Written by Jack Teague
COLIN KAEPERNICK
Photo courtesy of Mark Runyon | Pro Football Schedules
As someone who derided Kaepernick when he was chosen to start over Alex Smith, I can’t help but feel like his performance this season vindicates me. In case you haven’t been paying attention, he hasn’t thrown for more than 200 yards since the 412-yard season-opener and had zero touchdowns between Week 2 and 3. Normally, this is the part where I would say “Colin Kaepernick is a bust, don’t touch him with a 10-foot pole,” but after that first game, I just can’t say that. These last three games have been quite bad, but not so bad that I don’t think he can redeem himself (**cough** Eli Manning **cough**). He has so much potential that it’s very hard to sit him, especially in 12-man leagues and the like, where rosters aren’t likely to be top quality across the board. This week, Kaepernick showed a good bit of that potential, throwing two touchdowns and having a 115.7 quarterback rating. His failure this year has been throwing for yardage, as even this last week featured only 167 yards from him. Starting him really comes down to whether or not you think he can pass for a lot of yards, and that’s something I’m not prepared to do yet. I wouldn’t start him for at least two weeks, as this next week the 48ers are playing the Texans. Arizona though, in Week 6, is a game that he can take advantage of.
CORDARRELLE PATTERSON
Photo courtesy of Zennie Abraham
This comes with a disclaimer: DON’T PAY ATTENTION IF YOUR LEAGUE DOESN’T COUNT RETURN YARDS. That’s how Patterson is making his bones in this league, and he’s really next to worthless if all you’d get from him is receiving yards. He’s got 406 return yards so far, compared to just 82 receiving yards. That being said, this guy is absolutely worth a look in the leagues that do count return yards. He’s beaten his projections in the last three weeks. In Week Two he returned a ball 105 yards for a touchdown. This guy is also very available, with only 19% owning him in Yahoo leagues, 5.6% in ESPN leagues, and 28% in CBS leagues. This guy is practically yours for the taking, and he’s almost 100% guaranteed to put up points. You need this guy on your roster. At the very least he’s worth a flex spot, but he’s worth a start if you don’t have any good receivers or one of them isn’t reliable. He’s on a bye this week, so get him now while no one else is thinking of him.
DANNY WOODHEAD
Someone break out the caution signs, because Woodhead deserves to have them plaster all over his body. This guy had a huge week last week, making him instantly vault onto the radars of pretty much everyone who plays fantasy football, but I’m not convinced. Yes, he rushed for 32 yards and caught five passes for 54 yards and two touchdowns, but that game is far and above his best game this season. Those TDs inflated his score, making him more of a threat to go off for serious points, rather than someone who’s guaranteed to put up those points. Keep in mind, those touchdowns were the first two of his season, and he’s also splitting time with Ryan Matthews. I would wait one more game to start this guy, to see if he’s for real now, or if the last game, as I highly suspect, was an anomaly. Oakland hasn’t been especially prone to giving up rushing yards (111.8 rushing yards per game), so that’s another reason to hold off unless you’re very sure he’s going to get passed to in the red zone.
SEBASTIAN JANIKOWSKI
Photo courtesy of Bernie Zimmerman
Janikowski is a slowly sinking ship that people need to abandon. Through four games, he only has eight field goals, and that represents only a 56% success rate. While he may have been a quality pick in years gone by, he can’t be characterized as anything other than underwhelming this year. Drop him if you’ve got him and get a kicker with potential like Nick Novak (coincidentally, the Chargers have the Raiders this week) or Alex Henery (the Eagles will get their offense back on track at some point and they’ve got the Giants this week).
TENNESSEE TITANS DEFENSE
Photo courtesy of Jauerback
The performance from this team over the course of the last four weeks has been phenomenal. They’ve only given up more than 20 points once, allowing only eight touchdowns in overall. They rank 9th in terms of total defense, 10th and 11th in passing defense and rushing defense respectively. All that being said, this isn’t a group of guys that I would trust quite yet. They had one fantastic fantasy week last week, one bad fantasy week in Week Three, and two good weeks to start the season. They need to prove that they can consistently play well, against good teams too (I should point out they’ve played Pittsburgh, San Diego, and the New York Jets). The one game they had against a team with playoff potential, the Houston Texans, beat them by scoring 30 points. The Titans seem like a good team to take advantage of when they play bad teams, but be careful when they play good teams like the Kansas City Chiefs (this week, actually).
