Fantasy Update – Buffalo Bills

Although the Buffalo Bills appear to be finally trying to win games, it is still obvious that they are still a far cry from being a winning team or at the very least, a consistent team.  With that said Buffalo’s next match up has them taking on the Kansas City Chiefs.  The Chiefs have looked awful this season and are no where near being a competitive team.  Buffalo should win this game but what is more important for fantasy owners will be who they can rely on come Sunday.

With his first poor performance of the year, Fred Jackson was virtually ineffective against the Jets both running and receiving.  Marshawn Lynch had some very nice carries though, but was not utilized as much as Jackson even though for once he was more effective than Jackson.  The concern for the Kansas City game is; if the Bills will go back to a committee with their running backs or allow Marshawn to start once again.  Due to the fact that there is not a lot of information or previous history to go on with Perry Fewell, the head coach, it is difficult not to be a little afraid that he will not stick with Jackson.  It may be that Fewell is smarter than the previous regime and decides to stick with Jackson, but it is hard not to worry about their personnel decisions based on what the previous regime did here.

It is unfortunate that Fewell will be grouped in with the previous head coach’s decisions regarding personnel, but at this point coach Fewell will need to prove he is different before fans treat him as such.  Up until this point coach Fewell has done a fairly consistent job managing his personnel, but he also didn’t have many challenging situations come up.  It will be interesting to see how he handles the running backs going into the game against the Chiefs.  For this reason I desperately want to start Fred Jackson as the Chiefs are not very good, but it is difficult to be 100% sure about that decision because the previous regime replaced him so quickly earlier in the season despite being one of the top rated running backs through the first quarter of the season.

I will gamble on Jackson this weak as he is a better option running and receiving for the Buffalo Bills.  Although I am not big on taking risks this close to the Fantasy playoffs, I do believe coach Fewell will do the right thing and give most of the possessions to Fred Jackson.  

Kansas City ranks second last in team defense, they are 28th against the pass and 27th against the rush.  Look for Terrell Owens to be targeted early much like he was when he went off for 200+ yards a few weeks ago.  Terrell Owens should be able to reach 100 yards as well as a touchdown in this game.  I can also see Lee Evans going for 60 – 90 yards.  I think it is safe to assume that this would be the one game that you can start Terrell Owens.  If you are in a deeper league Lee Evans would be an ok option, but only in a much deeper league.  

It is tough to start a Bills player with confidence in your fantasy leagues because the play calling has been really bad.  I think the best example of this was last week against the Jets when the Bills got the ball back with less than 2 minutes to go in the game.  They were pinned in their own end and it was obvious they needed to throw as they had no time outs and were losing.  Buffalo had done a poor job running the ball for the most part as well.  But being an obvious passing situation, the play call was to utilize play action.  Really, play action?  To no one’s surprise except maybe Buffalo, not one defender bit on the play action and QB Ryan Fitzpatrick was sacked.  Great Job Buffalo. On offense Buffalo can go from brilliant to “short bus” in the matter of a few plays.  Buffalo continues to labour when on offense and often makes things much more difficult for themselves (like calling for play action when it was obvious that no one would take the bait).

Although I will continue to gamble on Fred Jackson, I think there is only one sure fire answer of when you can start a Buffalo Bill without hesitation; week 1.  By week 1, I mean week 1 of next season.  Although there maybe matchups this year that could be exploited, the Bills still have to prove they are capable of doing such things first.  Until then, keep letting Fred Jackson run, because for the most part everyone else seems to get better looks when Jackson is in the lineup.

Tags: Buffalo Bills, Fred Jackson, Lee Evans, Marshawn Lynch, Perry Fewell, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Terrell Owens