Giants Daily Blitz Blog

Fantasy Football Primer: Week 8

The views expressed in this article are not of the New York Football Giants but those of an independent Fantasy Expert.

Start

Cam Newton QB Panthers

Last Week: 233 passing yards, 2 turnovers, TD

Newton’s second year has been a disappointment to say the least in both fantasy and in the National Football League standards.  Though most of the Panthers’ problems have been linked to Newton, the lack of playmakers hasn’t helped his production in the least bit.  With one of the best defenses in the league coming up on the schedule, I’m going to say Superman comes through as he did last year when he faced one of the most highly touted defenses in the league, rushing for 2 touchdowns, while throwing for another and passing  for 374 yards.  Risk=reward.

Robert Meachem WR Chargers

Last Game: 3 catches, 30 yards

Excluding Meachem’s Week 5 homecoming in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome (3 catches, 67 yards, 2 touchdowns), the former Tennessee Volunteer has yet to have another start that justifies him as a top 3 wideout for your team, that is until this week.  Meachem will be facing a Browns secondary who has given up an average of 277 yards passing per game, ranking 26th in the league.  With Joe Haden covering the likes of Malcolm Floyd, this should exploit the secondary just enough for Meachem to be something he has yet to show all year.

Alex Green RB Packers

Last Week: 35 rushing yards

Green has seen plenty of carries since Cedric Benson has been sidelined, totaling 53 carries in the past 3 weeks.  Though his average in these games have been anything but noteworthy (3.1) on the year and
(1.8) last week, Green will try to improve on that when he has the task of playing the 29th ranked rush defense in Jacksonville, giving up an average of 147 yards per game.  Add in the fact that the Packers should be ahead plenty into the 4th and running out the clock, Green could very well be the sleeper of the week.

Greg Olsen TE Panthers

Last Week: 4 catches, 31 yards

Olsen’s 2012 season isn’t what most owners were expecting when initialing drafting the old hurricane (1 touchdown on the year).  But in week 8, he will be facing his former team in the Chicago Bears, the very same team that drafted Olsen back in 2007 with the 32 pick of the draft.  If this doesn’t get Olsen fired up to have the game of his life, nothing will.

Top Defense: Patriots

Last Week: 2 turnovers, touchdown, 26 points allowed

The New England Patriots defense will give up some yards and points on the board, but always seem to make up for it with turnovers galore, already having 7 interceptions on the year and gathering 11 fumbles and 2 touchdowns scored on defense.  With the Rams offense being ranked 26th in passing and 16th in rushing, it should lead to a good day to be a Patriots defense owner.

Bench

Shonn Greene RB Jets

Last Week:  54 yards rushing, TD

After only gaining 123 rushing yards from Weeks 2-5 with no touchdowns, Greene has come on strong to say the least in the past two games posting 161 yards and 3 td’s in week 6 and adding another strong performance in week 7 with 88 total yards and a score.  Going up against the Dolphins 3rd ranked rush defense won’t be an easy task and coming off a week from concussion like symptoms, could be hard to produce a game in which a makes that difference for you’re team between winning and losing.

Matthew Stafford QB Lions

Last Week: 263 Passing Yards, TD, INT

Stafford threw for over 5,000 yards and 41 touchdowns last year, this year through the first 6 games he has just 5 touchdowns with 6 interceptions.  Not sure if this is due to the fact that defenses have been picking up on the surprising Lions offense from last year  or that Megatron is just not the same while being triple covered most times in the red zone.  The timing couldn’t be worse with the Seattle Seahawks coming to Detroit, who rank 8th vs pass, allowing 212 yards per game and 5th vs run.  Wouldn’t be too shocked to see Stafford finally break out and have that season most anticipated, but not so positive it will happen this week.

Steelers Defense

Last Week: 17 points allowed, 1 turnover

Pittsburgh’s defense haven’t been dreadful this year but they haven’t been that great in any sense of the term either.  With the quarterback of the defense Troy Polamalu missing yet another start and his 7th game of the season, the Steeler secondary could have a long afternoon with the difficult tasks of containing both rookie sensations Robert Griffin III and Alfred Morris.

DeAngelo Williams RB Panthers

Last Week: 4 yards

Williams has to be one of the biggest busts on the year so far.  With 10 total yards in the past two weeks and only 173 yards in 6 games and two touchdowns, Williams doesn’t look to be taking over the offensive reigns anytime in the future.  He has all the talent in the world, but with the lack of carries, how can you start him?