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Thursday fantasy fliers, Week 6: New York’s backfield, last resort of the truly desperate

This week, I'm tripped up by my own ground rules. For me, a player doesn't qualify as a flier unless he's un-owned and available in two-thirds of Yahoo leagues. Thus, I can't really use today's post to talk up guys like Rueben Randle (47 percent owned), Cutty (74) or Brandon Myers (54).

Wish I could, but those players are off the board. Instead, I'm forced to sift through a collection of sketchy names, some of them tied to the Giants' tragic offense. YIKES.

If you're playing in an 8, 10, 12 or 14-team league, you can just stop reading right now. Maybe click over to the Week 6 ranks, or perhaps enjoy a video.

But if you're involved in an extremely deep format — like, Mariana Trench-deep — then you may have to consider one of these (terrible) options...

Brandon Jacobs, RB, NYG (9 percent owned, which is probably too much) – To be clear, I am not actually starting Jacobs anywhere. I play in three different 16-team leagues and a pair of 20-teamers, yet I've made no effort to add Jacobs to any rosters. He's gained just 48 yards on 22 carries this season (2.2 YPC), catching only one ball on five targets. He wasn't a flashy player in his best years, and, at 31, his best years are clearly behind him.

"You get older, things happen," he says. "I am what I am."

And what is he? Well, he's technically a starting running back in the National Football League. So there's that. David Wilson and Andre Brown are sidelined by injuries, so Jacobs has to play. If the Giants offense can get within a few inches of the goal line on Thursday, he might stumble into the end zone. It's possible. Stranger things have occurred.

Way back when Jacobs was a desirable fantasy commodity, Yahoo's Brad Evans used to refer to him as "The Football Frankenstein." The nickname has never felt more appropriate than it does today, in 2013. Jacobs now runs like a man who's been assembled from stolen corpses. Still, he's in line for double-digit touches against Chicago, so, um ... he probably won't post a negative fantasy total. I'll say that much.

Da'Rel Scott, RB, NYG (5 percent owned) – These past two weeks have been a little weird for Scott, I'd imagine. In New York's loss to the Chiefs on September 29, he and Wilson split snaps fairly evenly (29 to 28), and he carried five times for 26 yards. Two days later, the Giants waived him. And six days after that, the team added him again.

Scott has put a couple of ugly moments tape this season, and he's not exactly the most explosive back you'll ever see. But he, like Jacobs, is going to see the field plenty against the Bears. He'll handle the ball, for better or worse. Chicago's defense has given up 375 scrimmage yards and three TDs to opposing backs over its last two games, so we're not talking about a unit you need to avoid.

Am I starting Scott anywhere? No. Do I own him? No. But if you need to deploy him in a mega-league, I'd be willing to look the other way.