Buffalo Bills Fantasy Football Analysis – Week 7

Week 7 – @ Jacksonville (London) – L 31-34

QB: Manuel terrible early and late.  A few good throws in the middle but the bad outweighed the good by far.  Horribly inaccurate and hit the opposing team in the chest more than once.  Awful pocket presence.

RB: McCoy looked great but numbers weren’t big.  O line missed a lot of blocks that failed to get him to the second level.  Could have been a monster game otherwise.

WR: Watkins DNP.  Woods a big game making a great TD grab.  Played tough and would be a stud if he played this well every week.  Hogan another nice PPR game.  Not a bad option if a starter is hurt.

TE: Clay held in check and didn’t get many looks.  QB play hurt and should be fine once Taylor is healthy.

OL: Not great and QB play made them look even worse.  Missed a lot of blocks in run game.  Pass blocking was average, at best.

Def: Trampled by the run.  Was getting blown off the line at times and lost the battle in the trenches badly.  QB play helped make passing game look good.  Still couldn’t stop good WRs.  Gave up big games to RB and WRs.  Held TEs to nearly nothing.

Buffalo Bills Fantasy Football Analysis – Week 6

Week 6 – vs Cincy – L 21-34

QB: Taylor DNP.  Manuel looked fine and played pretty well considering opponent.  A decent option if match up is good while Taylor is out.  Still a run first O no matter what.

RB: McCoy a good game and looked great as the work horse.  Moving well again and could be a stud as long as they aren’t losing.  Great situation for him.

WR: Watkins a good game but isn’t completely healthy.  Only a good play when they are going to lose.  His talent just doesn’t matter as much as the O.  Woods an average game but just can’t seem to put it together consistently.

TE: Clay a nice PPR game and continues to look really good.  Catching everything thrown at him right now and should continue to be PPR play.

OL: Playing well in run game and will dominate some games.  Pass protection is shaky at times but not the worst.

Def: Played worse against the run but better against the pass in this one.  Pass rush was nullified.  Wasn’t dominating up front against the run.  Gave up good games to total RBs, #2 WR and TE.  Continuing to get killed by secondary options in passing game.

Buffalo Bills Fantasy Football Analysis – Week 4

Week 4 – vs NYG – L 10-24

QB: Taylor an okay game but looked pretty rattled at times, especially late.  Was scrambling quite a bit and wasn’t able to handle the constant pressure.

RB: McCoy DNP.  Williams a good game because of a receiving TD but wasn’t able to find much room.  Still looked good running it but there just weren’t any holes in this one.

WR: Watkins DNP.  Harvin and Woods did little.  Just weren’t able to make any plays versus the D.  Were covered well all game.

TE: Clay a good game despite having a TD nullified by a penalty.  Looks great right now but match ups have been favorable.  Worth using but not sure he’ll do it against tougher TE Ds.

OL: Pretty bad in this one.  Did nearly nothing for run game and had QB scrambling a lot.  A little concerning how bad they were.

Def: Not great in this one.  Wasn’t really stopping the run.  Mostly contained passing game but still hit for plenty.  Pass rush wasn’t effective.  Gave up good games to RB and #2 and #3 WR.

Buffalo Bills Fantasy Football Analysis – Week 2

Week 2 – vs NE – L 32-40

QB: Taylor a big fantasy game but definitely some problems in this one.  Some bad throws and got sacked a ton.  Does protect himself fairly well on runs but has a long way to go right now, development-wise.

RB: McCoy looked good while Williams snagged another TD.  McCoy will continue to be workhorse but Williams is really interesting.  Has the size and speed to be a stud runner.  Might be one of the best handcuffs in the league.

WR: Watkins and Woods good games while Harvin was average.  Plenty of talent here but it’s going to be difficult to predict who will be the stud every week.  Add in to that a young and inexperienced QB and this is a headache.

TE: Clay nabbed a TD and will produce occasionally like this.  I wouldn’t expect any consistency.

OL: Good run blocking against weak run D.  Terrible pass protection.  Part of that is on young QB but they certainly had trouble with the blitz.

Def: Solid against the run but annihilated by passing game.  This will probably be most games for them against teams that can handle blitz.  Gave up monster games to receiving RB, TE, and #1 WR.  Good game to #2 WR.

Buffalo Bills Week 17 Fantasy Analysis

Week 17 – @ NE – W 17-9

QB: Orton didn’t have to do much and had below-average fantasy game.  Most of his numbers came on first drive.  Running game took over after that.

RB: Jackson an okay game but not great YPC.  Tough match up.  Dixon got the TD but not much else.  Spiller got a few touches but did little.

WR: Watkins a decent game but most came on one play.  Looks like he’d be a stud with a better QB.  Woods a good game getting an easy TD.  Great #2 but probably would struggle as a #1.

TE: Chandler 1 catch.  Bad game partly because of game flow.

OL: Wasn’t doing a ton for rushers.  Good pass protection.

Def: Was getting run over a little.  Mostly contained offense but played against mostly 2nd stringers.  Gave up decent games to RB and #1 WR.  Nothing else.

Buffalo Bills Week 16 Fantasy Analysis

Week 16 – @ Oakland – L 24-26

QB: Orton a good fantasy game but didn’t play great.  A few terrible decisions.  Accuracy was fairly good.

RB: Shutout.  Spiller returned and did little and didn’t look great.  Probably not fully healthy.  Jackson did a ton of damage as a receiver and led team.  Line gave no space on the ground.

WR: Watkins and Woods good games.  Watkins looks really powerful at times.  Woods looks good as well.  Could be an explosive combo with a better QB next season.

TE: Chandler another TD and good game.  Still TD-dependent but a better receiver than he will ever get credit for.

OL: Couldn’t do anything for the running game.  Pretty good pass protection, however.

Def: No pass rush against tough O-line.  Got run on for quite a bit and hit with a few big runs.  Was covering receivers well.  Gave up decent games to RB and WRs.  Held TE to nearly zero.

Grading My Week 15 Last Minute Pickups

Time for the grades for my week 15 pickups.  I may have had a worse week on the picks than this one…but I doubt it.  Ugh.  As always, I’ll be using the projections and scoring from NFL.com.

Pickup of the Week – WR Philly Brown – Projected >130th among WR – Finished T62nd – Grade: D

Newton missed him on a long TD pass and his teammate Cotchery finally scored his first of the season.  Despite this game, I still like how Brown is progressing and think he’ll still be the #2 WR option on this team for now.

QB Jake Locker – Injured – No Grade

Season, and probably career, is over with the Titans.  He’ll be backing up somewhere else next season and here’s hoping the best for him.  I’m sure he’ll pop back into fantasy lineups for a few more hurrahs before all is said and done for him.

WR Robert Woods – Projected 46th among WR – Finished T69th – Grade: F—

Who knew the Bills would upset the Pack and their WRs would play almost no role in doing so?  Still really like Woods and he did make a nice adjustment for one of his two catches in this one.

TE Jace Amaro – Projected 21st among TE – Finished 27th – Grade: F

Really disappointed in this one as he was almost the pickup of the week.  Just wasn’t targeted enough and I’m not sure why.  Then again, Geno Smith is awful…

Washington Defense – Projected 30th among Def – Finished 26th – Grade: F

What’s been a pretty good D-line couldn’t do anything against a bad O-line.  Disappointing but the Giants had a good game-plan: throw it to Beckham every time he is single covered and he’ll catch it.  And he did.  Washington’s secondary looked like grade-schoolers trying to guard him.

Buffalo Bills Week 15 Fantasy Analysis

Week 15 – vs GB – W 21-13

QB: Orton not great but didn’t have to do much as running game and defense did most of the work.  Pass rush got to him a little but he just wasn’t good.  If they were losing, he be benched.

RB: Jackson a good game and looked really good.  Ran very hard and looked good as a receiver.  Really separated himself in this one.

WR: None did much this game.  QB play hurt.  Watkins and Woods did make good catches but not much they can do in a game like this.

TE: Chandler did little.  Same story as WRs.

OL: Pretty solid game.  Wasn’t dominating but did enough to keep clock moving.

Def: Was getting run on for a ton.  Helped by some very key drops and Rodgers being just a little off.  Gave up good games to RB and #2 WR.   Very lucky #1 WR didn’t have huge game.

Last Minute Fantasy Football Pickup of Week 15 – Philly Brown

Didn’t work out last week but I’m saying it again: I think all of these picks have pretty high ceilings this week.  I like the options.

Pickup of the Week – WR Philly Brown – Carolina Panthers – Owned 1% at most on sites (<1% on some)

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Have to like the match up against the Buccaneers who have been lit up through the air this season.  The Bucs have looked better on paper lately but that has been due more to erratic QBs having awful games (Cutler and Dalton, for example) on the other side and not so much their defense.  This should be a pretty high scoring game and Brown has quietly been playing better and becoming a bigger part of the offense every week for the last month.  I think he beats the D for a long one and has a bit of a breakout game this week.  (6-110-1)

Honorable Mentions

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QB Jake Locker – Tennessee Titans –  Owned 7% (<1%)

Locker is auditioning for whatever team is going to sign him in the off-season so I think he has a chance to dig down and play well these last three weeks, all of which are favorable match ups.  (210-2, 35-1 rushing)

WR Robert Woods – Buffalo Bills – Owned 17% (<2%)

Have to assume the Bills will be playing from behind this week against Green Bay, despite how good their defense has played.  I think Woods gets back into the end zone in this one. (5-70-1)

TE Jace Amaro – New York Jets – Owned 10% (<2%)

Returns after a few weeks away and might walk into a good game.  I’m thinking the Jets run the ball 95% of the game against the Titans bad D which will set up play-action on the goal line.  Amaro gets a short TD this week (maybe even 2!) and probably a few more grabs. (5-35-2)

Defense Washington – Owned 11% (<4%)

Haven’t scored a defensive TD all season and a good cure for that is Eli Manning, who might throw his way into the top 20 career INT leaders before the end of next season.  Washington’s defensive front should run over the Giants bad O-line a ton in this one.  (11 fantasy points)

Grading My Last Minute Pickups of Week 14

Time for the grades for my week 14 picks.  Ugly week as all of these picks ended up being on the brink of big games and just missed.  A bit frustrating but that’s fantasy.  As always, I’ll be using the projections and scoring leaders from NFL.com.

Pickup of the Week – WR Robert Woods – Projected 54th among WR – Finished 62nd – Grade: F

Came about 6 inches short of a TD that would have put him into the top 25 WRs for the week.  That ended up as a QB sneak TD for Orton.  Stunning that, with the way Woods has been playing lately, 4 different Bills’ receivers catch at least 7 passes in this game and Woods wasn’t one of them.  Really looked like he had turned a corner in the previous couple games.

QB Shaun Hill – Projected 24th among QB – Finished 17th – Grade: C+

Rams got the early lead and was able to sit on it due to their D.  If Washington’s O could have done anything, this would have been a really good fantasy game for Hill.  Almost…

WR Philly Brown – Projected >125th among WR – Finished 58th – Grade: C-

Appears to me he is definitely the #2 in Carolina now and had an okay game.  Like Hill, his team got an early lead and the Saints proved to be terrible at home and didn’t give much of a fight.  The Panthers just ran the ball down their throat all game and the receivers suffered a bit because of it.  Still really like what he looks like right now.  Might be a big PPR sleeper next season.

WR Marquise Lee – Projected 42nd among WR – Finished T34th – Grade: D+

Like Brown, really starting to emerge by showing some great talent and should be a sleeper going into next season.  Didn’t get a TD in this one but is definitely a big play-type of WR.

Tennessee Titans Defense – Projected 17th among Def – Finished 18th – Grade: D

There aren’t going to by many weeks where a defense gets a pick-6 and finishes as low as the Titans did.  Amazingly, however, they recorded no other stat during the game.