Well, I pretty much thought my work was done by Friday, setting Clinton Portis and Justin Fargas as my starting RBs and choosing Eddie Royal over Tim Hightower at my flex position.
The first two choices were made based on the advice of Steve Lloyd, Fresno Fantasy Guru, who offered his take on The Fantasy Buzz's call for advice in Friday's edition of The Bee.
Remember, in fantasy football, everyone's an expert.
Well in Saturday's edition of The Bee, we asked about the flex position. And, after reviewing stats and all that, I chose Royal against a weak Dolphins pass defense.
On a return e-mail from Lloyd, he felt the same way, saying:
Regarding Hightower vs. Royal, I'd definitely lean toward Royal. Miami's pass defense is its weakest link and while the Dolphins are semi-tough against the run, their secondary has been exposed many many times. Marshall should attract plenty of attention and a guy like Hightower really has his value tied to TDs. If he doesn't put up a TD, it's probably not going to be a pretty statline. I'm always leery of starting guys who are in time-shares as well. Hightower has scored in 5 of 7 games, but I'm guessing your league is not just TD-only, and Edge still does get some goal-line carries.
Good luck tomorrow!
-- Steve
But then comes along a late e-mail from a Bee reader named Richard, and now I have a lot of thinking to do (not fun, since I thought I already had it all figured out as I had said.)
Richard writes:
I'd go with Tim Hightower over Eddie Royal. Teams can run all over the St. Louis Rams ... look for at least 80 yards and 2 TDs from Hightower. The only way you might start Eddie Royal is if your league has points per reception.
I see that your other question has been answered with Portis and Justin Fargas.
I agree that even though Portis has a tough matchup, he can get receptions besides rushing yards. Plus I wouldn't be shocked if he got a TD by air ... as in a passing TD maybe to TE Chris Cooley.
Now on to Fargas, he's an okay start but I'd go with either Ricky Williams or Hightower. Oakland plays Atlanta which is a good matchup for Fargas but the Falcons with Matt Ryan, Michael "the Burner" Turner and Roddy White ... the score could get ugly early and if it does the Raiders will be passing instead of running. Williams faces a Denver D that allowed Sammy Morris to run for 138 yards and 1 TD in Week 7.
-- Richard
(Richard even tacked on an extra note: btw back in 2004 I had Priest Holmes going against the Ravens D and I sat him. He had over 100 yards plus a couple of TDs. I lost by 2 points that week and would have won.)
Ugh, what do I do?
It looks like I'm going to take the fun drive to Los Banos, because that's where I live, to think this through. Then I'm going to adjust my lineup with whatever I come up with and go to sleep sometime around 3 a.m.
On the rare Sunday I have off, my wife and I are then going all the way to Marin County to see the Mill Valley Philharmonic. It's a surprise, but I doubt my wife will read this column -- ever. And, in another rare occasion, I'm going to try and forget about fantasy football until I return home ... after all the games have been played, save the Redskins' tilt vs. the Steelers on Monday Night Football.
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