Week 7 Sleepers: The cracks beginning to form the last few weeks have given way to blazing alarms of distress. Your team is in trouble, structural integrity is at 42 percent, a brick has officially formed in your pants. I’m not talking about these sorry 2-3 teams; you already knew you were in trouble. I’m talking about the undefeated or top-ranked squads out there – the current Theokoles of the Fantasy Football arena – ripe for a fall, proven to be beatable.
“For lo”, the Fantasy Gods boomed, “the season is sixteen weeks my child”. Those league-leading managers must be rubbing their rump this Tuesday, if they have managed to hold onto that lead. Taking away a single piece, like Michael Thomas, from these teams is like taking away a leg from a table; poor planning at its finest. You should be encouraged as we begin our descent into playoff territory that no one is immune to Bad Luck’s trickery and hubristic planning – time to hedge against these mistakes.
[Also See: Week 7 Streaming Defenses | Week 7 Waiver Wire Pickups]
Planning for the stretch and playoff position should be a top priority moving forward at this point in the season. Planning ahead in an intelligent manner will be a big deciding factor in your success every year. Home versus away games, weather, matchup, short week – there are a myriad of data points you should be paying attention to so you can audible your lineup accordingly. There is almost nothing worse in Fantasy Sports than losing by 1.5 points because you didn’t pay attention to a poor matchup your starter was facing. Plan for a rainy day friend, they’re undoubtedly coming; this might mean having to reevaluate your bench.
Has Derrick Henry or Larry Fitzgerald been sitting on your bench all season taking up prime real estate while being a constant reminder of a draft failure on your part? It’s time to cut bait and look for a schedule and matchup-friendly replacement that you can plug into your lineup should disaster strike. Poor planning would allow you to hodl because you might not need them currently. Consider what happens should you need them desperately. The killer is chasing you and the Goddamn car won’t start is how I’m sure you’ll feel in that situation.
Win now. If I cut you, you’d bleed it. Very good, but it might be time to take the foot off that gas a bit in favor of making sure you are shored up for the stretch. If you are relying on your wide receivers to put up 25+ points each a week to bail you out, you might need to start considering a plan B should bad weather rear its ugly head. It’s going to happen, don’t assume your squad is strong enough to take a Hail Mary to the beer gut. Plan now for tragedy down the stretch and it won’t be so shocking should it arrive.
Week 7 Sleepers
Ito Smith, RB, Atlanta Falcons, 11% owned (FanDuel: $5400 DraftKings: $3800)
Oh man, who would have thunk Judge Lance Ito of the O.J. trial would have wiggled his way back into your purview? Turns out Ito Smith’s parents were big fans. With Devonta Freeman being put on the IR this week, you should be a big fan of Smith. As the RB3 in Atlanta, he’s scored a touchdown the last 3 weeks of play. Tevin Coleman has been known to be injury-prone, too, further increasing the hype on Smith. There are sorry managers starting Chris Carson as their RB1 – this is real life, true statement!. You can do much worse than Smith. Those starved at running back should consider burning their wire priority to snag.
C.J. Uzomah, TE, Cincinnati Bengals, 33% owned (FanDuel: $5400 DraftKings: $3400 )
I joked last week of Skynet’s plan to wipe out the tight end position as a reason to pick up C.J. Uzomah. This week, it might not be a joke. Tyler Kroft is out indefinitely. At this rate, I might have to dust off the cleats and pull a walk on – maybe it’s not THAT bad. Touchdown-dependent Uzomah isn’t flashy but he’s got a decent chance any given week to hit paydirt in the end zone. He is the TE1 on a team that likes to throw the ball; you might have to lower your standards a bit if hurting at the position.
Jalen Richard, RB, Oakland Raiders, 8% owned
The Raiders, if anything, are consistent. They’re consistently a mess and have to play from behind. Derek Carr looks like he is running for his life out there, just trying to get the ball to anybody. This game script favors Jalen Richard as Oakland’s receiving running back. If Marshawn Lynch’s groin is as bad as Jon Gruden indicated this week, you could have a pass-catching starting running back on your hands here. Curb your enthusiasm a bit, though, Jalen still plays for Oakland, so this could go south real fast.
Raheem Mostert, RB, San Francisco 49ers, 1% owned (FanDuel: $4900; DraftKings: $3300)
I almost put Alfred Morris in this week as a troll suggestion. How many dreams did he dash Monday night? Then I reconsidered, not wanting to receive email death threats and such. Rarely does a fail deserve the adjective epic; however, it does this time, which leads me to Raheem Mostert. While Matt Breida was the clear RB1 this past week for San Francisco, it was clear during the game he wasn’t at full strength. Mostert is the obvious backup at this point who still gets action during the game. With a semi-weak schedule down the stretch, you could have a lottery ticket here if that hits.
Taylor Gabriel, WR, Chicago Bears 22% owned (FanDuel: $5900 DraftKings: $4700)
A onetime Falcon, Taylor Gabriel is among the chief beneficiaries of Mitch Trubisky’s recent rise in the power rankings. Gabriel hasn’t missed a pass in the last two games and is looking at the Pats, Jets, Bills and Lions the next few weeks. Provided Trubisky keeps up with this level of play, Gabriel has potential to be a high quality WR2 option over the next few weeks.
Frank Gore, RB, Miami Dolphins, 11% owned (FanDuel: $5600; DraftKings: $3800)
If Gandalf played football, he’d be in Miami running the pill. Frank Gore is still at it. This is a recommendation for my friends in 12+ team leagues. At a certain point during the season in deeper leagues, just being able to roster a full squad of players you know will get a minimum amount of looks in a game gets tough. Gore’s carries have increased the last 3 weeks and he has delivered solid results when given the chance. He isn’t a bad matchup-flex play in a pinch.
Chester Rogers, WR, Indianapolis Colts, 17% owned (FanDuel: $6000; DraftKings: $4700)
The Curse is laying low the receiving corps in Indy. T.Y. Hilton’s hamstring is a massive question mark at this point and Ryan Grant left last week’s game with an ankle injury. Chester Rogers has seen 10+ targets over the last 3 games. While last week’s completion percentage of 40 percent is troubling, you have to consider the volume on this one. Bye-week hell is among us, my friend.
Crypto Corner (NOT financial advice)
- Wow. What a week for the alleged stable coin market. Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) surrounding Tether ($USDT), a stable coin whose value backed 1:1 with the dollar allegedly and closely aligned with Bitfinex, has reached a peak. Trading briefly in the $.85 range Monday and in the process sending Bitcoin ($BTC) rocketing $1500 in value, Tether saw a massive sell off and has since almost rebounded back to its dollar peg. Meanwhile, similar new competitors to the stable coin scene have seen large price increases of 15% or more. Tether’s current market value is in the $2.2B dollar range; it doesn’t seem collapse is imminent but swings like this for any stable coin should not be considered good. This is further evidence that we are still very much in the Wild West of times for the cryptocurrency sector.
- The Trump Administration backs Ripple and $XRP adoption in a fight against China’s Bitcoin ($BTC) dominance… say WHAT?!?! A report this week by Forbes suggests this just might be the case. In my opinion, the article lacked any serious meat to suggest there is any real truth behind these statements. What we know for certain is that heads are exploding among the Bitcoin and XRP maximalist camps currently.
- Fidelity Investments has officially thrown into the Crypto game. Announcing this week, Fidelity has created a whole new company covering crypto asset custody and starting an institutional brokerage platform. A $2.5 TRILLION dollar investment firm has said they want to do business in this sector. Don’t think they haven’t done their due diligence and homework on the future of crypto before putting their reputation on the line like this.
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