The Nuthouse - Week 5 Oct 5, 2007

After a week sabbatical due to lots of work and the shock of having a terrible fantasy football team (not necessarily in that order), the Nuthouse returns. And judging by most posts, I’m not the only one dealing with a horrid start to the season. My league has three 4-0 teams; the rest are 1-3. That means 9 out of 12 teams are 1-3. You don’t call this parity, you call it mediocrity. Bad teams due to bad injuries and bad decisions (ala Travis Henry - we'll get to that later). But how do you handle such awfulness? You hit the waiver wire and make some daring calls for your starting lineups. Hence I’m starting Sammy Morris at RB this week, Laurence Maroney be damned.

Does it make me happy that I informed you about the decline of the stud RB? Uh, no, because I don’t have any of the running backs that are actually scoring. Not to mention that some of these stud QBs and WRs are also beginning to drop like flies: Jake Delhomme, Alex Smith, Marc Bulger, Marvin Harrison, Anquan Boldin, to name a few. Who would’ve thought that the stud play for this week’s Arizona/St. Louis game wouldn’t be Bulger, Steven Jackson, Torry Holt or Boldin, but Edgerrin James? If you called it in the preseason, give yourself a gold star. Then you're headed with me to the track.

Speaking of stars, we come to the rocket scientist known as Travis Henry. While we wait for an official announcement of a possible suspension for testing positive for marijuana, I ask the question: Is smoking a blunt really worth millions of dollars? I mean that must be some good stuff, definitely not schwag. If this strong rumor becomes reality, add another name to the list of early round running back busts this year. I mean, could anything else happen to the top running backs? What's next, Willie Parker  asphyxiating himself with a Terrible Towel?

See, I did have the right idea about picking sub-$20 running backs – I just picked the wrong ones. As I've said previously, this iswhy I write for free at FantasySharks and am not frolicking with high rollers in Vegas. Anyway, here are some lesser guys I like this week. Maybe you can fare better than me.

Lee Evans WR BUF: I think last week was the beginning of a turnaround from his slow start. Trent Edwards was more accurate last week than Losman ever was, and Dallas ’ secondary ain’t the greatest, especially on the deep balls behind the safeties. Dallas may also get up big early due to its high-powered offense, which means lots of garbage-time grabs for Evans.

Greg Jennings WR GB: My man from last year returns! Chicago also has problems throughout the secondary, and with coverage geared toward Donald Driver, the red-hot Brett Favre will have plenty of opportunities to hit Jennings on slants and crossing patterns. As long as Greg doesn’t get hurt again, that is.

Vernon Davis TE SF: The disappearing freak TE will be back in fold this week. Trent Dilfer can’t throw down the field, and the Ravens will stuff the box to stop Frank Gore. This equation totals a decent day for the former Terp standout. Then again, San Fran could also get shut out, so what do I know?

Jeff Garcia QB TB: Tampa against Indy has all the makings of a shootout. Really? Well, either that or Indy throttles them. In both scenarios, I see a lot of Garcia scrambling and throwing it to Michael Pittman and Joey Galloway.

Jerricho Cotchery WR NYJ: He’s not an under-the-radar guy, but the Giants still can’t cover unless their defensive line is crushing Donovan McNabb. Hence lots of three-step, dinks and dunks from Pennington to Cotchery and Coles over the middle this week.

Ahman Green RB HOU: A no-brainer if he returns this week. The Dolphins give up huge chunks of yardage on the ground, and Houston needs to get well again after showing up flat last week against the Atlanta Falcons.

Fragile Frederick Taylor RB JAX: I put him here out of love. Jacksonville doesn’t have any other option unless there’s a miraculous rejuvenation of Maurice Jones-Drew. Kansas City may have stopped LaDainian Tomlinson last week, but that was because Norv Turner is a fool and Philip Rivers stinks.

Ladell Betts RB WAS: Monitor Clinton Portis’ sprained knee. Even if he plays, the Redskins want to keep the Detroit offense off of the field, so the team should run the ball close to 40 times. That would mean a pretty decent day for Betts.

Joe Jurevicius WR CLE: Not only a TD specialist (11 receptions, three TDs), but the perfect garbage-time receiver if New England proceeds to destroy Cleveland as it’s done to everyone else. Joey J catches all those hooks in a prevent defense. I recommended him for last year’s playoffs, and he came through.

If you have questions or comments, feel free to start a topic in the Article Discussion section of the Fantasy Sharks forum.