Here’s a few standard preface notes:
^ Notwithstanding the claims of any website to be your “home for Sunday morning injury report news,” nothing beats Google News – nothing. Entering a player name into this search engine trumps any other means of gathering information because it culls the data from an unbelievably wide variety of sources.
^ Especially earlier in the season, it’s always good to refer to a strong baseline of where players should have been drafted – and nothing beats FANTASY FOOTBALL DRAFTOLOGY 2009.
^ Unless there are any injury questions, we never discuss “gimme” players. Such core players should be started week in and week out unless there is any question surrounding their playing status. Winning teams only need to worry about “playing the matchups” with one, two or (at the most, during bye weeks) three spots in the lineup. Some websites promise you a crystal ball for how to manage high-risk, high-reward juggling during the season. We don’t. We play the percentages. That approach may be boring, but it’s highly effective and much more intellectually honest in what we promise you.
^ By the way, here are your core players who should not be benched if healthy
QB: Brady, Brees, P Manning, McNabb, Rivers, Rodgers, Romo, Warner
RB: M Barber, R Brown, Forte, Gore, Grant, S Jackson, Jacobs, C Johnson, Jones-Drew, Peterson, Portis, Slaton, Tomlinson, Turner, Westbrook, D Williams
WR: Boldin, Bowe, Colston, Fitzgerald, Jennings, A Johnson, C Johnson, Houshmandzadeh, V Jackson, Marshall, Moss, Ochocinco, S Smith (Carolina), Wayne, R White
TE: Clark, Gates, Gonzalez, Witten
^ Here are the players added to that list since the start of the year:
RB: Benson
WR: Burleson, Driver, S Smith (NY Giants)
TE: Daniels, H Miller
^ And here are the players who were on our list, but have been removed from it:
RB: Lynch
WR: Owens, R Williams
^ Links for each game take you to the CBS Sports home page for each game, with stats, analyis and even video previews.
^ All times listed are EDT.
^ Of the non-gimme players we like this week, the stronger plays are the ones in all caps.
Sunday, Oct. 25
(Byes: Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, Jacksonville, Seattle, Tennessee)
Chicago at Cincinnati, 1 p.m. QB Cutler, TE Olsen, QB Palmer
Green Bay at Cleveland, 1 p.m. TE FINLEY, Browns marginal players all-out
San Francisco at Houston, 1 p.m. TE Davis, QB SCHAUB, WR Walter
San Diego at Kansas City, 1 p.m. Chargers marginal players all-out, RB L Johnson
Minnesota at Pittsburgh, 1 p.m. QB FAVRE, WR Rice, QB ROETHLISBERGER, WR Holmes, WR Ward, TE Miller
Indianapolis at St. Louis, 1 p.m. RB Addai, RB Brown, WR Garcon, Rams marginal players all-out
New England vs. Tampa Bay at London, 1 p.m. RB Maroney, WR WELKER, TE Winslow
Buffalo at Carolina, 4:05 p.m. RB Lynch, RB Jackson, WR Muhammad
N.Y. Jets at Oakland, 4:05 p.m. RB JONES (WR Cotchery is out), TE Zach Miller
Atlanta at Dallas, 4:15 p.m. QB Ryan, RB Choice
New Orleans at Miami, 4:15 p.m. (RB Bush and RB Thomas are fairly weak recommendations against this run defense), WR Henderson, WR Moore, TE Shockey, Dolphins marginal players all-out
Arizona at N.Y. Giants, 8:20 p.m. (WR Boldin is a fairly weak recommendation due to health), WR Breaston, QB Manning, WR Manningham
Monday, Oct. 26
Philadelphia at Washington, 8:30 p.m. WR Jackson, TE Celek, TE Cooley
NFL Week 7 Best Waiver Wire Pickups
NOTE: We only recommend plausible pickups; our threshold is 40% or less ownership in CBSSports.com leagues. As such, players may show up on our list multiple weeks if they fall below that percentage and if we still believe in their upside potential.
1 Matt Stover
2 Mike Wallace
3 Kevin Boss
4 Chad Henne
5 Benjarvis Green-Ellis
Fantasy Drafthelp: Week 7 NFL Fantasy Advice
