On the Rise, On the Fall – Week 10

Welcome to Week 10 of “On the Rise, On the Fall.” Throughout the season, I will discuss players whose stock is rising and others who are not having the same luck. I will avoid naming the obvious studs – Anquan Boldin, Drew Brees, etc – and will keep to players whose performance was not as foreseeable.

 

On the Rise

 

Thomas Jones, RB, Jets

: Jones has been hot of late for the Jets scoring eight touchdowns in his last five games. However, he has two tough matchups coming up in New England and

Tennessee. After that, he has a nice schedule for the rest of the year. Depending on your league deadline, it would not be a bad idea to buy TJ after the New England game and just suffer through the

Tennessee game since you should reap the benefits thereafter. On the other side of things, if you need to win now, sell high on TJ and let someone else deal with his next two tough games.

 

Bobby Engram, WR, Seahawks

: A bit of a sleeper pick here, but this one solely relies on Matt Hasselbeck. There was word last week that Hasselbeck could be back this week, so if he does, Engram receives an upgrade. Of course, you may want to see Hass in action before you do put Engram in your lineup.

 

Ricky Williams, RB, Dolphins

: Should you expect games like Sunday every week? Of course not, but Ricky is not a terrible flex option if you are in a jam at RB. With Ronnie Brown playing QB in the wildcat offense, his RB is Ricky. There is a good chance he is on your waiver wire and he faces

Oakland next week at home.

 

Stud of the Week

 

Jay Cutler, QB, Broncos

: Thursday Night: 447 yards, three scores? Remember that? Well, that’s worthy to be the Stud of the Week. After putting up mediocre numbers for several weeks, Cutler finally came on with a big game in primetime. He’ll face an underrated defense in

Atlanta next week, but should be able to have another good game.

 

On the Fall

 

Jonathan Stewart, RB, Panthers

: There were many who thought Stewart would take over for the Panthers at running back at some point during this season. However, it has been just the opposite in

Carolina. He was not 100% this weekend, which was the reason why DeAngelo Williams had a big game, but since Week 5, he has had just one double-digit fantasy day. There is some concern that he may not be able to handle the full NFL season in his rookie year and Williams has impressed thus far.

 

Deuce McAllister, RB,

Saints

: Deuce cannot be trusted any longer, if he ever was, in the Saints passing offense. Reggie Bush is expected back if not this week, the week after. Pierre Thomas and Aaron Stecker additionally received carries on Sunday so that minimizes Deuce’s value. You can hold onto Deuce for one more week (@KC), but after that, he’s not going to help your team anytime soon.

 

Duds of the Week

Jake Delhomme & Steve Smith, QB & WR, Panthers

: Pretty easy call when your #1 WR finishes the game with one catch for nine yards against a pitiful Raider team. Granted, they have Nnamdi Asomugha in the secondary, but other than that, there are no excuses. Delhomme threw four interceptions in the game after he started hot with a TD pass to Muhammad. These players were a part of one of the most boring games played this season. That is not an odd occurrence for games that are played in

Oakland, though. In the game, Delhomme and

Oakland quarterbacks Andrew Walter and Marques Tuiasosopo combined for 219 passing yards and six interceptions.

 

Ladainian Tomlinson, RB, Chargers

: I’m sorry, but 78 yards on 22 carries against the Chiefs is just not going to cut it. We have seen

DeAngelo Williams,

Leon Washington, Chris Johnson and LenDale White all run over the Chiefs porous defense, but the #1 overall pick can only muster 3.5 yards per carry? It has not been a good year for those who drew the #1 pick this year and it didn’t get better Sunday.

 

One Week Wonders

 

Maurice Jones-Drew, RB, Jaguars

: Don’t get too excited, MJD owners, as his three-TD performance came against the Lions. Jones-Drew has been on and off all season long and you should expect that to continue until season’s end. He faces

Tennessee and

Minnesota in the next two weeks, as well as a game in

Chicago in Week 14. He does face the Colts in Week 16, but with Bob Sanders in the lineup, they are a different defense.

 

BenJarvus Green-Ellis, RB

,

Patriots: He got the share of the carries with 26 on Sunday, but I wouldn’t put my trust in the Patriot RB group. Sammy Morris should be back soon and Kevin Faulk and Lamont Jordan should also be in the mix.

 

That’s all for this week’s edition. If you have any questions or comments, e-mail me at

pags2122@yahoo.com. Thanks for all of your e-mails so far!