Take It To The Bank - Week 3

By Jeremy Miller/Brandon Anderson
09/17/08

With week two in the books, Jeremy Miller and Brandon Anderson are back with their wild and crazy predictions they feel are as good as gold. Of course, they don’t always agree on these and there is sure to be some disagreements along the way. So where are they going with their predictions this week? Read on to see the issues that these two feel you can take to the bank for week three and beyond.

From Jeremy Miller:

• The time to trade Willie Parker is now.
  I’m not saying Willie is done, but currently he is a top five RB, and that will not continue. Parker has fed on the Texans and Browns run defenses and now in the next three gets to deal with Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Jacksonville. A far cry from the cupcakes he has run through so far. Get premium value and trade him while he is hot. Willie will finish the year in the 10-15 range, and someone will pay you much then they should at this point.

• Don’t expect Stewart to take over as “the man” in Carolina.
  Jon Stewart had a very nice week in week two as he rushed for 77 yards and 2 TD’s. The talk now is on Stewart taking over…..not so fast. Don’t rush to judgment here, DeAngelo Williams is not going away and was the better of the two in week one. Expect more of the same here. Fox will start out giving both looks and will ride the hot hand. Both backs have received double digit carries in both game and this trend will continue. Both will have good weeks, and bad weeks. Both are worth roster spots, but neither will separate themselves from the other this season.

• Even at 2-0, the Giants will still fail to make the playoffs.
  In fact, they could start out as good as 6-0 and I still see the wheels falling off of this wagon. The Giants schedule is pretty easy to start. But look at the last 10 games! This has New York meltdown written all over it. This is the third best team in the division and I don’t see them sending three teams to the playoffs two years in a row.

• Jacksonville and Minnesota’s woes continue, both fall to 0-3.
  Both of these teams were hot choices to make deep runs this offseason, now they are both staring 0-3 in the face. Jacksonville is heading to Indianapolis and I expect them to take care of business in their house. Minnesota on the other hand is hosting the 2-0 Carolina Panthers who are welcoming back Steve Smith off his two game team suspension. I think this is a bad match-up for the Vikings who are finding out that they are still searching for the answer at QB, and Tavaris Jackson is not it.

• I feel sorry for the Jets, Monday night is going to be UGLY!
  So the Chargers are off to a 0-2 start….well at least according to the NFL, the rest of the world knows they won on Sunday. Anyways, the Jets are heading cross country to take on a 0-2 team fresh off two last second losses. Good luck to Favre and the Jets. I don’t care what the line is, give the points. This one will be over by half time.

  • Bounced Check: Looks like Miller and I are bouncing each other’s Chargers checks this weekend. Sorry, but a loss is a loss, and the gut-busting “L” the Bolts have racked up the last two weeks may be worse than anything. This team is just not all there right now. The defense is surprisingly average. The offensive line is not doing what it has done in years past. Tomlinson and Gates are clearly not healthy, and Tomlinson has not looked right since quitting on the team during last year’s playoff run. And lest you forget, this is a team coached by one of the all-time imploding choke artists, Norv Turner. The Jets are not going to get blown out. They are the better team and the one that will be in the playoffs this year, and they may find a way to win this one outright. – Brandon Anderson

From Brandon Anderson:

• This will be the year of the rookie running back, with 10 or more rooks making a serious fantasy impact this season.
  Darren McFadden exploded onto the scene yesterday and probably will not look back. Already, there are 5 rookie runners that are the lead back for their team: McFadden, Chris Johnson, Matt Forte, Kevin Smith, and Steve Slaton. Expect Jonathan Stewart to join that group pretty quickly after yesterday’s big game, and I still expect Ray Rice to follow soon. Dallas could have two rookies toting the rock for awhile if Barber stays banged up, with Felix Jones and Tashard Choice. You’ve also got Tim Hightower vulturing TDs out in Arizona, and Rashard Mendenhall is sure to make an impact at some point. Don’t overlook Jamaal Charles in KC once LJ suffers that inevitable injury. That’s 12 backs, several of whom could end up the season as RB1 candidates. Hope you took that gamble in your draft, and you may want to snag one of these fellas off the waiver wire while you have a chance.

• Buffalo has a legitimate shot to make the playoffs or even win the division if they keep this up, but that still doesn’t mean they’ll have fantasy stars.
  By talent alone? No way, not even close. But wow is that schedule ever wide open. They’re already 2-0 against two of last year’s playoff teams, and now they get Oakland, St Louis, and Arizona before the bye. That’s a great shot at 5-0 or at least 4-1 heading to a week off, and then they still have games remaining against KC, SF, and everyone in this weak division twice… concluding with week 17, a home matchup against the Patriots in the cold Buffalo winter that looks to have legitimate playoff implications at this point. Even so, Buffalo could be something akin to this year’s Jacksonville, a team that plays stout, smashmouth defense and gets just enough on offense with a weak schedule. Yes, Lynch looks great and is definitely starter material, and Evans will be usable, but there’s not much after that, even if Buffalo does keep winning.

• No, this is not finally the Arizona Cardinals’ year.
  Oh sure it’s been nice so far seeing Kurt Warner rack up the yardage and points, but what else is new? Let’s keep a little perspective here. The Cards have been beating up on the 49ers and the Dolphins, two of the very worst teams in the entire league last season. We already know Arizona can pass aplenty and score points in bunches, but can they do it consistently against the top teams, and can the defense actually play? We’ll find out over the next four games at Washington and the Jets, and then home for Buffalo and Dallas. That’s not a brutal schedule by any means, and it’s one that a division contender should handle for at least a .500 split before heading to the bye week. I say that Arizona loses 3 or even all 4 of them, and this nifty little 2-0 start will be as quickly forgotten as San Francisco’s 2-0 start last year. No seriously, that actually happened. See what I mean?

• There will be no 0-2 comeback run like the Giants last season.
  No, this year’s 0-2 teams look pretty dead in the water for the most part. I’ve already detailed the demise of both San Diego and Jacksonville in recent pieces, and I haven’t seen anything to change my mind so far. The Vikings will not recover from that stomach punch yesterday and have a pretty good chance at this point to start out 0-5 with Carolina and then trips to Tennessee and New Orleans the next few weeks. Cleveland after all its offseason hype still looks to be a year away. In fact if I had to pick one 0-2 team to actually make the playoffs still, it would be Seattle. Yes things look bleaker by the day there, but this is still a team with the longest NFC playoff streak (by far), and they should still find a way to get it done in the worst division (by far) in the NFL.

  • Bounced Check: Well I’m not going to predict a Super Bowl run by any of the 0-2 teams, but there is one that is far from dead. However, in my mind, there not 0-2. You know where I’m going with this one. The Chargers have lost a heart breaker at the gun to a very good Panthers team and had a win stolen from them this past weekend. This 0-2 team could just as easily be 2-0. Even without Merriman, this is still one of the most talented teams in the league. A fiery young QB that has the respect of his team, an All World RB, and plenty of playmakers surrounding them. This is still a playoff team, and one that can win a game there as well. – Jeremy Miller

• The Denver Broncos could combine yesterday’s momentum, an unstoppable passing game, and an easy schedule to become the last unbeaten team to go down.
  The Broncos were my division pick in the AFC West, but admittedly more out of default in that I expected a Chargers fall and they were the only other real option. But now they look like the hottest team in the league and they have a hot young passing game that could drive defenses crazy with Cutler hitting Marshall, Scheffler, and Royal all game long. Momentum is huge in football, and that’s why Mike Shanahan staked his season on that two-conversion. Now the Broncos get the Saints, at KC, then Tampa and Jacksonville before heading to New England for a Monday Night showdown before the bye. Denver will be the favorite in each of those up until New England, and I think they could be favored by then as well. If they manage to somehow make it 7-0 into the break, watch out. It’s Miami, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Oakland after that, and Broncos fans might be thinking 1998 pretty quickly if they’re not careful. No, I don’t think the Broncos will start 11-0. But they should start with 6, and they have a shot at more.