Ballin’ or Fallin’ – Week 12

Ballin’ or Fallin’ is an unorthodox look at the fantasy football values of players from around the league taking in everything to see if a guy’s value is going up or down.If your guy isn’t one of the ones looked at in the feature article or you think I’m full of it shoot me an email, start a thread in the forums, or post a question in the comments below and I’ll answer. I don’t just answer one or two softball questions, I answer all of them. Seriously.

I’m rantless this week. No, wait, no I’m not. I still cannot freaking believe the Steelers, your Super Bowl Champion Steelers, lost to the Chefs. The Chefs for crying out loud! Great googly moogly.

Week 12 is here and time is running out for your playoff hopes…..unless of course you’ve faithfully tuned in to Ballin’ or Fallin’ in which case the people in your league now suspect you of voodoo or clairvoyance. You’ll get used to it. Wherever you’re at in your season you’ve come to the right place for the best fantasy football information on the net. If you’re new to the feature don’t expect the same obvious garbage that can be gleamed from the stats sheets. We’re talking about players that are either outproducing their perceived value or draft status or are tanking. Ballin’ or Fallin’ is a the MOAB in your fantasy football arsenal when considering making major roster moves or making trades. I’ve been scary accurate this year so if you’ve found me, bookmark this page. Alright let’s do this:

Ballin’

Quarterback

Vince Young

Vince Young- Alright I’ve seen enough. Welcome back to fantasy football relevance,VY! He looked sharp and made very sound reads all night. 116 yards and a touchdown are hardly noteworthy stats from a quarterback but when you factor in 76 yards rushing VY may have been a serviceable quarterback for you Monday night. Other than Michael Vick no other active quarterback has rushed for more yards than Vince Young which makes him a very streaky option weekly. But he does have a much more accurate arm than Vick and the weapons around him are getting better. The Titans are starting to see some signs of life from their passing game with Kenny Britt emerging as a goal line go to receiver. Ow, and there is that Chris Johnson guy who I hear is pretty decent. In the future I’m sure the Titans will want to keep CJ more involved in the passing game on prescribed checkdowns and screen plays. Young is without question worth picking up in all scoring formats as a backup QB as long as your other options are guys like Jake Delhomme or Jason Campbell.

Honorable mention: Matthew Stafford (tough guys who throw for 400 yards and 5 tds go far with me), Brett Favre (go old man!), Alex Smith

Runningback

Jason Snelling

Jason Snelling - I had him in last week as an honorable mention with the cryptic message of “believe the numbers on this kid” and I wish I would have listened to my own advice. Snelling took the chance to be the feature back for the Falcons and…well ran with it. This week it appears he draws the start again only this time against the 20th ranked rush defense in the league. If ever there was a time to say “What’s in a name? That which we call Snelling By any other name would still kick serious ass,” this is the weekend. Time to Shakespeare your moneymaker and go with the dude with the nerdiest name in the NFL over more traditional starts like Pierre Thomas and Brandon Jacobs.

Honorable mention: Rock Cartwright (he has skills both on the ground and through the air, the team loves him and will block hard to see him roll), Kevin Smith, Ray Rice (a bunch of hype following this guy but it should be noted that nearly all the passes thrown by Flacco have gone either Mason or Rice’s direction)

Wide Receiver

Greg Jennings

Greg Jennings- Jennings has been flat out pathetic most of this season. Until recently this pre-season top 5 WR had only 2 100 yard games and three noteworthy games from a total production perspective. Aaron Rodgers, when not running for his life, has chosen to go elsewhere with the ball which may be more of a function of Jennings drawing consistent double coverage. Now it appears teams are starting to stop the run which lowers the amount of opportunities for safeties to shade towards Jennings. So as Ryan Grant rolls, so does Jennings which bodes well for Jennings owners who have been down on him this season. I’ve been predicting for weeks that guys like Grant, Benson, and Mendenhall will become forces when the weather turns sour towards the end of the season. Jennings will be a big beneficiary of this seasonal trend so look for a very strong last portion of the season.

Honorable mention: Percy Harvin (kid has been on a roll and keeps getting better), Kenny Britt (finally living up to the draft projection), Chris Chambers (The Chargers must have caught this guy molesting picnic tables or something to let him go because he’s been unstoppable since joining the Chiefs), Michael Crabtree (amazed he’s been so good after missing so much time, kid may be the real deal)

Fallin’

Quarterback

Marc Bulger

Marc Bulger- He’s out 2-3 weeks with multiple injuries and he might not get his job back when he returns. Kyle Boller has played and started in the NFL before and has filled in admirably when Bulger went down this season. If you look at his numbers this year you may be wondering if I went to the same PR school as Boller’s new girlfriend Carrie Prejean and just shot off at the mouth without any preparation. While I am, in my own way, just as devastatingly attractive as Carrie the similarities end there as I did indeed do some research prior to making this assessment. Boller went up against the Niners, Vikings, and Packers in the middle of the season prior to them sustaining any real injuries to playmakers making his three starts the toughest of the Rams schedule. So his numbers in that stint were pretty craptastic and for good reason. If he plays the next three weeks he gets the Seahawks, Bears, and Titans respectively. Looking at that motley lot of underachievers I’d guess Boller has a great chance of stepping up and taking the crown…and he didn’t even need to get into a bikini to do it. Great, nice visual. Anyone have a Brillo pad for the brain?

Honorable mention: Jay Cutler (I bet the Bears are wondering if there are any give backs in the NFL?), Kyle Orton (it is starting to seem like the offense isn’t holding back for the playoffs more than they just stink), Mark Sanchez

Runningbacks

Pierre Thomas

Pierre Thomas – How can a guy who is averaging 5.6 yards per rush be Fallin? Mike Bell’s presence is making it much more difficult to decide who to start in the Saint backfield and adding Reggie Bush to the mix only makes that situation worse. This time of the fantasy football season you need to go with the guys who have the best position to put up numbers for you which means touches. So while a guy like Pierre Thomas can and certainly has gone off on few carries he still has a greater likelyhood of tanking because of those limited touches. I like Thomas and think he’s not getting used at all like he should in that offense. Pierre has only 112 yards receiving this year. He racked that much in one game last season. His touchdowns are down in addition to his overall yards. So taking into consideration he only played a fraction of last season there isn’t much to be happy about if you are a Pierre Thomas owner. Don’t drop him and don’t give up on him if you don’t have better options like a guy who has a lock on 20 touches per game because he could and likely will go off at some point this season. However this is not the time of the year to be rolling the dice on him.

Honorable mention: Bernard Scott (hope you started him like we told you last week because when Benson comes back Scott will be back returning kicks), Marshawn Lynch (like Bulger he has a guy who can outperform him if he misses time), Matt Forte (true headscratcher as to why he’s been pedestrian)

Wide Receivers & Tight End

Antonio Bryant

Antonio Bryant- It may be time to give up on last fantasy football season’s hero. He hasn’t played in many games this season and when he has played he hasn’t performed. It is tough to come down too hard on Bryant simply because of the chaos that has been the Bucs passing situation. Now settling on a young rookie quarterback the Bucs don’t seem to be interested in going deep which has been Bryant’s calling card. He has a game high of 5 catches this year. If you haven’t done so already he doesn’t need to be in your starting lineup.

Honorable mention: Jeremy Maclin (he’s getting some looks but isn’t near the threat DeSean Jackson is and won’t be relevant in that offense unless injury elevates him), Santana Moss

Well that does it for Ballin’ or Fallin’ – Week 12. If you liked or hated my calls this week sound off in the comments section below, send me an email at airram98@hotmail.com, or start a thread in the forums and lets kick up some debate. Best of luck to you and hope to see you in the forums! – Scott