Champs and Chumps: Week Five Start or Sit

Like Sarah Palin dodging any and all questions during Thursday’s debate, we’re avoiding all questions regarding our performance in these little start or sit columns. Needless, to say (again, as with Palin’s performance) we weren’t impressed. By our count, we recommended 12 intelligent picks against 9 that backfired in some way. Not exactly something to brag about. Although, we do think we should earn a few points for owning up to our mediocrity. We also think, though, that it is important to mention our sleeper pick from last week: Robert Meachem, who put up 90+ yards and a touchdown. Not since Eddie Royal our stud sleeper pick from week one, has a TJI sleeper pick blown up like that.

We did have some solid starts in guys like Steve Smith, Santonio Holmes, Tony Gonzalez, and Santana Moss. And some nice sits with Darren McFadden, Michael Turner, and Aaron Rodgers. But there were misses, too, like telling you to start Fred Taylor and sit Jerricho Cotchery.

Anyway, we’re moving forward. And although we’re realizing that predicting the fate of “middle of the pack” NFL players is tougher than it looks, we’re sticking with our format.

Week Five brings a bye to four teams: the Jets, Rams, Raiders, and Browns. Our tips should help you bring home a victory, even without the likes of Favre, Coles, Holt, Edwards, and DMac

Our Week Five Champs and Chumps:

Quarterbacks
CHAMPS
Ben Roethlisberger at JAX–This one certainly flies in the face of reason. The Jags’ defense is tough. But the Steelers need to get back to their throw-first mentality now that they’ve lost their top two RB. Look for them to air it out.
Brian Griese at DEN–He’s always good for an INT, but he’s also got a little bit of an axe to grind with the Broncos, his former team, who also happen to give up a lot of passing yards.
Matt Schaub vs. IND–The Texans return to Reliant Stadium. They may not win this game, but it will be up to Schaub to keep them in it. We think he continues his strong play (and re-connects with AJ) against a team playing without mighty-mite Bob Sanders.

CHUMPS
J.T. O’Sullivan vs. NE–The Patriots are not the Lions. And they’ve had a week off to think of nothing but the embarassment against Miami. Someone tell Alex Smith and Sean Hill to start warming up.
Kerry Collins at BAL–The Ravens defense is tough and Collins hasn’t exactly been lighting it up against strong defenses. 180 yards, a TD and an INT is sitworthy.
Matt Hasselbeck at NYG–We like him going forward, don’t give up on him yet. Just look elsewhere this week.

Running Backs
CHAMPS
Matt Forte at DET–We’re reserving this space for the rest of the season for all RB facing the Lions.
Clinton Portis at PHI–The Eagles defensive stats make us think “sit,” but our hearts say “start.”
Brandon Jacobs vs. SEA–He’s going to assert his claim to the starter’s job in New York this week.

CHUMPS
Julius Jones at NYG–The Giants punish RBs.
Edgerrin James vs. BUF–Don’t let last week’s two TD performance fool you. We’ve soured on the Edge.
De’Angelo Williams vs. KC–Let’s all stop fooling ourselves. This is Johnathan Stewart’s job. Look elsewhere for a bye-week fill-in.

Wide Receivers
CHAMPS
Lee Evans @ ARI–He’s going to be a consistent start from here on out.
Calvin Johnson vs. CHI–The Millen-less Lions have vowed to “open up” the offense. We see Calvin benefitting, but what they really need to open up is Rod Marinelli to find out just how small his brain really is.
Chris Chambers @ MIA–No one is talking about Chambers this year, it seems. They should be. His former team certainly will be by the end of this week’s game.

CHUMPS
DeSean Jackson vs. WASH–He’ll come back down to Earth this week as Reggie Brown starts getting more looks.
Derrick Mason vs. TEN–A solid game last Sunday won’t carry over.
Jerry Porter vs. PIT–It seems like he should be excelling, but his injuries won’t let him.

As for tight end, we think Greg Olsen makes a good under-the-radar play. But if you’re looking for John Carlson to have a good game, you might be wrong. Also, you should start the Patriots‘ defense this week, and think about sitting down the Vikings’ D.

And for those of you waiting for our sleeper pick of the week…here you go. Wide receivers have been very, very good to us as sleepers this week, so we bring you another. A guy that’s going to step up because his team’s top WR is on the bench…Steve Smith of the New York Giants. You heard it here first.

There you have it. All the starts and sits fit to print. It’s no $700 billion bailout bill, but it’ll get you through for now.