Welcome to Week 4 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 – Peyton Manning, Marion Barber, etc – and will keep to players whose performance was not as foreseeable.
I will add
one stud and
one dud to each category for their Week 4 performance.
On the Rise
Santana Moss, WR, Redskins
: At first, I was skeptical about Santana’s production, but the stats do not lie. Moss has 27 catches, over 420 yards, and three TD’s in the Skins’ four games this season. The schedule only gets easier in the next four weeks so do not sell high on Santana at least until after these games (@PHI, STL, CLE, @DET).
Steve Breaston, WR, Cardinals
: His productivity solely relies on the health of Anquan Boldin in
Dwayne Bowe, WR, Chiefs:
He may not be a legitimate candidate for “on the rise,” but he sure has been a solid, consistent WR on a bad offense. In standard leagues that do not award a point per reception, Bowe has had 10, nine, 10 and eight points so far this season. He has also averaged about five-six catches per game. He was likely drafted as your WR3 and you have to be happy with his production so far.
Stud of the Week
Brett Favre, QB, Jets
: How could it be any other? The Favre love affair was starting to die down as the Jets were embarrassed on MNF in
On the Fall
Ryan Grant, RB, Packers
: This news could go from bad to worse for Grant if Aaron Rodgers is out for a significant period of time. Grant has been shut down the past three weeks by the Lions, Cowboys and now Bucs. He’s had 43 carries for 94 yards in those games, which is a deplorable average of 2.19 yards per carry. The Packers face
Thomas Jones, RB, Jets
: Here’s enough news to show you why Jones is on the fall. Leon Washington started the game on Sunday. Yes, Jones finished with 18 carries to
Chad
Johnson, WR, Bengals
: He was on this list two weeks ago so I will not expand, but if you can get something for
Scott Linehan, head coach, Rams: That title should be changing shortly as we expect him to be gone this week. The only shocking thing here is that he’ll beat Lane Kiffin to the job search sites.
Dud of the Week
Chris Perry, RB, Bengals
: Carson Palmer was a late scratch so that hurt the offense, but you still figured he would have a better week than 12 for 28 on the ground against the Browns.
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!