Fantasy Football Players to Watch in Week 6
Burress, Westbrook and Bulger Highlight List
With a little more than a quarter of the campaign already in the books, fantasy owners need their top guns to come through, but the trio listed below have more question marks than a punctuation book. Here is a look at the three players, what has been going on with them and what they are predicted to do this week by yours truly.
Plaxico Burress, Giants: It will be interesting to see how Burress is included in the offensive package this week after his two-week, one-game suspension. Will he be welcomed with open arms and thrown to more than all of the other Giants receivers combined like he normally is, or will he be given a cold shoulder as a way of further punishment for his misdeeds?
New York proved last week against Seattle that its aerial attack can go along just fine without its go-to guy on the field, so maybe Burress sees fewer passes than usual and secondary receivers Domenik Hixon, Steve Smith and Sinorice Moss see more. Eli Manning love, love, LOVES Burress, so Plaxico will not be totally ignored. But it is doubtful that he will dominate this upcoming Monday night game at Cleveland like he has dominated others in the past. Prediction: Burress hauls in five passes for 65 yards and a TD.
Brian Westbrook, Eagles: Another week, another injury for Westbrook. He might be the quickest, shiftiest running back in the NFL, but when Westbrook does get tackled he normally breaks a body part. He has now gone from having a strained ankle to having fractured ribs. His status for this week against San Francisco is questionable. Very questionable. Forget about a flap jacket. Westbrook might need a bulletproof vest to get through a whole game with fractured ribs. It sounds like an injury that would keep a normal player out for several weeks.
Fantasy owners will have to wait until the very last minute to make a decision on whether or not to use Westbrook this weekend. The final call might not be made by Philadelphia until Sunday morning. Even if Westbrook is green-lighted for the game, can you trust him to last all four quarters without a setback of some sort? Having him face a mediocre 49ers defense is extremely enticing, and you should wait until your league’s lineup deadline to make your own final call, but using Westbrook sure sounds like a risky proposition. Prediction: Westbrook plays, but does not play much and finishes with 50 total yards, while backup Correll Buckhalter gets more touches.
Marc Bulger, Rams: New coach, new attitude, new Bulger? Bulger is back starting at quarterback for St. Louis after the one-week Trent Green experiment was tossed into the trash by interim head honcho Jim Haslett, thus salvaging Bulger’s fantasy value like a $700 billion bailout. Bulger did not deserve to lose his job in the first place. Many other quarterbacks played much worse and kept their spots, and while Bulger’s numbers were far from exciting (519 passing yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions in three games), he was not the main reason why the Rams could not score.
But even though the head coach has changed for Bulger, nothing else has. His offensive line is still as leaky as a spaghetti strainer, his receiving corps only has one above-average option in Torry Holt, and Bulger lost decent tight end Randy McMichael to a season-ending injury. Fantasy owners have to hope that Bulger is reinvigorated now that he has his job back and old coach/ nemesis Scott Linehan is out of his hair. Prediction: Bulger throws for a season-high 205 yards, one touchdown and one interception at Washington.
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