Below are players that are On The Rise and On The Decline in the world of fantasy football. Note that the Monday Night game is still to come, but the players listed below have already played their week 4 games — It’s never too early to dig into the upcoming week, so let’s get right into the player values for week 5 looking forward.
Ronnie Brown | RB MIA Brown went from rags to riches quick. It was just a week and a half ago that fantasy owners were trading Brown away in a panic. In some cases, fantasy owners traded the rusher away and only acquired 3rd-4th round-type talent. Big mistake. Brown looks fantastic and Cam Cameron is obviously using him much like he used LaDainian Tomlinson back in San Diego. In his last two games, Brown has rushed for 246 yards, has 12 receptions for 172 yards and has racked up 4 total TDs… again, that is just over the past 2 games. Brown is in for a monster season and for those of you that listened to our Podcast Advice (to trade for Brown while his value was extremely low), it looks like you have yourself an absolute bargain.
Drew Brees | QB NO Brees has killed fantasy owners so far this season, but I know one thing for certain… Brees is one of the most fundementally-sound signal callers in the entire NFL. I have him listed "on the decline" because people are just about giving up on him — Take advantage! I firmly believe that Drew Brees will get back on track in week 5 when the Saints take on the struggling Panthers. Same goes for Colston. Both Brees and Colston are the kind of players that fantasy owners should be targeting right now while their values are extremely low. Bush should have a ton of success rushing the football on a full-time basis (with McAllister out for the year) and this will be the key to getting that offense back on track. With the bye week behind him, Brees has a lot more value than the going asking price. Go get him if you can land him dirt cheap.
Larry Johnson | RB KC L.J. didn’t start off very well in week 4, but he finally got things going in the second-half and ended up rushing the football for 123 yards. Johnson has had some tough match-ups so far this year, but brighter days are on the way as the back faces the Jags and Bengals in weeks 5 and 6. Both defenses rank around the bottom ten in the entire NFL against the run, so expect Johnson to have two monster back-to-back weeks coming up.
Cedric Benson | RB CHI Benson looks awful. He just doesn’t look like the tough runner he once was back in college. He runs soft and takes the wrong kinds of hits. If he doesn’t get hurt very soon, I wouldn’t be shocked if he lost at least some of his carries to Adrian Peterson.
Santonio Holmes | WR PITIt might be difficult to acquire Holmes at this point, but do try if the price is right. The Pittsburgh WR looks fantastic. He was my favorite WR start of the week, as Hines Ward was ruled out of week 4, and boy did he prove worthy (6 receptions, 128 yards and 2TDs). Holmes is this year’s Houshmandzadeh.
Mark Bulger | QB STL Bulger looks pretty bad. The QB was even pulled at one point on Sunday. I’ll admit, last week I said not to worry, as Bulger started off about the same way last year, but clearly he is hurting and not even close to 100% healthy. It is possible that the offense picks up their play and this helps Bulger owners out a bit, but the Rams face the Cards next week and then go on to face the Ravens D the week after that. If you have a better option (key word “if”), consider using it until further notice. It’s probably not a good idea to sell Bulger low, as he could still bounce-back (especially when Steven Jackson returns from his groin injury).
Justin Fargas | RB OAKWith LaMont Jordan (back) out for a while, Justin Fargas appears to be one of the top waiver wire grabs entering week 5. While we would recommend grabbing him if you can, keep in mind that Dominic Rhodes COULD end up getting the first crack at that stating gig for however long Jordan is out. Rhodes returns from his four game suspension this week and I think that he will start in week 5 (but share carries with Fargas to an extent). Fargas looked good on Sunday replacing the injured Jordan, but he always looks good when playing part-time, but he never steps up completely when the opportunity is there for the taking. Just keep that in mind before you go trading for Fargas if for some reason another owner already has him on their roster.
