Wednesday FAABnalysis -- 9/19/12

Back by absolutely zero demand, iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit's your Wednesday FAABnalysis!

Andre Brown -- $19 to Russ
dropped: Daniel Thomas / other bids: $16 to Rookie, $15 to Derrick, $15 to Joe, $13 to Kirk, $13 to Ben, $8 to Paul, $8 to Nathan, $6 to Mark, $3 to Kendall
ESPN says: With Ahmad Bradshaw hurt and the Giants not trusting rookie David Wilson yet, Brown is a very enticing play against a Panthers defense allowing 146.5 rushing yards per game. He gained 90 yards on 15 touches, including the game-winning score, against Tampa Bay.  Okay, I'll buy that.  But is he a one-week rental, or something more?  Is Bradshaw gonna be out for longer than a week?  Is Brown putting on the big boy pants as the Giants' power back?  At 227 pounds, he's the biggest one they've got, but Brandon Jacobs he ain't.  Still, he has that bellcow look, and rumbled for 2,500 yards and 22 touchdowns at NC State... good enough to be drafted in the 4th round by the G-Men in 2008.  That said, he's had four years prior to this one to make a dent in the NFL, and he hasn't.  Ruptured achilles, cut by the Giants, Denver's practice squad, claimed and cut by the Colts, claimed and cut by the Panthers, claimed and cut by the Redskins, then back to the Giants in 2011, where he won a championship and penned a semi-famous celebratory song, I gotta ring.    Four years in pro football, and we still have no idea how good Andre Brown is.  My hunch: he's "just a guy."  Nice little opportunity if he can really push Wilson to the bench and serve a complementary role to Bradshaw.  Not sure I see it, but I've been wrong about these things before.  $19 for a crack at a productive starting running back?  Good, strong bid for Russ.  But make no mistake -- this is a lottery ticket, nothing more.  I think the nine of us who lost this auction have a better chance to be happy about it than Russ does about winning it.  He gotta ring, but I'm not sure he gots the goods.

Daryl Richardson -- $13 to Derrick
dropped: Brandon Jacobs / other bids: $12 to Joe, $11 to Rookie, $6 to Paul, $5 to Mark, $3 to Nathan
Do you ever get the feeling that Steven Jackson is just sort of tired of lacing it up and running into a wall of defenders for the Rams?  Yeah, I do too.  That's why I was so hot to trot for Isaiah Pead in the draft.  I didn't get him, which is just was well, since Pead is not in fact filling the role of Chris Johnson 2.0 for Jeff Fisher this season.  Instead, here is this guy Daryl Richardson.  He's from Abilene Christian, which is a D-2 school. (Granted, ACU is a D-2 POWERHOUSE, and has produced NFLers like Danieal Manning, Johnny Knox, and Bernard Scott.  However, it's D-2 football, and thus I've never seen this rookie Richardson play, and thus I have no great platform from which to offer commentary.)  He's small (5-10, 196) but fast (4.45), and ripped off a nice 83 rushing yards and 19 receiving yards after Jackson left the game on Sunday.  So he's the Steven Jackson handcuff, most likely.  But Jackson's groin injury isn't significant, and this is the Rams offense we're talking about.  But who knows?  If S-Jax really does crap out, this is Jeff Fisher's team, and he made Chris Johnson a star once upon a time.  Maybe Chris Johnson 2.0 is Richardson, not Pead, and maybe Derrick just caught lightning in a bottle.  More likely, this is just another lottery ticket running back, albeit younger, smaller, and faster than the one Russ bought for $6 more.  Personally, I have a hard time seeing Richardson amount to much more than a few good lines in mop-up duty this season, assuming Jackson stays healthy and Pead stays on the bench.

Brian Hartline -- $11 to Rookie
dropped: Sidney Rice / other bids: $6 to Ben, $5 to Mark, $5 to Kendall, $4 to Paul
Right up front, I'll say this: 12 targets is 12 targets.  If Tannehill is going to pump the ball between Hartline's numbers like that, the receiver will have some value in fantasy football.  But I've been burned by this "best receiver on a bad team" thing before (hello, Chainsaw Massaquoi), and Hartline smacks of best of a bad lot.  However, his pedigree is good.  4th rounder in 2009, 506 yards as a rookie, 615 yards in 2010, and 549 yards last year.  This was while playing in Brandon Marshall's shadow and catching passes from some terrible quarterbacks.  Not saying Tannehill is any better than, say, Chad Henne, but now Hartline has his chance to be the #1, go-to guy.  I kinda like the player and I like Rookie's bid.  I don't like the Dolphins offense, but you just never know.  Hartline looks like a WR4 with WR2 upside in the CKL, which is definitely worth 11 bucks in a FAAB auction.

Shaun Draughn -- $7 to Kirk
dropped: Jason Babin / other bids: $7 to Joe
"Jamaal Charles re-injured his surgically-repaired left knee..."  That statement alone creates incentive to go out and add KC's #3 RB, especially if that guy put up a good-looking total of 120 yards and a touchdown in garbage time in the first two games.  Draughn - a former UNC Tarhole - is a player I am quite familiar with.  He started out as a safety, moved to tailback, then worked his way into starter status and eventually into a star at North Carolina.  He was undrafted in 2011, but hung around the NFL on the Chiefs' practice squad.  Draughn has some speed, but not a whole lot of wiggle.  He's not a particularly dynamic or explosive back.  But he's a workhorse type who actually offers up a fairly favorable comparison to late-career Thomas Jones.  Like with Brown and Richardson, I'm not sure how productive Draughn will end up being this season, and Peyton Hillis certainly offers more resistance to an increased role than either of David Wilson or Isaiah Pead.  For $7, I like the claim, as Draughn has produced with the limited opportunity he's already been given.  Meanwhile, I'm happy to let these ho-hum running backs flush out the FAAB money, with little chance of offering much in the way of real impact or return on investment (sez the guy who plunked down $26 for Kevin Ogletree.)  It's a deep league, gotta kick over some rocks, I guess.

Greg Little -- $7 to Joe
dropped: Donald Jones / other bids: $2 to Mark, $2 to Paul
Between Massaquoi, Little, and now Josh Gordon, the Browns have the bare bones of a decent receiving corps.  I'm not sold on Brandon Weeden, and I'm not sold on anything this Cleveland offense might produce.  $7 was the right bid for a guy like Little, who just needs the light to flicker on in order to emerge as a legit 1000-yard receiving threat for a team that will be behind and passing a lot.  He went for 61-709-2 in 2011, and he should have no trouble topping that in 2012.  Good claim for Joe, who was able to ignore the sickly stink of Cleveland and the ever-present chance for a staph infection and make a solid bid for a talented young player.

Heath Miller -- $6 to Rookie
dropped: Greg Olsen / other bids: none
To me, this was the weird move of the week.  Dropping Olsen was a questionable decision, and Heath Miller is the very definition of "replacement level" tight end.  Our UVA fanship aside, did Rook overpay for two early-season touchdowns?  Maybe I'm wrong, and Miller suddenly has an increased role as a receiver for the Steelers, but it sure looks to me like the protection issues that force him to stay in and block still exist.  Sorry to say, $6 was pretty big money for Big Money.

William Moore -- $6 to Norris
dropped: John Skelton (redshirt burned!) / other bids: $2 to Ben
Who is this guy?  And why has he scored back-to-back double-digit totals from his DB spot?  4th year safety out of Missouri, former 2nd round pick by the Falcons, that's who.  15 tackles, a sack, and two interceptions, that's how.  As the Dirty Bird defense emerges as legit, Moore looks like one of the better safeties in the NFL.  He's certainly producing at an elite level, and that earns him a big FAAB claim.  My dream is IDP claims that creep up into the double-digits, and this is a bold step in that direction.  Meanwhile... adios, John Skelton.  Another redshirt is burned.

Julian Edelman -- $3 to Kendall
dropped: Evan Royster / other bids: none
This morning, I heard the rumor that the Patriots were shopping Wes Welker, whose long-term contract impasse poses a problem.  Edelman is already starting over Welker in the two-TE set New England prefers, so I figured this was a fine speculative pick-up for the potential of landing the next Wes Welker.  I guess we'll see...

Clay Matthews -- $2 to Mark
dropped: Karlos Dansby / other bids: none
HELL-BEAST SIGHTING!  A cool six sacks in two games should earn you more than one $2 bid in this league.  Sorry BEAST, I let you down.  But kudos to Mark for landing one of the most awesome players in the NFL.

Henry Melton -- $2 to Ben
dropped: Elvis Dumervil / other bids: none
Interior pass rusher for the Bears.  Three sacks in two games.  I might have just preferred to hold onto Dumervil, though he hasn't really been producing.  But hey, this motherfucker Melton wears #69.  I can get down with that.

Matt Cassel -- $2 to Nathan
dropped: Josh Gordon (redshirt burned!) / other bids: $1 to Joe
Nathan didn't have a QB2, and now there is only Blaine Gabbert left available, of ALL the starting QBs in the NFL.  I'm a little bit surprised Nate dumped his redshirt, but I totally understand not wanting to lose the game of musical chairs at QB, with the byes approaching quickly.

Skip to the 1:00 mark.  Or just watch the whole damn thing.  It's well worth it.

Dumpster Diving...

Justin Tucker, $2 to Kendall -- I like what I've seen from the kid, I think this Ratbirds offense is legit, and yeah, I made a $2 claim on a kicker.

Lestar Jean, $0 to Paul -- I've had an itchy trigger finger on this claim, myself.  I think he'll start to get some looks as the season wears along.  For Paul?  Andre Johnson insurance?

The rest were IDPs and kickers, nothing to write home about.  Kirk rewarded Tim Jennings' three INTs through two games.  Rookie fell in love with Jerrell Freeman's 13 tackles, a sack, and a forced fumble from week 2.  Ben added the ageless Ed Reed.  Rookie found a sweet spot for Saints' kicker Garrett Hartley.  Nathan reeled in Cowboys' kicker Dan Bailey in a nice end-of-the-list find.  Life drags along through the usual fits and starts.

Meanwhile, Alan, Patrick, and Chad watched from the sidelines.  Nobody worth claiming?  Nobody to drop?  Javon Ringer, James Starks, Mohamed Sanu, and Chris Givens say hello.


Remaining Budgets:
Juris United -- $99
Barclay Street Bruisers -- $99
Jesus the Moose -- $97
Blackpool Penguins -- $91
The Champeens -- $91
Glitterfist Lasersnakes -- $89
Double-O Daddy -- $86
Achilles Heels -- $84 The Magic Stick -- $81
Roo Tang Clan -- $81
Nth Degree -- $80
THUNDER BEAR -- $78
Kick Azz Giants -- $74
Pink Nightmare -- $66

Biggest Claims to Date:

#1 - Kevin Ogletree, $26 to Kendall on 9/12

#2 - Andre Brown, $19 to Russ on 9/19

#3 - Jeremy Kerley, $13 to Derrick on 9/12

#3 - Daryl Richardson, $13 to Derrick on 9/19

#5 - Dexter McCluster, $11 to Nathan on 9/12

#5 - Brian Hartline, $11 to Rookie on 9/19

That's it for this week.  But as always, remember...

GOTTA SPEND TO WIN!