Fantasy Friday: Week 6 Team Scouting Reports from SB Nation

The Vikes look scary good, Daily Norseman knows why.

QB Brett Favre – Yes, the Ravens’ defense is coming to town this weekend. However, the Baltimore secondary has been underachieving all year, and after getting off to a rough start, Favre has finally started to get a rapport with his receivers, and has averaged 268 yards and two touchdowns in his past three starts. Unless you have someone like a Brees or a Manning to put in at the QB spot, you could do much worse than starting Favre this week.

RB Adrian Peterson – It doesn’t matter whose defense the Vikings are facing. Start Adrian Peterson every week.

Vikings wide receivers – The downside to Favre having a grasp of the offense, at least for fantasy purposes, is that you never know which of his receivers is going to have a big game from one week to the next. Percy Harvin is dinged up and listed as questionable, so keep a close eye on him leading up to kickoff, but both Sidney Rice and Bernard Berrian could serve as lower-end starting options, or possibly even a flex option if your league has one available.

Vikings defense – Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco has played well thus far this season, but the raucous environment of the Metrodome could serve to rattle his nerves. The Vikings’ defense is rounding into an elite enough unit where you should be starting them pretty much every week, but expecting a huge performance fantasy-wise from them this week might be a little too much to ask.

Get your daily pillage on over at Daily Norseman.

RB Ryan Grant. He’s playing against the Lions poor run defense, they have allowed 4.9 yards/carry against in their first 5 games, but he often is a forgotten man in the offense. He’s only gone over 20 carries once in his first 4 games, and hasn’t broken the 100 yard barrier. And his goal line opportunities have been taken by FB John Kuhn in recent weeks. Sit.

WR Greg Jennings. He’s been sounding off in public about his lack of touches. Only 22 passes thrown his way, and only 11 receptions in 4 games. Still, he’s their big play threat and going up against a suspect Lions secondary. Start.

WR Donald Driver. He’s bookended good 90 yard, 1 TD games in weeks 2 and 3, with two mediocre 4 catch, 50 yard performances. Still he’s another playmaker going up against the Lions secondary, and he’s always good for at least 4 catches. Start.

TE Jermichael Finley. There are lots of TEs producing, so he’s not a start for most teams. But against the Vikings, he had a 120 yard, 1 TD outburst that doubled his career stats in one game. And it wasn’t a fluke; his talent is real. If you’re looking for a TE to start on the bye week, take a look at him.

Packers D. They’ve been mediocre this season, and aren’t generating sacks, but they’ve been forcing turnovers (and returning them for TDs). Always a good candidate to start, especially against the turnover prone Lions.

Pack fans, head to Acme Packing Company.

The Falcons are coming off a big win, The Falcoholic tells us what to expect this week.

QB Matt Ryan: Fresh off one of the best games of his young career, Matt Ryan has to be excited about facing the Bears’ suspect secondary. Ryan went off for a career high in yardage and picked up two touchdowns through the air and one on the ground last week, and the matchup makes him a borderline QB1 once again. Strongly consider starting Ryan and expect at least a pair of touchdowns from him in this high-flying offense.

The Titans are perhaps the NFL’s biggest disappointment so far, but Music City Miracles soldiers on out of love for their team.

The Titans travel to New England this weekend to take on the Patriots. Chris Johnson is really the only Titan player that has any fantasy value this week. The Patriots defense is good against the run, but CJ has the chance to break a big play any time he touches the ball.

If you have the Titans defense you should be banned from ever playing fantasy football again and not play them this week.

Music City Miracles is still praying for a miracle for the Titans.

The Rams are desperate for a win, will that translate into fantasy success? Turf Show Times reports.

RB Steven Jackson – Jacksonville’s rushing defense has been pretty good, but Jackson has the added advantage for fantasy GMs in that he can catch passes. SJ has picked up solid yardage against better defenses though. Is this week he scores his first TD of the season?

WR Donnie Avery – Avery had a nice game last week, finally getting the ball deep and taking advantage of his speed. Against a lesser Jacksonville pass defense, could Avery have a break out game?

One of the surprise teams of ’09, the Bengals, have plenty of fantasy stars. Cincy Jungle breaks it down.

Bolts from the Blue suggests not starting the Chargers defense, along with other tidbits of info.

Philip Rivers – This is the first week you might want to reconsider starting Rivers in your fantasy league. Denver is fielding the league’s best defense, and part of that reason is the incredible play of Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins. There will be less mismatches for Philip to exploit than usual.

LaDainian Tomlinson – I’d start him. The Chargers have had issues with ball control and with their running game, and I believe they’ll use Monday night’s game to try to reverse both of those trends. Look for LT to get the ball early and often. He is about as healthy as he’s been since 2007, and eager to prove he’s not done.

Bleeding Green Nation gets right to the point on Philly players.

This is one of those weeks where if you have an Eagle, you should start him. The Eagles are on the road against the Oakland Raiders, who have given up 33 points a game over the last three weeks. Conversely the Eagles offense is scoring 32 points a game, two of which didn’t even include QB Donovan McNabb. Start them all.

The Washington Redskins play host to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, so we go to Hogs Haven to break down the Redskins fantasy players.

If you like to mix a little humor with your sports news and analysis, check out the guys over at Hogs Haven.

The Ravens play the undefeated Vikings this week, so we turn to Baltimore Beatdown to see if their fantasy stars can shine.

The Baltimore Ravens travel to Minnesota to face an undefeated Vikings team. While Minnesota may have a better defense than the Ravens this year, they are susceptible to the passing game and that is where Baltimore QB Joe Flacco may be worth a play on your fantasy team. He should put up good numbers as there is also a chance the run game will be shut down by the Vikes and the Ravens may have to air it out to play catch up. Other than Flacco, I’d stay away from the Ravens offense and even their defense for this week. I have the Ravens defense in my fantasy league, but I am actually playing the Saints defense at home against the Giants this week.

The Chiefs are desperate for their first win, can they get it against the Redskins? Arrowhead Pride takes a look at the fantasy breakdown for Sunday.

KC Defense / Special Teams - The Chiefs offense is ranked 24th in rushing. The Redskins are ranked 25th. The game on Sunday has the potential to be this year’s “Offensive Futility Bowl”. Where there is mediocrity, there is opportunity. If the Chiefs can shut down Marion Barber, they should be able to shut down a petulant Clinton Portis. Jason Campbell is struggling as well, averaging one interception and 2.6 sacks per game. If the Chiefs can stop an unheralded WR from turning in a pro bowl performance, the D should be solid this week.

KC Defense /