Fantasy Football 2015 Advice Thread

[MizzouRah]

Guess Rueben Randle will pick up Beckham's slack. Picking him up for sure.

[Barkeep49]

Who do I start in the final, Russell Wilson or Cam Newton?

[miked]

So with Jonathan Stewart out again, I have to choose 2 RBs between:

Doug Martin - Studly early, but they have been behind the last 3 weeks limiting his pts. They play CHI.

Chacandrick West - Doing ok, KC runs a lot, and they play CLE

Denard Robinson - Started him last week, was terrible except his 8 catches. They play NO.

Artis Cameron-Payne - Have him thanks to Stewbeef being out, they play ATL.

Seems like a choice matchup for all, and all with downsides. Tolbert and Newton are goal-line for CAR, Robinson coming off shitty game and injury, West seems to be part-time, Martin only 5 TDs all season.

On a side note, looks like Baldwin may be out too! I have Kearse as a backup, and still have Demaryius Thomas and Ruben Randle, with Boldin on the bench. But Baldwin has been insane.

[BishopMVP]

You roll with Martin no question, and I'd go with Denard for the 2nd spot. But Artis-Payne has pissed me off - I tried to stash him before the season in dynasty as a handcuff/possible 2016 starter but Carolina had no interest in giving him any of Stewart's carries for the first 10-12 weeks, so I dropped him and a different owner will have him if he shows great these couple weeks (and I guess his blitz pickup sucks, but I thought he was a really good RB at Auburn - yeah it's Malzahn's offense so the threat of misdirection helps but those were tough yards against defenses stacked in the box.)

[bhlloy]

Artis-Payne is a complicated one - he's the most talented runner on the roster but his blitz pickup is really, really bad as you say, and the question is whether Carolina decides to go for the 16-0 or take it easy and not get Cam killed before the playoffs. If the game flow allows it, he gets most of the snaps and the carries he could definitely have a massive game, but I'm not that sure what has to happen to make that happen.

FWIW, I've seen Char West as the start of the week at RB a couple of places because of the matchup and the offense. I'm not so sure I wouldn't consider him before either Robinson or Martin. EDIT - just looked at the rankings I really trust. They have West as an upper half #1 in both PPR and regular with Martin right behind. Again, just FWIW.

My choice for this week seems to boil down to Cousins or Taylor at QB. Leaning Cousins as everyone seems really down on Taylor, but I can't shake the nagging feeling that he's due for an off week. Thoughts?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Artis-Payne is a complicated one - he's the most talented runner on the roster but his blitz pickup is really, really bad as you say, and the question is whether Carolina decides to go for the 16-0 or take it easy and not get Cam killed before the playoffs. If the game flow allows it, he gets most of the snaps and the carries he could definitely have a massive game, but I'm not that sure what has to happen to make that happen.

Carolina will go all out this week b/c they still haven't locked up home field thanks to Arizona's success, so that isn't a concern at all. I can see Artis-Payne getting more carries this week than the 14 he got last week but I wouldn't expect him to get anything near the goal line.

Martin for sure, the second choice is tough, but I think I'd probably lean slightly towards Robinson over Artis-Payne.

[miked]

Hope you started Cousins...

Going to go with West and Martin. Strongly considered putting in Robinson for Martin with the matchup, but he's really not done much and seems boom or bust. Martin will get the carries.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Pittsburgh @ Baltimore or Buffalo vs. Dallas?

Ben Watson (Questionable, but supposedly playing) or Austin Sefarian-Jenkins?

[miked]

Well, I could have started every RB on my team and still been doubled up. I had Brady (who did poop) and Baldwin who did well. My opponent had Bortles and Arizona's defense. They had 9 sacks, 4 turnovers, 2 TDs, and scored more than Brady and all my RBs combined. He also had D'angelo Williams and Zach Ertz. I need Ruben Randle to set the record tonight, and Demaryius Thomas to break it tomorrow night to even come close. You were so close $700!!

[CleBrownsfan]

I won my $$$ league scoring 77.5 pnts (our avg. is 101)... I'll take luck over skill any day

[molson]

I think it's going to be a low scoring week all-around. I have a good cushion going into Monday night despite starting Big Ben at QB and getting less than 1 point from him. (my league penalizes turnovers slightly more than standard scoring settings). I was saved, at least so far, by Allen Hurns and Tim Hightower. Hurns has been so awesome - 10 TDs since week 3, despite being on the injury report every single week, and he went undrafted. And Hightower ran for 122 yards and 2 TDs, and had 47 yards receiving. I had a bunch of scrub/injury replacement-type RBs and he was the pretty obvious one to roll with this week.

I'm up 39.2 points, and have Emmanuel Sanders tomorrow night v. my opponent using the Broncos defense and Marvin Jones. My league rewards strong defense performances more than standard settings, but as long as the Bengals put up some points and Sanders gets just a couple of catches I should be good. If I started Palmer at QB instead of Ben I'd already have it wrapped up.

[MizzouRah]

Yep.. I have Brady too.. but I'm only down 10 points and have 3 players still to play and my opponent has his defense left. I think I'm in good shape to win this thing!

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by miked

Hope you started Cousins...

Going to go with West and Martin. Strongly considered putting in Robinson for Martin with the matchup, but he's really not done much and seems boom or bust. Martin will get the carries.

Didn't go with Cousins because I was on a hike that took way longer than expected and thought that would cost me the game for sure - but scored 135 and won by 60 thanks to my triple headed wr monster (Julio, Hopkins, ARob)

I've never had a position grouping in 10+ years dominate almost from start to finish like those guys did. And this was the first year I've ever taken WR that high, although 2 of my first 3 picks were still RB. In short, pretty sure this year will change the way I draft in future years.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Yeah, the shift from RBs to WRs seems to be complete this year. It's been moving that way for several seasons now, but there are approaching 10 WRs now that are worth top billing on a fantasy team.

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by Vince, Pt. II

Yeah, the shift from RBs to WRs seems to be complete this year. It's been moving that way for several seasons now, but there are approaching 10 WRs now that are worth top billing on a fantasy team.

This insight (plus stealing Cam Newton late in the draft) is what I got me to the finals of my FFL. Now ironically I need a big night from a RB (CJ Anderson) to win.

[Marmel]

I won my league by 20 points in the finals yesterday! Thanks everyone for the various advice over the past few weeks! Picking up and playing Johnson from AZ was huge for me.

[MizzouRah]

THANK YOU Sanders, I am the CHAMPION of my league!!! Nice little $300 Christmas present!

[TLK]

If anyone is interested, I have a few openings in a new dynasty league. I thought I'd offer it up here. Idea of the league is to eliminate as much luck as possible out of fantasy football. We started a dynasty last year using 95% of these rules and it went great. This year I'm hoping to get another one going with a slightly higher buy-in and some new blood.

The Basics:

League Fee: $150 via LeagueSafe + $25 deposit

Prize Structure: $825/$400/$150, $150 (points) and $200 into Dynasty Jackpot. (-$70 for MFL)

League Format: Head to head with victory points League Size: 12 teams over 2 divisions

Initial dispersal: First 10 "rounds" is a $100 slow-auction format. After the auction, a 30 round (3rd round reversal) draft will start

Starting Lineup: 20-1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 O Flex (RB/WR/TE), 1 O SuperFlex, K, 2 DE, 1 DT, 3 LB, 3 DB, 1 D Flex

Roster: 40 roster spots, unlimited IR spots for any player on your roster that goes on the IR, Taxi Squad for drafted rookies

Scoring System: Fantasy Football: Eliminate The Luck Dynasty League League Scoring

Trading: Yes and encouraged

Waiver System: Blind Bidding with waivers ran Thursday Morning and then first come, first serve after that.

How This League is Different:

Dynasty Jackpot: $200 is held in LeagueSafe every year. The first franchise to win two championships in the three years, becoming a true dynasty, is awarded the dynasty jackpot.

Victory Points: 1 Point for a win in head-to-head. 2 points for finishing in the top four in points for the week. 1 point for finishing in the middle four and 0 for finishing in the bottom 4. For a total of 3 points possible every week, with a higher value put on your score and not the head to head match-up.

Playoff Spots: Winner of each division based off best W-L record is guaranteed a playoff spot. The other 3 playoff spots go to the top 3 remaining teams with the most victory points regardless of division.

Playoff Format: All 5 playoff teams enter the playoffs with their seasonal point average as their stating score. All teams submit lineups for Weeks 14, 15 and 16. Highest total score at the end of week 16 wins.

Rookie Draft: Starting the Monday after the NFL draft, we will a four round rookie draft via slow draft. These rookies are immediately placed on their team’s taxi squad and don’t count towards the roster limit. The rookie can stay on the taxi squad until activated to main roster or until they are no longer a rookie. If activated, a rookie cannot be placed back on the taxi squad.

"Plan B" Free Agency: Every June, each franchise can protect 32 players. This does not include newly drafted rookies on taxi squad. The remaining unprotected players are cut and enter the free agent pool.

Off-Season Blind Bidding: After rosters are at 32 players, franchises can fill their remaining roster spots through off-season blind bidding using their FABB money for the next season. The Blind Bidding will start the first full week in June, with bidding being processed on Wednesday night.

Toilet Bowl: The remaining 7 teams that don’t qualify for the playoffs enter the Toilet Bowl. Like the playoffs, Toilet Bowl teams enter with their season average and set lineups for Weeks 14, 15 and 16. The highest total score after Week 16 wins the toilet bowl. Although the Toilet Bowl winners don’t receive monetary prizes, they receive something much more valuable… extra FABB money for the next season. 1st Place= $100 in FABB, 2nd Place= $50 in FABB, 3rd Place= $25 in FABB.