Week 5 Rankings

I need to have an intervention...with myself.  

We're now coming up on week 5 of the NFL season, and my fantasy team is 1-3.  It's time to forget about who I drafted and in what round I drafted them.  Ryan Mathews looks nothing like a great keeper right now, and Ryan Fitzpatrick is outplaying Philip Rivers.  I ranked Fitzpatrick three spots above Rivers in week 4, but did I play him?  Of course I didn't!  Granted, I still would have lost my matchup by a mile, but every point counts.  At 1-3, I could be looking at needing those extra points for a tiebreaker to get into the playoffs.  You never know.  And while this week I have Rivers ranked higher, I need to look at all of my matchups and make better decisions.  If Hakeem Nicks ever decides to come back but he's not at 100%, I might need to continue playing Lance Moore over him.  Hell, I might need to consider the waiver wire or try to make some trades here pretty soon.  Mark Ingram isn't doing much of anything, and it's about time to cut ties there.  If he turns out to be an amazing keeper for someone in 2013, so be it.  I'm trying to win it all this year, and I'm clearly feeling the pressure for some much needed Ws.

Most likely many of you can apply this same strategy to your teams.  I bet a lot of people sat Chris Johnson in week 4 (and rightfully so).  He finally decided to play a little bit, so that decision to put him back in got a little bit harder.  But the point is to not dwell on that 2nd round pick you made who is stinking up the joint.  If you need to put in Alfred Morris or Willis McGahee over Steven or Fred Jackson (no relation), then that's what you do.  Find yourself wanting to start Reggie Wayne over Jeremy Maclin?  You'd better!

...and I need to take my own advice.

We're now at just over a week til the big day for me, but the ranking must go on.  Even more bye weeks now, and I hope I can catch a break or two in the weeks to come instead of being the one dishing out the easy wins for other people.  Feel free to pick me apart in the comments.

QBs
1.Aaron Rodgers
2.RGIII
3.Drew Brees
4.Matt Ryan
5.Tom Brady
6.Eli Manning
7.Andy Dalton

8.Peyton Manning 9.Joe Flacco 10.Cam Newton 11.Philip Rivers 12.Michael Vick 13.Andrew Luck

14.Ben Roethlisberger 15.Kevin Kolb 16.Ryan Fitzpatrick 17.Jay Cutler 18.Matt Schaub 19.Christian Ponder 20.Alex Smith I didn't even adjust my top five this week.  No need.  These guys all had big week fours, and I think week five will be more of the same.  Call it lazy or whatever you want, but I'm letting it ride with those guys at the top.  I already mentioned the Fitzpatrick call, so I don't want to get into that again.  Big Ben and Andrew Luck are back in the mix this week, but I'm actually ranking Luck one spot higher.  I think they'll have to air it out a lot to try to keep up with Green Bay, and I think Philly won't let Ben do what he did against Oakland in Week 3 (and what Peyton Manning did to Oakland this past week...maybe it's just a trend with Oakland).  You also may have noticed Andy "Red Rocket" Dalton cracking this week's top 10 QBs.  He's looking like a solid fantasy quarterback this year, and he's going up against that Dolphin secondary that is getting smoked every week.  I can't find him in any expert's top 10, so I guess he'll be MY pick this week.  I also have Eli over Peyton in their week 5 matchups, and if anyone wants to take that bet as to which Manning gets more fantasy points this week, bring it on!

RBs

1.Arian Foster

2.Ray Rice 3.Marshawn Lynch 4.Adrian Peterson

5.Trent Richardson 6.Jamaal Charles 7.Frank Gore 8.LeSean McCoy 9.Maurice Jones-Drew 10.Ryan Mathews 11.Reggie Bush 12.Michael Turner 13.Matt Forte 14.Darren Sproles 15.Alfred Morris 16.Stevan Ridley 17.Benjarvis Green-Ellis 18.Cedric Benson 19.Willis McGahee 20.Chris Johnson 21.CJ Spiller 22.Ahmad Bradshaw 23.Steven Jackson 24.Donald Brown 25.Ryan Williams 26.Michael Bush 27.Fred Jackson 28.Ben Tate 29.DeAngelo Williams 30.Shonn Greene 31.Jackie Battle 32.Rashard Mendenhall 33.Jacquizz Rodgers 34.Danny Woodhead 35.Pierre Thomas 36.Jonathan Stewart 37.Robert Turbin 38.Kendall Hunter 39.Brandon Bolden 40.Lance Ball I stayed down on Andre Brown in week 4, and I'll be down on him as long as Bradshaw is healthy.  I ranked Michael Bush at 11th in week 4, but that was assuming Forte would be out.  Had I taken the time to update my rankings on Monday, he would've fallen considerably.  Also, I had Marshawn Lynch ranked pretty highly when compared to some of the experts out there in week 4, and he finished 3rd amongst all RBs.  Just a little pat on the back there for myself.  Yes I was wrong about a ton of other stuff (including my own fantasy football team), but it's the little victories that help.  I'm going to continue to rank Jamaal Charles in my top 10, no matter who he's going up against.  Baltimore has a tough rush defense, but I wouldn't think twice about starting Charles.  I'm also keeping the faith in Ryan Mathews.  I think they were just easing him in last week, and although I think Battle could steal a goalline TD away from him this week in New Orleans, I think there will be plenty of points to go around.  I sure hope so because I have three Chargers going Sunday night!  One final note: Mark Ingram is officially off my list (sadly for my fantasy team).  Hopefully he'll rejoin the list in the weeks to come, but it's not looking good. WRs

1.AJ Green 2.Roddie White 3.Andre Johnson 4.Percy Harvin 5.Larry Fitzgerald 6.Victor Cruz 7.Brandon Marshall 8.Mike Wallace 9.Brandon Lloyd 10.Julio Jones 11.Reggie Wayne 12.Demaryius Thomas 13.Jordy Nelson 14.Torrey Smith 15.Wes Welker 16.Steve Smith 17.Steve Johnson 18.Dwayne Bowe 19.Antonio Brown 20.DeShaun Jackson 21.Marques Colston 22.Eric Decker 23.Malcom Floyd 24.Danny Amendola 25.Pierre Garcon 26.Brian Hartline 27.Lance Moore 28.James Jones 29.Jeremy Maclin 30.Andre Roberts 31.Michael Crabtree 32.Domenik Hixon 33.Greg Little 34.Anquan Boldin 35.Andrew Hawkins 36.Brandon LaFell 37.Leonard Hankerson 38.Jerome Simpson 39.Davone Bess 40.Nate Washington Last week I said Britt would be back, but maybe I jumped the gun a little bit.  He was inactive due to an injury, so obviously he didn't do too much in week 4.  I'm doubling down this week though.  Actually, check that.  I'm not going to be updating my rankings again this week, so let me just say that I'm doubling down for whenever he plays again (and I'll leave him off the list this week).  If it's not this week, I'm (fairly) confident it'll be next week.  Britt is a guy that when healthy can be extremely dangerous.  If it is this week, I think he'll do some damage. OK I'm done talking about Kenny Britt. Brandon Lloyd is back in the top 10 for me, and I think he'll be there to stay.  And will you look at Reggie Wayne all the way up there near the top.  I'm picking Luck to have a big week, so I have to pick Wayne to be up there too.  Maybe he breaks into the top 10 next week.  Who knows? TEs

1.Rob Gronkowski

2.Jimmy Graham 3.Vernon Davis 4.Tony Gonzalez 5.Antonio Gates 6.Jermichael Finley 7.Kyle Rudolph 8.Dennis Pitta 9.Brent Celek 10.Fred Davis 11.Martellus Bennett 12.Greg Olsen 13.Owen Daniels 14.Heath Miller 15.Jared Cook 16.Jermaine Gresham 17.Scott Chandler 18.Jacob Tamme In the end, I went with Gates over Pitta last week, and it was a good decision.  Although it didn't help me out to a victory, I like making the right calls in fantasy football the same way I like making them in poker.  If a "right" call turns out to be wrong, I can live with it if I feel like I made the right, educated choice.  Of course a lot of fantasy football is a total crap shoot, but this is how I feel about it anyway.  I'm dropping Bennett down a bit.  I'm just concerned about his consistency.  Not sure why I'm not as worried about Pitta, but I'm just not.  Scott Chandler now makes the list with his 2 TDs last week, but he just doesn't get enough targets to be a guy I'm going to rank any higher than 14th or 15th...at least not yet.

DEF 1.Texans

2.49ers 3.Ravens 4.Bears 5.Giants 6.Cardinals 7.Vikings 8.Seahawks 9.Bengals 10.Steelers 11.Packers

12.Rams 13.Eagles 14.Falcons I almost want to just stop ranking defenses too.  It's so hard!  Arizona was my top pick for week 4, and they were in the top 10, but I didn't give enough love to the Niners and Texans.  Those two blew up against the Jets and Titans, respectively.  I'm really surprised Seattle didn't get to the quarterback or cause more turnovers against the Rams, but they were respectable.  I'm going to continue to rank them highly every week because they're so solid.  I mean, they still only allowed 19 points on the road.  The Vikings are looking like a solid defense, and I actually picked them up in my league this week.  All of the other teams I have ranked above them are taken, so I need to stick to my rankings.  Hopefully it'll work out for me this week.  Good luck everyone (except House this week...sorry dude). Cheers, Bart