Empty the Bench

You have fantasy football problems, we have expert advice. We’ve been receiving (and answering) many many fantasy football questions lately in the comments, so to serve the greater good we’ll collect them all in one place every Saturday and make it easier for you, loyal reader, to find them.

Some of these Q&A’s will pertain to your fantasy roster; many of them will not. If you have a question for us, drop a direct email to brian@emptythebench.com no later than 3pm on Fridays and we’ll do our best to address your question in the mailbag. Or you can feel free to post it somewhere in the comments. Please understand that volume will dictate whether or not we get to everyone. And, of course, if you have friends bugging you on who to start and who to bench every week, tell ‘em about ETB and we’ll fix their wagon. Fix it real good.

As always, we try to tell you what moves have the greatest probability of success. We’re not (technically) clairvoyant. Keep in mind that the right decision is the one that has the greatest probability of producing the desired results, not the one that actually does. Trading Brandon Jacobs for LT is the right move, even if LT breaks his leg on Sunday. Hitting with 20 showing is the wrong move, even if there’s an ace on top of the deck.

Onto the questions… names have been changed to protect the innocent.

I think you guys are the best. Question: do you guys think Shaun Alexander is a
bust this year? I was going trade him for Jones-Drew and some other players involved. My thinking is that Alexander gets all the carries and JD shares with Fred Taylor. I would appreciate your opinion on this. Thank you for your time.

- Rupert Pupkin, New York, NY

Andrew:
If I hadn’t been watching the Seahawks this year I’d say it was too early to call somebody with Shaun Alexander’s track record a bust. Unfortunately, I have seen a lot of Alexander and he looks terrible. He just doesn’t have any burst, isn’t breaking tackles and the offensive line isn’t what it used to be. He looks like a worn down 30-year-old running back that has already signed the last big contact of his career. If you can get anywhere near first-round value for him, take the deal.

It all hinges on who you would get in addition to MJD though. Jones-Drew is a mid-level RB2 going forward who has the natural talent to explode on any given week, which is more than you can say for Alexander. If your trading partner is willing to include another borderline starter at any position, take the deal. If I were you I would wait to see what Shaun does this weekend against the Rams, then deal him before the bye week. If you intend to win your league, you don’t want to start Alexander in the championship game against the Ravens.

If you could pick two WRs out of Brandon Marshall, Hines Ward, Santana Moss, and Dwayne Bowe who would it be? I currently have Bowe and Marshall, but the others are available on the WW. Thanks!

- Hercules Rockefeller, Latrobe, PA

Andrew:
I’d go with Moss and Marshall. The news of Javon Walker’s new surgery means Marshall is the main man in Denver’s passing game, even if they face a tough Pittsburgh defense. We’re huge fans of this kid here at ETB: he’s got tremendous size to go with his good athleticism and hands. He’s a prototypical redzone WR who has an obvious connection with Jay Cutler. We also think Santana Moss should shake off his early-season struggles and post solid numbers this week against a very average Cardinals secondary, and Antwaan Randle El won’t be playing at full speed.

Nmandi Asamugha will likely draw Bowe for a bulk of the game, and that means the rookie should be kept in check. We think he’s a great player, but you have better options this week. Hines Ward may or may not draw Champ Bailey, but we need to see him play before we start him over guys like Marshall and Moss– especially playing on the road against the NFL’s best pass defense.

I’ve got Crayton, Roy Williams, Cotchery, Santana Moss and Javon Walker. Which 3 should I play this week? I’m thinking of benching Moss and Walker…

- Chesty La Rue, Alamagordo, NM

Andrew:
We recommend benching Javon Walker this week (and maybe dropping him if you’re a pessimist), so that leaves the other four. Of those, we’d roll with Roy Williams, Patrick Crayton and Santana Moss. By the way, you have a very nice stable of receivers there.

We talked about Moss above, and we’re especially fond of Roy and Crayton this week. Cotchery is also a solid option, but Pennington appears to lock in on on Laveranues Coles when the Jets get close– despite the fact that Cotchery has looked much better than Coles after the catch this year. For my money, Roy Williams is one of the ten most talented wide receivers on the planet and needs to be started every week even if they face the stingy Tampa secondary. Patrick Crayton has carried over his solid play from last season and the production is legit. He has great hands and works in traffic, but he also has big-play ability. Crayton will line up across from Cedric Griffin on Sunday, and a lot of receivers have been making the second-year corner look silly in coverage this season.

This is one of those good problems to have, but I’m curious on your take on it. I have Moss, Welker and Crayton starting, but I have Kevin Curtis on the bench. A) Should I bench Welker for Curtis, B) am I giving Crayton too much credit, or C) Bears D eats up Philly’s OLine? BTW, great job on the site. It’s pretty much a daily read for me, thanks.

- Handsome B. Wonderful, Springfield, KY

Brian:
We’re going to go ahead and assume that all these ETB readers with stacked decks at WR have compiled such lineups based on the incredible, free fantasy advice we’ve been doling out all year. Seriously–every other letter seems to fall under the “Good Problem to Have” category.

At any rate, your questions:

A) Yes, we think you should bench the former white man in favor of the latter one. While we all know the Patriots are going to light up the scoreboard on Sunday, we also know they’ll likely be running the ball a ton in the second half. That means Welker could have a small window of TD opportunity, while Curtis will be active all game and has more upside to go off against the very beatable Bears secondary.

B) Crayton is hot right now, and like Andrew said above he’ll likely draw Cedric Griffin, who looked drunk at times last week against the Bears and cannot keep up with Crayton in man-coverage. With the way Romo and the Cowboys’ passing attack is performing, we think you’d be crazy to bench him against the league’s worst pass defense.

C) Mark Anderson & Co. are great pass rushers, and they’ll probably get some sacks, but I don’t think it’ll be enough to significantly affect Curtis’ production.

I have Thomas Jones (coming off a good game and is playing against 27th ranked Bengals D), Lamont Jordan (who seems to put up numbers EVERY week) and Laurence Maroney (with no Sammy Morris but has yet to be confirmed as playing). What do you think? I can only take 2 of them.

- Busty St. Claire, Oakland, CA

Andrew:
For right now, pencil in Jordan and Jones. That way if you drink too much on Saturday and oversleep you’re unlikely to have a guy who isn’t playing in your starting lineup. Unfortunately, with his bad back Jordan could also be a late scratch this week so you need to be sure to check the reports on Sunday morning.

If all three end up playing, we advise you go with Jordan and Maroney. Thomas Jones has a nice matchup, but he’s going to need to show us more than one good week before we start counting on him again.

The Raiders seem committed to keeping Jordan involved, as evidenced by his 24 touches last week. The Chiefs are giving up 117.7 yard on 4.3 YPC, so they can be beat on the ground and the new regime in Oakland seems to understand what a weapon he can be in the passing game. We also expect the improved KC pass defense to keep Daunte from doing much downfield.

As for Maroney, if he’s going to start he needs to be in your lineup. The Dolphins are the second-worst rushing defense in the NFL (168.5 yards per game), and they give up over 30 points a game as a whole. Sammy Morris won’t be around to vulture carries, and we expect the Pats to get a lead in the first half and rush for most of the second half.

Couple questions for you guys. What’s your take on LaMont Jordan’s matchup vs. the Chiefs this week? Seems like the Chiefs will try to stuff the Raiders running game and force Culpepper to throw.

Also, what’s your assessment on Frank Gore’s situation with the Niners. With the passing game non-existent at this point do you think he’ll be able to produce at all when every defense they play will key in on him? Thanks.

- World B. Free, Denver, CO

Brian:
I think Andrew pretty much covered Jordan’s situation against the Chiefs, above. As for Gore, it’s obviously going to be tough as long as Trent “Feed Me, Seymour” Dilfer is behind center. Fortunately, it looks like Alex Smith should be ready to go by next week’s game at home against the woeful Saints. From then on out, Gore should find more running room than he has with poor rushing defenses in St. Louis, Carolina, Cincinnati, Atlanta, etc on tap. Honestly, though, if he has a big game against the Saints–like 150 yards and 2 TDs big–his value will be high and I’d see what’s available in trade. Like you said, he’s going to be behind the 8 ball as long until the 49ers start having some success through the air.

More Free Week 7 Fantasy Goodness:

Week Seven Position Rankings

Week Seven Matchups

Week Seven Stock Report

Week Seven Quick Hits

Week Seven Cheat Sheet

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