I am really starting to hate the Denver Broncos (and not because of getting Peyton Manning a bogus second ring last year). But "hate" might be a little bit harsh. I might be in the subtle loathing stage. Kind of like those people who like to post passive aggressive messages on a community Facebook page. Which, I really have no idea why I allowed myself to get involved in that page. Mostly it's direct market schemes followed by one neighbor who has to post warnings to people about cleaning up after their dogs. And while that lady is kind of annoying, the pet owners who use the community park as their own private lavatory are the worst. Do you not have consideration for anybody else but yourself? Because you know who gets the heat for that? The considerate dog owner. Because that lady will always give you the stink eye (pun intended) when you're walking by. You know the one. She looks down at the mess left on the lawn and then back at me. And I'm like, hey, I put my dog down years ago. Don't look at me lady.
I bet Gary Kubiak is that unconscientious pet owner. Because he's treating my fantasy team the way those dogs treat my community park as he left a nice little present the other day when he said Kapri Bibbs deserved more carries going forward. Oh boy.
This obviously caused a ruckus with everybody in the fantasy community (not to mention somebody like me who has Booker on just about every team. And I traded for him, too). And it seems kind of stupid to me.
Obviously Bibbs looked great on Sunday night. A lot of folks noted he outgained Booker by an 80 to 30 margin. Which he did. But damn people, 69 yards were on a broken screen pass that came in near-garbage time (how about garbage-time adjace?) right around the time the Raiders secondary forgot how to tackle. If you watched earlier in the game, Booker was the victim of a poor game plan and a fired up Raiders defense. Trust me, Bibbs would have done nothing with earlier carries. Booker was the victim here. And now Kubiak wants to throw him under the bus this way? Don't blame the dog for taking a dump on the lawn, blame those who can't clean it up. Like you, Trevor Siemian. Would it kill you to hit an open receiver from time to time? When you start the game with numerous three-and-outs, it's going to be hard to get things going on the ground.
Fortunately for us, the Broncos will play in New Orleans this week. This is a pretty great matchup. I would even put Siemian in the streamable category. Booker is going to have a good game. And by all means, pick up Bibbs. He deserves to be on your roster as the rhetoric continues to stream from Denver. He might even be a good start when you consider the matchup. But don't throw out Booker just yet.
Rank's 11 Sleepers, Week 9
QB: Jay Cutler, Chicago Bears
QB: Trevor Siemian, Denver Broncos
RB: Rob Kelley, Washington Redskins
RB: Andre Ellington, Arizona Cardinals
RB: Paul Perkins, New York Giants
WR: Kenny Britt, Los Angeles Rams
WR: Rishard Matthews, Tennessee Titans
WR: Adam Humphries, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
WR: Jamison Crowder, Washington Redskins
WR: J.J. Nelson, Arizona Cardinals
TE: C.J. Fiedorowicz, Houston Texans
Jay Cutler, QB, Chicago Bears
I spared you a long dissertation of why I love Cutler this week. There are a lot of quarterbacks on a bye this week. Good ones, too. Cutler returned against Minnesota and crushed those fools. I know a lot of you are apprehensive to pick him up because, let's be honest, he's Mr. Monday Night. That and you fear he's going to go back to being Cutler. But he's a good quarterback. He's got a good matchup as the Buccaneers allow an average of 281 passing yards per game. And this Bears team is going to return a lot of talent this week.
This is going to be a crazy play for sure. He's a clear-cut backup. He's never going to challenge David Johnson for carries. But real talk here, the Cardinals are going to be up 41-0 at halftime (missed extra point). David Johnson will have 249 rushing yards in the first half, and he's going to be pulled. Ellington is going to finish among the top 20 scoring running backs as a backup. And I'm happy to start him in any league that isn't for money.
Yeah buddy, Jay Gruden said this week Kelley will handle the bulk of the early-down work and Matt Jones needs to get his stuff together. Well, he intimated the last part. And yes, I have no qualms in admitting that I will praise a coach who does what Kubiak basically did when it fits my agenda. But in fairness to me. Jones lost his job because he can't hang on to the ball. It's not like Kelley took some crazy 69-yard screen pass to the house in a garbage time.
As most of you know, I've been on board with Mike Evans this whole season and he's still my dude. But Humphries has been a solid No. 2 for Tampa since Vincent Jackson went down. Humphries had seven targets last week, and he turned that into double-digit points. He's going to be a little touchdown-dependent, but he's got a decent matchup against the Bears. I expect this game to be higher scoring, and with Tampa's running situation kind of a mess I think we'll see more passes even though Bears secondary has played well this year.
I guess I should throw this out there, if Kenny Britt is somehow still available on your wire or something, play him. He's been great. The matchup against the Jets should be pretty good, too.
C.J. Fiedorowicz, TE, Houston Texans
I have him here because a lot of people probably just dropped him last week when the Texans were on a bye. But I wouldn't hesitate to grab him this week, or move him back into your starting lineups. I did take some time to go look at what the Jaguars were giving up to tight ends this season, and then I realized that I don't care about that. He's had at least seven targets in his last four games. He's scored three touchdowns this season. I like to play the Doyle Rules and got with the tight end against the Lions. But spoiler alert, the Lions are on a bye this week. Dennis Pitta has a nice matchup against the Browns because they are the most generous to the position. But that's too obvious to even mention.
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