Fantasy Friday: Week 6 Team Scouting Reports from SB Nation

The Vikes look scary good, Daily Norseman knows why.

QB Brett Favre – Yes, the Ravens’ defense is coming to town this weekend. However, the Baltimore secondary has been underachieving all year, and after getting off to a rough start, Favre has finally started to get a rapport with his receivers, and has averaged 268 yards and two touchdowns in his past three starts. Unless you have someone like a Brees or a Manning to put in at the QB spot, you could do much worse than starting Favre this week.

RB Adrian Peterson – It doesn’t matter whose defense the Vikings are facing. Start Adrian Peterson every week.

Vikings wide receivers – The downside to Favre having a grasp of the offense, at least for fantasy purposes, is that you never know which of his receivers is going to have a big game from one week to the next. Percy Harvin is dinged up and listed as questionable, so keep a close eye on him leading up to kickoff, but both Sidney Rice and Bernard Berrian could serve as lower-end starting options, or possibly even a flex option if your league has one available.

Vikings defense – Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco has played well thus far this season, but the raucous environment of the Metrodome could serve to rattle his nerves. The Vikings’ defense is rounding into an elite enough unit where you should be starting them pretty much every week, but expecting a huge performance fantasy-wise from them this week might be a little too much to ask.

Get your daily pillage on over at Daily Norseman.

Acme Packing Company is dropping some knowledge on you.

QB Aaron Rodgers. He’s at home against probably the worst pass defense in the NFL (15 TDs allowed, and only 3 INTs). And starting LT Chad Clifton should be returning this week. Start.

RB Ryan Grant. He’s playing against the Lions poor run defense, they have allowed 4.9 yards/carry against in their first 5 games, but he often is a forgotten man in the offense. He’s only gone over 20 carries once in his first 4 games, and hasn’t broken the 100 yard barrier. And his goal line opportunities have been taken by FB John Kuhn in recent weeks. Sit.

WR Greg Jennings. He’s been sounding off in public about his lack of touches. Only 22 passes thrown his way, and only 11 receptions in 4 games. Still, he’s their big play threat and going up against a suspect Lions secondary. Start.

WR Donald Driver. He’s bookended good 90 yard, 1 TD games in weeks 2 and 3, with two mediocre 4 catch, 50 yard performances. Still he’s another playmaker going up against the Lions secondary, and he’s always good for at least 4 catches. Start.

TE Jermichael Finley. There are lots of TEs producing, so he’s not a start for most teams. But against the Vikings, he had a 120 yard, 1 TD outburst that doubled his career stats in one game. And it wasn’t a fluke; his talent is real. If you’re looking for a TE to start on the bye week, take a look at him.

Packers D. They’ve been mediocre this season, and aren’t generating sacks, but they’ve been forcing turnovers (and returning them for TDs). Always a good candidate to start, especially against the turnover prone Lions.

Pack fans, head to Acme Packing Company.

The Falcons are coming off a big win, The Falcoholic tells us what to expect this week.

QB Matt Ryan: Fresh off one of the best games of his young career, Matt Ryan has to be excited about facing the Bears’ suspect secondary. Ryan went off for a career high in yardage and picked up two touchdowns through the air and one on the ground last week, and the matchup makes him a borderline QB1 once again. Strongly consider starting Ryan and expect at least a pair of touchdowns from him in this high-flying offense.

RB Michael Turner: For the first three games of the season, Michael Turner didn’t look much like himself. He had two touchdowns but wasn’t reeling off the big yardage totals he did so frequently in 2008. Against the 49ers, though, he was one of several Falcons enjoying big days, and he increased his TD total to five. The Bears are solid against the run but don’t handle big, physical runners as well and Turner should have plenty of opportunities to score once again. Only sit him if you have better options, which I seriously doubt you do.

WR Roddy White: Due for another monster game. He’ll probably never equal the 200+ yard, two touchdown performance he put up last week, but he’s clearly revved back up and he needs to be starting for your team. Count your lucky stars if you have him.

TE Tony Gonzalez: The last two weeks have been largely lackluster for Gonzalez, as teams have double-teamed him and focused on keeping him out of games entirely. With Roddy White back and commanding plenty of attention, he should bounce back this week and have a nice game against the Bears. Chances are he’s the best guy you have for your TE spot, but if you play a in league that allows TEs to play in a WR or flex spot, weigh my advice against your own good judgment.

Get drunk on Falcons news at The Falcoholic.

The Titans are perhaps the NFL’s biggest disappointment so far, but Music City Miracles soldiers on out of love for their team.

The Titans travel to New England this weekend to take on the Patriots. Chris Johnson is really the only Titan player that has any fantasy value this week. The Patriots defense is good against the run, but CJ has the chance to break a big play any time he touches the ball.

If you have the Titans defense you should be banned from ever playing fantasy football again and not play them this week.

Music City Miracles is still praying for a miracle for the Titans.

The Rams are desperate for a win, will that translate into fantasy success? Turf Show Times reports.

RB Steven Jackson – Jacksonville’s rushing defense has been pretty good, but Jackson has the added advantage for fantasy GMs in that he can catch passes. SJ has picked up solid yardage against better defenses though. Is this week he scores his first TD of the season?

WR Donnie Avery – Avery had a nice game last week, finally getting the ball deep and taking advantage of his speed. Against a lesser Jacksonville pass defense, could Avery have a break out game?

QB Marc Bulger – No Rams QB has been on anyone’s fantasy radar, nor should they be. But this is a pretty favorable matchup for Bulger.

TE Daniel Fells & Randy McMichael – Rams tight ends combined for 8 catches last week, and every since the Green Bay game Pat Shurmur has been using, successfully, plenty of two TE sets. It’s very possible one of these guys will have a good game…providing of course they can hang onto the ball.

Rams DST – Can the Rams start getting some action on turnovers this week? Can Danny Amendola run one in? Can Josh Brown double his season’s output in one game?

The Rams are bound to win one soon, and they’ll be celebrating at Turf Show Times.

One of the surprise teams of ’09, the Bengals, have plenty of fantasy stars. Cincy Jungle breaks it down.

Cedric Benson’s 487 yards rushing is the most in the NFL and Houston has one of the league’s worst rushing defenses, allowing 140.8 yards rushing per game. Do I smell a certainty? Maybe. Maybe not. The last time Cedric Benson played the Houston Texans, he recorded 49 yards rushing on 13 attempts. Of course, the Texans were well on their way to beating the Cincinnati Bengals by 29 points. Rushing the ball wasn’t a concern. Last year’s Bengals haven’t shown up this year. In fact, they’ve been eradicated from memory.

Even though it’s not expected, if the Bengals rushing offense struggles, the passing game isn’t much of a certainty. Carson Palmer is scoring late touchdowns to win football games (like that’s important). On the other hand, if one were to rate his fantasy football points, then you have to be a bit more cautious. He’s gone nine straight games without a 300-yard passing game or a passer rating of 100 or better, he’s completing less than 60% of his passes in his last three games and recorded at least one interception in seven of his past nine games. On the other hand, Palmer has recorded a touchdown in six of his last seven games. And quite honestly, this offense is close to breaking out. Will it happen against the Texans 16th rank defense? Carson Palmer faced the Houston Texans once, during a 16-10 win on October 2, 2005. He recorded 276 yards passing with a very efficient 74% completion clip (25-34). You have to go all the way back to 2003 the last time Chad Ochocinco recorded over 80 yards receiving or more against the Texans. In the last meeting, Chad caught five Ryan Fitzpatrick passes for 44 yards receiving.

Cincinnati’s defense has shutdown some of the league’s best receivers. Denver’s Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal combined for 45 yards receiving. Green Bay’s Greg Jennings and Baltimore’s Derrick Mason didn’t record a reception. Pittsburgh’s Santonio Holmes caught one pass. Sure, some receivers have enjoyed a measure of success (Mike Wallace 102 yards receiving, Donald Driver 99 yards receiving, Mohamed Massaquoi 148 yards receiving). The last time the Bengals played the Houston Texans, wide receiver Andre Johnson recorded 11 receptions for 143 yards receiving and Kevin Walter scored twice in a 35-6 route on October 26, 2009.

Jump on board with the new Bengals over at Cincy Jungle.

Bolts from the Blue suggests not starting the Chargers defense, along with other tidbits of info.

Philip Rivers – This is the first week you might want to reconsider starting Rivers in your fantasy league. Denver is fielding the league’s best defense, and part of that reason is the incredible play of Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins. There will be less mismatches for Philip to exploit than usual.

LaDainian Tomlinson – I’d start him. The Chargers have had issues with ball control and with their running game, and I believe they’ll use Monday night’s game to try to reverse both of those trends. Look for LT to get the ball early and often. He is about as healthy as he’s been since 2007, and eager to prove he’s not done.

Vincent Jackson – I’d never tell you to start a WR that’s going against Champ Bailey, but VJ has had success against him in the past. In 2 games against the Broncos last season he came away with 8 catches for 120 yards, to go along with 30 yards rushing on 2 end-around plays. If you don’t have an obviously better choice, VJ should be okay for this game.

Darren Sproles – Only start him if your league gives points for return yardage. He’s going to rack up a ton of it, because Denver’s special teams has been a weakness and because their offense has been stellar. I doubt he does very much in the offense, as Denver will have somebody following him all over the field.

Chargers D – DO NOT START. Their weaknesses (pass-rush, covering short passes) match up with Denver’s strengths (great at short passes when Orton gets time). Although Clinton Hart wasn’t playing much, his being cut this week will open up some more holes in the secondary.

If you follow the Chargers, then you have to follow Bolts from the Blue.

Bleeding Green Nation gets right to the point on Philly players.

This is one of those weeks where if you have an Eagle, you should start him. The Eagles are on the road against the Oakland Raiders, who have given up 33 points a game over the last three weeks. Conversely the Eagles offense is scoring 32 points a game, two of which didn’t even include QB Donovan McNabb. Start them all.

I will highlight one specific guy who probably hasn’t been a fantasy starter and that’s rookie WR Jeremy Maclin. Maclin got his second career start last week and responded with a ridiculous performance catching six passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns. The Buccaneers seemed to focus their gameplan on taking Desean Jackson out of the game by playing bracket coverage against him. The plan worked against Jackson, holding him to just one catch, but Maclin absolutely ate up the single coverage.

Bleeding Green Nation, home for all Eagles fans.

The Washington Redskins play host to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, so we go to Hogs Haven to break down the Redskins fantasy players.

Jason Campbell - A "hot seat" coach has to fight and claw to prove to management he belongs. Zorn was brought here to mentor and groom Campbell and install an innovative offense (hold comments on this for another post.) If he is going to get fired, I see him going down swinging for the fences. Jason Campbell will once again be throwing early and often. He has thrown a few more interceptions this season than you would like to see, but the Chiefs did just give up a 250-yard performance to Miles Austin. You have to think that before we hit the meat of our schedule, Zorn is going to go all-out with his passing game to rev it up. To me, that makes Jason Campbell a must-start.

Santana Moss - Well, Miles Austin did just have a 250-yard day against this weak pass defense. There aren't many fantasy players out there as off and on or streaky as Santana Moss. His 4 catch, 44 yard day last week is as sure a sign that he will blow up this week as any. If you own Moss, and you leave him on your bench this week, you will most likely hate yourself on Monday. Even more so than normal.

Chris Cooley- He went without a catch for the first time since 2004...that has to be killing him. After Samuels went down, he was asked to stay in and block, with mixed results. The line continues to be a debacle this week, so I worry that he will have more blocking assignments again. Barring last week's performance, Cooley has been a must-start fantasy player in all formats. But with this offense looking sluggish and the line looking banged up, I wonder about the use of the tight end this week. I am not recommending sitting him, because chances are if you have Cooley, you don't have a better tight end. But this might be a week to see how he does--if things are going away from him like last week, you should look into adding another tight end.

Clinton Portis- He continues to run hard for the most part. I have no idea how healthy he is, but the Chiefs excel at giving up yards. If Zorn wasn't so hell-bent on passing the ball, and if the line was a little healthier, CP could be at the top of the league in rushing easily. Back to reality: our line is a patchwork quilt--AGAIN--and Zorn desperately needs to validate his passing game. While conventional wisdom tells you that CP is a slam dunk in fantasy against this defense, recent history suggests that if he is going to get you a big chunk of fantasy points, he will have to break a few long runs to get the most from his touches.

Devin Thomas/Malcolm Kelly/Fred Davis- They were noticeably more involved in last week's game plan (Thomas and Davis more so it seemed.) Thomas impressed me. CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY THOMAS IS NOT RUNNING BACK KICKOFFS!? Sorry for that. Until they are consistently productive, you simply can't start them as anything more than a bye week replacement.

Washington Redskins Defense- Oh Jebus...where do I begin? This is it right? If you drafted them, you were banking on this 6 game stretch. This is game 6 of that stretch. From here on out, this defense could be a very risky start. Against the Chiefs' offense, you would figure we should get turnovers and sacks. The name of this game (and the theme of tonight's Friday Night "Mights") is 3rd down. This defense simply has to find a way to get off the field on 3rd down. Period. End of story. If they can do 50% better on 3rd down, they go from a marginal fantasy start to a absolute stud must-start unit.

If you like to mix a little humor with your sports news and analysis, check out the guys over at Hogs Haven.

The Ravens play the undefeated Vikings this week, so we turn to Baltimore Beatdown to see if their fantasy stars can shine.

The Baltimore Ravens travel to Minnesota to face an undefeated Vikings team. While Minnesota may have a better defense than the Ravens this year, they are susceptible to the passing game and that is where Baltimore QB Joe Flacco may be worth a play on your fantasy team. He should put up good numbers as there is also a chance the run game will be shut down by the Vikes and the Ravens may have to air it out to play catch up. Other than Flacco, I’d stay away from the Ravens offense and even their defense for this week. I have the Ravens defense in my fantasy league, but I am actually playing the Saints defense at home against the Giants this week.

Check Baltimore Beatdown regularly for Ravens updates.