NFL Week 16 -- The Morning After

For many of you, the dust has just about settled on another fine fantasy football season. With the Falcons and the 49ers squaring off tonight on Monday Night Football, the curtain will soon drop and a champion will be crowned. Win or lose, it’s time to move on. Go play on the beach with your dog more. Go pay more attention to your significant other. Go hit up Ray Flowers, Fantasy Alarm’s new head baseball guy, for some advice and get that fantasy baseball preparation under way. Your options are limitless. But as the saying goes, you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here. Your fantasy football is season is over.

Can’t bear it? Separation anxiety? Already going through withdrawal? OK, fine. You can stay here a little while longer. After all, there are plenty of things to discuss for those who still have another week to go. You can hang with them, even if it’s just for the one week.

There were certainly a few eye-opening situations from the weekend that should be addressed as you get yourselves ready for one final week of battle. Nothing incredibly calamitous…well, ok, maybe one or two calamitous things…but enough that your decisions of who to go with this week here in the final week are affected. Let’s take a look.

Andre Brown Concussed

While yes, my heart goes out to him here in the holiday season as no one wants to sit next to the tree and forget who he’s handing gifts to, but it’s just as bad for fantasy folks playing for a championship with one less running back. Brown had to be carted off the field it looked so bad and while his status for Week 17 won’t be determined until he goes through the usual NFL concussion protocol, fantasy owners should probably plan to be without him. Go grab yourself some Michael Cox. With nothing left to play for, the Giants have no reason to rush him back or even push the envelope in his recovery. Let the poor guy just ride it out on the sidelines until the end and let him go try and enjoy some time with him family and/or friends.

Loving Stacy

Zac Stacy, that is. Sure, maybe you’ve got a girlfriend or a wife named Stacy, but if you owned the football player this season, you probably love him more. Sunday was his fourth 100-yard game, he’s found the end zone in each of his last three, and now has seven touchdowns in his last seven games. The match-ups almost seem irrelevant as he’s punished some of the better run defenses in the game such as Seattle, Tennessee (at the time) and Tampa Bay. In fact, it was Stacy’s 127 yards and two touchdowns that put the Titans into their defensive tailspin.  And it won’t stop this season even with the Seahawks on the horizon for Week 17. He’s been there, done that.  Sure, Seattle can try and stack eight men in the box, but even Kellen Clemens can dink and dunk with some of his guys and force the defense to stay honest.  And just wait until we start talking keeper league value…

Loving Lacy Too

We can’t dole out too much rookie love without throwing a little praise Eddie Lacy’s way. Three straight games with a touchdown, six touchdowns in his last six games, nine touchdowns in his last 10? How about four 100-yard games as well? That’s the stuff upon which fantasy championships are built. The guy has been an absolute beast and for those who were using him late in the year, you have to commend him for enduring the ankle issues he’s had. Now yes, he left this past week with a recurrence of the injury, but he came off the field after 84 yards and two touchdowns. Not too shabby. It could, however, be an issue next week which would be a shame what with the Bears and their porous defensive line coming up. It could have been a phenomenal match-up. Obviously nothing is etched in stone here, but it would certainly be wise to make sure that you have secured James Starks. If Starks goes in Week 17, he could very well have the game of his life.

The Megatron Blues?

So I actually heard that Calvin Johnson was receiving hate-tweets towards the end of the season because, traditionally, he goes into the tank during the fantasy playoffs. So rather than listen to the mass of idiots out there who love to talk out of their ass, I went and looked for myself. Checking his game log, here’s how many fantasy points Megatron has scored between Weeks 14 and 17 over the years. I’ve used standard scoring with one point for every 10 receiving yards, six points for a touchdown and a simple three-point bonus for going over 100 yards.

Notice how I just stopped after going back just two years? It’s because anyone who tells you he goes into the tank come playoff time is an idiot. They have no idea what they’re talking about and it’s morons like that who send stupid tweets to athletes which cause them to think everyone who plays fantasy sports is a dipshit. If you’re one of those people, then do me and everyone else a favor. Shut the f*** up and let the rest of use enjoy our little hobby.

If you’ve got more work to do this week, then get it together. The season ain’t over yet. If you’re championship has come and gone, enjoy the holidays, be smart and be safe and I’ll see you all for baseball soon enough.