Fantasy Football's Week Eight IDPs Start/Sit

By Sean Haugh

Before I get started with this week’s rambling narrative, we must pay our respects to...

The DeMarcus Ware Watch

Dang! Not one, not two, but three sacks from Ware last week. My word. Ware is definitely feeling it. Tampa Bay is stout up front, but my friends, Jeff Garcia is going to eat some turf this week.

I know history doesn’t score points, and I also know this is Captain Obvious talking, but if you have him, start Ware and enjoy your own personal connection to some NFL history as he takes the consecutive games sack record for his lonesome.

And now for our Fantasy Football Week Eight IDPs Start/Sit theme...

What coaching changes mean to you

Three head coaches have already been fired so far this year. The replacements have brought some drastic changes, not only in philosophy but in personnel as well. Oakland and St. Louis have already displayed a lot more swagger on defense, and I expect some of the same now in San Francisco, if only for a moment. Forgive me for including the studs in this set of recommendations. This time it helps to create a full picture of these new situations.

Oakland Raiders

It will be interesting to see if the Raiders’ success against the Jets is a sign of things to come or just a momentary burst of enthusiasm...

With CB DeAngelo Hall playing tighter coverage and the increased aggressiveness of the defensive line, they were able to put a serious crimp in Brett Favre’s style and made his two WR studs, Laveranues Coles and Jerricho Cotchery, almost irrelevant.

Unfortunately, they did not compensate in the running game, watching Thomas Jones, Leon Washington, and even Brad Smith run wild on them for 242 yards. (I was desperate enough to have to start Leon Washington last week, so imagine my relief.)

The first problem with Oakland’s defense so far this season is that it has never really played a solid 60 minutes, not even in this win. They have also had to improvise on DL, with injuries limiting Derrick Burgess, Kalimba Edwards, and Gerald Warren. At all defensive positions, the Raiders have very little useful depth, which shows when you see stiffs like Jay Richardson flailing away uselessly.

Fortunately, DT Tommy Kelly finally stepped up and brought the pressure to the Jets’ OL and Favre. If they can get Burgess, Edwards, Warren, and Kelly healthy all at the same time, look out. That may be happening very soon, just in time for the Raiders to face two rookie QBs the next two weeks against Baltimore and Atlanta.

Even with makeshift lines, these four are getting to the QB and registering sacks. Watch the injury reports this week. If they look promising, I would be happy to start Burgess and Edwards, and would consider Warren or Kelly in a pinch.

The success of the DL depends upon the efficiency of the secondary.

The better the pass coverage, the more time the big uglies have to flush the QB out of the pocket and make good things happen. The Raiders are blessed with three potential Pro Bowlers in Hall, Nnamdi Asomugha, and Gibril Wilson. The weak link is Michael Huff. I don’t even want to name the backups, or it would give me hives, they stink so bad.

Wilson has been a tackle machine all season and is a weekly must start at DB. The key is Hall. I never liked him much because of my disdain for bad cornerbacks who play too loose and could allow a touchdown just as easily as they could snag an interception. However, Hall is still young, and this week, we saw him perform well, playing tighter coverage.

If he can make opposing QBs fear throwing his way, that will open up a whole world of possibilities for Oakland, starting with giving Asomugha some serious fantasy value. So I am cautiously warming up to Hall. If they keep him playing tighter, his short-term value could easily parlay into serious dynasty value and keep him as a weekly must start for a long time.

I have to confess I’ve never been terribly impressed with their LBs Kirk Morrison or Thomas Howard. They make me think there’s a corresponding bad linebacker hypothesis that mirrors the bad cornerback theory. Along with Ricky Brown, Raiders LBs notched 21 tackles pretty evenly distributed between them last week.

When they face these strong running teams the next two weeks, expect them to be tested frequently, meaning they will have the tackle opportunities. This will make Morrison and Howard both excellent sell-high candidates. If I were running the Raiders, even with all their holes, I’d concentrate on acquiring new linebackers first, which could greatly diminish Morrison and Howard’s dynasty value.

Finally, as shallow as their defense is, once you get past their sweet RB corps, the Raiders’ offense is even worse—Javon Walker rising from the dead notwithstanding. They will not be able to sustain drives, meaning more playing time for these IDPs.

In brief: Start DEs Kalimba Edwards and Derrick Burgess, especially if both are playing. Definitely start DBs DeAngelo Hall and Gibril Wilson.

Sit, or better yet, cut DB Michael Huff. When Oakland faces strong running teams, which they will in the next two weeks, start LBs Kirk Morrison and Thomas Howard, then look to trade them, maybe as sweeteners in a package for an offensive upgrade.

Can they keep it up? They don’t have the personnel. It will only take one significant injury to a defensive stud to cause the whole house of cards to collapse. If Baltimore and Atlanta both beat them, as I expect will happen, they could end up losing their will to live, becoming even worse than they were at the beginning of the season.

St. Louis Rams

On the way out the door, Scott Linehan did everything he could to destroy this team. His insane personnel moves were the mark of a vindictive loser, someone utterly incapable of accepting any personal responsibility. Firing was too good for him. He should have been taken out back and, as Groucho Marx so aptly put it, “pop goes the weasel.”

Jim Haslett deserves all the credit he is receiving now for putting his team back on track so quickly. The obvious conclusion is that the Rams’ early-season woes were definitely not because they didn’t have the right players.

The first thing they had to do was convince CB Fakhir Brown to return after...

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