Over the past few years during the NFL season, Ted Schuster and I have been doing a segment on the SiriusXM radio show called “Right, Wrong or Indifferent.” Basically what this means is a scorecard for all of the predictions, rankings and recommendations we gave out during the previous week for fantasy football.

I feel very strongly about users (readers, listeners, customers, etc) holding fantasy analysts responsible for the information and advice they pass along. To be honest, its way too easy for us to disguise our analysis on a week in and week out basis because there are thousands of excuses to be made. After all, we aren’t the ones playing the game, right? Well, nah, eff that. We need to be held accountable. If we aren’t then its too easy to become soft and not pay as much attention or not watch the games that we are trying to make sense out of. You guys deserve better.

Thus, I will be putting our radio segment down on paper and posting it right here each week on the Fantasy Alarm site. I encourage you to help be hold myself (and Ted!) accountable for the information that we provide. Now be careful here because if you are going to try and come at me with blame for something I didn’t say or take my thoughts out of context than I reserve the right to fire back at you. And you had better believe that I will. Just stick to the actual things that I say and we should have no problems.

This is a good spot to post your submissions for our Haterade segment on the SiriusXM show as well. Just light me on fire in the most negative way possible in the comments section, on the Fantasy Alarm Forums or on Twitter (@Jeff_Mans).

Here is my Right, Wrong & Indifferent for Week 8:

RIGHT

Tom Brady, QB, Patriots

Big deal Jeff, everybody knows to play Brady he is the best QB in the game today. Fair point. Then how do you explain him being just 5% owned in daily fantasy this week? I had Brady as my cash game QB and I would say that it worked out quite well this week.

Derek Carr, QB, Raiders

How quickly people forget. Carr had passed for just 425 yards over his last two games going into this week and thus he wasn’t on many people’s radar. Carr was slightly more owned than Brady but I can already tell there are far too many people saying they were “on” him this week.

Spencer Ware, RB, Chiefs

Making a prediction about an injury is terrible. I really don’t like to do it but sometimes in this job you have to say and do things that are not held in the highest regard. As I stated all last week, I was convinced that Spencer Ware would get injured in this game and have to give way to Charcandrick West. Anybody can just say something like that you say? That’s fair. But would those people also actually start West on their own personal fantasy teams as well? I did this in two leagues this week. I explained my position in the open to today’s Fantasy Alarm Show on SiriusXM radio. It has to do with experience and having seen situations like this each and every year for the past 27 years of playing this game. The lesson here is that you can positively never give up on managing your roster no matter how comfortable you think you can be.

Matt Forte, RB, Jets

I saw a few complaints about the DFS NFL Playbook this week mostly centered around players that are featured in the second part of this article. Forte was in the Playbook this week and was also a RB1 play in all fantasy formats. Forte was the third highest scoring RB of the week and if you played him in DFS you were a very happy person this week.

Amari Cooper, WR, Raiders

Michael Crabtree, WR, Raiders

As the official “Crabtree Whisperer” I am now required to make an official proclamation on which Raiders wide receiver will have the big week. This week I declared it a “both” week in that both Crabtree and Cooper would have big fantasy outputs. Not only did Cooper go off for 12-173-1 but Crabtree followed suit posting a 9-107 line. What’s more is that Crabtree actually had an 11 yard TD reception that was called back for offensive pass interference. Who will be the Raiders WR to target next week? Stay tuned..

Donte Moncrief, WR, Colts

Short term memory. That is the only explanation for folks not giving Moncrief ANY love at all this week. Moncrief is Andrew Luck’s favorite receiver. But the two have flipped flopped on the injury front the past two years thus they haven’t played much together. Still, over the 10 games they have played together these two have hooked up for seven touchdowns.  

Mohamed Sanu, WR, Falcons

The Falcons offense is tops in the NFL in total yards, passing yards and scoring this season. We all have to get used to the fact that other players besides Julio Jones are going to post strong fantasy numbers. Sanu’s role in this offense is growing every week and I love his matchup next week against the Buccaneers almost as much as I loved it against the Packers this week.

Cameron Brate, TE, Buccaneers

This wasn’t as good of a game as I had hoped for out of Brate but he did have three red zone targets and scored on one of them. Normally, I would put this production into the “indifferent pile” but Brate was under one percent owned in DFS this week and was available in over 90% of fantasy leagues this week.

Others I Was Right About

Andrew Luck, QB, Colts

Matt Stafford, QB, Lions

Devonta Freeman, RB, Falcons

Mike Gillislee, RB, Bills

Quincy Enunwa, WR, Jets

Chris Hogan, WR, Patriots

Rob Gronkowski, TE, Patriots

C.J. Fiedorowicz, TE, Texans  

 

WRONG

Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB, Jets

How can any QB not light up the Cleveland Browns? Well Fitzpatrick was absolutely terrible to start this game and was temporarily replaced when the officials feared he may have a concussion. It had nothing to do with a hit, rather they just thought that he may be brain damaged with the way that he was playing.  

Knile Davis, RB, Packers

Well this was one that keeps getting worse as time goes on. I assumed that trading a draft pick for a RB would mean that the Packers were sold on his ability to fit into their offense. Ah, no. Davis got two touches on Sunday and then was abruptly cut on Monday as the Packers go back down to having just one running back on their roster. Does he go back to Kansas City where Jamaal Charles could see his season cut short after a visit to Dr. James Andrews? Possible but don’t forget that Andy Reid didn’t like Davis either which was why he was their fourth string RB in the first place.  

Melvin Gordon, RB, Chargers

A running back that is averaging just 64 yards per game and 3.3 yards per carry travels to Denver to face off against a team who gets one of their best LB back? No thanks. Well, Gordon ran for nearly five yards per carry and 155 total yards making me look like a fool for every doubting him.

DeAndre Hopkins, WR, Texans

Hopkins didn’t have a bad game by any stretch but I will gladly acknowledge that I expected much more from him this week. He did come within a foot of scoring on a terrific one handed catch but it was not to be. So many people are hating on Hopkins but he’s still a top 22 fantasy WR and with his upcoming schedule (after the bye) he will wind up being a solid WR1 on the season.   

Terrelle Pryor, WR, Browns

Despite the matchup I wasn’t touching Pryor this week. I regretted this move by the time the first quarter was over and by halftime he had rung up over 100 yards receiving. Now, Pryor did nothing in the second half but the damage was already done.  

Tyrell Williams, WR, Chargers

Williams was knocked out of this game for a time with a knee injury but it really didn’t matter. The Chargers swapped out their WR lineup moving Inman around which skewed the CB matchups that I had been relying on going into this week. I can tell within two series if these WR/CB matchups are going to hold the way that I had thought and when they aren’t I know that I am going to be totally screwed. At that point, I just hope to limit the damage as much as possible.   

Jimmy Graham, TE, Seahawks

The Jimmy Graham revenge game never materialized this week. I was absolutely positive that Graham would have at least one touchdown in his old stomping grounds and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had 25+ fantasy points. The Seattle offense as a whole is a mess right now and QB Russell Wilson is having a very tough time being that pocket passer that he was last season. The entire Seahawks offense is paying the price for it.

Others I Was Wrong About

Cam Newton, QB, Panthers

Jordan Howard, RB, Bears

Jonathan Stewart, RB, Panthers

Will Fuller, WR, Texas

Doug Baldwin, WR, Seahawks

Greg Olsen, TE, Panthers

 

INDIFFERENT

Jameis Winston, QB, Buccaneers

Winston was a major disappointment this week but he just barely squeezed out a 2x return in DFS which gets him indifferent status this week. I suppose that if you factor in that the Buccaneers played nearly five full quarters, this performance looks even worse.

Christine Michael, RB, Seahawks

As I mentioned earlier, the Seahawks were easily the biggest disappointments of week eight. Michael started out well on Sunday but once they fell behind the running game was aborted. His two yard TD run saved his performance but we still have to be disappointed in the overall total give the matchup.

Theo Riddick, RB, Lions

I said all week that I hoped that Riddick would be healthy enough to play against the Texans. The book on Houston’s defense is that you have to beat them on the ground. If you don’t, you won’t. Unfortunately, we never had a clear indication that Riddick would be a go until an hour and a half before kickoff. Thus, I wasn’t able to use him or recommend him as much as I had wanted to throughout the week.

Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Cardinals

You would think that I have learned my lesson of playing Fitzgerald in obvious situations but I have not. Fitzgerald had a six inch height advantage over Robert McClain this week and though he did well, it really should have been a lot more. We’ll take his 10-74 output but the Cardinals had better realize that they need to get Larry the ball in the red zone more often if they want to win more ballgames.

Tyler Eifert, TE, Bengals

I’ve had Eifert in my top 10 of fantasy TE’s for each of the past two weeks. This week I had recommended him quite a bit and was actually getting worried about how much faith that I was showing in him. The unfortunate thing was that I didn’t use the London game in any of the DFS Playbook articles or rankings this week. Thus, I had zero Eifert and only get half credit for him this week.