UK American Sports Fantasy: Football Start or Sit Week 8 (Thursday)
It’s Thursday and that means Football is back again this time for week 8. The football fun starts with Tampa Bay vs Carolina with the two teams seemingly heading in opposite directions this season and that is a bad omen for the neutral in tonight’s (technically tomorrow’s) game with all signs pointing towards an easy win for Carolina. However, even if it does turn out to be the one sided game pundit’s fear it could be then we always have the wonderful fantasy football to cling too in the dying moments of the game. Ok Ok I accept if you’re a Doug Martin owner watching this game then fantasy football is far from wonderful but as you will see in my Sunday article you aren’t alone in that player loss.
Bye Week Reminder: San Diego, Baltimore, Houston, Tennessee, Indianapolis, Chicago
QB’s
Newton: Safe Start. The have started using him as a running threat again and that has greatly improved his fantasy points potential over when he was being used as strictly a passing commodity. The Bucs defence gave up big points to Ryan last week and I expect Newton to have a similarly successful day.
Glennon: Deep League Start. The Panthers have a decent defence but Glennon will try and force feed Jackson and that gives him the opportunity to have big passing numbers and a couple of TD’s. He is likely to need to throw 35+ times once again this week but some of them could be completed to the other team and that’s why he is a deep league start at best.
RB’s
Williams: Safe Start. Still the #1 in this offence until Stewart is back but the lack of goal line carries will always worry fantasy owners. I would expect 70-100 yards on the ground + a few catches but he will have to go from deep to score a TD.
James: Flex Player. With Martin out James is the man in Tampa but this is a tough matchup which made me debate dropping him a tier. However, the running back pool is so depleted this week James stays a flex player.
Tolbert: Deep League Start. Won’t do much other than vulture TD’s and convert short yardage but a vulture is a valuable if inconsistent commodity in fantasy
Leonard: 20+ Team Leagues Only. Rumours that he could be the passing down back but he has been that at times this season and hasn’t done much with it so don’t expect much.
WR’s
Smith: Safe Start. Newton will look for him a lot and I expect him to score a TD especially if Tampa sticks with using Revis in a zone set up rather than man to man on the opposition’s best player.
Jackson: Safe Start. Glennon will force feed him and Carolina do not have a shutdown corner. Expect at least 10 targets and a TD.
LaFell: Deep League Start. LaFell is inconsistent and that’s what stops him being a flex in a week like this. Add in that this is a Thursday night game and the saying I introduced last week “when in doubt Thursdays out” leads me to keep him in the deep tier.
Williams: Deep League Start. Williams made a steady if unspectacular return last week but with an extra weeks practice with Glennon he should see more looks and be more in sync with his QB.
TE’s
Olsen: Deep League Start. He was touted as a potential top 5 TE at the start of the year but he has struggled to live up to that so far and I don’t see them making him a bigger part of the offence this week.
Wright: Deep League Start. Had a good week two weeks ago without Williams but lost looks last week when he returned. With Williams healthy again this week it’s unlikely those looks will return so he remains a deep league play only for me.
Defence
Carolina: They are in a nice position in that Tampa Bay have a an inexperienced quarter back and running back so they do not have to oversell towards one and risk being hit heavily by the other. They should be a top 10 defence this week with a couple of interceptions.
Tampa Bay: They insist on playing a zone defence when they have one of the best man cover corners in the game and while they were good against the run last week they still gave up two passing TDs to running backs. Even with six teams on bye I don’t seem them being a top 12 defence with Newton ripping them to shreds
So once again there is my short and sweet preview of this week’s Thursday night game and I will have my tiers available later in the week. As per usual you can ask me any questions you have either using the twitter icon or the comments section below.