Empty the Bench

There are many similarities between playing fantasy football and playing the stock market. To master both, it’s crucial to have your finger on the pulse of the market and to try to buy low and to sell high with your assets (or players). You want to avoid paying over market value for your players or stocks, and getting in early on an emerging stud can make your portfolio blossom… or in this case, make your fantasy roster win a title.

With that theme in mind, ETB pours through all the action that was Week 6 in the NFL and prepares you for Week 7 of the fantasy football season with reports on players who saw their value rise and fall.

Big Gainers:

Adrian Peterson, RB, Minnesota Vikings: It’s not easy to overshadow LaDainian Tomlinson on a day where he goes for over 200 yards combined and four touchdowns, but that’s exactly what Peterson did. With his rare combination of elite vision, strength, speed, and agility, the rookie from Oklahoma is already being called one of the league’s best running backs after absolutely shredding the Bears’ once-vaunted rush defense on Sunday. One more time to help it sink in: 20 carries, 224 yards rushing, and three long TD runs. The sky is the limit; here’s what Neon Deion had to say about him on the NFL Network: “He has the vision of a Marshall Faulk, the power of a Terrell Davis, and the speed of an Eric Dickerson,” Sanders said. “Let’s pray he has the endurance of an Emmitt Smith.”

Derek Anderson, QB, Cleveland Browns: This is amazing–after six weeks of fantasy football action, the 2005 sixth-round pick out of Oregon State is now ranked third overall in fantasy production at his position behind just Tom Brady and Tony Romo. He’s thrown at least 2 TD passes four out of six games–including Week 2 when he had five–has only been sacked six times, and has also tacked on a few rushing TDs. Unless those stretch pants cut off the circulation to HC Romeo Crennel’s head, it doesn’t look like we’ll be seeing Brady Quinn this season. With the way he’s playing, the franchise QB might already be on the field.

Maurice Jones-Drew, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars: He’ll likely not put up the kind of stats that second-round fantasy picks should, but after a slow start to his sophomore campaign Jones-Drew is finally starting to produce. He put up 260 all-purpose yards on Sunday (including kick returns) against the Texans, and has now rushed for over 200 yards with 3 TDs over the past two weeks combined. MJD is a major home-run threat–he’s broken off runs of 52 and 57 yards, respectively, over this stretch–and seems more durable than his veteran counterpart Fred Taylor, below. We’re not ready to call him a strong RB2 just yet, but he’s at least elevated himself to the head of the flex-play class.

T.J. Houshmanzadeh, WR, Cincinnati Bengals: Ocho Cinco makes all the headlines in the Bengals’ high-octane passing game, but so far Houshmanzadah has been the one providing more consistency and more scores. After his monster game on Sunday against the Chiefs (8 catches, 145 yards, 2 TDs), the 2001 seventh-round pick is on pace to break the NFL record for most receptions in a season. (To be fair, Derrick Mason is two ahead of him with 49.) Neither of your ETB generals were able to nab Houshmanzadeh in our respective fantasy drafts, but we’re both wishing we had. He’s perhaps the only guy in the league that’s second on his team’s depth chart, but a strong fantasy WR1.

DeAngelo Williams, RB, Carolina Panthers: It’s about time. We’ve been waiting for this all year: a lackluster showing by incumbent starter DeShaun Foster paired with a breakout game by the shifty second-year player out of Memphis. With Vinny Testaverde behind center against the Cards, the Panthers were expected to run the ball more than usual, and Williams responded with a career-high 121 rushing yards on just 10 carries, along with a TD. We’re actually surprised he didn’t catch any short swing passes, but those will come in time. John Fox, we know you’re a diehard ETB reader: pay us back for all that free fantasy advice we’ve given you over the past few months by continuing to feature this lightening bug.

David Garrard, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars: With both Jon Kitna and Ben Roethlisberger on byes, I had to comb the waiver wire for a plug-in play and settled on Garrard at home in a so-so matchup against the Texans. I wasn’t expecting anything too crazy, but in his first full-year as the unquestioned starter in Jacksonville, the 6-2 Garrard plays smart, i.e. doesn’t turn the ball over, and tacks on rushing yards too (134 on the season). He didn’t disappoint: Garrard has now thrown 136 passes this season without an interception, and finished Sunday’s contest 22-34 for 221 yards, 2 TDs, 26 yards rushing, and a 102.7 QB Rating. There’s no doubt whatsoever that HC Jack del Rio and the Jags’ front office made the right move by cutting ties with underachiever Byron Leftwich and rolling with Garrard.

Devin Hester, WR, Chicago Bears: The Vikings were well on their way to pulling their record up to 2-3, and then blam-o! Devin Hester gets separation between himself and Minnesota’s secondary and goes for an 81-yard touchdown pass. The Vikings won, but Lovie Smith and the Bears may have finally found a way to get the incredibly talented Hester involved in the offense after weeks of promising it. We’ve laughed at people starting Hester on their fantasy squad–and they deserved it–but he’s made his case for more touches on offense, and we all know what he can do with the ball. Let’s see how many he gets in Philly this week.

Kellen Clemens, QB, New York Jets: It’s still too early to tell whether HC Eric Mangini will make the right decision to bench Chad Pennington and usher in the Kellen Clemens Era, but it appears that he’s going to stick with his depressing veteran for at least one more week. It doesn’t matter–Pennington is not long for the starter’s job and in the preseason and limited regular season duty, Clemens has looked great. He’s a speculative add right now and no sure thing to produce when he does take over, but his stock is up and if you’re hurting for QB help, get him on your radar.

Big Losers:

Shaun Alexander, RB, Seattle Seahawks: There must be something wrong with the former elite fantasy performer that we don’t know about. Maybe the foot that he broke last year is hurting more than he’s letting on. Perhaps that cast on his hand is uncomfortable and he’s letting it get to his head. Whatever it is, he’s not a very exciting player to watch right now and is barely a shadow of his former self. He was so bad Sunday night against the Saints (14 carries, 35 yards rushing) that the team turned to second-year player Leonard Weaver, who carried the rock 3 times for 40 yards and caught 4 passes for 53. We’re pretty sure we heard John Madden say “ew” twice after one of Alexander’s carries.

Chad Pennington, QB, NY Jets: You know how we feel about him. We talk about him all the time, and outside of one strong matchup we threw him a bone for a few weeks ago, we think he’s one of the worst overall starting quarterbacks in the NFL. Most yards and/or TDs he’s associated with happen because of the work his running back or wide receiver did. It’s not a question of “if” but “when” as to how much longer until he’s relegated to clipboard duty. We wouldn’t be surprised if he’s released or traded.

Chester Taylor, RB, Minnesota Vikings: This one’s pretty self-explanatory. Adrian Peterson has arrived, and unless he’s traded–which seems unlikely–Taylor’s most valuable as a handcuff in case AP goes down. Sure, he had 22 carries for 83 yards against the Bears on Sunday, but he’s only getting burn because Brad Childress suffers from that weird veteran loyalty thing that plagues a number of NFL head coaches. His touches will decrease more and more as the season goes on… but heard from teammate Erasmus James that Taylor swings a mean metal chair.

Najeh Davenport, RB, Pittsburgh Steelers: Oh, Dumpy Davenport. What have you gone and done this time? Just when it looked like the bruising backup to Fast Willie Parker had definitively earned more touches in the Steelers’ offense, he goes and pulls something pretty wacky. No, he wasn’t dropping a deuce in someone’s closet this time–last week Davenport was formerly charged with domestic violence, child endangering, and unlawful restraint in a custody-related confrontation with the mother of his 5-year-old son. Classy. He has not been arrested yet, and hey, innocent until proven guilty, but something tells us we’ll be seeing less of Mr. Davenport in the near future.

Rudi Johnson, RB, Cincinnati Bengals: This hamstring problem is really getting to be troubling. Drafted in the first round of your fantasy draft, the previously durable Johnson is off to a terrible start to his ‘07 campaign, still looking for his first rushing TD and totaling just 185 yards on the ground with a poor 3.0 YPC. He’s also lost two fumbles. Making matters worse, backup Kenny Watson has acquitted himself respectably in fill-in duty and is a better receiver than Johnson, a key skill in the Bengals’ offense. There was no reason to think Johnson wouldn’t be a workhorse for Cincinnati again, but it just hasn’t happened yet and might not for the rest of the year.

Fred Taylor, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars: With every long run that MJD breaks, Taylor becomes less and less relied upon as a featured back in Jacksonville. There’s various reasons that neither of us have ever owned Taylor on our fantasy squads–his injury history and inconsistent production at times, namely–but he’s stuck around for 10 years now and can still get it done in fits and spells. That said, his days as “the guy” may be behind him; he’s yet to score a rushing TD in ‘07 and hasn’t received more than 17 carries in one game either. You can’t consider Taylor more than an average flex play unless MJD gets injured.

Sell High:

Larry Johnson, RB, Kansas City Chiefs: LJ owners might not be keen on trading away their first-round pick investment after waiting this long for some production, but his value is at the highest it’s been all year.

Adrian Peterson, RB, Minnesota Vikings: If you want LT, now is the time to go out and get him because AP might be the only back in the NFL right now you can offer for him without getting your proposal laughed at.

Stevonne Smith, WR, Carolina Panthers: It’s tough trading away a playmaker like Smith, it’s physically painful to do, but at this point I’m looking for suitors who are willing to buy him at value. If I can get a second- or third-round value, I’m selling. Delhomme is out for the year, David Carr sucks and is injured, and Vinny Testaverde turned 44 years of age on Sunday.

Buy Low:

David Garrard, QB, Jacksonville Jaguars: He may even be on waivers, and teams in deep leagues with only so-so quarterbacks could do much worse.

Santana Moss, WR, Washington Redskins: Moss is one of the NFC’s best playmakers at his position, and Jason Campbell is making strides every week. Don’t be scared off by his lack of production lately.

D.J. Hackett, WR, Seattle Seahawks: Hackett is more of “put him on your radar” guy and is likely on waivers. During the offseason the ‘Hawks had Hackett penciled in as a starter before he succumbed to injury. He could be back as early as this week, however, and has the talent to put up solid numbers for the second half of the fantasy season.

Laurence Maroney, RB, New England Patriots: We’re assuming that Maroney will see the field again this year. I mean, it has to happen, right? Are we all in agreement that he’s not really injured enough to miss three straight games? If/when he’s back, the second-year back should be fresh and ready to roll in the Pats’ prolific offense.

More Week Seven Fantasy Advice:

ETB’s Week Seven Matchups

ETB’s Week Seven Quick Hits

ETB’s Week Seven Position Rankings

ETB’s Week Seven Cheat Sheet