Grading My Week 7 Last Minute Fantasy Football Pickups

Talk about a feast-or-famine week.  Either nailed it or picked a stinker.  Have to console myself by saying my Pickups of the Week have been pretty great most of the season to this point.  At least that’s going well.  Just hose other picks…  As always, I’ll be using the standard projections and scoring found at espn.com for these ratings.  Let’s see how I did!

20-50% owned tier

Pickup of the Week – WR Danny Amendola – New England Patriots – Projected 62nd at WR – Finished 10th – Grade: A+++

Another big game and looked great.  Looks like he’ll lose some production to Lafell now as the Pats seem to want to feed Lafell no matter what.  Amendola deserves more but I’m not sure he’ll get it.  Too bad.  Still might be a sneaky play when the match up is right like this one was.

Honorable Mentions

QB Jameis Winston – Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Projected 26th at QB – Finished 10th – Grade: A+

Looking better every week and is definitely a nice match up play.  If he gets on track with Evans and gets his other receivers healthy, he’ll have some monster games on occasion the rest of season.

TE Dwayne Allen – Indianapolis Colts – Projected 29th at TE – Finished 33rd – Grade: F

They keep throwing the ball to Fleener and I have no idea why.  Allen is suffering because of that and it’s a shame.  Should be far better than this.

New York Giants Defense – Projected 25th at D – Finished 3rd – Grade: A+++

Quietly a very good fantasy D and I’m patting myself on the back for calling this one in my preseason rankings.  Projected them top 10 and they are sitting tied for 10th in ESPN scoring at this moment.

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Owned 20% or Less

Pickup of the Week – QB Kirk Cousins – Washington NFL Franchise – Projected 23rd at QB – Finished 2nd – Grade: A+++

Good match up and he abused the D getting his star TE back healthy.  Wouldn’t trust him much since I’m not a big believer in his talent.  But good match ups are going to work even for players like him.

Honorable Mentions

RB Branden Oliver – San Diego Chargers – Projected 26th at RB – Finished 29th – Grade: F

Disappointed as the Chargers got blown out early by the Raiders.  Certainly didn’t expect that so bad call here.  Chargers are seemingly the most erratic team in fantasy this season.  Would hate owning anyone on that team outside of Rivers right now.

WR Brian Quick – St. Louis Rams – Projected 73rd at WR – Finished with Zero – Grade: F—

They tried going deep to him…once.  And a penalty was called.  Still think he’s worth keeping an eye on but this was a huge disappointment to me.  Really thought he’d have a good one after the bye.

Oakland Raiders Defense – Projected 28th at D – Finished 22nd – Grade: D

Would have been a good game had they not given up 23 fourth quarter points.  Was smiling about this pick for the first 45 minutes of that game…

Tennessee Titans Fantasy Football Analysis – Week 7

Week 7 – vs Atlanta – L 7-10

QB: Mettenberger was terrible and is certainly no threat to Mariota.  Tough match up but he still made some bad decisions and throws.  Nothing to consider unless match up was amazing.

RB: Andrews an okay game and McCluster a good PPR game.  Nothing overly exciting about Andrews.  Not incredibly fast or powerful.  Reminds me of Zac Stacy in a worse situation.

WR: Wright a good game nabbing a TD but not a ton else.  Covered well and just couldn’t make many plays.  Hunter had one of the worst drops of the season.  Not seeing a #2 WR right now.

TE: Walker an average game and still a good PPR option.  Needs others to take some pressure off.  Can’t make too many plays when he’s blanketed so closely.

OL: Decent game overall.  Kept QB up but wasn’t great.  Gave space for runners on limited carries.  Team probably should have run a lot more in this one.

Def: Trampled by sizzling run game.  Played well against the pass.  No pass rush.  Helped by off game by QB and WRs.  Gave up good game to RB and #1 WR.

Atlanta Falcons Fantasy Football Analysis – Week 7

Week 7 – @ Tennessee – W 10-7

QB: Did not play well on top of receivers doing him no favors.  Bad game against emerging D that wasn’t all his fault.  Wouldn’t be overly worries but this team is still erratic on the road.  Should always be a little cautious.

RB: Freeman awesome again and looks great.  Is patient and exploding through holes.  No reason to stop riding him.  Team should keep feeding him like they are.

WR: Jones a big game but took a ton of targets to do it.  Definitely not 100% right now and it’s obvious.  Would be cautious with him until he starts making plays again.

TE: Tamme did little and will continue to be nothing more than a gamble.

OL: Continues to play well but not dominating anyone.  Doing just enough to get by and will probably have ugly games on the road against elite defensive fronts.

Def: Helped by bad O.  Wasn’t great against struggling run game.  Coverage was decent but nothing special.  Pass rush did little as well.  Gave up good PPR games to RB, #1 WR, and TE.

Detroit Lions Fantasy Football Analysis – Week 7

Week 7 – vs Minnesota – L 19-28

QB: Stafford killed by protection as pass rush was crushing him all game long.  Threw it pretty well considering the circumstances.  Decent game as receivers made some plays for him.

RB: Abdullah okay numbers but not enough touches to matter much for fantasy.  Line hurts and it doesn’t appear he would be able to handle full load.  Will be boom-or-bust rest of season.

WR: Johnson a big game and looked great.  Making great plays and seems to be 100% healthy right now.  Tate did little and just didn’t get great throws in this one.  Need to get him the ball more.

TE: Ebron a good game and was very good here.  Has the ability to make huge plays and did it in this one.  Could be a monster in the right match up.

OL: Awful.  Was decent on limited runs but atrocious in protection.  Looked like they were stuck in the mud and playing against track stars on some plays.

Def: Decent pass rush.  Except for one big play, decent game against the run.  Got wore down.  Coverage was decent but got burned a few times.  Gave up good games to RB and #2 WR.

Minnesota Vikings Fantasy Football Analysis – Week 7

Week 7 – @ Detroit – W 28-19

QB: Bridgewater a good game but line continues to struggle in protection.  Is extremely accurate when he gets time.  Team needs to figure out how to keep him up.

RB: Peterson a good game and is still the best pure runner in the league.  Line did nothing for him as most of his yards came on one play.

WR: Diggs another big game and made incredible catch on TD.  Looks legit and is definitely the Charles Johnson of this season for this team.  Wallace hald in check but will be fine as Diggs opens things up for him.

TE: Rudolph a TD but little else.  Worth the gamble most weeks but it appears his ceiling is incredibly low.  Will probably have to block more and more if line play doesn’t get better quick.

OL: Awful.  Couldn’t run block and protection was awful.  Would be a very explosive offense if this was even a decent unit instead of a terrible one.

Def: Pass rush dominated.  Was crushing O line.  Wasn’t great against the run or in coverage.  Was getting beat for 50/50 balls by great receivers.  Gave up good games to #1 WR and TE.