Your Week 6 Fantasy Football Review

Week 6 in the NFL has come and gone. We saw one huge upset, while we saw more injuries and truly sloppy football all across the board. In fact, if you want to take a look at how not to play real football, I suggest that you catch a replay of the Eagles-Giants game. Not good. Let’s take a look back at Week 6.

Five key storylines from Week 6:

1. Did anyone in Denver order noodles?

The Broncos offense should buy their defense whatever the hell they want, because we are truly witnessing the decline of Peyton Manning. He’s throwing some very ugly duck balls this year with his noodle arm and while the Broncos managed to beat the Browns in overtime this week, 26-23, to remain undefeated, it was in spite of Manning. Besides one big-time touchdown pass from the future Hall of Famer to Emmanuel Sanders, he also threw three interceptions and just looks very un-Peyton-like. It appears that father time has caught up with one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.

2. The Falcons go down

The Atlanta Falcons lost their first game this year on Thursday Night Football against the Saints, 31-21. TNF games are very dangerous for certain reasons, and the Falcons learned that first-hand. Teams coming off of short weeks have less time to prepare for the games, hence why the games are generally so sloppy from both teams. The only real positive for the Falcons this week was the continued success of DeVonta Freeman. Freeman is one of the top backs in the game at this point and while I’m not certain that he keeps it up, it’s certainly promising for this Falcons team who came into this season with a giant question mark at that position. It’ll be interesting to see how the Falcons respond to this loss.

Unemployment Road Sign with Dramatic Clouds and Sky. — Unemployment Road Sign

3. Fire him now! Not sure who I’m talking about? Here’s a clue…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrtzpdH_uPM

What in the blue hell was that? I’ll answer that for you. Besides the dumbest play call in NFL history (you’re off the hook now Pete Carroll), that was a play call of a man that knows he’s a dead man walking. There are many ways to examine that play, but it’s clear to me that Colts head coach, Chuck Pagano sees the writing on the wall in Indianapolis. The Colts haven’t been very Colts-like this year and that’s mainly due to the poor play of their stars like Andrew Luck, T.Y. Hilton, Frank Gore and Andre Johnson. When the Colts went out and signed Gore and Johnson in the offseason, expectations for this team went through the roof coming off their trip to the AFC Championship game. Unfortunately, when expectations are that high and your team doesn’t play well, jobs will no doubt be on the chopping block. There have certainly been some grumblings about Pagano’s job status early on, so this certainly won’t help. And that brings us back to this stupid play call. The Patriots were only winning 27-21 at the point that this play was called. You can debate whether the snapper should’ve snapped the ball all you want, the head coach should’ve never ever allowed this foolishness of a play to be set up on the field. So, either Pagano is dumb as dog poo (which I don’t think is the case) or he sees the light at the end of the tunnel, which if that’s the case, put this man and the Colts fan base out of their misery.

Twitter strikes again…

4. The Fantastic Five

The five remaining unbeaten teams in the NFL are: New England, Denver, Cincinnati, Green Bay and Carolina. How each of these teams have gotten to this point is completely different from one another, but the target on each team’s back will only continue to get larger. Clearly at this point of the season, none of these teams can be taken as a joke, but who is the realest of the real? All of these teams with the exception of the Patriots have flaws that jump out at you. However, the Patriots will have a huge test this week when the 4-1 Jets travel to Foxboro to play them. The stakes are getting higher for these teams as the season progresses, so stay tuned to see which team is exactly the best of the best.

5. Do the Eagles need a QB change?

Miraculously enough, the Philadelphia Eagles are now in first place in the terrible NFC East. If anybody watched the game against the Giants, you were a witness to a poorly played game by both teams. However, it’s clear to me that the Eagles have an issue at the QB position. Coming into the game against the Giants, Sam Bradford had thrown for eight touchdowns and six interceptions. Against the Giants, he threw one touchdown, while throwing three interceptions. He’s killing me! His judgment has been poor as he’s throwing these interceptions at the worst possible times. He’s a drive killer and if not for the Eagles defense bailing him out seemingly each week, there’s no chance they’d be 3-3 right now. We know what Mark Sanchez is and we know that the Eagles won’t win a Superbowl with him as their QB, but he also appears to be a better game manager than Bradford. The Eagles could easily be at least 5-1, so I don’t think the question of who should be the Eagles QB is an out-of-bounds question to ask.

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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.

***James Starks (GB – RB) – 20% owned – Starks had 10 carries for 112 yards, 1 rushing touchdown and 1 receiving touchdown against the Chargers. Eddie Lacy has gotten off to another poor start this season, so it would be wise to jump on Starks this week just in case Lacy doesn’t turn things around.

**Christine Michael (DAL – RB) – 39% owned – The Cowboys are struggling big time without Tony Romo and Dez Bryant. Michael, who was recently acquired from Seattle has been getting first team reps in practice and it appears there may be a huge RB shakeup happening in Dallas. I expect at the very least a time share with Michael and Randle, but Michael is the most talented back in Dallas. The ceiling could be the highest for Michael, so if you have a roster spot to play with, grab Michael before it’s too late.

*Benjamin Watson (NO – TE) – 10% owned – Watson was a huge reason the Saints upset the Falcons. There aren’t many TE’s performing at a high level this year, so if you’re hurting at the position, you may want to take a flier on him.

*Brian Hoyer (HOU – QB) – 7% owned – If you need a bye-week fill in, take a look at Houston’s Brian Hoyer. Now that Arian Foster is back, it helps take pressure off of any QB that Houston throws on the field, but Hoyer is proving himself to be up to the task of starting QB. He was 24/36 for 293 yards, 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions in the Texans 31-20 win over the Jags this week. You could do a whole lot worse.

*Stefon Diggs (MIN– WR) – 7% owned – The Vikings are hurting big time at the WR position. Charles Johnson has a rib injury, while Mike Wallace’s knees are in pain. Regardless of whether either of those players misses time, Diggs should see lots of action. He had 7 receptions for 129 yards against the Chiefs, so look for him to be sprinkled into the Vikings O a bit more each week.

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Here are Week 6’s Studs:

Quarterbacks

(Photo: Wm. Glasheen/P-C Media/@WmGlasheen)

1. Philip Rivers (SD vs. GB) – 43/65, 503 yards and 2 touchdowns – Another big time game from Rivers in a game that the Chargers just felt just short of upsetting the undefeated Packers. Rivers is locked in right now as one of the top Fantasy QB’s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03f7biwDrhU

2. Matthew Stafford (DET vs. CHI) – 27/42 for 405 yards and 4 touchdowns – The Lions won their first game against the Bears this week and Stafford looked pretty good. As much as I rip him, I can give credit when credit is due.

3. Tom Brady (NE vs. IND) – 23/37 for 312 yards and 3 touchdowns – Brady just makes it look too easy. This dude is nice!

Running Backs

1. Jonathan Stewart (CAR vs. SEA) – 20 carries for 78 yards and 2 touchdowns – Stewart led the way in the Panthers come from behind win against the Seahawks. Props to him for a big time performance against a solid defense.

2. Chris Ivory (NYJ vs. WAS) – 20 carries for 146 yards and 1 touchdown – Ivory is a top 5 back this year so far and he looked like it again this week against Washington.

3. DeVonta Freeman (ATL vs NO) – 13 carries for 100 yards and 1 touchdown – Is he the real deal? He may very well be. He’s proving me wrong.

Wide Receivers

(Photo: Jason Bridge, Jason Bridge-USA TODAY Sports)

1. John Brown (ARI vs. PIT) – 10 receptions for 196 yards – Brown is starting to prove why he was a sleeper this year in many Fantasy circles. I have news for you. He’s just getting started.

2. DeAndre Hopkins (HOU vs. JAX) – 10 receptions for 148 yards and 2 touchdowns – He’s on this list every week now. He can’t be stopped! The hype for him was legit.

3. Calvin Johnson (DET vs. CHI) – 6 receptions for 166 yards and 1 touchdown – This was the Megatron that we know and love. Let’s see if this helps him get out of the funk that he’s been in.

Tight Ends

1. Benjamin Watson (NO vs. ATL) – 10 receptions for 127 yards and 1 touchdown – Big time game for Watson on TNF and he seems to be gaining the trust of Drew Brees.

2. Jimmy Graham (SEA vs. CAR) – 8 receptions for 140 yards – It’s a good day anytime the Seahawks remember that they have one of the best TE’s in the league.

3. Gary Barnidge (CLE vs. DEN) – 3 receptions for 39 yards and 2 touchdowns – Barnidge keeps on boning the competition with another 2 touchdowns this week and this time it was against the best D in the league.

Defense

Photograph by: Wesley Hitt , Getty Images

Miami Dolphins (vs. TEN) – The Dolphins D looked good this week in their 38-10 win against the Titans under their new head coach. They played with passion as they forced 2 interceptions, 2 fumbles and had 6 sacks. Perhaps this is the start of what was expected from their D prior to the season starting.

Kickers

Steven Hauschka (vs. CAR) – 3/3 FG’s, 2 XP’s for a total of 14 Fantasy points – Nothing too special here, as it was a blah week in Fantasy Kickerville.

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Here are Week 6’s Duds: