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 »

It was nearly a decade ago when avid NFL followers bared witness to one of the most high-powered and unstoppable duos the league has ever seen. Randy Moss, a young kid out of Marshall with the 6-foot-4 inch stature and blazing 40 speed, and Daunte Culpepper, a towering quarterback with a good track record of team loyalty, self-discipline, and a cannon for an arm. The Vikings organization put the two in the same offense to start the 2000 season and awed the football world.

For the next five seasons, Culpepper and Moss were perennial picks in the first round of nearly every fantasy league. Culpepper threw for 129 touchdowns by the end of the 2004 season, and Moss was on the receiving end of 72 scores of his own. Read more »

Finally, a lopsided game on Monday Night Football in 2008. However, it was the team not expected to prevail that was on the winning side of a 41-7 rout.

The host New England Patriots spanked the Denver Broncos in a game that left Patriots fantasy owners smiling. Oppositely, the blowout also left us wondering where in the heck has Denver’s high-powered offense gone over the past few weeks?

In what was billed to be a clash of AFC powers, it seemed that only one contender showed up to play; likewise, the quarterback in white expected to shine on the national level was upstaged by a no-name fill-in not named Brady. 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 »

NFL quarterbacks are dropping faster than bad guys in a cheesy Sly Stallone movie. Only, instead of bringing disgrace to the box office, these walking wounded are exiting games early, being scratched from starts late, and piling up losses for fantasy owners.

The Big 3 have been at the front of the line, obviously highlighted by Tom Brady’s season-ending knee injury in Week 1. Peyton Manning is only now himself after two offseason knee surgeries contributed to an uncharacteristic slow start, and Tony Romo is on the shelf for the next month with a broken pinkie finger. Read more »

Just because there’s one more game left on the Week 3 schedule, it doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to hand our Week 3 fantasy hardware. After some of the performances - the unbelievable and unbelievably lousy alilke - we couldn’t wait to get to our awards column.

Any football fan took note of Miami’s unfathomable 38-13 win over New England, and it was impossible not to attribute the victory to running back Ronnie Brown, who found the end zone five times (four rush, one pass). The huge performance prevented Falcons’ running back Michael Turner from twice being named our Most Valuable Player, as the first-year starter accumulated a measly three scores. Read more »

Alright, fantasy owners, it’s time for some useful yet arbitrary rankings heading into Week 2 action. We’ve touched up our preseason top 200, narrowed it down to 101, and added notes for each player. The same drill will follow each and every week of the season.

The list of suspects who improved on their preseason draft stock is well known by now. Willie Parker, Donovan McNabb, Michael Turner, Reggie Bush, Matt Forte and Chris Johnson are some of the hottest commodities in fantasy football. But, take a look at Bills running back Marshawn Lynch and Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo; while their stat lines didn’t blow anyone away, there are signs for better-than-expected gains. Read more »