From the strange appearance of the “Sanchize”, to the absence of Phillip Rivers and company, this week has surely been a memorable one. Big Ben put on another show and some young backups knocked on the door of a starting position on their team and yours. Some of your teams surely took a beating this week but luckily for you there are vast amounts of opportunity to find help.

Quarterbacks

If you are an owner of Roethlisberger or Thomas Edward Brady, then congrats! You may skip this section of my blog. Same story for you that have Rivers, because he and his team just had a bad week so toughen up and move on. For those of you that have Foles on the other hand, please keep reading. Nick Foles went down with a broken clavicle and due to what we saw when Rodgers and Romo went down, he will be out 7-10 most likely. Luckily for Eagles fans, it wasn’t his throwing arm so he should be ready to go for playoffs, but for fantasy owners, the playoffs will probably end before his return. Foles should now be irrelevant for the rest of this fantasy season so take this advice and rid him from your lineup.

Many people saw Mark Sanchez come out and play above his normal nature and think that he may be the best filler for their QB spot. They are wrong. This kid hasn’t started in a long time and he has a lot of tests in front of him, especially with Carolina coming up this week. He looked great thanks to Chip Kelly’s system, which allows any quarterback to truly succeed within it so we can’t give him all the credit for a win. Kelly will continue to run the ball 40 times a game especially with Foles out. He still threw two INT’s and one of his touchdowns came on his first play from scrimmage, when the defense was probably guessing a run. I am not saying that Sanchez won’t prosper, as this is a new change in scenery for him, but this is the guy who is responsible for the “butt fumble” and other horrible plays in NFL history.

Sanchez could easily meltdown at any point. Instead, look to some of the lowly owned QB’s whose production is actually concrete and dependable like Miami’s Ryan Tannehill (owned in 57% of yahoo leagues) or a better Trojan passer in Carson Palmer (61%). Tannehill rocked a top team in San Diego this week and put up nearly 300yds, 3 td’s, and no INT’s. These are better stats than Sanchez in every way and he has done it week in and week out. Palmer plays for arguably the best team in the league this year – certainly in the NFC – under the probable Coach of the Year, Bruce Arians, and has weapons like All-Pro Larry Fitzgerald. He has only thrown 2 interceptions this season!

Washington has a hectic quarterback system as well, with RGIII returning this week. He looked normal and was even able to take some hits without being carted off the field, but that doesn’t mean we can trust them. My advice would be to leave the Redskins alone, unlike society has lately, and look to other programs for your QB answer. We haven’t seen production from their staff all year with the exception of one week from Cousins who probably won’t play again. Besides D-Jax and Morris, Washington is a black hole for fantasy players.

Youngins

We saw a couple of breakout performances by rookies at the skill positions this week. If you are in need of a flex or somebody to fill your bye week, you may need to take a peak into some of these young guys on teams where their talent can shine. Before I jump into active players, I will quickly mention one who we haven’t seen yet this year: Josh Gordon of the Browns. He sits out two more games and then he’s back in the lineup. Right now he is only owned in 65% of Yahoo leagues, Grab Him! Cleveland can’t run it every play.

Another wideout whom could be beneficial to your squad is the Buc’s Mike Evans. Remember him? This year’s 7th overall pick in the draft finally made some noise this week against the Browns, who have some quality DB’s. He had seven receptions for 124yds and two touchdowns to top it off. He gets targeted a good amount during the game, but this is really the first time he has been dominant. Pick him up or at least throw a watch flag on him, he is currently 60% owned in Yahoo leagues.

Lastly, the Bengals running back recruiting has done it again. After Giovani Bernard, who was 2nd in R.O.Y. voting last year, went down on injury last week, he was replaced by rookie Jeremy Hill. Hill has actually gotten a ton of action even with Gio there, but in his absence, the rookie blew up. He marched for 154yds and two TD’s on Sunday. Almost 30 fantasy points by himself as if he played QB. Gio may be back this week, but the Bengals are running on a short one as they play Thursday. And, in seeing how well Hill performed, Coach Marv may just rest his usual starter. Even with Gio back, Hill still has a lot of use and potential especially in deeper leagues. Yesterday he sat at 51% ownership and today he is up to 73% in Yahoo leagues so I am not the only person to notice this points stud.

That is it for me this week my Island Go’ers. I hope you have both enjoyed and benefitted from reading this week’s edition and I wish your favorite teams and your fantasy teams. Good Luck as the end of the season quickly rolls up.