Tag Archives: Jamal Lewis

theRUNDOWN: Week 6

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For those of you new to theRUNDOWN this is what I do. I pick my best team of the week, some nice plays with a few reasons to back up my picks. After that I list a couple sleepers, either decent guys that I expect to have good weeks, or relatively unused guys I like to do well. Then, at the end I list a few usually solid guys that I would leave on the bench. Here’s Week 6’s action…

QB: Tony Romo vs. Arizona: Here’s the deal, teams haven’t been able to run against the Cardinals, so I see no reason that Romo won’t have a huge day. It should be a shootout, this game, or at least one that prompts a few pass attempts from the Dallas boys. I like Tony’s chances of 3-4 touchdown passes. Brett Favre against the Cardinals? Remember?

RB: Adrian Peterson vs. Detroit: Matt Forte didn’t kill the Lions defense like I thought he would, but I’ll give them a second shot. Certainly this beast of a man can give Detroit the old one-two punch, uppercut, jab, jab, home run, yhatzee, 200 yards and a couple touchdown dance.

RB: Matt Forte vs. Atlanta: I like Forte a lot, even in a bad week against the Lions, Forte still scored twice and put in work during a Bears route. I’m willing to bet he comes out and plays well against the Falcons.

FLEX: Ronnie Brown: I’ve always liked Ronnie, and while Houston hasn’t put up terrible rushing defense numbers, I just get the feeling that Miami is giving Ronnie 25-30 chances to make point scoring plays. The ball in his hands means good things, and against Houston he’s bound to break a couple.

WR: Greg Jennings vs. Seattle: The Hawks are lost, no doubt in my mind. Greg Jennings gets the ball a lot, and he is a beast when running after the catch. The Hawks are pretty trustworthy in that they allow big plays, you can trust them to do so. Lots of reasons to like Greg here.

WR: Terrell Owens vs. Arizona: See Tony Romo, above.

TE: Jason Witten vs. Cincinnati: See Tony Romo, above.

K: Josh Scobee vs. Denver: The Broncos defense allows lots of offense. They are coming off a week where they actually played alright, so that’s unlikely to carry over to this week’s game. This one is in Denver, so long kicks are even more likely. This one has to be a good one, despite my kicking hex.

D: New York Giants vs. Cleveland: The Giants are legit. I thought they’d struggle, I was wrong. Their defense gets the J.O.B done. I like them against and underwhelming Browns team.

PAPA’S Week 1 SLEEPERS

Jason Campbell: The Rams will pay all their attention to Portis, and respectably so. Unfortunately, that just means campbell will have to torture them. I think Jason is a nice play this week, he’ll finish in the Top 12.

David Garrard: Garrard hasn’t been the same accurate, problem free signal caller he was last year. But he’ll get back into the swing of things. He gets to throw it around on Denver’s secondary, so like I said, brighter days are soon to come.

Gus Frerotte: Still a nice option. 2nd week in a row.

Fred Taylor: I bet Fred scores his first touchdown and gets over 100 yards. He’s been a bad option thus far, sans one solid week, but Fred won’t be scoreless after Sunday’s tilt with Denver.

Willis McGahee: I like Willis’s chances to get his highest total of carries on the season, and while getting all those looks he’ll do his best work of the season as well. So far he’s been a terrible option, but he’ll pull it together against a Bob Sanders-less Colts defense.

Brandon Jackson: He’s a big chance, for sure, but the Packers might have to give him 14-16 carries right? With Grant struggling and Rodgers on the pine, I think Jackson is a big sleeper this week against the Falcons front 7.

Lance Moore: Against Oakland Moore might find more room to roam. Whew, tough one. No, but honestly, despite some alliteration excitement, Lance looks like a pretty solid play against the Raiders.

Steve Breaston: Boldin might be back, but Breaston has done enough to gain Warner’s confidence, and the former grocery bagger (Warner) has shown an affinity for getting the ball to 3rd wide receivers, so either way, he’ll be a decent option as a sleeper this week again.

Devin Hester: Hester has found the end-zone a couple times, and I still think he reaches the 10 or more scores I expect him to tally. Atlanta’s a good place to find one or two of those. As a waiver wire guy, you could have a nice bye week option here.

Greg Olsen: This young TE is a nice sleeper with Kyle Orton getting his wings recently – against Atlanta’s secondary he could be a nice waiver wire pick up with nice future upside.

Washington Redskins: Why? Because until the Rams prove they aren’t the worst team I’ve ever seen, it’s sleeper defense every week time.

Papa’S Week 6 Splinter-Butts (bench him, son)

J.T. O’Sullivan: Martz always has his quarterbacks throwing lots of touchdowns and turning the ball over just about as often. Against Philly it will be more turnover than TD, and that’s why I wouldn’t follow O’Sullivan to the well this week.

Edgerrin James: James had a touchdown last week against Buffalo, and has solid numbers on the season, but he won’t be doing much in terms of fantasy production against the Cowboys. Sit him.

Jamal Lewis: Back off his bye, I still don’t like Lewis as a start this week. Until New York allows some offensive action, I’m staying away from middle of the road fantasy runners against them. Just like Julius Jones last week, Jamal isn’t the best option in Week 6.

Steve Smith: I would start Steve Smith almost every single week, because you never know when he’s going to break one and take it 80 yards. However, this seems like a down week for Steve, and if you have the balls, and a decent back-up, I’d leave Steve on the bench.

theRUNDOWN Review: Week 3

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There’s not much to be said about this group, not all that impressive, and not extremely disappointing either – which is too bad, because either or is at least interesting to reminisce about. As is, this is how this group did this week. LT’s 23 on Monday Night Football gave me a nice boost to get over the century mark and roll to 108 on the week – still, next week will be better!

QB: Tony Romo vs. Packers: I got 16 points from Tony because of his long touchdown pass to Miles Austin – still despite the rolling gut feeling that he was “going off”, I would have been better off taking one of the quarterbacks from the Saints/Broncos game. Dang me!

RB: LaDainian Tomlinson vs. New York Jets: Tomlinson didn’t have a great day, I have to be honest, he carried the ball a bunch of times and managed just 2.7 yards per carry or something gross like that. Still, the Chargers handled the Jets and Tomlinson punched two in from close range. You can’t argue with his 23 fantasy points I guess, but 2.7 per against the Jets? He’ll turn things around, right?

RB: Michael Turner vs. KC: Big Mike in the Wood had a HUGE day, touchdown wise anyway. He didn’t pile up the 200+ yards like he did in Week 1, but Turner did put 3 touchdowns on the Chiefs – I had to love that. He posted 28 points for me.

WR: Plaxico Burress vs. Bengals: 3 catches for 45 yards, 7 fantasy points in a ppr league – thanks Plax. I ditched Brandon Marshall and Larry Fitz so I could put you on my squad – last time I do that!

WR: Steve Smith vs. Minnesota: 4 grabs for 70 yards, but the Panthers needed to get Smith the ball more. Still, it was a risky selection and it back fired a little. 11 points for a WR in a PPR league isn’t much to get excited about.

TE: Jeremy Shockey vs. Denver: Shockey had 8 receptions for 75 yards, not a bad day for the big guy. Anytime a tight end can get my 15 fantasy points I have to appreciate their efforts.

K: Josh Brown vs. Seattle: 8 fantasy points form Mr. Brown and he got booed like he was Johnny Damon leaving for the Yankees- I love that. Still, 8 points is probably an all time high for kickers in this deal for me.

D: Patriots vs. Miami: I don’t know how much they scored. I’m not checking. They got handled. I’ll take a zero and be happy about it.

PAPA’S Week 1 SLEEPERS

David Garrard: Garrard threw another interception without tossing or rushing for a touchdown. He had just 167 yards, which gives him, what, 4 fantasy points? Oops! F

Aaron Rodgers: For how out of sync the Packers looked against Dallas, Rodgers put up some solid numbers. His late touchdown run was a nice helper, and he did throw for just under 300 yards in this one. I think Aaron’s 19 fantasy points were nice. I’ll take an A- just because he didn’t toss a touchdown.

JT O’Sullivan: JT put up 189 yards and two touchdown passes without an interception. He didn’t tear up the yardage totals, but he put in some nice work going for 19 fantasy points of his own – I bet that gets him into the top 10. A

Maurice Jones Drew: “Best runner in Jacksonville hits gold against a Bon Sanders-less Colts team.” Yep! MJD went for 100+ rushing, 50+ receiving, and scored a big touchdown on way to a Jaguars win. Gotta love the short guy (little is a lie, he’s freaking solid). 25 points grades out as an A+

Julius Jones: The Hawks rushed for 245 yards against the worst defense in football, St. Louis, and Julius took 22 rushes for 140 yards and a touchdown. He also caught a pass, giving him 21 fantasy points on the day. A+

Sammy Morris: Down 21-6 at half time the Patriots weren’t in the running mode. Yeah, I didn’t see this coming – obviously. Morris had 3 points giving me an F for this sleeper pick.

Chad Ocho Cinco: Carson Palmer had a really nice day, but it was TJ, not Chad, that was getting it done for the Bengals. Ocho Cinco had Cinco fantasy points. F

Anthony Gonzalez: 2 catches for 37 yards, Peyton went to Marvin more, and Dallas Clark came back this week and stole some looks from Anthony – still, Gonzo grabbed 2 balls for 37 yards in the Colts loss. D for this one.

Derrick Mason: 4 grabs for 42 yards – apparently I was wrong about the Ravens being behind in this one and having to throw to catch up. Mason had 8 fantasy points – that’s a C- maybe.

Todd Heap: 2 catches for 32 yards – I’m beginning to want to drop Mr. Heap. 5 fantays points, maybe a D+

Buffalo: Not a great showing from the Bills – they did enough to get my 8 fantasy points in my game, but they didn’t do what I needed them to do this week, that’s for sure. C-

Papa’S Week 1 Splinter-Butts (bench him, son)

Jamal Lewis: 12 rushes for 56 yards, not bad. 3 catches for 27 yards, not bad. No scores was a bummer, but Jamal didn’t have as bad a game as I thought he’d have. 10 fantasy points for a guy that you should trade for if you can. Boy, does Brady Quinn start next week though?

DeAngelo Williams or Jonathan Stewart: Williams had 10 carries for 27 yards (also 2 catches for 17 yards) and Stewart had 7 carries for 15 yards – but he did have a touchdown. Still, if you started either back hoping for a decent fantasy game, you were tricked. Sitting these guys was a good call.

Chris Perry: You know what, against a very good rush defense Chris had a fine day. 20 carries for 74 yards and a touchdown. I was wrong about his outing, he was a solid start with 16 fantasy points (2 catches for 19 yards as well).

Hines Ward: Hines had his first touchdownless week this season, and he grabbed just 4 passes for 34 yards. Nothing exciting about that.

Ask Papa Weimer: Week 4

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Here I am, and I’m back early this week. Already on Monday I’ve gotten quite a few emails, and have three that I’d like to share. I’m old, grouchy because the Patriots (my Week 3 survivor) lost, and hungry (because there’s no damn food in the house). So hopefully my anger doesn’t travel through the keyboard. Well, ah, here goes nothing…

Jimmy Z from Portland writes in, “Papa, before the season started you predicted that, Marion Barber would be the best running back this season in fantasy land. So far you’re close, Barber sits at number 2 amongst running backs after Week 2. But there’s this other guy at #1, a little feller named Reggie Bush. How do you like Reggie going forward? Is it time to trade the former Trojan? I’m in a PPR league and he seems like a good bet to continue catching balls. What do you think?”

Jimmy, I think Reggie is going to have a great year, no doubt about it. In fact, in that same “Papa’s Predictions” article, I said “Reggie Bush – 10+ total touchdowns this season, his highest total of his career.”- but I didn’t think Reggie would ever be leading all running backs in fantasy points. Honestly, if you can get a guy like Marion Barber for Reggie, I say go for it. But right now, in a PPR league, the guys that selected Reggie Bush are patting themselves on the back, and you should be as well. After three games, Reggie has compiled 402 total yards and 4 touchdowns (2 receiving, 1 rushing, 1 special teams score), and while I don’t expect him to tally up 2,200 all purpose yards, it’s not out of the question. That’s right, a guy like Bush that can catch the ball and he gets carries out of the backfield, he has the chance to break 2000 yards from scrimmage for sure. Bush is going to have his best season, I thought that headed in, and while the pre-season brought his value down a little bit for me, I am sticking with my prediction of double digit touchdowns and now I think he’ll approach 2000 yards from scrimmage. In a PPR, I say hold onto him. Reggie is on pace to catch 125+ balls this season. I think he’ll catch about 100. That’s like 1000 extra rushing yards in that scoring format. Hold onto your good pick, Jimmy.

Bad Boy from Jersey thanks me for giving him the reassurance needed to take Marion Barber over LT, he says, “Papa, you are the man! Earlier this year, just before my draft, I wrote in asking you if it was okay to take Marion Barber over AP and LT – I had the #2 pick and though I thought Barber would be the better back this season, I knew the “value” was with Peterson and Tomlinson. Anyway, after your advice to “go for it” I did grab Barber #2 overall, ahead of LT and Peterson (Brady was picked #1 – hahaha), and right now Barber is easily outscoring both of those guys. I got laughed at during the draft we have at my buddies house, but I just shrugged it off and said, “We’ll see.” Well, we’re seeing right now. Barber is a BEAST! Thanks for the courage!”

You bet Bad Boy – anytime I can help. The funny thing is, in a year where everyone was crawling all over quarterbacks and receivers, four running backs sit atop fantasy land’s scoring highs after Week 3. Reggie Bush, Marion Barber, Michael Turner, and Frank Gore. Brilliant – we were higher than most on all 4 of those guys here at LuckyLester.com, and it’s nice to see our hard work paying off for readers. I still think Barber is the best back in fantasy football as I predicted that he would be the top fantasy back this year. Thanks for the love, but remember, you also thought Barber was the best choice available – you gotta give yourself a little credit, all I needed to do was give you a little push. Good luck the rest of the way!

Dough Slammer from East Carolina writes, “Haha – when I first read this “Barry Sanders and Ahman Green have similar chances to succeed in 2008, so for fun, do draft the former right after the latter is selected,” in your “Dos and Don’ts: Draft Day Trickery!” article I just about pissed my pants… freaking hilarious. Then I started to think about it, and not only are your right, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to do this for the rest of eternity. Anytime somebody does something like this I’m taking Barry Sanders or Bo Jackson, or somebody that was popular back in the day that could still take the ball for 5 yards a carry in their early 40s. Anyway, to my other comment; in that same article you said, “Don’t pick anybody that broke a record last season – the value just isn’t there,” and I couldn’t help but think, this guy is funny, sure, but he’s an idiot – everyone wants Randy Moss and Tom Brady on their team.” Now I’m thinking, okay, this guy is funny and he’s a freaking fortune teller – how did you know they were going to struggle and do you have any other advice for the rest of the season?”

Dough Slammer, a couple things. First of all – your name is to be recognized as a great nickname with epic story lines that could explain why you are indeed called, Dough Slammer. Brilliant. Second, I love your email, it makes me feel all warm and cuddly inside, and appreciate the fact that you appreciate what I’m doing here for next to nothing (My nephew gives me a beer for every article I write – which is nice because I’m not supposed to drink, and he’s the only one that gives me it, but still, next to nothing). Third, I didn’t “KNOW” for sure that Tom and Randy would struggle, but the chances of guys that played every single game of a 19 game season getting hurt are a lot greater than guys who played 14-15 or even 16 games. The Patriots were going all out all the time in every game they played – just more contact, more collisions, and more future problems come from that. But taking a player that just broke a record is never good. First of all, there’s almost 0% chance that they relive those same numbers. And second, everyone else knows about them and wants to have them on their very own fantasy teams. Lastly, I’ll do this one favor for you. Go right to the first Jamal Lewis owner you have in your fantasy leagues, every single one of them, offer that guy or those guys one of your players that is decent, that has played above his pick level, and trade for Lewis if you can. Don’t give up a starter on your team, but for example, you might be able to trade Ronnie Brown for Jamal Lewis and Braylon Edwards (a perfect guy is “pick all the Browns guy” because he should have both Edwards and Lewis right now). Feel good about that trade. Trade Hines Ward for Lewis. Trade Felix Jones for Lewis. Edgerrin James for Lewis – you bet. The point is this. Jamal played pretty well against very tough rush defenses. The hardest part of his schedule is over and he’ll start to put up some big numbers, because just like the Saints last year, the Browns are going to get back to doing what they did in yesteryear, and Lewis is going to be a big time reason why. He’s basically free right now. Make it happen if you can. Good luck the rest of the way Dough Slammer! Keep on reading the good stuff…