Every week during the season, our good friend Pete "The Greek" Karagianis goes in-depth on his top rankings for the week, with a clearer picture as to why each player is listed the way he is. Enjoy!
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Ah, yes! The halfway point of the fantasy season has arrived. And as such, it’s time to dole out some midseason awards before getting to the meat of our top-75. I have labored long and hard over the following categories and winners, and of course, all results are final, absolute, written in stone, and so on and so forth.
Mid-Season Fantasy Football Awards
1. The Samkon Gado Award for Shortest Flash of Fantasy Relevance
Since dropping 25 points in week one, Jared Cook has a high-water mark on the season of… (Drum roll please)... 4. That’s right. Four. And guess who’s throwing him the ball now? The indombitable Kellen Clemens. Oh dear.
2. The Shaun Alexander Award for “What the hell happened?”
Remember a couple years ago when Chris Johnson was CJ2K? Then all the CJ1K jokes came about? Then the CJ0K jokes? Well, the Titans are now a winning NFL team with semi-respectable quarterback play and still can’t get anything going with CJforget-the-K. Only this edition of CJ-Bench-K could turn 50 carries in the first two games of the season into… 16 total fantasy points. Yikes.
3. Rookie of the (Half) Year
At this point, it looks like it has to be Eddie Lacy. Talent plus opportunity equals fantasy goodness and, you know, there’s that Aaron Rodgers guy to keep defenses honest. However, I could see this award getting extremely competitive during the second half of the season, with a race to the wire between Lacy, Andre Ellington, and Le’Veon Bell. And if we’re talking relative to draft value/position, Ellington seems a serious contender.
4. The Kenny Britt Award for “Talent not Equaling Production”
Soooo many possible names could have won this one, but how about you, Trent Richardson! The Alabama product even found himself with the starting gig for a very competent offense that wanted to run first and still is killing your fantasy team. If we were redrafting this season, would T-Rich even be in the top 50? No, that is a serious question.
5. Least Valuable Player Award
While this category again features a host of names that could all easily be eligible, I think consensus preseason top-5 and frequent fantasy underachiever CJ Spiller is currently taking home the trophy. The Spiller/Fred Jackson saga continues and CJ’s injury woes have not yet left him behind. Go look at all the teams in all your leagues currently in last or second-to-last place. How many of them have Spiller rostered?
6. Most Valuable Player Award
The midseason fantasy MVP? Again a tough choice. To select my MVP I must consider everything-- not only production-to-date but also draft cost. Who is the one guy who you didn’t have to pay a lot for (or draft too early) who has been absolutely stunning fantasy-wise week-in and week-out? Actually, the selection is simpler than it seems: Knowshon Moreno. Moreno (not to my surprise, if you read earlier top-75s) won the main role in the Broncos pre-season 3-headed running back mess despite being drafted 5-6 rounds behind the more trendy Montee Ball. Since, all he’s done is become the second-highest scoring RB in all of fantasy. If he can equal this for the second half, he will win fantasy titles for many a team.
Alright, now to the ranks…
Week 9 Top 75
1. Jamaal Charles
2. Adrian Peterson
3. Matt Forte
4. Marshawn Lynch
5. Dez Bryant
6. Eddie Lacy
7. Alfred Morris
8. Lesean McCoy
9. Darren McFadden
10. Jimmy Graham
11. Jordy Nelson
12. Le’Veon Bell
13. Ray Rice
14. Arian Foster
15. Pierre Garcon
What (More) Can I Say (Say)?
Well, is it obvious this is a bye week? Darren McFadden, Le’Veon Bell, Fred Jackon, Pierre Garcon, and sadly, even Ray Rice are not frequent top-15 names. This just in: the Bears can’t stop anybody. I strongly doubt they go up to Green Bay and suddenly produce a defensive masterpiece. Yes, I really like Run-DMC this week. Call it a hunch, but he’s healthy and producing. Also, I think San Diego at Washington could be a very interesting game from a fantasy perspective. I like all of the players going in that one.
16. Demarco Murray
17. Fred Jackson
18. Brandon Marshall
19. Josh Gordon
20. Jordan Cameron
21. Keenan Allen
22. Ryan Matthews
23. Rob Gronkowski
24. Antonio Brown
25. Desean Jackson
26. Jordan Reed
27. Vincent Jackson
28. Andre Johnson
29. Terrance Williams
30. Tony Gonzalez
Further Down the Rabbit Hole…
That’s how I feel in these bye-heavy weeks: like we’re going further and further down the rabbit hole. As mentioned previously, I like all the main weapons in the Chargers-’Skins tilt, including Jordan Reed, who I think continues to emerge this week. I really don’t know what to do with the Jacksons: Desean may have Matt Barkley throwing to him (though it seems Foles may play) and Vincent goes up against a very stout Seahawks secondary. Nonetheless, it seems you’re probably using both of them anyway.
31. Zac Stacy
32. Harry Douglas
33. Chris Johnson
34. Steve Smith
35. Denarius Moore
36. Martellus Bennett
37. Stevan Ridley
38. Jason Witten
39. Antonio Gates
40. Danny Woodhead
41. Jarret Boykin
42. Torrey Smith
43. TY Hilton
44. Greg Olsen
45. Alshon Jeffery
Tight End Explosion, Part 3
Yeah, yeah. I’m a huge fan of using tight ends at the flex position this season, and you’ll find a host of them between 31 and 45 this week. I don’t think any of the Bears weapons suffer that big of a setback with Josh McCown under center, especially in another game which I expect to be shootout-worthy. Is it obvious I’m down on the Ravens? If it isn’t, I’m down on all Ravens until they get themselves figured out. I think TY Hilton is the biggest beneficiary of the Reggie Wayne injury, but Darrius Heyward-Bey should be just fine, too.
46. Darren Sproles
47. Mike Tolbert
48. Chris Ivory
49. Golden Tate
50. Steve Johnson
51. Steven Jackson
52. Marques Colston
53. Darrius Hewyard-Bey
54. Coby Fleener
55. CJ Spiller
56. Kendall Wright
57. Danny Amendola
58. Pierre Thomas
59. Brandon Bolden
60. Deangelo Williams
61. Jacquizz Rodgers
62. Kenny Stills
63. Dwayne Bowe
64. Kyle Rudolph
65. Emmanuel Sanders
66. Greg Jennings
67. James Jones
68. Heath Miller
69. Roy Helu
70. Bilal Powell
71. Willis McGahee
72. Jeremy Kerley
73. Deandre Hopkins
74. Nate Washington
75. Marlon Brown
No Comment
That’s how I feel about this final 30. Look, this is the week where you are glad you have depth. This is the week where you are happy you made smart waiver claims, drafted well, and don’t have a bench full of injuries.
If you don’t? Well, best of luck.
See you in week 10. As always you can tweet me: @petethegreekff