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: H Miller, V Davis
^ 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, analysis 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.
Week 11
Sunday, Nov. 22
Indianapolis at Baltimore, 1 p.m. All-out on marginal Colts, QB Flacco, RB RICE
Washington at Dallas, 1 p.m. RB Betts, WR S Moss, RB F Jones, WR AUSTIN
Cleveland at Detroit, 1 p.m. All-out on marginal Browns, RB K Smith
San Francisco at Green Bay, 1 p.m. QB A Smith, all-in on marginal Packers (with TE Finley as the play)
Buffalo at Jacksonville, 1 p.m. WR Evans, WR Sims-Walker, WR Holt
Pittsburgh at Kansas City, 1 p.m. All-in on marginal Steelers (with WR Ward bearing watching going up to gametime), all-out on marginal Chiefs
Seattle at Minnesota, 1 p.m. QB Hasselbeck, TE Carlson, all-in on marginal Vikings (with all three main WR being good options if Berrian is good to go)
Atlanta at N.Y. Giants, 1 p.m. All-out on marginal Falcons, all-in on marginal Giants
New Orleans at Tampa Bay, 1 p.m. All-in on marginal Saints (although RB Bush is still questionable), TE Winslow
Arizona at St. Louis, 4:05 p.m. All-in on marginal Cardinals, all-out on marginal Rams
San Diego at Denver, 4:15 p.m. All-out on marginal Chargers, RB MORENO
N.Y. Jets at New England, 4:15 p.m. RB T Jones, WR Cotchery, WR Welker
Cincinnati at Oakland, 4:15 p.m. QB PALMER, TE Z Miller
Philadelphia at Chicago, 8:20 p.m. RB McCoy, WR D Jackson, TE Celek, WR Hester
Monday, Nov. 23
Tennessee at Houston, 8:30 p.m. QB V Young, QB Schaub, WR Walter
NFL Week 11 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 Shayne Graham
2 Jason Avant
3 Malcom Floyd
4 Michael Bush
5 Vince Young
Fantasy Drafthelp: Week 11 NFL Fantasy Advice
