Streaming Defenses- Week Three- Titans

The Tennessee Titans’ defense has been stellar thus far this year. They held a game Jacksonville team on the road to sixteen points and followed that up with a dominating performance against the Ravens. The Titans only allowed thirteen points to a Ravens squad that lit up the Steelers the previous week. Tennessee have forced four turnovers and have five sacks on the year and are only giving up 14.5 points per game. Also, the Titans’ defense is only allowing 276 yards per game this year, good for third best in the NFL.

The Titans are at home this week against a weak Denver team. The Tennessee game plan should be pretty simple- make the Broncos who are only averaging 84 rushing yards per game and 3.4 a carry beat them on the ground. Kyle Orton still isn’t playing well and the athletic Titan defensive line should be able to rattle the mediocre quarterback. The Titans’ defense is available is just about every fantasy league and now is the time to pick up the unit if you are unsure of your defense this week. The Saints’ defense is a shaky pick against the Texans as well as the Bears’ defense against Green Bay.

Sell High- Dustin Keller

Dustin Keller may have the second most fantasy points among tight ends in standard leagues but it’s time to sell.

Analysis: Dustin Keller is off to a hot start, it sounds awfully familiar! Last year Keller started the season with FIVE touchdowns in the first four weeks of the season- he did not catch one touchdown in his remaining twelve games. Thus far this year Keller has two touchdowns with 162 receiving yards. First, we have to look at the targets, Keller has fourteen targets on the year- sixth most among tight ends. That actually isn’t that bad but Keller doesn’t have the quarterback to put up top tier fantasy numbers while not being heavily targeted like a Jason Witten. We also have to consider the New York offense has only run the ball an average of twenty-four times per game, which doesn’t put them in the top half of the league in rushing attempts. New York will run the ball more, they averaged 33 rushing attempts in 2010 and 38 in 2009.

Keller is a great athlete and in a better system with a better quarterback he would be a TE1 but as of right now he isn’t. Sell high.

 

September 19th Weekly Release Notes

It is the second edition of my weekly release notes blog post.  Before I move on to the release notes, I’d like to mention that yesterday was a record setting day in terms of traffic for FantasySP.  I suspect more of these record setting days are on the way in the coming weeks so stay tuned.  I want to thank 3 different people for this occasion:

  1. Myself. For ignoring 99% of people’s advice to me about FantasySP and forging ahead because I believe in my vision.
  2. My new wife, Lesley.  She is one of the few people who best understands what its like to run FantasySP.
  3. The users!  Without you guys FantasySP would have ended years ago.
Now onto the release notes for this week:
  • Transactions are live  in your user panel. They have gone through 3 seperate mini design overhauls and I am finally satisfied with how it looks and functions.  If you aren’t familiar, Transactions for each fantasy league are collected and shown here.  You can move back in your league or forward to the latest transactions.
  • ESPN Transactions Added.  As of right now, CBS and ESPN are supported.  I expect to have Yahoo! added by the end of this week.
  • Fantasy Level Disabled.  The fantasy level bar located in the user panel has been disabled for now.  It will have a new home soon enough.
  • News stories should no longer have ‘black diamond’ icons in them.
  • New User Tips disabled.  I felt as though this just made things a bit too busy in the user panel.
  • NFL Fantasy Surprises activated for the 2011 season!
  • NFL stats have been switched over for the 2011 season!
  • Many roster fixes behind the scenes that are incredibly annoying to do but need to be.
  • Fix for CBSSports fantasy syncing.
  • Minor fixes for fantasy team ratings

Panthers Steve Smith is a Must Start

The Carolina Panthers Steve Smith had 6 receptions for 156 receiving yards in a losing effort against the Green Bay Packers.

Analysis: He’s baaaack.  Fantasy owners were leery to start him in week 2 against a solid Packers defense. He had a 59% start percentage in CBS Leagues and a 38% starting percentage in NFL.com fantasy leagues.  He was roughed up and beat up by the Packers, but finally managed to break out in the 4th quarter when the game was nearly decided.  The Panthers have turned into a pass-happy team with Smith getting plenty of targets.  It looks like the old Steve Smith is back and he remains a must start from now on.

Antonio Gates held without a catch for the first time since 2008

Fantasy owners looking for a big game with Antonio Gates were disappointed on Sunday where he did not record a catch in a loss to the Patriots.

Analysis: Surprised? You should be.  This is the first time Gates has been held without a catch since 2008 against the Raiders.  It looked like the Patriots defense was wearing him down throughout the game.  Meanwhile Vincent Jackson had a career day.  Philip Rivers did look Gates’ way a few times and one pass was actually intercepted.  No word yet on if he suffered an injury, but for now we have to assume he is fine going into week 3.

Projection: This is clearly an unusual week for Gates, but expect him to put up solid numbers next week against a horrible Kansas City team.