Fantasy : The Past, Present, Future, and More : Dynasty Central

Well, it’s officially Week 10 and your team could be in one of several scenarios. You could be the team who’s in that 6-3 to 9-0 range, the latter being only a week or two away from locking up playoff spots, you could be in that 4-5 to 5-4 range and still be fighting for the playoffs, or you could be in the 0-9 to 3-6 range. Along with the traditional start ‘em/sit ‘em picks, I’m going to tell you what’s what when it comes your record and how you should try to finish your season.

Let’s face it. If you have that 3-6 or lower mark for this season, it’s probably time to start looking at your team’s chances for next season, and that means looking at draft picks. Now I know in any normal fantasy league, you would probably get kicked out of the league for tanking and losing on purpose, but in a dynasty style league, it’s necessary. As ugly as it is, there is a graceful way to tank your team without benching all your players and that would be to start your bench players and always have a full starting lineup, but with players that obviously aren’t going to win you any games. Hopefully, you will be the only manager who actually gives up on this season, so while your draft position gets higher, the rest of the losing teams will still be trying to salvage their seasons. Unfortunately, that’s about all you can do to help yourself right now.

At this point a .500 season isn’t bad at all. There are still 4 or 5 more games this season and with the right moves it’s not impossible to end up in the top tier of your league. It’s really a judgment call at this point. If you think you can pull it off, then go for it, but if you aren’t confident in your team’s ability, then I would read the above statements towards the below .500 teams.

For you lucky owners of winning teams, congratulations! I barely have anything to say to you other than keep doing what you’re doing. There will be more in store for you come playoff time and I’ll address that when the time comes. Without further adieu, here are the Sits and Starts for Week 10:

Start: Mike Wallace (WR/PIT) – With a TD in 3 of his last 4 games and at least 50 yards in each game, he’s a go against the 25^th rank passing defense in the Bengals. He’s a solid 3^rd WR for your team and I give him 70 yards and a touchdown.

Sit: Tampa Bay Buccaneers in general – I know I was unlucky last week with them pulling off the monstrous upset over Green Bay, but guess what? FLUKE! It won’t happen again I guarantee it.

Start: Larry Johnson (Fantasy Free Agents Leagues Only) – Being the biggest disappointment of the year will get him some serious points if you own him and if you’re trying to lose!

Sit: Brian Westbrook (RB/PHI) and therefore Start: LeSean McCoy (RB/PHI) – Word is that Westbrook is likely to miss at least another game and even if he does play, he’s going to be off his normal game. McCoy has been great with the full workload and since the Chargers don’t have the greatest run stopping defense, I’d go with McCoy if you have him.

Sit: Clinton Portis (RB/WAS) – Portis suffered a concussion in Sundays game against the Falcons and is likely to miss Week 10. I don’t like the odds of Ladell Betts performing well either so I would lay off any Washington player for this week.

The NFL never goes without an upset and the Buccaneers were the lucky team of Week 9. If you’re wondering who’s going to make a splash this week, then keep reading to find my Upset of the Week:

New England Patriots over Indianapolis Colts (by 7) – Can’t get a better time for the Colts to lose their undefeated mark than this week against the (6-2) Pats. Look for a defensive struggle and for the Pats to edge out the Colts by a relatively close margin. I’m feeling lesser fantasy performances from Brady and Peyton, but you have to start them if you have them. There’s nothing out of the ordinary on either side of this game, except a good old low scoring battle. This week is also the beginning of Thursday Night Football as well so get your game faces on and get those line-ups set!

If you want to submit any questions or want to get a shout-out in next week’s column, please send your e-mails to bkardane11@yahoo.com and I’ll try my best to get back to you and hopefully you can be a part of Dynasty Central for the coming weeks.