Fantasy Football Week 10

Even though I'm posting this today, I started writing this on Monday. With still two players to go (well, one player & a defense), I'm absolutely confident that I'll be winning this week as well. What's better is that my opponent is in third place & is also the guy who gave me my only loss so far. I've beat him twice since then, so not only does it give me separation against him, but it gives me the edge as a tiebreaker, if needed. But don't let my swagger fool you - I had to survive quite the roller coaster to get here.

Starters

Peyton Manning - So heading into the Sunday night game, I was down by three with 4 players left: Manning, Wayne, B. Engram, & Seattle's D. I needed 4 points between the four of them to win, so it seemed like a lock. You could imagine my surprise when I checked the box score just before halftime & saw Manning with 50 yards & four interceptions. I had to go grocery shopping right after that, but I probably spent just as much time checking the score on my phone as I did shopping. Needless to say, I did NOT expect this kind of outing from him, and I'm just lucky I survived. But despite the horrible game, he's still ranked number 5 in my league.

Brian Westbrook - And it's because of this guy that I did survive. Even though it's by less than one point, according to our scoring system, Westbrook is the number one RB in our league, just barely ahead of Adrian Peterson. I'll say it again - I'll take him over Peterson any day of the week. He doesn't have AP's explosiveness, but he makes up for that in versatility - almost half of his TDs are receptions. Plus, he hasn't given me less than 12 points a week - AP's done that twice already.

Marshawn Lynch - Another reason I'm soon to be 9-1 is this guy, the 6th ranked RB in our league. At the start of the season, he was an afterthought to me; at best, an emergency starter. But he's proven to be a legit RB and I won't be able to get him in the lower rounds next year.

Reggie Wayne - Although Manning almost blew the game for me this week, Wayne came through with another great day. He's on a great tear right now with Harrison out, and he's worked his way up to being a top 5 WR, which is what I expected when I drafted him.

Bobby Engram - All he has to do to give me a victory is not fumble the ball 6 times on Monday. I think that should be OK.

Heath Miller - Another week, another TD. Not only that, but the Steelers pulled out a victory against a dangerous Cleveland Browns team. Did I really just say that? Oh yeah - Miller's ranked as the 5th TE now.

Mason Crosby - My bye week replacement for Kris Brown, I'll probably hold on to him for the rest of the year. Houston isn't looking that good, and Crosby is a...yep, you guessed it, a top 5 kicker.

Seattle D - All they have to do it not give up 80 points to the 49ers. I think the Niners will give a great effort tonight in light of Mike Nolan's dad passing away, but this isn't like New Orleans earlier this year - the Niners don't have the firepower to win in Seattle in a nationally televised game.

Bench

Derek Anderson - I thought the Steelers were going to manhandle him, but it was almost the other way around. There has to be no doubt that he's not just a legit fantasy QB, but a legit QB in real life too. It's going to be interesting to see how the QB situation plays out in Cleveland - it's very much like Brees\Rivers in San Diego two years ago. I'm pretty sure the Chargers would prefer to have Brees back at this point, I wonder if the Browns feel the same about Anderson. As far as fantasy is concerned, I'm officially taking him off my trading block. In case Manning sits the last couple of weeks, it'll be nice to have another top 5 QB to play in his place. Or maybe I'll just bench Manning the rest of the season - it's hard to argue against that at this point.

Andre Johnson - I'll be happy to get him back this week, but I'll take it slow with him since I really don't know what I'm getting any more. Anything he provides is just gravy at this point.

Waiver Wire

I picked up Earnest Graham when I grabbed Crosby & Engram this week as well, dropping Dwayne Bowe, Kris Brown & Wash D. I'm surprised that Graham was still available; he's been putting up decent numbers, but then again, in this league, I shouldn't be too surprised. Barring any injury, I think my last pickup will be Green Bay's D - they're hot right now, they've got a good schedule for the rest of the year, and they give me flexibility at that position. To grab them, I'll probably be saying goodbye to Travis Henry. He gave me some good games at the start of the year, but he's worthless now. So that'll leave my current roster as:

QB: Manning, Anderson
RB: Westbrook, Lynch, Graham, T. Jones
WR: Wayne, Galloway, Engram, Chambers, A. Johnson
TE: Miller, B. Watson
K: Crosby
D: Seattle, Green Bay

Not too shabby, I must say.

Other Notes

10 games in, and there hasn't been a single trade in this league yet. I don't think anyone wanted to trade with me because they were afraid of improving my team, and I can understand that. But I'm still surprised that no one else made a trade this year. It's getting to be too late for most teams, and there's nothing on the waiver wire that's going to help them out. This is the first year that we bumped the stakes to $100, and I'm surprised more teams aren't trying to be more active. Of course, being in Seattle, I don't know what negotiations are happening back in AZ, but like I mentioned before, I hardly got any consideration when I was making offers. But I'm not complaining - this is why I continue to play this league. Would it be more interesting if it was a bit more competitive? Sure. But I'm also where I am partly because I'm a competitive owner in a non-competitive league.