The Bell Tolls For Thee

Week 9 was a constant head-turned in the NFL. If you were in front of multiple games, you were either turning your head to see a TD in New Orleans or turning your head to see another big name injury. Lots of TDs, injuries and surprising performances. It goes without saying that the biggest injury was to La'Veon Bell, which followed up Arian Foster's season-ending injury the week before. It was bad enough to have to wait out Bell's season-starting suspension, but now he is lost for the season at the halfway point. Not a fun injury to witness on many levels. I certainly hope you Bell owners wisely had backed him up with DeAngelo Williams. Always, Always, Always back up your studs. I didn't think I could stomach saying this before the season started, but could DeAngelo be a fantasy savior this season?

When it came to injuries, if you were away from the TV and jumped on the internet to see Aaron Rodgers' stat line from Sunday night, you HAD to believe that he was injured as well. Denver has been impressive this season but I am not sure if many of us thought that they would hold Colin Kaepernick to 77 yards passing let along Aaron Rodgers. On the flip side, Green Bay's defense has been solid this season, but they somehow allowed 340 yards passing to Peyton Manning while many were calling for Manning to bench himself. So much for the battle between 6-0 teams.

Another hot week on the ol' waiver wires and I am not including DeAngelo Williams:

QB Jameis Winston (TB) - I maintain that this is a Bye Week fill-in only since Jameis does have a tasty matchup against a steaming pile that is known as the Giants' defense that Drew Brees absolutely decimated on Sunday. Of course, no way it happens again with Winston but I sure as hell would be happy with half of Drew's point total if I have a QB hole to fill this week.

RB Jeremy Langford (CHI) - any Forte owner that left Langford off his team deserves to have him taken from him. No word has been reported on the exact condition of Forte's knee, but I think I would assume that he is out a game or two. Langford won no one over at the end of the Minnesota game with a crucial drop, but he should be a solid fill-in with Forte out.

WR Malcom Floyd (SD) - Floyd is the model for feast-or-famine in the fantasy world. He is mostly a fourth option, albeit a deep one, so he is not reliable on a weekly basis. WR Keenan Allen left the game at Baltimore with a kidney injury and it, sadly, turned out to be lacerated and a season-ender.

TE Heath Miller (PITT) - After toiling away with QB Michael Vick and Landry Jones leading the team, Big Ben returned last weekend and awoke Miller. Miller went for 10/105 on Sunday on 13 Targets. With Bell out, the Steelers will throw a bit more and Miller will stay actively involved. This week, they face the Raiders' "Tight Ends Aren't Receivers" defensive scheme that has allowed eight tight end TDs in seven games. 

TE Vernon Davis (DEN) - the happiest person about Davis' trade to Denver was Vernon. He goes to a winning team. I am skeptical that he gets used a lot more than he was in San Francisco, but it has to be an improvement, right? Meh. Manning is averaging 1 TD per game so let's not turn the clock back too far on Davis quite yet. He also needs to learn the playbook so I would let others race to grab him and look for TE Jordan Reed, Ben Watson or even Jacob Tamme first.