All-Star vs. All-Misfit Week 8!

These next two weeks are the most important weeks of the regular season in fantasy football.

I’m not joking. The roster decisions you make in Week 9 and Week 10 will likely decide your fantasy championship. For all of those 6-2, 7-1, or (nice going) 8-0 teams out there, you can take a hit at this point. That means that if you have a player with great matchups in your league’s championship weeks, you can take a 0 at their position if they’re on bye here. Maybe make some trades, boost up your roster. You’ve almost locked up a playoff spot and now that should be your entire focus.

For those teams that are 5-3, 4-4, or 3-5, these weeks are also insanely critical. You’re two games out of locking up a playoff spot or falling completely out of contention. You cannot afford to take 0s, and if you’re rostering two middle-of-the-road TEs, D/STs, or QBs…. Well, don’t do that.

Oh and for those stuggling teams out there - Sometimes you’re the highest scorer in your league. Sometimes, you’re the second highest scorer in your league. In one of my leagues this week, I was the latter… against the former. Some days you put up 182 and they put up 190. Luck of the draw.

The All-Star team contains the top players from each position in terms of Average Draft Positions. For instance, Peyton Manning was the first quarterback off of most boards this year. Therefore, he’s the weekly All-Star QB. If the All-Star player has a bye, I go to the next person at that position by ADP (when Manning is out, I go to Aaron Rodgers, the second QB off the board). The All-Misfit team contains the players that nobody expected to score, but hit paydirt. This team will change drastically week-to-week, as no player can be on it consecutive weeks.

The scoring is ESPN standard, and the team format is: QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, TE, D/ST, K.

Without further ado, here is your Week 8 All-Star team!

QB: Peyton Manning – 23 points
RB: LeSean McCoy – 9 points
RB: Jamaal Charles - 23 points
WR: Dez Bryant - 9 points
WR: Demaryius Thomas – 10 points
TE: Jimmy Graham - 11 points
D/ST: Seahawks - 12 points
K: Stephen Gostkowski – 15 points

Total: 115 points

With Calvin Johnson gone another week (and surprise: he’s gone this week too, folks… Bye Week) Dez tried to fill in again here and failed. However, the takeaways here are that Jamaal Charles’ sluggish start to the season is now a thing of the past – he’s gotten over 100 yards from scrimmage in his last few games. Also – Jimmy Graham is healthy and officially back on the “start with confidence” TE1 spectrum. He’ll return to Top-3 TE shape in no time. McCoy’s still trying to find some holes – I bet he’d find more if he bought all of his O-Line the new Madden so they can see how good they’re supposed to be. Seahawks D/St bounced back after all that chatter, but they’re still matchup dependent, like almost every defense except perhaps the Lions.

Here’s the All-Misfit team!

QB: Ben Roethlisberger - 44 points
RB: Lorenzo Taliaferro - 18 points
RB: Theo Riddick - 13 points
WR: Brandin Cooks - 21 points
WR: Donte Moncrief - 17 points
TE: Tim Wright - 12 points
D/ST: Dolphins - 26 points
K: Billy Cundiff - 13 points

Total: 164 points

Ok, so Big Ben’s Big Day (dibs on the children’s book with that title…) totally skewed this. But last week was a crazy fantasy week, with a bunch of big days for a bunch of people. I expect Taliaferro to be a weekly Flex consideration, with Bernard Pierce clearly in the doghouse. Brandin Cooks is also legit – another weekly flex with WR2 upside (especially playing at home… and he’s a solid WR2 in PPR). Tim Wright makes his second appearance on the misfit team – all that guy does is catch touchdowns, annoy Gronk owners, and catch more touchdowns. Ben Roethlisberger’s production here is a complete flash in the pan – don’t buy into it. If you started him, great. If not, don’t start him this week.

VICTORY: Misfits. By a lot.

Overall: Misfits lead 3-1-1.