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Bye Weeks: San Francisco, N.Y. Giants
Sammy Watkins is coming of his best game
as a pro -122 yards, 2 TDs against the Vikings in Week 7.
Grab a Helmet
Sammy
Watkins @ NYJ: Everyone on the planet (who was actually
watching the Bills v. Vikes clash) knew where Kyle Orton was going
with the pigskin on the game’s final play last Sunday. Buffalo had
already lost its top two running backs during the contest – one
of them (Fred Jackson) a credible receiving threat out of the backfield
– and the only other name brand receiver on the field, Robert Woods,
had managed to snare only four of Orton’s strikes for a measly10
yards on the afternoon. Despite all this, Minnesota still couldn’t
prevent Watkins from dashing their hopes with the game-winning grab
in the corner of the end zone. I’m not sure Watkins was worth two
first-round picks, but he’s certainly a special talent. I’m also
not sure how a Clemson team that featured him, DeAndre Hopkins,
and Andre Ellington managed to lose six games over two seasons.
Start Sammy.
Cordarrelle
Patterson @ TB: It’s been a hugely disappointing 2014
campaign for Patterson and his owners thus far, and I freely admit
it would be hard to summon the courage to give him another go after
weeks and weeks of mediocrity or worse. Even when he finally got
off the schneid in Orchard Park last week, scoring Minnesota’s only
touchdown (and Teddy Bridgewater’s first via the airways), Patterson
only managed 7.2 points. That’s because he netted just 12 total
yards on three touches. It’s those limited looks, more than anything
else, that have me pretty discouraged. I’m a big Norval Turner fan,
but it’s puzzling that he can’t figure out a way to get the explosive
former Volunteer the football more often. Let’s play a hunch this
week and expect the matchup with Tampa’s terrible defenders to be
just the antidote Minnesota and Patterson need to get Turner’s offense
rolling.
Doug
Baldwin @ CAR: Baldwin’s fiery post-game speech in Dallas
didn’t end up having the desired effect and now the seemingly indomitable
Seahawks are sitting at .500 after their first consecutive losses
since October 2012. It did, however, appear to energize and focus
Baldwin, who capably filled the void in the slot created by Percy
Harvin’s sudden departure by grabbing 7 of his 11 targets for 123
yards and a score in the subsequent loss at St. Louis. I should
say more than capably since that’s better than anything Harvin did
in six (SIX!) regular season appearances as a Seahawk. This addition
by subtraction business is going to work out just fine for the talented
Baldwin and he’ll see more regular targets moving forward, starting
this Sunday against a Carolina defense that got bombed in Green
Bay and has now yielded more TDs to opposing wideouts (12) than
any other.
Grab Some Wood
Percy
Harvin v. BUF: The ProFootballTalk news item at 12:59pm
PDT on October 17th read, “Seahawks want to expand Percy Harvin’s
role.” Barely an hour and a half later, another news item popped
up: “Seahawks trade Percy Harvin to the Jets.” Ha! That’s what
I call expanding a guy’s role! Shipping the enigmatic Harvin to
New York for a conditional draft pick turned out to be the only
way Seattle could solve its barely concealed locker room dysfunction.
We’ve no idea how that will work out for them, but I suspect it
won’t work out terribly well for Harvin in the long run. He’s
been shipped to a wide receiver’s version of Siberia (Geno, Percy…Percy,
Geno) and clearly has character flaws. The vast majority of NFL
players are never traded, but he’s now worn out his welcome twice
in six seasons. At some point, it’s not everybody else. It’s you.
Justin
Hunter v. HOU: Like Harvin, Hunter is an immensely
talented player who, for whatever reason, hasn’t managed to put
it all together often enough to justify the amount of attention
he receives. Back in August, he was everyone’s favorite breakout
player, present company included, at the wide receiver position.
Yet, we’re seven weeks into the 2014 season and all he’s done
is frequently disappoint and very infrequently tantalize. I’ll
be making my blind bids in our staff league after I polish this
sucker off and there’s a better than even chance Hunter will be
on the chopping block. Could he break out and make me look foolish
by season’s end? Yup, he sure could. Is he even remotely start-worthy
after six weeks of single-digit production and only a single week
of double-digit production? No way. Stop gambling with Hunter
and go find someone who can semi-regularly produce for you.
Dwayne
Bowe, A.J.
Jenkins, Frankie
Hammond, Jr., etc. v. STL: Nope, nothing to see here
if you’re looking for that Justin Hunter replacement. Andy
Reid might deserve some early Coach of the Year consideration
for keeping KC football relevant despite a brutal early schedule
(at Denver, at San Fran, at San Diego, vs. New England) and this
atrocious group of receivers that hasn’t managed to score
a single touchdown through seven weeks of games. Yup, you read
that right: Not one single touchdown pass has been snagged by
a Chiefs wide receiver so far. Their best pass-grabber, Travis
Kelce, doesn’t actually play the position and neither does
their most dangerous, De’Anthony Thomas (GO DUCKS!). If
one of these clowns actually does emerge – I’m not
holding my breath after watching Bowe and Junior Hemingway drop
critical passes last weekend – Kansas Citians may have more
to cheer about than its upstart Royals.
Good luck, folks!
Quarterbacks 
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