With Week 14 in the books, the fantasy season is officially winding down. Top performances down the stretch prove crucial when playoff spots and championships come into play. For the second straight week Westbrook owners rejoiced as he turned in an MVP-worthy showing against the Giants in a rivalry game.

The Colts looked like the Colts of seasons past as they routed Cincinnati, and Brett Favre and the Jets fired a blank in a Week 14 loss to Mike Singletary’s revitalized 49ers. Read more »

The Thursday night game between the Patriots and Jets was a quarterback-friendly, overtime shootout. The kind of game fantasy owners dream of, unless of course they were part of the faction that watched New England quarterback Matt Cassel’s 400 yards and three touchdowns waste away on their bench. Brett Favre, meanwhile, had the far better game in reality, efficiently completing 26-of-33 passes for 258 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-31 overtime win.

For football fans and Bill Belichick bashers, there was more joy in reality than in fantasy Thursday night. For fantasy owners with enough reason to put Cassel in their starting lineups, there was plenty of joy in a breakout performance that went into the NFL record books. In addition to monster passing numbers, Cassel rushed for 62 yards and became the first quarterback in league history to accumulate 400 passing yards and 60 rushing yards in a game. Read more »

Avid football viewers can rejoice over the NFL’s addition of the Thursday Night Football game. Last week’s Broncos-Browns mid-week special did everything to complete the tri-fecta of fantastic night games last week. This time around, two big-time AFC East rivals will look to continue the primetime drama from Foxboro.

On top of that, two of the best cold-weather teams battle in Buffalo, the NFL’s oldest rivalry unfolds in “the definitive” football stadium, and the ‘Boys and ‘Skins hit it off again from our nation’s capitol. Read more »

Panic is setting isn’t quite setting into the New York Jets locker room, but it’s not far off. It was about 15 yards away - as in the winning TD toss to Laveranues Coles with a minute to play - on Sunday when New York went down to the wire against a hapless Chiefs team.

The Jets were able to overcome three Brett Favre interceptions and escape with a 28-24 home win.

With the win, New York improved to 4-3, but the moderate success has been more a product of the team’s schedule than its performance. The cushy schedule, which has included three wins over last-place teams Miami, Cincinnati and Kansas City, gives way to road contests against Buffalo, New England and Tennessee in the next four weeks. Read more »

It’s official, nothing makes sense in the NFL anymore. The previously undefeated Giants fell to the hapless Browns, the winless Rams topped the surging Redskins, and the only thing you can expect is the unexpected. The same can be held true for individual matchups, but here we try to make some sense of what should happen.

Here is a look at some of the most intriguing Week 7 matchups. It’s all about starting quality players when they have a favorable matchup, and the most savvy owners know when it’s time to take a chance on lesser players facing softer defenses. Take the first step here – in the sixth edition of The Good, Bad and Ugly. Read more »

Week 6 of NFL action is in the books and “exciting” doesn’t quite do Sunday’s events any justice. Six games were decided by one score or less; 11 guys had at least 100 yards receiving; and multiple first place teams fell to lesser opponents.

MJD won MVP honors, and for the third week in a row I’ll attempt to pick a Waiver Wire Special to help the collective fantasy world limp through the NFL’s Week 7 schedule. And with all the last-second heroics witnessed throughout the league, this week’s highlight reel is a can’t miss.

Big Bertha’s back to reward the worthy with Week 6 hardware. Read more »

Consider player rankings in the same light as your typical college basketball or football rankings. Once the early adjustments are made to take care of teams and players we underestimated and overestimated, only big events should spur big changes. While a multitude of upsets took place last week in college football, there were far fewer landscape-altering events in fantasy football.

Brett Favre’s six-touchdown effort against Arizona was the closest thing to Oregon State’s shocking upset of USC last Thursday. With that outburst, Favre surged to the top of fantasy quarterback rankings and took the NFL lead with 12 touchdown passes. The big boys in our top 10 held down the fort, even Philadelphia’s Brian Westbrook, who has caused owners headaches with a nagging right ankle injury, and Dallas’ Marion Barber, who carried just eight times in a loss to the Redskins. Read more »

Another week in the books, this one being the lightest of the early season with six teams on byes. That fact didn’t make Sunday’s action any less stunning, though, with a major upset pulled by the Kansas City Chiefs and a huge day from Jets quarterback Brett Favre.

Favre garnered our Week 4 MVP honors, arguably the most prestigious in all of professional sports, and led a Dream Lineup that also included Larry Johnson, LaDainian Tomlinson, Laveranues Coles and Jason Witten. Writer Bertha dives into the whole lot of awards in this week’s edition of Big Bertha’s Hardware. Read more »

With their first win of the year, the San Diego Chargers can finally build towards a promising season. Brett Favre and the New York Jets may be heading in the opposite direction.

Philip Rivers stole the show with three touchdown passes on a beautiful Monday Night in southern California, as the Chargers defeated the Jets 48-29. Although these teams put up only one less point (77) than the Eagles and Cowboys (78) last Monday Night, this game felt over long before the final seconds expired. Read more »

Week 3 could feature several games that produce shootouts like last week’s San Diego-Denver clash or Philadelphia-Dallas on Monday night.

Jay Cutler leads the NFL in passing yards after brilliant performances against Oakland and San Diego and gets another favorable matchup with the Saints in town this week. For anyone not convinced on starting Cutler, search our tag for Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal, Cutler’s top two targets.

49ers QB J.T. O’Sullivan surprised everyone with a gutsy performance in Seattle. Look out for a HUGE fantasy day at home against Detroit. He’s almost guaranteed to put up numbers, although if the Niners grab a big lead early the Lions may see San Francisco’s backups.

This week is also about quarterbacks who need to prove something. Matt Hasselbeck’s sqaud is 0-2 after two subpar performances, and the veteran needs to bounce back with a strong outing against St. Louis. Philip Rivers and company are also 0-2, and they need nothing more than a convincing win on Monday Night Football vs. the Jets.

Baltimore’s Joe Flacco can prove that Week 1 was no fluke, Donovan McNabb can knock off his toughest test this year, and Aaron Rodgers can finally prove himself against a team that actually has a victory.

Here are the top quarterbacks for Week 3: