Cedric Benson: Buy Low, Sell High

It's the midway point of the season, and the Bengals have been anything but impressive. In fact, at 2-5 the only race they're in is to avoid finishing behind the perennially horrendous Cleveland Browns. Not much motivation if you ask me. One of the lone bright spots outside of Terrell Owens has been the consistency of Cedric Benson. The RB ranks 10th in the league in rushing yards and has thrown in 3 TDs to boot. Its not the most mind blowing fantasy season, but the dude has been consistent, never getting less than 6 fantasy points under standard scoring. Again, not anything you'd write home about, but he isn't losing you any weeks by going for 1 or 2 points.

As a fantasy owner, you should always be trying to improve your team, especially through the trading market. So, is Cedric Benson one of the guys you should be targeting? Or is the resurrected Longhorns back someone owners should be trying to dump on the first fool they see?

Ray Rice: Bust or Buy Low?

Just like in the Maurice Jones-Drew post, if you are a Ray Rice owner (like yours truly) you're wondering what exactly you saw in him at the beginning of the year. With the exception of his week 5 performance against Denver, Rice has yet to top 100 yards or score in any other game. Definitely not what you expected out of a top 4 consensus selection. The only solace has come to PPR owners who have seen mediocre benefit from his 24 catches (including 8 in week 6).

Perhaps the greatest disappointment has been Rice's inability to break off big plays. So far in 2010, the Ravens' running back has only managed a rushing high of 30 yards and has yet to make a reception of 20 yards or greater. In fact, Rice has only busted out 8 rushes of 10 yards or more, a pittance from a guy that last year was ready to make a break for the end zone at any given time. Since it is Halloween, I can only imagine that some civilian has simply dressed up as Ray Rice, and is now parading around, disappointing fantasy owners everywhere.

Maurice Jones-Drew: Bust or Buy Low?

If you look at the bottom of the standings in your league, I can pretty much guarantee that one of the bottom 3 teams (most of the time THE worst) has Maurice Jones-Drew on their team. MJD's line looks like what I would expect out of him over four weeks. Unfortunately, its taken him 6 weeks to get there, and he has only found pay dirt once. Blasphemy! This is a guy who has scored over 12 TDs the last two seasons. Why the sudden drop off?

 It could be that hes just off to a slow start, just biding his time, in which case he would be an excellent buy low candidate. In 2008, he came out of the gate ice cold. But that was with Fred Taylor in town, still taking the majority of the carries. At this point last year, MJD was averaging 110 yards from scrimmage a game, and most importantly, he crossed the end zone an average of 1.3 times per game. That kind of a line puts to rest any slow starter theories, but does it eliminate Jones-Drew as a buy low target?

In my eyes, no, but make sure you aren't selling out your squad for him. Let's start with why he has caused so many of his fantasy teams to tank, David Garrard and the Jags' passing game. Through six games, he has managed the exact same amount of rushing yards as he did in '09, but the rest of his numbers pale in comparison to his past self. His TDs, receptions and receiving yards have all taken major hits, all due to the fact that opposing defenses are crowding the line and challenging David Garrard to throw the ball, a challenge he has yet to succeed at.

As witnessed in Monday night's debacle with the Titans, teams have been able to solely focus their efforts on MJD and the running game, as David Garrard and the excuses they call wide receivers struggle to repeat their success from last year. I believe that if Garrard (or dare I say Trent Edwards), Sims-Walker and his distant cousin Mike Walker find a way to finally move the ball through the air, the Jags will not be stuck on their side of the 50, and maybe MJD can finally get some goal-line work.

MJD's future value rides solely on the shoulders of the Jaguars passing game. I think they can slowly improve through the air, I mean keep in mind, David Garrard was a Pro-Bowler last year. When things start clicking, MJD will start to get more and more chances to score, as well as more catches on check-downs. So here's my advice, find a disgruntled owner and see if you can't get the Jags' star for a relatively low price. If you can move a guy like Rashard Mendenhall or even Joseph Addai and a lesser star on your team, go get MJD before he starts to finally find the end-zone. Its only a matter of time.

Buy Low, Sell High: Weeks 3-5

We are slowly moving our way through the fantasy football season. If you're sitting at 0-5, you'd better break the glass on the fire extinguisher, because you've got a major problem on your hands. If you're sitting pretty at 5-0 or 4-1, there's always room for improvement. That's what this segment is here for, to let you know who you should buy low on and who to sell high on. I hope this can turn your dud into a stud or your contender into a champion.


Buy Low:

Hines Ward WR, Steelers
An average line of 3/40 and a single touchdown this year make Hines Ward owners really question why they are, well, Hines Ward owners. Of course, this is also with guys like Dennis Dixon and Charlie Batch throwing him the ball. A wideout is only as good as the QB throwing him the ball. (I'm looking at you Larry Fitzgerald). Unlike his counterpart in Arizona, Ward's QB situation is drastically improving from here on out. I've said it many times on this site, but I'll say it again. Big Ben will come back and shine as he attempts to play his way back into the people's hearts. He could still top 3,000 yards passing in these last 12 games, a lot of them in the direction of Hines.

Ryan Mathews RB, Chargers
Mathews was supposed to be the golden boy this year in San Diego. 5 weeks pass, and now he is struggling to get more carries than a guy who looks more like an eating champion than a running back. The one stat that makes me think Mathews' is sure to take a turn in the right direction is his 5.1 yards per carry. Norv Turner can do what he like with his carries, but sooner or later Mike Tolbert gaining 12 yards on 11 carries will not cut it anymore. Tolbert should stay entrenched in his role as the goal-line back so if you're in a TD heavy league, Mathews isn't much of a target, but he should catch on fire in the yards and receptions categories as he starts to see more playing time.

Sell High: 

Terrell Owens WR, Bengals

Two great weeks and everyone starts to think TO is back to his early 2000s form. TO has been pretty hot and cold, and that is without having played the real meat of the Bengals' schedule. Owens might prey on the weak this season, but when Pittsburgh twice, the Ravens, Jets, etc. watch his production suffer. If you are a TO owner, and don't mind the potential 20 yard weeks, then go ahead and hold onto him because he might have 1 or 2 more 150 yard explosions in him. But if you can get a more consistent WR who won't lose you weeks, I'd prefer that option over TO every time.

Calvin Johnson WR, Lions

Megatron has been a touchdown machine this year, I guess that's because he is a machine. But that's about all he's done. With a measly 5/60 line per game this year, Johnson has definitely failed to live up to his 2nd round billing in fantasy drafts. Throw in the fact that he is starting to show the signs of nagging injuries that are oh so common with Calvin, and you have a recipe for a very underachieving WR. Take the chance while you have it, and dish the Lions' only WR threat while his total fantasy points still look pretty.

Buy Low, Sell High: Weeks 1 and 2

It doesn't take Warren Buffett to understand the concept of buying low and selling high. But if you can harness the concept with your fantasy football team, you can be on the path to a championship. Once a week passes, how many points a player has accrued becomes irrelevant. From the on, it is all a matter of creating the most points possible over their remaining games. So, as I stated in my "One Week Does Not a Season Make", don't put too much money into a player's first few weeks of production. Look at their situation, and decide who will be the top producers over the course of the year.

Buy Low:

Shonn Greene- I had a major man crush on this guy coming into 2010. I mean, whats not to like about a guy who stepped into a starting role in the world's best rushing offense, and whose only competition was an aging veteran who everyone wrote off. Of course, after LT's impressive Week 2, no one seems to have faith in Shonn. I still do. All it will take is one good outing and a few weaker opponents to reestablish the fact that Greene is the feature back and can be counted on with 20 carries a game.

Maurice Jones-Drew- What if a guy who was guaranteed to be a top 4 player all of a sudden fell off into oblivion. Yeah, it would make a great story, but it ain't happenin'. MJD is a notoriously slow starter so you might not get a "beat him over the head with a club" type of trade robbery, but if you can turn your Matt Forte or LeSean McCoy into a nice cold MJD, why not go for it?

Michael Crabtree- I know I have criticized Crabtree before over his personality issues and work ethic, but the guy's talent is indisputable. Alex Smith seems to be slowly improving, and I imagine that evolving into a lot more production out of his most talented wideout.

Tony Gonzalez- Come on. Its Tony Gonzalez. Sure hes starting to show his age, but he created the TE position that we know today. Plus, he has showed that outside of Roddy White, he is one of the few targets that Matt Ryan trusts. Get him while you still can.

Joe Flacco- He has been the absolute worst fantasy QB over these first two weeks. But can you blame him? He put up reasonable numbers against the stalwart Jets' D and even though Tom Brady made the Bengals look like Swiss Cheese, he didn't have to play them in Cincy. Trade some slob for Flacco and cash in when he explodes some upcoming week. (Hint: He plays Cleveland this week.)

Sell High:

Tim Hightower- Week 1 was a bit of a mess for the Cards' RB, but there's nothing like a good ole Rams matchup to fix that. Beanie Wells will return soon, and noone likes a backfield timeshare. Deal Hightower now, since his value will never be higher.

Austin Collie- Collie is probably one of the higher scoring wideouts in your league, especially if its PPR.  But with Wayne and Clark being the obvious main targets of Peyton, and Garcon begging for more targets, there's no way that this kind of production persists. 

Darren McFadden- Anyone can bust out against the Rams. His performace against the Titans opened my eyes a little, but enter Michael Bush and Run DMc's value takes a hit. Not to mention the fact that history says he will inevitably hit the injury report at some time or another.

LaDainian Tomlinson- See Shonn Greene in the Buy Low section. He can't keep it up all year long. Sure he will play a role, but it won't be this big.


Thanks for reading! Make sure to check out this week's rankings (Week 3 PPR Rankings: QB RB WR TE), and as always leave a comment if you have a question, comment or concern!