didn’t need him this week, but any other week those two missed field goals would’ve come back to hurt them. Kickers have 1 job to do and this year it seems like they can’t even do that one job.
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Plays of the Week
Jarvis Landry against the Texans:
.@God_Son80 doesn't want 13-yard grab.
He wants 50-yard TD.And he'll dance on your defense to get it. #HOUvsMIA https://t.co/jZjwrzDvRh
— NFL (@NFL) October 25, 2015
Megatron doing his thing:
3 defenders surrounding @calvinjohnsonjr.
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Of course he caught it. #AllHailMegatron #MINvsDET https://t.co/1OEoZ5vWCa
— NFL (@NFL) October 25, 2015
Lastly, here’s vintage Chris Johnson:
This is why Chris Johnson is trending.
Vintage. https://t.co/Bg9gGTw3Hq
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) October 27, 2015
Here’s a brief look at the results of Week 7 in the PhillyInfluencer.com Fantasy Football league:
I was able to get a win this week with a 117-100 win over “FeelMyBalls, Squeeze my Balls.” I improved my record to a very unimpressive 2-5. 215 Sean (@Sean_Brace) put up a valiant effort against the undefeated, twitter finger trash talker, Team Marino. The Fantasy Gods have their eyes on him and all those that like to count their chickens before they hatch. Team Marino has a showdown with Victorious Secret next week in what is sure to be a war. Meanwhile, Sean falls to 3-4 for the season. Our editor, Cunning Stunts (@nickpiccone) had a rough time this week and lost to “Luck Her Right” and Nick drops to 2-5 on the season. Our Eagles writer, Minitron’s Juice Stand (@Anthony_DiBona) got a much needed win against Chip Kelly Rejects. Minitron ups his record to 3-4.
You can stay up to date with everything Fantasy Football related by following me on Twitter (@ViggieSmalls765) and Instagram. I’ll be available on Twitter for upcoming Twitter Chats and to give out advice to help guide you through your fantasy season.