Week 7 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire: Red Light/Green Light

The Oakland Raiders have been grabbing all the headlines lately.

First, in some very sad news, the Raiders’ long-time, unforgettable owner Al Davis passed away, which has motivated the team to win back-to-back games in his memory.

And despite the win this past week, the Raiders lost their starting quarterback, Jason Campbell, to a broken collarbone.  Immediately after the game, coach Hue Jackson, who is largely believed to be making personnel decisions in Davis’ absence, began searching for a replacement.  Unfortunately, Kyle Boller just wouldn’t cut it for him.

In a surprise move, Jackson was able to wrangle Carson Palmer from the Bengals, who was temporarily “retired,” at least when it came to playing for a team in Cincinnati.  But maybe wrangle isn’t the right word. 

You see, Jackson actually gave up a lot to get Palmer: a 2012 first round pick and a conditional 2013 first round pick. So in actuality, the decision to trade Palmer was probably a very easy one for Bengals owner Mike Brown.  The Raiders are also expected to owe Palmer a hefty sum over the duration of his remaining contract.

But will he be worth it?

Every Raider fan will tune into the rest of this season’s games to find the answer, but one thing is for sure: Hue Jackson is taking a huge gamble.

Luckily, in fantasy football, we don’t need to make gambles like Hue did.  In fact, Palmer is available to us on the waiver wire, along with many other intriguing names.  Let’s hope your pickups this week help your team make fantasy headlines for the rest of the season.

As a reminder, my Red Light players should be benched or dropped. My Green Light players should be started, or at the very least, added to your roster. I will finish with some Yellow Light players: those guys who I am still on the fence about, but may be worth a look, especially if you are really hurting for ideas.

With that said, here are this week’s picks.

Red Light

Devin Hester

Hester had a nice game on Sunday night, catching five passes for 91 yards and a touchdown.  But take away the 48-yard touchdown pass he grabbed at the beginning of the game, and Hester’s stat line reduces to four catches for 43 yards, the same line he’s been putting up all year. 

Call me crazy, but there really is no consistency to Hester’s game (or the Bears’ passing game in general) and as a result, I’m not chasing Hester’s fluky performance.

Santana Moss

Rex Grossman is the peanut butter to Santana Moss’s jelly.  Okay, maybe that sounded a little weird, but truly Moss has benefittd in a great way by Grossman’s presence. He leads the Redskins in catches, targets, and receiving touchdowns through their first five games. 

But Grossman performed horribly this past weekend, and as a result got benched for John Beck, who doesn’t share the same chemistry with Moss. If Beck gets named the starter for Washington’s next game, expect Moss’s performances to decline. 

Even if Grossman stays in, his questionable play as of late could also impede Moss’s potential for fantasy success.

Antonio Brown

Brown got off to a hot start for the Steelers, acting as Ben Roethlisberger’s second favorite receiver, behind only Mike Wallace. But in the past two weeks, Brown has only received 6 total targets from Big Ben, catching just three passes. 

Emmanuel Sanders may slowly be retaking his No. 2 receiver spot, a position he was largely expected to maintain from last year if it weren’t for a preseason foot injury.  As a result, I highly doubt Brown will give fantasy owners any semblance of consistency for the remainder of the year.

Jahvid Best

You remember those commercials where a quarterback gets hit hard from his blindside, and then his coach runs over to him and asks him who he is, to which he responds, “I’m Batman,” while giving a very serious look?

Well, I hear they are going to use Jahvid Best in a new commercial, where he gets hit, and when his coach Jim Schwartz asks him who he is, he responds “I’m Jim Harbaugh” and then punches Schwartz in the face. Only kidding. 

But in all truth, Best is headed down a dangerous road, already having suffered two concussions in this young season, which makes three total concussions he’s suffered over the past three years.

Michael Turner

Complete gut call here because his stats so far won’t back me up.  But his 2011 numbers have been skewed by some long runs, as well as a boatful of touchdowns the past three weeks. 

But Turner looks to be on pace for 300 carries again, and with just a few more months until he turns the big 3-0, I’m selling high.

I’m no doctor, but you can bet if Best suffers one more concussion this season, he’ll be done for the year (and that’s very likely, considering he has already suffered two...remember Austin Collie).

Green Light

Carson Palmer

In most fantasy leagues, Carson Palmer finished right outside the top 10 for quarterbacks in 2011.  I think you could argue he has a pretty talented up-and-coming receiving corps to throw to now in Oakland, and he couldn’t really ask for a better running back. 

Although there are concerns about Carson’s arm strength, he is still a very accurate short and mid-field passer, he’s smart, and he brings with him more personality and passion than Jason Campbell, his predecessor. 

You could do a lot worse than starting Palmer once he gets settled into Oakland’s offense, and if nothing else, save him on your bench in case your starting QB gets hurt.

Greg Salas

Salas emerged for the Rams on Sunday, finally catching a season-high seven passes for 75 yards.  Salas received increased attention from quarterback Sam Bradford when Mike Sims-Walker got benched, which occurred just prior to game time.  Sims-Walker has since been waived, and the Rams have traded for Brandon Lloyd. 

Lloyd makes the Rams receiving corps very respectable now, and defenses will have to respond accordingly.  However, we must remember that the Rams’ offensive line is still atrocious, which means Sam Bradford will continue to be under pressure and forced to throw early passes.

I think this will benefit Salas the most, because his underneath routes will allow for Bradford’s dump offs. I advocate all PPR owners to pick up Salas as he could very quickly turn into what Danny Amendola was for Bradford last year (a pass-catching machine).

DeMarco Murray

Felix Jones suffered a high ankle sprain in Sunday’s game vs. the Patriots.  The initial report says Jones could be out two to four weeks.  Murray looked okay in his playing time throughout the game against the Pats, but he will be the definite starter in Felix’s place, which gives him some nice value. 

He should be the top pickup off the waiver wire this week as he will give owners a few good spot starts in the coming weeks.

C.J. Spiller

Spiller is here for PPR leagues only, at the moment.  With the Bills hurting for healthy receivers, Spiller was temporarily promoted to a receiving role, something he capitalized on this past Sunday, with five catches for 39 yards. 

The added bonus for Spiller here, is that if anything happens to Fred Jackson (and let’s not kid ourselves, Freddy is approaching 31 years of age and should be more vulnerable to injury), he would immediately step in for a chance to put up Jackson-like numbers. So for PPR leaguers, Spiller is worth a shot.

Yellow Light

Jerome Simpson

Jerome Simpson has started in seven games during his young career (the final two contests last year, and five of six so far this year).  In four of those, he has gone for more than 100 receiving yards. If anyone else had put up those stats, they would be owned in 100 percent of leagues right now.

Instead, Simpson is only owned 36 percent in ESPN leagues, for example.  Why? The truth is that Simpson had two monster games with Carson Palmer as his QB late last year, and without Palmer starting this year, fantasy owners have been skeptical.

But Andy Dalton isn’t a bad replacement, and as such, Simpson is still showing he can deliver.  In fact, he is 28th in the NFL in receiving yards.  Throw a few touchdowns in there and this guy is a legit fantasy starter!

With A.J. Green distracting the opposing defense’s attention, I think Simpson could help quite a few fantasy teams out, if he doesn’t get into legal trouble again (got caught for possessing marijuana a few weeks ago). His matchups won’t be easy, but grab him in case he starts to fully realize his potential.

Ronnie Brown

Brown got traded to Detroit today for Jerome Harrison.  Brown is largely expected to be the “smash” that complements Jahvid Best’s “dash.”  Given Best’s injury status, Brown could end up being worth a few starts later down the road. 

He’s not a bad guy to take a flier on right now if you are hurting at running back.  Maurice Morris will more than likely start if Best sits this weekend, however. Long-term, Brown should be the backup though.

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