---

Week 9 was a great week for fantasy football.   If you came out on the winning side of things you are surely feeling great today.   However, if your fantasy fortune wasn’t meant to be, there is always week 10!   As always, we go out there on a limb for our bench start.   We look for those marginal players that might be in line for great games.   We could pad our stats with “start Manning this week or we think this could be Culpepper’s week”, but we would rather delve into those tough decisions that trouble teams that need to look for second and third tier guys for the start.   This week we managed to pull out a few solid picks like Michael Pittman’s huge game and benching Steven Jackson.   Without further adieu, he is the wrap up for week 9.

Nostradamus (a.k.a. psychic)
Start:
Michael Pittman – Pittman knocked this start prediction out of the park for us.   Pittman was the Chiefs worst nightmare with 128 yards rushing, 30 yards receiving, and 3 TDs.   One of those TDs was a long on.   Hopefully you started Pittman this past week.   If you did, it is pretty clear he far exceeded anyone’s fantasy expectations for his week 9 performance.   For those teams that sat on Pittman through his early suspension, you are being well rewarded.

Jermaine Wiggins – A very solid game from this TE.   Wiggins reeled on 5 receptions for 63 yards.   For a TE, that is a very good game (assuming your name isn’t Antonio Gates – but we don’t have to tell you to start Gates EVERY week.).   Even when Moss gets back in the Vikings lineup, Wiggins should continue to be a TE force to be reckoned with.

Nate Burleson – Only one catch for eight yards would normally be a bad game, but when you catch a TD with that one catch AND you return a punt for a 91 yard TD as well … that is a fantastic game.   We thought that Culpepper would get more balls to Burleson, but he managed to still make big plays with his limited opportunities.   Burleson will continue to be very valuable while Moss is out, but his value will return to earth once Moss gets back into the action.   However, the longer that Burleson has to build a QB-WR relationship with Culpepper … the better.

Edgerrin James – You should probably be starting James every week, but he was entering week 9 coming off of a couple of down weeks in a row.   We assured you that James would bust out on Monday night.   That is exactly what James did to the tune of 123 yards rushing and 56 yards receiving.   We would have like to have seen a TD added into that total, but then we are just getting greedy.   The Colts looked very dedicated to James on Monday night.   We hope that they continue to see that the better James does, the better the rest of the Colts will do.   If you own James, get ready for his fantasy run down the stretch.   He has a favorable schedule and should be a major force through the end of the season.

Michael Clayton – We smelled blood in the water with the Chiefs defense.   This Rookie came through for us in a big way.   5 receptions in a point per reception league would have been solid.   The 90 yards on top of that made this a solid outing for Clayton.   Keep an eye on this rookie WR; He has been tearing it up (relatively in Bucs terms).   He looks like he will be a force in Tampa Bay for a few years (assuming they can get someone reliable enough to get him the ball).

Bench:
Steven Jackson – 3 carries 1 stinking yard.   It was definitely a great idea to leave this rookie on the pine week 9.   The rest of the Rams offense had reasonable games, but Jackson was a notable exception of the bunch.   If you have held onto Jackson this far in the season, you have no choice to be keep your fingers crossed for Faulk to take a few games off.   All of the Faulk owners out there will keep rooting against you in the mean time.

Dorsey Levens – With Westbrook banged up, some teams might have been tempted to give Levens a try.   However, we urged you to avoid this against a tough Steelers team.   The Steelers laid it on fast and hard against the Eagles.   We can’t take credit for seeing this game getting out of hand so quickly, but the end result was the same.   Levens had a horrible game.   2 carries for 4 yards.   Ouch.   Mahe and Westbrook only combined for 19 more rushing yards.   That is two weeks in a row that the Steelers have out the kibosh on opposing team run games.

Thomas Jones – Jones didn’t play this week and the way that Anthony Thomas has been running the ball, Jones may have a hard time getting back into the action.   The questions about Jones being able to withstand a full season of carrying the load look well founded.   Jones is banged up and his owners would like to hear some good news about him sooner rather than later.

Kevin Jones – Jones was a great call for a bench week 9.   With only 20 yards rushing on 12 attempts, he doesn’t exemplify the productive NFL back.   So much for this rookie being a break out player.   At this point we don’t think he has much trade value, but if you can get a good deal for him it might be time to let him go.   However, in most leagues you best option is to just hang onto him and hope he and the Lions can get their acts together.


Farmer's Almanac (a.k.a. not so bad/not so good)
Start:
Chad Pennington – Pennington did toss a TD pass and had so-so yardage.   He was on pace for a better game, but he was injured.   While he did outperform several other QBs this week (Ahem … Donovan … Ahem … McNabb), we were looking for a little more out of this young QB.

Duce Staley – We didn’t know that Staley would show up on the injury report on Friday when we made this prediction early Tuesday.   Hopefully you checked his injury status and didn’t give Staley the rock.   However, as we expected, the Steelers proceeded to cram the ball down the Eagles throats.   Bettis ran for 149 yards.   Would Staley have had those types of numbers?   Well that is only speculation, but we will just drop this in the so-so calls of the week for not specifically stating that you should start Bettis if Staley couldn’t go.

Bench:
Ronald Curry – Curry had a very mediocre game.   He managed enough for starting consideration.   Again, he is a fantasy player that would have held a place on your line-up, but he wouldn’t have done much in the way of helping a fantasy team win.

Curtis Conway – Conway was lucky that Rattay started.   The 49ers offense looks very different depending on whether Rattay starts or not.   Conway managed a decnt game.   Only three catches for short yardage, but he did manage a TD that busted up an otherwise solidly bench-able performance.

David Terrell – Terrell only had 4 catches with no TDs, but his yardage was enough to make him a so-so bench call.   He wouldn’t have hurt your team or really helped it too much.


Weather Forecast (a.k.a. oops better luck next time)
Start:
Eddie George – We expected the Bengals to give up a good chunk of rushing yards and they did to the tune of 91 yards.   Unfortunately, the Cowboys turned over the ball too much and George had to share the rock.

Bench:
Az-Zahir Hakim – Hakim stuck it to us for calling him out as a bench player this week to the tune of 120 yards receiving.   Ouch.   He got us on this one.