Faith is still undefeated with a 5-0 record holding first place in Conference 2, with Chris (3-2) holding on to second place. In Conference 1, Brian (4-1) who led all teams with 164 points continued to hold first place with Jon (3-2) moving into second place.
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After looking at both my own Team along with all the other Teams in our League, these are just some things that I've been thinking about.
Generally speaking, if you have a "Go-To" running back who handles majority of the carries, you can expect relatively consistent performance with the only factors being the Run Defense your RB is facing / if they may be not 100% healthy.
On the other hand, Receivers are much more unpredictable, as the amount of times they are targeted per game has varied greatly per week. Many of you may have noticed that your top drafted Receivers will score a ridiculous amount of points for your team one week, and the next week have a very mediocre performance (Boom or Bust). There are TONS of reasons for this, but I feel there are 3 major factors which determine the performance for Top Tier Receivers:
1. Top Tier Receivers are often double teamed by the opposing defense which makes it very hard for the QB to get the ball to them. A good thing thing to look out for is the Fantasy Analysis icon next to your Player's name which will let you know if that week the Receiver will be facing elite Cornerbacks (the likes of Richard Sherman, Aqib Talib, Josh Norman, etc).
2. How good is Defense's Pass-Rush / your Receiver's Offensive line? Even if you have an excellent Receiver, if your Receiver's QB is under pressure / being sacked every play, it does not allow enough time for Receivers to make big plays (especially if they are vertical-route Receivers).
3. What I like to call the double-edged sword. While it generally is tempting to start a Receiver if some of his fellow WRs are not playing that game due to injury (because there is a higher % he will be targeted), the double-edged sword to this is that the Defense can afford to put a double or triple coverage on your best Receiver (going back to point #1).
Just to give a real world example of this, these factors have definitely come into play for me with Rob Gronkowski in the first 4 weeks of the Season. Prior to the acquisition of Josh Gordon / end of suspension for Julian Edelman, Gronk has either put up amazing points or was a complete bust. Because there were so few receivers in the first 4 weeks on the Patriots, it meant either Gronk would be get a bulk of the targets from Brady, or he would not be open at all because the opposing Defense could put two or three men on him.
An interesting tool built into ESPN Fantasy Football which I discovered recently, is the "IBM Insights". I find it very helpful in deciding who to start as it gives better insight of the Boom / Bust chance of each player, rather than just a single Projection number. You can access this by clicking on your Players and tabbing over to "IBM Insights". The tool looks like this:
In summation, look at the match up for your Receivers. You can roll the dice that they will have good performances despite the fact they will be heavily defended, or you may want to play more conservative and go with a Receiver who gets consistent catches / points (but may not have the ceiling for very high Boom points).
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As of the end of Week 5, these are the current standings:
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WEEK 6 Preview and Observations:
League Activity shows Teams’ reactions to the status of players (Q or O) due to recoveries or new injuries. Notable player injuries affecting their individual point production during Week 5 were: J. Ajayi (Uncle D), B. Cooks (Faith) and D. Cook (Erica).
If you need to pickup a replacement player this week due to injury or BYE Week, you'd better be quick as I've noticed everyone has been very active rearranging their teams last week!
This week's match ups are as follows:
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I hope you all have a great week and as always I look forward to the Smack Talk!
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