Practice What You Preach Part 1

Yesterday I wrote about how three individuals were talking about how they were going to beat me this week. I kindly responded by declaring I will be victorious and low key taking a couple of jabs at some of the remarks that were made. Well, now it's time for me to back up all that trash talk. Even though I proclaimed I would come out with Ws, the task is easier said than done.

Starting with my team going against Victor in Roughing the Picker, I don't really like the situation at all. I have three key players on byes this week. I need to find players to fill in this week for Matt Forte, Martellus Bennett, and Danny Woodhead. Being that this is a PPR league, all three of these players have been crucial components of my team. The bad news is, since there isn't a waiver wire in this league, finding players from free agency can be difficult as other managers keep a close eye for players who are available. Even on Sunday during games, you can add players on your squad for the upcoming week. It also doesn't help that this years injuries are coming at a rapid rate.

So far, the only player I've picked up from free agency is Chris Ivory to fill in for Forte, but I'm a little skeptical on this pick up. In my opinion, he's only going to be productive if Bilal Powell doesn't get many snaps. As of writing this, I can only assume Powell is healthy and Rex Ryan could have a different games plan than he did last week where Ivory got a majority of the touches and fantasy points. Looking at who else is available in free agency, the most intriguing players available are Powell, Rashard Mendenahall, Mike Tolbert, Andre Ellington, Jason Snelling, and Brandon Bolden. As of right now, I haven't made a final decision on who to start at for Forte, but the wrong decision could be extremely crucial.

The situation is very interesting when it comes to finding someone to fill in for Martellus Bennett. I have Bennett and Gronk as the two tight ends on my squad. The problem is both of them start as Bennett fills the TE spot and Gronk fills in the versatile W/T (wide receiver/tight end) position.Obviously I'm going to put Gronk at TE, but that leaves the W/T position open. On my bench I got Kenbrell Thompkins, Steve Johnson, Geno Smith, and Terrelle Pryor (I've been trying to figure out why I have two quarterbacks on the bench). What concerns me is with Gronk back, Thompkins production, which hasn't really been too consistent, is expected to go down. With Steve Johnson, the quarterback situation is a little too shaky for me to really depend on him. The free agency for wide receiver is below average full of people either I've never heard of or third or fourth option receivers, so I'm going have to make it work with either Thompkins or Johnson.

The problem I have with finding someone to fill in for Danny Woodhead is pretty much all of the above I explained with replacing Forte and Bennett. I have Woodhead at the W/R (wide receiver/running back position. I only have three running backs, well four if you include Ivory. So I can either pick up one of the running backs I mentioned earlier from free agency, or again, I can decide between Thompkins and Johnson. Right now, I like Johnson, but I'm going to have to further investigate before Sunday to see exactly what the final lineup is going to look like.

Most likely, it's going to be a game time decision when it comes to who's going to start. Tomorrow I'm going to figure out how I'm going to back up all this shit I talked in Coast2Coast Ballers.