Lost Romo?

Week 8
 
Before the season started the Cowboys were a strong possibility to be the first team to play in the Super Bowl they are hosting. Any notion of a Cowboy Super Bowl home game faded on Monday night, when QB Tony Romo broke his collar bone. He will be sidelined for 6-8 weeks, and since the Cowboy’s record is 1-5, it’s difficult to see him playing again in 2010. This leaves Fantasy Football owners dealing with another disastrous injury to deal with!
Chances are you drafted Romo fairly early this summer and now you are scrambling to save your season. It’s obvious that the Romo owner has two options; make a trade or the waiver wire. If your plan is to find someone to trade you a QB, consider the market and your situation. I am sure as soon as Romo went down people were lining up at the door trying to sell you a QB, I know I would. If you are going to trade do not make the mistake of paying a high price for an elite QB. I know it’s difficult to see a top 10 player go down. I can understand your first reaction is to find a player with comparable production to replace him, but the truth of the matter is that to do so you will have to pay a high price. You do not want to take a player like Chris Johnson or Adrian Peterson and trade them for an elite QB. If you do this you will be in the same position you are now, except RB will be your weakness instead of QB.  Instead, find the owner who has some extra QB’s on his bench and make him a reasonable offer that would strengthen a weakness on his team.
I would encourage all Romo owners to explore the waiver wires to find a starter, or add depth at the QB position.  When you explore your options look at recent performances and strength of the players upcoming schedule. A QB that is likely on waivers, that have a favorable schedule and has recently played well is Matt Cassel of the Chiefs. If the thought of Cassel starting as your QB for the rest of the year scares you, there are two other options I would recommend. One is Matt Stafford of the Lions. He is back after a week one shoulder injury and he has Calvin Johnson to throw to.
The other is a stud QB that has gone relatively unnoticed for the numbers he has been posting. That QB is Ryan Fitzpatrick of the Buffalo Bills. I know what you are thinking but do not let the team he plays for influence your decision to start him. Fitzpatrick has been on fire since taking over for the ineffective Trent Edwards, and he is not the reason the Bills are 0-6. My reasoning behind recommending him as a viable replacement is that if the Bills want to win a game or two this year then they have no choice but to throw the ball. If you think about it even if they are losing they have to throw the ball. As long as he can stay away from the interception it’s a win, win situation.

A couple weeks ago I wrotethat now was the time to sell high on Broncos QB Kyle Orton, I got a ton of negative feedback for that call. I think his days of posting 20+ point games are over, I thought that two weeks ago and if I owned Orton then I would contact who ever owns Romo. Are we ready to give up on Chargers RB Ryan Mathews? Sounds like San Diego is losing patience with the rookie and Tolbert owners are inline for an increase in production if Mathews can not get the job done. Anyone else afraid of the emergence of Ravens RB Willis McGahee? If you own Ray Rice then the answer is YES, and you should be concerned. Rice does not look like the same back we fell in love with in 2009. He looks like he is not hitting the hole as hard or fast as last year, and McGahee is taking advantage of Rice’s tepidness.
Lineup decisions can mean the difference between a win and loss. Take last week for example; if you own Darren McFadden, did you start him? If you did a round of applause is in order, because you are one of a selected few who did. McFadden himself stated that if he did play he was only going to be around 70% effective. In the world of fantasy sports 70% effective equals a week on the bench. He proceeded to explode for a 40 point fantasy day!
The Chiefs scored some points this weekend, granted it was against Jacksonville but it is nice to see Cassel, Bowe and company take care of business. Sleeper alert: the Chiefs seem to be opening up the playbook running some plays for RB/WR Dexter McCluster, something to keep an eye on.