Josh Culp's Blog, page 60
October 16, 2013
Shriners Hospitals for Children Open Fantasy Preview
Jimmy Walker! Last week was long overdue for Mr. Walker. If you are a watcher of Golf, you’ve probably had to sit through many broadcasts over the past year where the announcers talked about how close Jimmy Walker was to winning and also about how he had been working with Bruce Bowen to get inside the head of a ‘winner’. Now Walker can call himself a winner. We’ve seen many golfers rise and fall very quickly. Hopefully this doesn’t change Walker’s week-to-week approach because he has been a Top 25 machine over the past year.
Onto the next week now. We head to Las Vegas were the pros will be playing for the kids. TPC Summerlin is the course, and it is one of the easiest on the Tour. Most winning scores are around -25 during this event. It’s not always the case, but these events played on super easy courses are often won by the less talented golfers.
Which leads me to my Bold Prediction: Zach Johnson, Webb Simpson, and Jimmy Walker will all finish outside of the Top 25 this week at the Shriners. All three of these golfers finished in the Top 30 of last season’s FedEx Cup standings so you know they are talented but they won’t get it done this week.
Who will get it done with week if ZJ, Webb, and Walker aren’t in the mix. All I have to say is local knowledge. There are a plethora of golfers that are from Las Vegas or went to school at UNLV. These guys know and love the area. Desert golf is second nature to them. Let me tell you who these golfers are:
Pat Perez was born in Phoenix, Arizona and currently lives in Scottsdale. Perez knows and loves desert courses. His last two podium finishes were on desert courses. Granted those were back in 2011 and 2009. A win isn’t likely, but I would give him a great shot at a Top 25.
Kevin Stadler only has three career podium finishes, and one was in Reno. He was born in Reno and currently resides in Scottsdale. Sound familiar? It’s no coincidence that these Nevada & Arizona guys love this tournament.
Nick Watney joins the group with local knowledge. Watney is a Las Vegas boy himself so it’s no surprise that Watney has three straight Top 10s at this event. He has to be in your Top 5 this week.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, this is quite a trend. All the players I like this week were either born in Nevada or currently live there. Scott Piercy belongs in both of those groups. Piercy has finished 28th or better each of the past four years at this event. He has a Reno-Tahoe victory on his resume, as well. The desert-golf runs deep in his blood. I like him a lot this week.
I’m not going to break the trend now. Kevin Na is another golfer in the field that lives in Las Vegas and has success here in the past. Na won the Shriner’s Open in 2011 and finished 22nd last year. He finished third last weekend at the Frys.com Open so don’t be surprised if he follows it up with another Top 10 this week.
Next on the list of golfers with local knowledge would be Chad Campbell. Campbell is a UNLV alum so he knows the lay of the land. Four Top 30 finishes in the past five years backs up this claim. Campbell is getting up there in age. He only posted four Top 25 finishes last year but he’s got a decent shot at the Top 25 this week.
Charley Hoffman is another UNLV alum but his success here is not the greatest. He’s finished 40th or worse each of the past three years. Hoffman posted a 22.49% Birdie or Better Percentage last year (8th on Tour) so you know he can go low. Keep him on your shortlist this week.
Last but not least, there is Ryan Moore. Did you think I was going to forget about my favorite Las Vegas golfer, Ryan Moore? No way. Moore is the defending champion here. Winning the same tournament two years in a row is very hard on the PGA Tour so that drops him down a little in my books. I still like Moore to finish in the Top 25 this week.
Local knowledge is great, but in the end, David Hearn is my pick to click this week. Hearn finished 30th last year and 5th the year before at this event. That was before he actually did anything on tour. Hearn turned professional in 2001. He has $3.3 Million in career earnings. $1.1 Million came last season. Hearn finished 53rd in the regular season FedEx Cup standings, he made it all the way to the BMW Championship, he finished 29th in Par Breakings in 2013, and 15th in Putting.
My Top 25 for the Shriners Open
1. David Hearn
2. Nick Watney
3. Pat Perez
4. Kevin Stadler
5. Scott Piercy
6. Brendan Steele
7. Ryan Moore
8. Josh Teater
9. Ryan Palmer
10. Kevin Na
11. Charles Howell III
12. Jason Bohn
13. George McNeill
14. Charley Hoffman
15. Spencer Levin
16. Alex Prugh
17. Chad Campbell
18. Andres Romero
19. Ben Crane
20. Mark Wilson
21. Charlie Wi
22. Greg Chalmers
23. Hideki Matsuyama
24. Robert Garrigus
25. Bob Estes
Good luck and happy fantasy golfing to all!
October 11, 2013
Week 6 Fantasy Football Contests
This is a weekly post to highlight some Fantasy Football contests worth entering. Take note that some of these cost money to enter but some are free AKA Freerolls. I hope you took advantage of last weeks contests and have started to build your bankroll.
DraftStreet
This is the whopper for people looking for a Week 5 NFL Freeroll. The weekly $1,000 Freeroll continues at DraftStreet this week. Get in now. If you like the site then make a deposit and try one of the DFFC Qualifiers. It could be your ticket to $1 Million.
$1 Million 2013 Draftstreet Football Championship
FanDuel
My favorite site to play weekly fantasy football. Their user interface is sexy and they have a ton of contests of all shapes and sizes. Here are a couple to look at this week.
$5 Friends Of FanDuel League – This contest is invite-only so entries stay pretty low. $2,600 in prizes for this exclusive contest means plenty of opportunity to get paid out in this one. Winner also earns a $200 Seat into the huge FFFC Super Qualifier!
$25 Sunday Bomb – This is the massive one. A weekly contest run by FanDuel where you can turn $25 into $25,000. Talk about Return on Investment! Top 1,250 get paid out in this one. This contest fills up every week so get in early! Join this contest instead of going to the movies this weekend…or do both!
FanThrowdown
This is becoming one of my favorite sites to play fantasy football on. They have a ton of Guaranteed Prize Pools including Satellites, Qualifiers, Double Ups, GPP’s, you name it. They updated their interface this week and will continue to make improvements. There isn’t one contest I would recommend over the others but the $11 FTDFC Qualifier is a good one, the $11 Flea Flicker is at a great price point and has a big potential payout, and the Guaranteed Double Ups are a good way to keep your bankroll happy.
$500,000 FanThrowdown Fantasy Football Championship
DraftKings
First time depositors get 100% Deposit Bonus and a Free Entry into the Fantasy Football Millionaire Qualifier. Yes, they are offering $1 Million to the winner of that contest. Crazy, right? Crazy awesome. They have multiple weekly freerolls that give away “Step 1 Tickets” that can get you started at DraftKings.
DraftDay
There bracket contests are in full swing but they have plenty of other weekly contests if you missed out on the Brackets. Some good ones to check out are the Favre $ Footlong, Bear Down, and the Cover II. The first two contests are single-entry GPP’s while the Cover II is a 100 team Double Up.
FREE DraftDay $1 Million Perfect Lineup
Fantasy Aces
Aces is rapid growing and will soon be one of the elite in the industry. Get your foot in the door early.
Matt Forte $11 GPP – Fantasy Aces teamed up with Matt Forte to bring you this weekly GPP contest. There are 100 spots in this tournament but they are filling fast.
$10 Freeroll – Title explains it all. They offer a $10 and $5 freeroll. Good contests to give the site a trial. Top 3 get paid out in each.
Fantasy Feud
Fantasy Feud is offering the Feud of Champions which will pay out $30K to the winner at the end of the season. It might be worth joining a few of those qualifiers. If you want to try out the site first, they offer a couple weekly Freerolls with $150 up for grabs.
Other Contests:
StarStreet Playboy Fantasy Football Championship Qualifiers
Star Fantasy League GPPs & Weekly Freeroll
WarDraft – New site that offers a $500 Freeroll to anyone that deposits and plays $5, Daily NHL Freerolls, and Weekly NFL Freerolls. Check Em Out
StatClash $10 GPP ($1,000 Prize Pool)
Happy Drafting!
New DFS Site Alert: WarDraft Site Review
Want to prove to your wife that watching Sports Center really does pay off? Ready to show your friends that you really should be a major league coach? If the answer is yes, then you are ready to play Daily Fantasy Sports games on WarDraft!
Those are the words spoken from the newest Daily Fantasy Sports site, WarDraft. WarDraft is new on the Daily Fantasy scene, but they are surely going to grow quickly if you take a look at their promotions, simple user interface, and overall site speed.
Promotions
This is where WarDraft is really going to excel. Most daily fantasy sports players love promotions, I know I do. WarDraft offers unique promotions that will vary from month-to-month. In October, for example, WarDraft is offering a 100% Deposit Bonus + Free Entry into a Depositors-only Freeroll. That’s not all though. When you deposit now, you also receive a free ticket into the $200 GTD NFL “Red Zone Pick’em” contest.
On top of those sweet promotions, WarDraft also has a VIP Cashback Rewards Program. As you play games on the site, you will receive a percentage of your game fees back through this program. The higher volume you play, the higher the percentage of cashback you will receive!
User Interface
You could spend years developing what you believe to be the perfect user interface but when you are all said and done, at least 30% of the users will inevitably hate your design. There is no way to please everybody when it comes to designing a user interface. What WarDraft does with their user interface is make things very accessible and intuitive. In the end, that is all that really matters.
Site Speed
This is becoming a very real serious problem for a lot of the big name website out there. A lot of that has to do with the amount of users but it is still nice to see that WarDraft is very quick and smooth as you navigate among the site.
Overall
Overall, WarDraft looks very promising, and is definitely a site to check out right now if you enjoy Daily Fantasy Sports. There are currently 4 people in the depositor’s freeroll that pays out $500 to the Top 11 finishers. That means if you joined now you would literally win free money. It will likely fill up a little bit but there is still likely great odds in this Freeroll. You have no excuse not to join now.
October 9, 2013
Start Em’ & Sit Em’: Week 6
Falcon Down.
The fantasy football community has suffered it’s first potentially season-ending injury to a star with the news that Julio Jones is likely out for the rest of the season with a broken foot. If confirmed, this is one of those injuries that can seriously set a team back. While not panicking, I have already started putting out trade feelers in the one league where I own Julio. It a crushing blow to all parties involved, including the 1-4 Falcons who are inexplicably looking to be out of the playoff race before long. You never like to see serious, season-ending injuries to anyone. Especially not to the game’s stars that make everything so fun to watch. As for week 6, it’s a light week as far as byes with only Atlanta and Miami on bye.
START EM’
Robert Griffin III: RGIII is coming off his bye, giving him his first true taste of rest for his knee and an extra week of preparation to face a Dallas defense that has been shredded by every good QB it has faced this year.
Cam Newton: Newton, like RGIII, is a running QB who hasn’t really been running much this year, deflating his value. Even if he’s not running this week either, the Vikings have a defense you can throw on.
We witnessed Jeffrey's coming out party last week as he looks to keep it rolling in week 6.
Vincent Jackson: As much as it pains me to put Jackson down as a suggested start, he is coming off a bye week to foster some sort of connection to rookie signal caller Mike Glennon. Oh yeah, facing a horrible Eagles secondary should help matters too. Plus, he’s a hit or miss guy who’s been a miss his last 3 games. If you believe in that sort of thing he should be due for a good game.
Alshon Jeffery: Jeffery went off last week setting a franchise record for receiving yards in a single game. Defenses are forced to pay attention to Brandon Marshall and Jeffery is finally beginning to take full advantage of that. With a matchup against the Giants he should be able to roll with his recent success.
Terrance Williams: Williams has caught fire after a mistake-filled first few games. With Austin out, Williams has shined while defenses focus on Dez Bryant. I think even if Miles Austin is active this week, Williams has earned Romo’s trust and carved out a role for himself in an explosive passing offense.
Jordan Reed: This one is a bit of a deep reach, but Reed has had a decent start to the season. He has been a favorite of several scouts and may finally be getting his chance in a great matchup. This could very well be a dud, or a breakout performance. I’ve bought his shares in several of my leagues.
Rob Gronkowski: He’s back. You play him. He’s had plenty of time to run around on the practice field to hit the ground running.
Bears D/ST: Chicago’s defense hasn’t quite been what it was last season, but against a turnover-prone Giants offense that is one-dimensional they should thrive.
SIT EM’
Sam Bradford: Bradford has been a top-10 QB in many formats this year, but don’t let it fool you. Houston has held most opposing QBs in check so far this year and Bradford should be next in line.
Terrelle Pryor: Pryor is turning into a very big bright spot for the Raiders and a viable fantasy QB. However, this may not be a week to use him against a stingy Chiefs defense at Kansas City.
Johnson's owners may find themselves making this face due to his performance this week.
Chris Johnson: He broke across the goal-line on a late reception last week to save his week and make it look a lot better than he actually was. Seattle is tough to deal with even when you’re on top of your game.
Pierre Thomas: Thomas went off last week stealing some of Darren Sproles’ touches and thunder. I wouldn’t expect that to become a trend.
Rashard Mendenhall: Mendy is slowly getting passed by Andre Ellington for important touches. A best case-scenario is a time-share, and he was struggling to produce with the job all to himself.
Calvin Johnson: A guy you’re probably playing, IF he plays.He was a surprise inactive last week leaving many owners stuck with a dead roster spot. He has played banged up throughout his career, putting his absence last week into some perspective. This week is shaping up to be the same story with a game-time decision. If he plays, he gets shutdown corner Joe Haden. Again, you probably have to play him in this instance, and he is a freak who can overcome a tough matchup. He will be dealing with a balky knee though so I’m just saying…be prepared to be underwhelmed.
Anquan Boldin: Boldin has struggled in games against good secondaries with most of the attention directed on stopping him. Patrick Peterson is quite good in coverage.
Golden Tate: The fantasy community tends to overvalue Tate in my opinion and he does not have a great matchup this week against one of the league’s best secondaries through 5 weeks.
Jared Cook: I talked a little about Cook in listing him as a sit last week, and I don’t think he breaks the streak of bad games this week. He’s still living off of week 1.
Heath Miller: He just hasn’t looked himself yet coming off a major knee injury. Sit him until he starts to show you something.
Ravens D/ST: Aaron Rodgers and company can move the ball on almost any defense.
A FanDuel Rookie’s Journey Week 6 Picks #BeginnersLuck
Week 5 in the Fan Duel’s FFFC Qualifier was my best week of picks yet, as Tony Romo had a historically awesome day (and still found a way to lose the game!), Justin Blackmon had a huge return back after a 4 game suspension, the Bengals D ate Tom Brady for lunch exactly as I predicted they would, and LeSean McCoy and Wes Welker had solid days as well. If it wasn’t for David Wilson leaving the game with injury shortly after scoring his first TD of the season and a couple of two other semi-soft performances, it really could’ve been a big week for me. I didn’t win any cash in the prize funds, but was very close to doing so, and I’m taking some momentum going forward from the fact that I finished in about the 90th percentile for the week.
Now, it’s onto my Week 6 picks.
For my QB in Week 6 I selected Philip Rivers as my QB. I’ve never been a fan of his crabby pants, but he’s quietly having a monster season without much of a receiving corps (4th in passing yards, t-2nd in passing TDs, 3rd in QB rating). The OU of the Indy/SD game is hovering around 50 and I expect Indy to have a letdown traveling on the road after their huge home victory over the previously unbeaten Seahawks. Philip will shine MNF style.
I went with Deangelo Williams and Doug Martin as my Week 6 RBs. The Carolina Panthers are going to beat my Vikings coming off their bye (Vikes are the true sucker bet of the week), and Deangelo will be a key reason why they’ll emerge victorious as a small dog in that game. I selected Doug Martin as he’ll slice up that horrendous Philadelphia D at home, and I’m all the more confident in Doug since Fantasy Football Nerd has him ranked 8th in their weekly rankings.
For my WRs I went with Pierre Garcon, Demaryius Thomas and Keenan Allen. Pierre will light up that porous Dallas Cowboys defense (I actually think that Washington may win that game outright) in primetime. The Broncos are favored by a historically large margin vs the Jags this week (opened at -28) and Demaryius is the leader of the absurdly explosive Broncos wideout attack and is due for a big week after being the one player who didn’t have a huge game in that shootout vs Dallas last week. I expect Denver to pull a good portion of their starters late in the 3rd quarter in that game, but not before Demaryius logs half a dozen catches for over 100 yards and a couple of scores. I selected Keenan Allen as he continues to fly under the radar in San Diego, going for only $4,500 in salary this week on Fan Duel. Talk about some serious value.
For my TE I selected Greg Olsen- yep, yet another TE going against my Vikings (recall my total homerun Jordan Cameron and Martellus Bennett picks in back-to-back weeks vs the Vikes from a couple weeks ago).
For my Kicker I selected Blair Walsh (one of the best legs in the game, totally money from up to 60 yards and in, especially indoors) and the Seattle Seahawks D as I think they will molest Ryan Fitzpatrick and the lowly Titans all day on Sunday.
Well, that’s a wrap for the week. Good luck to everyone on their picks!
Joel Harrington
Frys.com Fantasy Preview
The PGA Tour is back. After a grueling offseason of less than two weeks, the golfers will be back at it this week in San Martin, California. The Frys.com has been played at CordeValle for three years now and has been won by Bryce Molder, Rocco Mediate, and Jonas Blixt. Not exactly household names but not bottom of the barrel, either.
Should Jonas Blixt automatically be on your radar since he is defending champion? Let’s take a look at how the winners have fared the following year since the tournament has been played at CordeValle. In 2010 Rocco Mediate won then followed it up with a 67th place finish in 2011. Bryce Molder took home the trophy in 2011 and finished just outside the Top 10 last year when he was trying to defend his title. Basically we’ve seen a winner defend admirably (Molder) and we’ve also seen one be a dud (Mediate). That doesn’t really tell us anything in the end, but at least now we know.
This tournament is filled with a bunch of new faces, some of them so young they probably can’t even grow facial hair yet. There is a new crop of Web.com graduates that will be joining the PGA Tour this season and we get our first look at them this week. To break down this tournament I am going to give you an inside glimpse of my Fantasy Golf Tour teams. Feel free to use any of these lineups in their free contest that pays out $1,000 in prizes. If you enter any of these in the paid contest, please switch it up a little so we don’t have to share our grand prize winnings. Here we go:
Team #1 – “By the Book”
This is my first and safest team. I go straight down the line of my overall power rankings.
Group A – Hideki Matsuyama, Freddie Jacobson, Charles Howell III, Billy Horschel
Group B – Brendon Todd, Jerry Kelly, Bryce Molder, Stewart Cink
Group C – Spencer Levin, Camillo Villegas, Danny Lee, Russell Knox
Group D – Chez Reavie, Will Mackenzie, Ben Martin, Chad Collins
Group A is full of obvious studs. Hard to lose with any of these picks.
Group B is where is starts to fade off a little. Brendon Todd is a little risky but has a lot of upside. He played in 10 PGA Tour events last year and finished Top 25 in five of those. Could be someone that makes a run this week.
Let’s move on to Group C. Spencer Levin is returning from a season that he skipped last year due to injury. He played in 8 Web.com events last year in order to regain some form and finished Top 10 in 3 of his 8 events. I think he should be good to go this weekend.
Group D is where things get really shaky. Will Mackenzie has finished Top 15 both times he’s played the Frys.com Open at CordeValle. He also has two PGA Tour victories to his name. He’s not a young pup anymore, though, and that is what makes him a little risky.
Team #2 – “Web.com Team”
If you think the Web.com graduates will be excited to show they belong on the PGA Tour then you should pick and choose from these guys.
Group A – John Peterson, Michael Putnam, Chesson Hadley, Brooks Koepka
Group B – Brendon Todd, Edward Loar
Group C – Spencer Levin, Danny Lee, Russell Knox
Group D – Will Mackenzie, Ben Martin, Chad Collins, Brice Garnett
Brooks Koepka was actually on the European Tour last year, but same concept. Another golfer that is trying to prove he belongs on the elite Tour. Brendon Todd found his way onto another team but he is joined by Edward Loar. Edward Loar finished Top 25 in 11 of 18 Web.com events last year including seven Top 10 finishes. Should be interesting to see if that success translates to the PGA Tour. Ben Martin is another guy to keep a close eye on. He won twice on the Web.com Tour last year, winning $508,000 along the way. He would nearly double his entire Web.com winnings if he won this week ($900,000).
Those are a couple different teams for you to consider when making your Fantasy Golf Tour lineups this week. Best of luck to you, and check out the other Frys.com Fantasy Contests while you’re at it.
My Top 25 Power Rankings for the Frys.com Open
1. Hideki Matsuyama
2. Freddie Jacobson
3. Charles Howell III
4. Spencer Levin
5. Billy Horschel
6. Brendon Todd
7. Jimmy Walker
8. Jerry Kelly
9. Bryce Molder
10. Rory Sabbatini
11. Marc Leishman
12. Chris Stroud
13. Camilo Villegas
14. Danny Lee
15. Russell Knox
16. Tim Clark
17. John Peterson
18. Stewart Cink
19. Chez Reavie
20. Will MacKenzie
21. Morgan Hoffmann
22. Brian Davis
23. Ben Martin
24. John Merrick
25. David Hearn
October 8, 2013
Welcome Back PGA Tour: Frys.com Contests
If you blinked then you might have missed it. I am talking about the off-season between the 2013 PGA Tour season and the 2013-14 PGA Tour season which starts back up this week at the Frys.com Open in San Martin, California. Unlike previous years, the Fall Series is actually the start of the new season. That means it is time to get your knickers back on and get ready for more golf.
A lot of sites are ignoring the fact that this week actually counts as a regular season event, or they are just slow to put up contests. Either way, here are some contests worth joining for the Frys.com Open. I will update the list if any sites decide to post matches before Thursday.
GolfRadar
GolfRadar is back for its sophomore season and they are continuing to improve on user experience. Pick 10 golfers using the allotted 100 coins and receive bonuses for picking the lower coin golfers if they do well.
DraftStreet
You have to applaud DraftStreet for being the first in the DFS industry to post PGA contests this week. They have matches ranging from $2 to $420 entry fees. Try your hand at some of the Guaranteed Prize Pool contests. These are the ones with the big ‘G’ in the Prize Pool column. They will pay out a guaranteed amount even if the league doesn’t fill up.
Fantasy Golf Tour
Fantasy Golf Tour is always quick to post contests and they feature Golf unlike some of the DFS sites so you know they will be on top of things. Their $12.50 contest features a $1,200 first place prize and Top 44 get paid out. They also run a weekly free contest. This week it pays out $1,000 to the Top 35 finishers. You can enter three teams into the free contests and as many as you want into the $12.50 contest.
GolfZing
A free-to-play fantasy golf game. You pick 7 golfers each week and goal is to get the highest total earnings. Top 3 win prizes each week as well as quarterly and one Tour Champion.
NG Nation
Nike Golf Blog that runs a weekly pick four contest. They are now hosting it on PGATour.com but they are still giving away prizes via their ngnation blog. Those prizes last year including golf balls, hybrids, drivers, and iron sets. Check it out if you want to win some sweet Nike golf swag.
UPDATE:
FanThrowdown
I asked FTD about their PGA games and it went from “we will try to get them up this week” to them posting the PGA games less than three hours later. Kudos to FanThrowdown. Go check out their PGA matches now.
DraftDay
DraftDay Matches are now live for the Frys.com Open. They offer a unique scoring format that can get very high-scoring is a really exciting. Missed cuts in this format are killer so make sure you pick winners. Go check out their PGA matches now.
October 3, 2013
Start Em’ & Sit Em’: Week 5
Week 5 is upon us, and right around now you might be getting an idea of how your team is shaping up. Usually I stick with my team for 4-5 weeks before I start thinking about making any big changes. this next couple weeks may be the last chance you have to make improvements to your team if you find yourself on the bottom half of your league. This week we have 4 teams on bye weeks, the Vikings, Steelers, Buccaneers and Redskins. There are several key players at different positions that are not available. Let’s see if we can help with those fill-in player decisions.
START EM’
Pryor knows how to use his legs if the going is tough through the air.
Terrelle Pryor: Coming off an injury, I can understand why you might be leery of starting Pryor, but he has a great matchup and can make up points on the ground if he is struggling in the passing game. I’m buying if I am an RGIII or Roethlisberger owner.
Brian Hoyer: Brandon Weeden may have lost his job, as Hoyer has looked very good as a fill in. Against Buffalo, Hoyer should again be able to put up numbers that will be worthy of a start for your team.
Eddie Lacy: Another player coming off an injury, Lacy should be fully recovered from his concussion and gets a Detroit defense that has given up a rushing touchdown in every game so far. Green Bay should be able to get in range for at least 1 short TD.
Maurice Jones-Drew: I have recommended MJD several times, playing him on my own teams, and he has let me down each time. Against one of the worst defenses against RBs, he should be able to provide a usable line. If not, it may be time to move on.
Bilal Powell: Powell has been surprisingly useful against tougher opponents than the Falcons. Run him out there is you have a RB on bye this week.
Hakeem Nicks: Nicks has been extremely disappointing thus far, as has most of the Giants offense. Philadelphia might be the remedy for his woes however.
Josh Gordon: Keep rolling him out there. This is a great matchup, but he should be played regardless.
Mike Wallace: The last time Wallace made noise about getting the ball more, he went for 115 and a TD.
Greg Olsen: Arizona has been destroyed by teams with a halfway decent TE, and Newton like to get Olsen the ball.
Jared Cook: Cook has been fairly silent since he week one explosion. Seems eerily like his time in Tennessee. If you’re looking for a week where he might explode again, Jacksonville seems like as good a bet as anyone.
Browns D/ST: On a short week against a rookie QB and two banged up RBs, there should be a couple sacks and turnovers on the docket.
SIT EM’
Alex Smith: The check-down king has been oddly useful, but Tennessee has been stingy so this may be the end of his run of useful games.
Andrew Luck: The Seattle defense let me down against Schaub last week, but I don’t think they’ll let me down twice in a row.
DeAngelo Williams: Another player who has surprised so far this year, Williams should start to see a decline versus Arizona. Williams owners may be running short on time to sell high.
Trent Richardson: TRich only managed 3.0 ypc last week against the lowly Jags, and Seattle is certainly not the Jags.
I feel your pain. Owners might be feeling it too if they roll with either of these guys against the Browns.
Fred Jackson/CJ Spiller: This makes the 2nd time this pair has made it onto this list together. The Browns run defense that was a joke for so long is not such a joke this year. They’re downright serious and both of these guys are banged up. Stay away.
Steve Smith: Smith hasn’t been his usual deep-ball-threat self this year. Going up against a stingy Arizona defensive backfield won’t help.
Anquan Boldin: Houston will be looking to make up for last week’s loss and is starts with shutting down Boldin.
Julian Edelman: This posting is banking on the return of Danny Amendola who would cut into Edelman’s playing time and targets. If Amendola does not go however, feel free to start Edelman.
Delanie Walker: Walker’s stats have been inflated but TD catches, but he might find that difficult to come by this week against a Kansas City defense that has yet to give up a TD or more than 41 yards to a TE.
Tony Gonzalez: We waited for Gonzo to go off, and he did. Now it’s time to come back to earth.
Eagles D/ST: I think the Giants are bound to get things going on offense. They are too talented not to. The Eagles might be the unfortunate victims of some pent-up scoring.
A FanDuel Rookie’s Journey- Week 5 Picks #BeginnersLuck
Other than spot on nailing my Week 4 pick on Victor Cruz and getting solid weeks from Matt Forte, Lamar Miller and Antonio Brown, last week was pretty much a strikeout in my book. Or, basically since I didn’t have any Broncos players on my team, I had no chance. The Broncos continue to go all EA-Sports-Madden-free-Touchdowns on the entire NFL. The good news is that Fan Duel’s FFFC contest isn’t accumulative and every week is free-standing from the ones before and after it, so new optimism for next week can be felt immediately after the prior week’s conclusion.
For Week 5 I went with Tony Romo as my QB. The Broncos will score at will against the Cowboys defense (or against any defense for that matter), and Dallas will be throwing the rock all over the lot all day long to try and keep up. I see very few rushing attempts and at least 50 pass attempts from Romo in this game, I would not be shocked at all to see him crack the 400 yard mark with 3 or 4 TDs even in a loss. Fantasy Football Nerd has him as 5th in their rankings for the week, when he’s nowhere near that high in total salary for the week on his pick. Talk about value.
I selected LeSean McCoy and David Wilson as my RBs. I love McCoy to have a huge week vs the Giants D, especially coming off a loss and a down performance vs Denver. I like David Wilson for his bargain price even though he and his team have struggled mightily so far this season, he’s just too damn talented to not break out one of these weeks, and there’s no better week to do it than vs the putrid Eagles D when his team is 0-4. More than any week this year so far, I love both of these RB picks.
I went with Wes Welker, Justin Blackmon and Brandon Marshall as my WRs. The Broncos/Cowboys game will be a surefire shootout (the OU is 57 on that game!), and even though he’ll be a popular pick this week, I feel like Welker will be leading the Broncos WR core in this points fest (also, Fantasy Football Nerd has him 6th in their Week 5 rankings, giving me added confidence on my pick). I selected Justin Blackmon as even though the Jaguars are an absolute dumpster fire, they are playing the lowly Rams and will have some new energy with this stud athlete back from a 4 game suspension. I also believe that many people will either forget about Blackmon or will simply not take him since he plays for the Jags, but going against this siv of a Rams team, I’m willing to roll the dice on him. I went with Brandon Marshall as I believe he’s due for a big week against the Saints, who are sure to letdown coming off their big win at home on Monday Night Football over the Dolphins.
For my TE I went with Jared Cook as even though I would bench Sam Bradford if he was on my flag football team, Jared is a beast and will have a big game against the Jags.
For my kicker I went with Mike Nugent and for my Defense I went with the Bengals as I see them pressuring Brady all game and pulling off that upset (the 4-0 Patriots are 1 point underdogs to the 2-2 Bengals in that game, hmmmm…. #upsetcity).
Week 5 can’t come quickly enough, good luck to everyone this week.
#isitSundayyet
Joel Harrington
October 2, 2013
Week 5 Fantasy Football Contests
This is a weekly post to highlight some Fantasy Football contests worth entering. Take note that some of these cost money to enter but some are free AKA Freerolls. I hope you took advantage of last weeks contests and have started to build your bankroll.
DraftStreet
This is the whopper for people looking for a Week 5 NFL Freeroll. The weekly $1,000 Freeroll continues at DraftStreet this week. Get in now. If you like the site then make a deposit and try one of the DFFC Qualifiers. It could be your ticket to $1 Million.
$1 Million 2013 Draftstreet Football Championship
FanDuel
My favorite site to play weekly fantasy football. Their user interface is sexy and they have a ton of contests of all shapes and sizes. Here are a couple to look at this week.
$5 Friends Of FanDuel League – This contest is invite-only so entries stay pretty low. $2,600 in prizes for this exclusive contest means plenty of opportunity to get paid out in this one. Brag Alert: I took First Place in this contest last week and won myself $100 and a $200 Super Qualifier Ticket. No big deal.
$25 Sunday Bomb – This is the massive one. A weekly contest run by FanDuel where you can turn $25 into $25,000. Talk about Return on Investment! Top 1,250 get paid out in this one. This contest fills up every week so get in early! Join this contest instead of going to the movies this weekend…or do both!
FanThrowdown
This is becoming one of my favorite sites to play fantasy football on. They have a ton of Guaranteed Prize Pools including Satellites, Qualifiers, Double Ups, GPP’s, you name it. They updated their interface this week and will continue to make improvements. There isn’t one contest I would recommend over the others but the $11 FTDFC Qualifier is a good one, the $11 Flea Flicker is at a great price point and has a big potential payout, and the Guaranteed Double Ups are a good way to keep your bankroll happy.
$500,000 FanThrowdown Fantasy Football Championship
DraftKings
First time depositors get 100% Deposit Bonus and a Free Entry into the Fantasy Football Millionaire Qualifier. Yes, they are offering $1 Million to the winner of that contest. Crazy, right? Crazy awesome. They have multiple weekly freerolls that give away “Step 1 Tickets” that can get you started at DraftKings.
DraftDay
There bracket contests are in full swing but they have plenty of other weekly contests if you missed out on the Brackets. Some good ones to check out are the Favre $ Footlong, Bear Down, and the Cover II. The first two contests are single-entry GPP’s while the Cover II is a 100 team Double Up.
FREE DraftDay $1 Million Perfect Lineup
Fantasy Aces
Aces is rapid growing and will soon be one of the elite in the industry. Get your foot in the door early.
Matt Forte $11 GPP – Fantasy Aces teamed up with Matt Forte to bring you this weekly GPP contest. There are 100 spots in this tournament but they are filling fast.
$10 Freeroll – Title explains it all. They offer a $10 and $5 freeroll. Good contests to give the site a trial. Top 3 get paid out in each.
Fantasy Feud
Fantasy Feud is offering the Feud of Champions which will pay out $30K to the winner at the end of the season. It might be worth joining a few of those qualifiers. If you want to try out the site first, they offer a couple weekly Freerolls with $150 up for grabs.
Other Contests:
StarStreet Playboy Fantasy Football Championship Qualifiers
Star Fantasy League GPPs & Weekly Freeroll
StatClash $10 GPP ($1,000 Prize Pool)
Happy Drafting!
