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With many fantasy championships on the line, dishing out the best of the best in our bench / start calls this season was mission critical for many of our patrons.  We're happy to report we were able to deliver on that promise as a truck load of tier one calls were made.  Many of you cashed in on our advice for spot starts that included Frank Gore, David Garrard, Drew Bennett and others.  While others of you took our recommendation to let Plaxico Burress, Edgerrin James, Brett Favre, and others ride your pine for a week.  Join us as we take a look back at what we called in week 16 for the FootballDocs Bench / Start advice column.

Nostradamus (a.k.a. psychic)
Start:
Chris Chambers – That Chambers Kool-Aid has been ridiculously crazy the past few weeks, but we said to go ahead and stick your cup out there and get another refill for one more week.  Well, 57 total yards and count ‘em, 2 TDs, warranted a refill.  Here’s looking forward to seeing Chambers explode through brick walls in the future.

Drew Bennett – We said you never know how long his injury prone QB might last, but that Bennett would still produce regardless of whom tossed him the rock.  In Miss Cleo like fashion, McNair did leave the game, but Bennett still produced to the tune of 70 receiving yards, 4 receptions, and a TD.

Trent Green – Green turned in the type of performance you want to see with fantasy championships on the line.  After posting a terrible week 15 performance, he toasted the Chargers to the tune of 207 yards passing, 7 yards rushing, 0 INTs, 0 fumbles lost, and 2 passing TDs.  No statistic by itself looks sexy, but together, they posted over a 20 point fantasy game in a standard performance scoring system. 

Frank Gore – We said it plain and simple:  Gore will back-up his solid week 15 outing with another solid outing in week 16.  Anyone who took our advice and started Gore was rewarded with 2 rushing TDs to go along with 68 yards on the ground.

Matt Hasselbeck – Thanks to taking good care of the ball, Hasselbeck turned in a respectable fantasy performance with 168 passing yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs, and 0 fumbles lost.  A turnover would have knocked this one down a notch, but as it stands, he was able to salvage a good day at your QB slot.

Thomas Jones – Jones had a very nice day at the office posting 106 yards of total offense and notching a rushing TD to boot.  Those that play in leagues that reward extra points for threshold performance scoring were rewarded with just enough yardage to push Jones over the 100 yard mark.

David Garrard – Those of you that elected to take our advice and turn your keys over to Garrard were glad you did it.  Garrard had a terrific day with 292 passing yards, 40 rushing yards, no turnovers, and a passing TD.  We’ve got a feeling more than a few championships were won with this start.

Chicago Bears D – We called it pretty much the way it went down… “Favre is a turnover waiting to happen.”  That about wraps up this dominate defense performance which included 4 INTs, 1 defensive TD, and a sack.

St. Louis Starting QB – At the time of our recommendations, Vitt was still tight lipped about whom will get the start.  To cover ourselves, we said to start whoever got the nod, as they would have success against the 49ers.  True to form, Martin got the start and lit up the 49ers like a roman candle.  He posted a whopping 354 passing yards, 11 rushing yards, 1 pass TD, and 2 INTs. 

Kris Brown – We recommend Brown as a pretty safe spot start at your kicker slot.  He posted one of the better performances by a kicker in week 16 with 2 extra points and 2 field goals.  One of those field goals was a 50+ yard bomb, which was a big plus for leagues that reward bonus points for long field goals.

Bench:
Plaxico Burress – We said to banish Burress to your bench in week 16 and throw away the key.  If you did you were glad, as only 3 receptions for 40 yards and no scores is horrid in just about any scoring system out there.

Peyton Manning – Things start getting crazy in the final couple of weeks of the season.  As such, the elder Manning actually made our bench recommendation.  If you followed our advice, you were glad you did.  Manning only posted 116 passing yards with no TDs whatsoever prior to being pulled from the game early.  Ugly start indeed.

Edgerrin James – Another late season fantasy casualty, we said to leave “the Edge” on your pine.  Similar to Manning, he was pulled from the game early and only mustered 55 total yards of offense and no scores prior to leaving.

Brett Favre – At first glance statistically, this one may look OK, but it wasn’t from a fantasy perspective.  Sure Favre threw for 317 passing yards, but he also threw for count ‘em 4 INTs and NO TDs.  What that spells is a horrid start from your QB slot in almost any fantasy scoring system that we can think of.

Any Packers RB – No punches being pulled here, we just said to bench anything that has a “G” on the helmet and lines up behind Brett Favre.  Sure enough, the entire group amassed a whole lot of nothing in a massive RBBC.   For those of you that got crazy and gave rookie Noah Herron the starting nod, you got a best case scenario of a vulture TD to go with very little yardage.  There were so many better options to be had in week 16, as Herron’s performance ranks in the bottom third fantasy wise for the entire NFL league using standard performance scoring.

Marvin Harrison – Harrison was held out and rested from Saturday’s game.  As such, you were glad to have gone ahead and benched him per our advice.

Reggie Wayne – Wayne on the other hand did play, but the result was the same as Harrison’s.  With only 2 receptions for 21 yards and no TDs, you were glad to have left him on your pine.

Charlie Frye – Frye was relatively hot coming into the game, but we said let’s don’t get too crazy with fantasy championships on the line and to leave him on your pine.  Frye delivered as anticipated with only 183 yards and NO TDs.  He also lost a fumble, but it could have been so much worse as he laid the golden goose egg on the ground count ‘em 4 times during the game.  That probably sunk more than one ship out there if you elected to still give him the starting nod despite our recommendation to bench him.


Farmer's Almanac (a.k.a. not so bad/not so good)
Start:
Drew Brees – Brees didn’t knock anyone’s socks off this weekend, but he didn’t leave you bitter either (unless you are a fan of the Bolts).  In a game where his team needed a big day from him to keep their playoff hopes alive, he posted a very vanilla 161 passing yards, 31 rushing yards, 1 pass TD, and 1 INT.

Keenan McCardell – McCardell was “plain Jane” in week 16.  He posted 58 receiving yards and no scores, but he did manage 6 receptions.  This made him a pretty decent start in reception leagues.  However, even with the receptions, McCardell did just bad enough to find himself in our Almanac for week 16.

Bench:
None this week


Weather Forecast (a.k.a. oops better luck next time)
Start:
Ryan Moats – No sugar coating this: It was ugly.  Thirteen yards and no scores is VERY ugly.  The Eagles got down big time (27-7 entering the 4th Quarter) and abandoned the run.  In fact, they only ran the ball a grand total of 17 times the entire game.

Aaron Stecker – Just when you think it can’t get any uglier…it does.  Eighteen total yards of offense and a lost fumble is mega ugly.  So was our start call.  Although it was prefaced with Stecker won’t knock your socks off this week, we were still wrong, way wrong.  Stecker wasn’t knocking anyone’s socks off…even those hanging precariously from fireplaces last week.

Bench:
Michael Jenkins – Despite our recommendation of a bad start, Jenkins still got it done on Sunday with 4 receptions, 54 yards, and a TD.  The TD is what hurt us the most here.

Donald Driver – Driver’s receptions (6) and yardage (107) made him a good start in almost any system and a bad recommendation to bench by us.

Buffalo Bills D – 2 INTs, 27 points allowed, and 2 sacks sounds so-so at best…but tack on a INT return for a TD and a kick return for a TD, and it suddenly spells another blown call by us.  Ouch.