Challenge Contests — by Justin Eleff

Last week I wrote about several messes we might have to clean up on our challenge rosters, but concluded that we should wait to do the cleaning. One week into a season, it's hard to know whether your roster has a real problem or merely had a bad week -- and if you have a real problem, it's nearly impossible to know how to fix it.

Two weeks into a season, the story is slightly different.

My teams are actually off to solid starts -- I'm 369th overall in the Football Challenge, 132nd overall in the $35K points game -- but I do have a problem. As do you, as does everyone else. As I wrote last week, 2010 feels like a season in which we'll all own a bunch of cheap running backs and load up at the other positions. But the running backs are just not cooperating.

So call this column an addendum to last week's. We have a mess to clean up, and while last week was too early to do the cleaning, this week is not. But we still have to be cautious, because we still have to save as many purchases as we can and we still don't know which cheap backs will prove to be the best plays in the long run.

What to do?

One, we probably have to start using one more expensive RB than we'd planned on. I don't know which guys you rostered and which ones you left off, but it's time to turn to someone a bit more dependable than the cast of fumblers and rookies farther down the salary lists. It wouldn't be unreasonable to use Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson together if you could find a way to do so.

Two, we probably have to add cheap players somewhere. With the cheapest should-have-been playable quarterbacks KOed, it's either replace Kevin Kolb with Michael Vick (and I will consider this in the $35K points game, but not in the Football Challenge; I say again: just not his format), or turn to an extra Jacoby Jones or Legedu Naanee, or shuffle new cheap RBs in for old cheap RBs.

PLEASE NOTE that I have not yet decided what to do with my own rosters. This column is posting late on Friday, and I haven't decided. This feels like a pivotal weekend to me; I want to be sure to get things as right as I can.

Toward that end, I figure there's no need to run down the cheap QBs and WRs again, as little other than the viability of Kolb and Matthew Stafford has changed at those positions. But as to RBs ...

Listed below are all of the cheap running backs I consider viable in the various challenges at the moment. (For these purposes, cheap means priced at no more than $1600 in the Football Challenge and no more than $3930 in the points games.) I haven't listed any players stuck in hopeless committees (no Dallas or Miami backs), and I've listed the players who do appear alphabetically.

Whatever decisions you come to, good luck.

Cedric Benson, CIN

Benson has not played well to this point, but those are two tough run defenses he's faced: at NE, vs. BAL. Next three weeks: at CAR, at CLE, vs. TB. (Note: Most of those five opponents are bunched toward the middle of the league's rushing defenses through two weeks. I don't consider the rankings particularly meaningful until Week 6 or so.) If I had to burn a purchase this week -- and I may well -- I'd consider Benson the safest addition. He may not be great, but he's getting 78 percent of the carries (among RBs only) for a decent or better team, and he's better than the similarly situated Rashard Mendenhall.

Jahvid Best, DET

Best has played well to this point, kind of. He's been a monster in points games, but he's rushed 31 times for only 98 yards (3.2 per attempt). His biggest contribution came via Week 2's 154 receiving yards, but as I wrote a week ago (about Matt Forte), "[g]enerally speaking, 15[4] receiving yards do not a stud runner make."

Ahmad Bradshaw, NYG

If I had to burn a purchase this week -- and I may well -- I'd consider Bradshaw the best mix of high reward and reasonably low risk. Brandon Jacobs' helmet toss helped, but Bradshaw has gotten 67 percent of the carries (among RBs only) for the Giants so far, and their backs have combined for a healthy 27.5 carries per game. This week's matchup (vs. TEN) isn't ideal, but I am definitely begging more than choosing at this point.

Jamaal Charles, KC

Begging. Like this: Todd Haley, Charlie Weis. Please. Give Jamaal the baal.

Matt Forte, CHI

The Bears have looked a lot better than expected. Save Week 1's receiving yards, Forte has not.

Arian Foster, HOU

Not everyone started with Foster. Shudder.

Shonn Greene, NYJ

Had Greene not fumbled twice in the Jets' opener, my rosters would look a lot deeper heading into Week 3. I'll probably have him active Sunday night -- he did get 15 carries in Week 2, and with Ryan Mathews hurt it's either use Greene or burn multiple purchases -- but I'm holding a grudge. Not many bigger sins than dropping the ball (literally) in your first game as a lead back, especially when the next guy on the roster is a legend.

Jerome Harrison, CLE

Consecutive games against last year's very worst rushing defenses: 9 carries, then 16. Peyton Hillis got 9, then 8. So Harrison got exactly the chance we hoped for in Week 2, against the same team he shredded for 286 yards in 2009. In 2010: 33 yards. Moving on.

Tim Hightower, ARZ

In points games you can use Hightower in weeks when Beanie Wells will be limited and the Cardinals face weak defenses (like, for instance, in Week 3: vs. OAK). But in the Football Challenge he's too bad to use under any circumstances. Career rushing average: 3.8 -- and it was down at 3.5 one week ago. That isn't solely a reflection of his short touchdown runs.

Brandon Jackson, GB

Jackson could have made things much easier for us, but he's just not any good. As I wrote last week, his career has been such a disappointment that Ryan Grant was among the backs considered least likely to share carries in 2010. Grant's injury did not magically make a good player of Jackson, so it did not make a good play of Jackson.

Marshawn Lynch

No team designated, because Lynch is in limbo between BUF and GB. If a trade happens -- and I see no reason why the Bills would have used him so heavily in Week 2 if they weren't at least considering a trade -- Lynch becomes one of the biggest must-owns in our games in 2010. Until then, moving on.

Ryan Mathews, SD

It seems like Mathews has been better than his numbers to this point, but that's simply a function of how unusable so many other cheap backs have been (not that I haven't used them, mind you). So naturally he looks likely to miss Week 3 with a sprained ankle. When it rains, everything sucks.

LeSean McCoy, PHI

Many challenge teams will add McCoy this week, and it isn't necessarily the wrong move -- the matchup (at JAX) is favorable, and he's coming off of a huge game in Week 2 -- but I won't do it. For one thing, Michael Vick tends to thieve fantasy numbers from most of his teammates. Running backs lose touchdowns; wide receivers lose receptions and yards; if Alge Crumpler's career is any indication, tight ends should be OK. For another thing, McCoy has already caught 9 passes in 2010, and his receiving average stands at 6.1. That's just deadly in categories games. Are you as certain that he'll turn that around as I am that he won't finish with 32 touchdowns?

Darren McFadden, OAK

I can't win with DMC. Guaranteed: If I bought him, Michael Bush would return to rush for 200 yards in Week 3.

Rashard Mendenhall, PIT

I'm glad he isn't cheaper, because I might have to consider him if he were. But however big a game he ever has, remember that you cannot possibly lose a challenge because you neglected to own Rashard Mendenhall.

Knowshon Moreno, DEN

As with Darren McFadden, I got off on the wrong foot with Moreno and now fear I will never be able to own him profitably. Luckily, the Laurence Maroney trade suggests that Josh McDaniels isn't convinced he can own Moreno profitably, either, in a manner of speaking. Also: Moreno has been ruled out for Week 3 with an injury suffered during Thursday's practice. Moving on.

Clinton Portis, WAS

With his would-have-been committee-mates all gone, Portis could be looking at a renaissance season. The results haven't been great so far, but he's getting essentially all of Mike Shanahan's carries, and in Week 3 that means carries at STL.

C.J. Spiller, BUF

Cannot be used until he gets to play, and even then he'll only get to play for Buffalo. We always knew the line and passing game would be terrible, but Chan Gailey's Bills are a whole new kind of terrible. I grew up as a Bucs fan in the 1980s. Those Bucs were not remotely this bad.

Fred Taylor, NE

I'm not quite this desperate. Yet.

Pierre Thomas, NO

There are two ways Reggie Bush's latest injury could go: One, Thomas gets nearly full-time work and becomes something of a star. Two, the Saints miss Bush's multidimensionality, and Thomas becomes their answer to Joseph Addai while Drew Brees' numbers more closely resemble Peyton Manning's. I can see either scenario playing out, so I won't add Thomas anywhere but will probably use him again in the $35K points game, where I rostered his cheat game numbers.

Cadillac Williams, TB

It pains me to write this -- I know people who play cards with Williams, and everyone says he's a prince of a guy -- but he looks finished. Maybe I'm reading too much into two weeks, but it isn't just two weeks. He's 28 years old and a veteran of nearly as many knee surgeries as seasons. In any event, even if he's destined to turn this season around, he won't be doing so soon. The Bucs opened vs. CLE, at CAR; now the schedule goes vs. PIT, bye, at CIN.

• Comments [13]

Readers' Comments

Add a Comment

Already a registered user? Please sign in to add comments.

To add comments, you must become a registered user of our site. To register, please click here.