TNF Vikings vs Bucs: Who to Sit, Who to Start

Interesting match up tonight between two teams who have been playing pretty well recently, as the Vikings are in the thick of the playoff hunt with a 4-2 recrd. The Bucs, on the other hand, got off to a very slow start this season, but the offense has been playing great as of late. And then you have AP up against a top 5 run defense in the Bucs. So who do you play tonight? Let’s discuss:

Starts:

AP: I don’t care who the Vikes are playing, you can’t sit AP this week, even against a very good run D. The only way you sit him is if you have two stud guys who you could start in his place, but even then, you clearly won’t have a Flex option better than AP. I think AP will be very involved in the offense and is important to the Vikes’ success as his hard running will take pressure off Christian Ponder and the passing game. I see AP scoring a TD, but his yardage output will be <80.

Josh Freeman: This is more a gut call than anything else. I mean, he’s rolling right now and it’d be hard to sit him. If you have a higher ranked QB, then I can understand sitting him. But I’ll give you an example: I play in a 2 QB league and I have Freeman and Cam Newton. Had this been a one team league, I think I’d roll with Freeman instead of Newton based on how hot Freeman is and how bad Newton’s match up against the Bears is. So I think it says a lot about how well Freeman is playing that I’d play him over a guy like Newton (although I could just be an idiot too). Prediction: 2 TDs, 250 yds, 1 INT

Christian Ponder: I think he has a solid game throwing the ball, getting two TDs on the outside to Harvin and Jerome Simpson (yup, I went there). Play Ponder this week.

Percy Harvin: I don’t have to tell you to play Harvin. He’s a must play every week.

Vincent Jackson: I think he’ll build upon last week’s monster game, but it won’t be quite as good. I see him with 5-7 catches, 90-100 yards with a TD

Kyle Rudolph: He’ll be involved in the offense, and if I’m wrong about Jerome Simpson (you’ve read this blog right? pretty good likelihood), then Rudolph will be the beneficiary.

Sits:

Doug Martin: I don’t see this being a big game for Martin and the Bucs run game. I can see this being a 40 yard, 12 touch type of game. I think the Bucs will be playing catch up early on and will use Freeman’s arm more than Martin’s legs. If you have a similarly ranked guy, go with the other guy.

Mike Williams: I see this being a Vincent Jackson type of day, as the Vikings seem to do a pretty good job taking away the middle of the field, which is where Williams thrives. I think Williams will get some targets, but don’t expect more than a 3-4 rec, 50 yard day.

Tampa Bay Defense: After the stinker that the Vikes’ offense put up last week, I expect a big bounce back game. Look for them to score 24+ against the Bucs D, and I think Ponder won’t turn the ball over.

Good luck tonight and in your Week 8 match ups. This is where fantasy leagues start really taking shape. Hope you made the right moves

Thursday Injury Updates (Like What the Heck is a Plantar Plate Tear)

So lots of big news this wek, MJD being ruled out for this week and beyond, and potential disastrous news regarding Greg Jennings and Pierre Garcon. Let’s take a look at all the big injury news of the week and implications for this weekend’s games.

Blaine Gabbert: He took all the snaps during Thursday’s media portion of practice and seems to be on track to play this week. Look for him to be out there against the Pack as his sprained shoulder appears to be minor.

Ahmad Bradshaw: He didn’t practice Wednesday or Thursday, which is no surprise at all with Bradshaw. This seems to be par for the course with him for the near future as it doesn’t seem worth it to risk setback during the week. Look for him to be out there this week barring any new issues when he inevitably practices on a limited basis on Friday. It appears this foot soreness is something he’s going to be dealing with for the rest of the season.

Trent Richardson: His ribs are sore and will probably continue to be sore for a couple more weeks. However, he practiced fully on Wednesday and seems to be ahead of schedule this week compared to last. Look for him to be out there against the Chargers, with things being pain-management based more than anything else.

Pierre Garcon: The official diagnosis now is a tear to the plantar plate in his foot. What is that exactly? The plantar plate is a ligamentous-type structure on the plantar surface (bottom of foot) of the balls of the feet. It functions to protect the metatarsal heads (balls of toes) from excessive pressure with weight bearing tasks. It also prevents our toes from over-extending during push off tasks like running and sprinting. When the planter plate tears, the stability of the individual toe is lost, causing direct pressure on the met heads (balls of toes) and sapping a person of their explosiveness and speed. In Garcon’s case, he has been unable to push off and plant/cut properly because his toes don’t want to absorb that amount of force without the proper stability from the plantar plate to counter the forces. Check out the picture to the right to see exactly where the plantar plate is, which will give you an idea of why he’s having such a hard time with going full speed. The word is that Garcon could potentially be shut down until after the Redskins’ week 10 bye week, which would be a great idea so that he could actually get off that foot, protect in a bit more from movement to allow it to heal, and see if more conservative measures would be beneficial. If this doesn’t settle down in 3 weeks, I’d expect the Skins to potentially shut him down and look to surgery to get this thing taken care of. Typically, when an injury doesn’t respond well to conservative measures in 4-6 weeks, the next step needs to be looked at, which can consist of further imaging (MRI, X-Ray, CT scan), cortisone injection, or, the last resort, surgery. What do you do about his roster spot? If you have the luxury of waiting 1-2 weeks, I’d hold onto him until you got official word. But my gut feeling is that he’s not going to be contributing to your fantasy season for the rest of the year.

Greg Jennings: You can count on him not being in the lineup this week, or next week for that matter. His complications with the groin issue continue to get worse and it’s getting more difficult to figure out exactly what’s going on with it. Conflicting reports say that he could potentially need surgery to repair the groin issue and/or has a sports hernia that needs to be dealt with. Either way, he’s not back in the lineup anytime soon, and to be honest, they really don’t need him right now. Their offense is clicking and they’re playing the 1-5 Jaguars this week, so there is absolutely no rush with Jennings. Keep an eye on reports in the next week or so, but if you hear the word “surgery” being thrown around with him, you’re probably going to need a contingency plan if you don’t have one in place already.

Danny Amendola: Don’t kid yourself about him playing this week: He’s not. Since he separated his sternoclavicular joint (SC joint, connects your collar bone to your sternum, the breast bone) just 3 weeks ago, don’t expect much in the next week or two. But with the Rams having a bye week coming up in week 9, there’s an outside chance he plays in week 10. I would venture to guess that week 11 he’ll be back in the lineup. So if you have the ability to stash him for a couple more weeks, he should be back up to speed for the start of fantasy playoff season, which could be a huge boon to your lineup.

Jermichael Finley: Limited in practice Wednesday, still restricted by his shoulder injury, I think he’ll play this week and will be darn near 100% for week 9. Typically, it takes a couple weeks for an injury like a minor separated shoulder to resolve itself, so expect him to feel pretty good to go next week, when at least 4 weeks will have passed since hurting the shoulder.

DeMarco Murray/Felix Jones: Murray is believed to be out for this week against the G-Men, which was definitely expected. The prevailing thought is that his sprained foot was more minor than anything else, the expectation of him being out 2-3 weeks seems right on the money. But don’t look to count on him this week. Jones, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to ever want to benefit from an opportunity. He suffered a bone bruise in his knee during week 7, which could potentially limit him this week. He’s still expected to start this week, but his practice participation will give us some insight about how active he’ll be. Bone bruises are normally just trauma to the bone, which won’t predispose him to developing a more severe injury, but can be painful depending on the severity of the bruise. Look for him to play, but make sure he’s more active in practice on Friday, even if it’s limited.

Chris Johnson/Marshawn Lynch/Calvin Johnson: All listed with minor little injuries, all will play.

Aaron Hernandez/Rob Gronkowski/Wes Welker: The questionable 3 are all at it again, but rest assured that they will all be out there in London against the Rams. Gronk looked as close to his regular self as he has in weeks against the Jets and Hernandez’s snap counts continue to rise each week. Welker’s supposed ankle issue is more a Pats injury report thing than anything else, as he’ll get treatment all week in preparation for their Friday departure for London. Look for all 3 to have great weeks against a not-so-great Rams secondary, although Welker may have his hands full dealing with Cortland Finnegan.

Donald Brown: He seems to be a little ahead of schedule in his return from arthroscopic knee surgery. They seemed to be targeting next week initially, but with his return to practice on Wednesday, there appears to be an outside chance that he plays in week 8. I wouldn’t bet on it, but if he gets himself to be close to a full participant by Friday, there’s an outside chance he goes. Hold onto Vick Ballard for this week, but with Brown potentially back next week at the latest, it appears Ballard will be very droppable at that point.

More to come later today, as I’ll touch more on who to play from tonight’s Bucs/Vikings contest