NFL All-FanFeedr Team For Week 4

Each week FanFeedr HotTakes will bring you the NFL All-FanFeedr team. These players were GAME CHANGERSs on the gridiron. These IMPACT players were instrumental in leading their teams to victory.

These are the players you WISH you had on your fantasy team.


Quarterback – Drew Brees – New Orleans Saints – (35-54, 446 Yards, 3 Pass TD) – You’d have a hard time convincing a gamer like Brees that yesterday’s 28-27 shootout loss to the Packers was a good day, but at least Brees’ fantasy owners were happy. Brees and the offense were incredibly efficient yesterday and have been doing their part all season, but the defense in New Orleans has been porous. That’s bad news moving forward for the Saints, but if the early going is any indication, Brees will be throwing even more than usual. Fantasy owners stand to benefit most.


Quarterback (Honorable Mention) – Tom Brady – New England Patriots – (22-36, 340 Yards, 3 Pass TD/ 4 Rush Yards, TD) – Week 4 gave owners the dominant QB they thought they were getting when they took Brady with their 1st round pick. It’s even more impressive when you consider that Brady led the Pats offense on 5 scoring drives in the 4th quarter for a total of 31 points. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s an average of about 2 points per minute. Those are video game numbers…except this was real life. And he went home to Gisele when the game was over. If you’re lucky enough to have Brady, continue to start him. If you’re lucky enough to be Tom Brady, good for you!


Running Back – Michael Turner – Atlanta Falcons – (103 Rush Yards/ 3 Rec., 68 yards, TD) – The word around the league was that Turner was done. The “Afterburner” was running on fumes; his feet slow and his burst gone. Sports writers all over the country had already begun to write his NFL eulogy. The only problem is that someone must have forgotten to tell Turner. He was flat out youthful in his performance Sunday as he broke loose on a 27 yd. run and a 60 yd. reception. Barring injury, Turner still seems to own the Falcons running game. This weeks’ effort shows the work he spent on pass-catching in the off-season is paying dividends. His stats have improved every week thus far, so owners should continue to trust Turner in the RB2/Flex position.



Running Back (Honorable Mention) – Willis McGahee – Denver Broncos – (112 Rush Yards, TD/ 6 Rec., 23 yards) – McGahee is quietly developing into one of the best value picks of this year’s fantasy draft. His average draft position was between 55-60 (just behind the likes of Shonn Greene). He’s now alternated two average performances (understandably against the stout Steelers and Texans run D) with two 100+ games with at least one TD. His six receptions for 23 yds were both season-highs. With John Fox loving to run and very little serious competition for his job, McGahee can be used with confidence against all but the elite run-stopping defense in the league.


Wide Receiver – Brian Hartline – Miami Dolphins – (12 Rec., 253 Yards, 1TD) – Hartline was otherworldly, amassing 253 yards on 12 grabs while adding his first TD of the year in Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals. The fourth year wideout from Ohio State has been getting pre-season sleeper buzz since the Dolphins took him with their fourth round pick in the 2009 draft. He’s flashed his talent before, but has been largely limited by a string of below-average QBs. Enter Ryan Tannehill and Hartline has now posted two 100+ yard games in four weeks and will likely be at the head of the waiver wire class this week.


Wide Receiver (Honorable Mention) – Roddy White – Atlanta Falcons – (8 Rec., 169 Yards, 2 TD) – White had been quiet by his own standards coming into Sunday’s matchup with the Panthers. Unfortunately for Carolina, Rockin’ Roddy was ready to play in Week 4. He hauled in eight of his twelve targets including a 49-yd TD and a game-saving 59-yd hail mary to get the team in position for the game-tying field goal. He might have even driven the team bus on the way to the stadium too. He was just everywhere. He and Julio Jones seem to be trading big games, and the two are starting to look like the best fantasy WR duo since Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin.


Tight End – Scott Chandler – Buffalo Bills – (4 Rec., 63 Yards, 2TD) – Fantasy owners might want to take notice here. Scott Chandler continued to be QB Ryan Fitzpatrick’s favorite red zone target again on Sunday against the Pats. He was knocked from the game in the fourth quarter after a head injury sustained trying to make a tackle after a Fitzpatrick interception, so there could have been a little more in store for the man tied for the league lead in TDs by a tight end this season (4). The good news is he’s expected to make a full recovery for this week’s game. He’ll be coming off the wire this week if he hasn’t already.


Kicker – Greg Zuerlein – St. Louis Rams – K – ( 4/4 FG – 60, 58, 48, 21 Yd. FG, 1/1 XP) – Not everyone cheers when you draft a kicker in the 6th Rd. Especially when he comes from Missouri Western State (no seriously, it does exist. I looked it up. Their mascot is Max the Griffin…makes sense). But the Rams had a lot of faith in Zuerlein and it was easy to see why against Seattle on Sunday as he nailed 4 huge field goals that accounted for 13 of the Rams 19 points. He set the team record with a 58-yd chip shot in the first quarter and then broke it in the third with a 60 yard blast. Not too shabby for the fourth game of his young career.


Team Defense/Special Teams – San Francisco 49ers – (3 Sacks, 2 Forced Fumbles, 3 Fumbles Recovered; 1 for 51 Yard TD, Blocked Kick, 0 Pts. Allowed, 145 Yds. Allowed) – The Niners did a whole lot of really good things and one really bad thing on Sunday against the hapless Jets. The good things happened on the field, where they pitched a shutout and allowed less than 150 yds in a dominating all-around effort. We’d all be happy to root for the Niners…after all, they are very likable in that underdog sort of way these days. But they opened the sportscasters’ version of Pandora’s box. They started the Tim Tebow talk…AGAIN. And now NFL fans will have to endure hours of coverage about the potential change to replace an average QB with an overhyped TE who likes to throw the ball.

All Hail Ed Hochuli

Ed Hochuli has been the villain before. On Sep. 14, 2008, Hochuli mistakenly ruled a would-be fumble by Jay Cutler an incompletion. The call negated a recovery by the San Diego Charger defense and gave the Denver Broncos the ball back deep in their own territory. Hochuli incorrectly whistled the play dead and it ended up costing the Chargers the game. The play drew criticism from Norv Turner and Jerry Jones and sparked a change in the instant replay rule to allow similar plays to be challenged.

Four years later Hochuli is a hero. It has been reported by Peter King that Hochuli held rules-related conference calls with the regular officials every Tuesday night. He also gave each ref a weekly test based on plays that occurred during the previous week’s NFL action. “That’s one of the reasons why the officials will be up to date and ready to go,” a source told King. “[Hochuli] grabbed the bull by the horns and made sure that whenever this thing ended, the regular officials would be ready to go back to work immediately.”

I will now rename my three fantasy teams “Hochuli’s heroes” because if there is a hero in this lockout, it is him. Plus the name before was “Team Name.” Anyways, there are always heroes in the aftermath of contentious disputes. Dwight Eisenhower after World War II, Martin Luther King for the Civil Rights movement, Spiderman after his bout with the Green Goblin. Robert Kraft was the one who received praise after the players’ lockout before last season. Now it is Hochuli’s turn. His big muscles and long soliloquies are no longer looked at as buffoonish, but rather admirable.

However, even if you believe he was partly responsible for the lockout as the Head of the NFL Referees Association, it is hard to argue that he is one of the best referees out there. This has been well known far before the news of his lockout leadership. Hochuli, based on his graded performance during regular season games, has been selected to head two Super Bowl officiating crews while serving as the alternate for three more. He also headed the crew for five conference championship games. He apologized for his gaff four years ago and has always been honest and forthright with the fans, especially during his explanations of his own calls during games.

It is ironic how the demand to replace the replacement refs was so high after officiating determined the game Monday night, yet the hero of the referee lockout—Hochuli—was best known for his own blunder that cost a team a win. Well, from this point forward, Hochuli will no longer be known as the guy who blew the call that cost the Chargers a game. He will be known as the fearless leader of a group the public suddenly has much more respect for.

Follow me on Twitter @JCJG123

EPL: Tomorrow’s UK Independent Newspaper Pulling No Punches With John Terry

One of the UK’s leading broadsheet newspapers are calling a spade a spade with regards to John Terry in tomorrow’s addition.

Allow me to say kudos.

Follow me on Twitter: @PaulFarrell1895

EPL: Tunnicliffe Debut For Man United Wins Money For His Dad

Betting on soccer has to be discouraged, it’s just to hard to predict what’s going to happen in his game, except if you’re the father of Man United youngster Ryan Tunnicliffe. A man who always believed in his son.

The exciting young midfielder Tunnicliffe has been with the Red Devils since he was nine years old and his father always believed his boy had what it takes to go all the way in the game. The Guardian reports today:

“When the fledgling midfielder, now 19, was nine his father had placed the wager that his son would one day play for United, taking the odds of 100-1 with a £100 bet.

So when Tunnicliffe took the pitch last night during Man United’s 2-1 win over Newcastle in the League Cup, the ten year old bet gave Mr. Tunnicliffe a nice £10,000 return.

The Tunnicliffe gambling didn’t stop there, the Daily Mail are saying that there’s another big pay out in their future:

There could be worse to come for bookmakers William Hill, who revealed they also took another bet from Tunnicliffe’s dad of £100 at odds of 350/1 that the young midfielder will one day play for England at some stage in his career.

Neither article goes into detail about the thousands of other parents who made similar bets and lost!

Follow me on Twitter: @PaulFarrell1895

 

 

EPL: Streakers At Old Trafford And The Emirates Stadium!

Ah streakers, something that makes soccer worth watching, it doesn’t happen very often but like buses, two always come along at once. Two streakers on the same night at Old Trafford and the Emirates Stadium.

After signing RVP during the summer, there is something that anything Arsenal have, Man United want it too. And when Arsenal got a naked intruder during their 6-1 thrashing of Coventry, United got one too during their 2-1 win over Newcastle United.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2VC-KBE3X98

Let’s have less handshakes and more soccer streaking!!

Follow me on Twitter: @PaulFarrell1895

 

Proudly powered by WordPress
Theme: Esquire by Matthew Buchanan.