Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

Normal fantasy football leagues have come to an end and what a great season it was. We hope that you did well in your league, or leagues, but if you’re still looking for some fantasy football action while the playoffs go on, and you’re looking for some help then look no further because the Bruno Boys will be here throughout the postseason. As such we’ll be releasing our normal weekly position rankings to help you best decide which players to go with in our Fantasy Football Playoff Challenge. The first iteration will be the quarterbacks and there isn’t a whole lot of surprise in the rankings. To see where all eight of the players rank this week continue reading the Divisional Round edition of the Bruno Boys Weekly Quarterback Rankings.

The Wild Card round is past us, but now we enter the Divisional round and all four match-ups look like they’ll provide some great games. When evaluating the match-ups, it also became clear that a lot of these games will be decided by good, or bad, quarterback play. Saturday’s games also figure to be the most prominent ones for those in fantasy football playoff challenges. On Saturday, the Arizona Cardinals will play at the New Orleans Saints and later the Baltimore Ravens will travel to play the Indianapolis Colts. That’s three of the league’s top quarterbacks, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees and Kurt Warner, and one second-year starter who’s on his way to stardom taking the field.

The second day of the Divisional round on Sunday figures to be good as well, though not so much from a fantasy football perspective. Sure, the early game will feature two studs in the forms of Tony Romo and future Hall of Famer Brett Favre, as the Dallas Cowboys travel to Minnesota to take on the Minnesota Vikings, but the second game, which features the New York Jets at the San Diego Chargers will leave fantasy owners wanting more. Not only does the game feature the lone rookie QB still standing this season in Mark Sanchez, but it also pits Philip Rivers against one of the best pass defenses in the NFL.m

As for this past weekend’s action, Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets performed admirably last week as he went 12-for-15 for 182 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions in a win over the Cincinnati Bengals, while Kurt Warner was ridiculous in going 29-for-33 for 379 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions. To see if those guys will be able to replicate those performances this week, as well as to see where the rest of the quarterbacks fall, continue reading the Division Round Quarterback Rankings.

1. Drew Brees (New Orleans Saints) vs. Arizona

The league’s most explosive offense, the New Orleans Saints, gets to begin the post season against a team that allowed 45 points last week. That happened against the Packers, who have an inferior offense live to that of the Saints, and when you combine those two things, it’s easy to see why this week could be a huge one for Brees and the Saints offense as a whole. But, that doesn’t mean you should expect Brees to match Aaron Rodgers’ 422-yard, four-touchdown performance. This is the playoffs, after all, so we have to restrain our optimism about Brees this week. Having said that, his projected 24 points could easily turn into 34.
Point Projection: 24 Points

2. Peyton Manning (Indianapolis Colts) vs. Baltimore

Sure the Baltimore Ravens’ defense looked good last week in a blowout win over the New England Patriots, but how much of that was the Patriots self-imploding? The answer is likely more than Ravens’ fans would like to admit. Truth be told, aside from Ed Reed the Ravens don’t have any defensive backs that can cover well, and the Colts and quarterback Peyton Manning will be able to exploit this. The key question for Manning is how well will his young receivers hold up in their first playoff appearance? With Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark, all Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon have to do is not play terrible and it will be a big day for Manning.
Point Projection: 22 Points

3. Kurt Warner (Arizona Cardinals) @ New Orleans

Take a look at Warner’s stats from last week and you’ll see he threw more touchdown passes (5) than incompletions (4). That’s incredible on many different levels. The challenge for Warner this week will be much greater, however, as the Cardinals will play on the road against the Saints. A quick refresher for those who forgot, but the Saints defense is the best in the league at creating turnovers. Warner can be turnover prone at times, and that could hurt Arizona in this game, but it won’t be enough to stop him from putting up good fantasy football numbers.
Point Projection: 20 Points

4. Brett Favre (Minnesota Vikings) vs. Dallas

For Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback Brett Favre, being in the playoffs is like second nature. For the rest of the Vikings, that’s not exactly the case. Favre is a guy who thrives in these pressure situations so as long as the rest of his team simply shows up, he’ll be in good shape this week. The big question for those considering starting Favre this week is this whether the Vikings are going to pound at the running game with Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor, or will they let Favre air it out? The last few weeks Minnesota hasn’t been clear on what type of team it is, so we’ll temper expectations for Favre by a small bit this week.
Point Projection: 18 Points

5. Philip Rivers (San Diego Chargers) vs. New York Jets

The good news for Philip Rivers and the San Diego Chargers is that they earned the No. 2 seed in the AFC, giving them a first-round bye and a game at home in the divisional round. The bad news for the Chargers is that the New York Jets upset the Bengals last week and now Rivers will have to face the Jets tough secondary, led by cornerback Darrelle Revis. Revis can’t be everywhere at once, so Rivers should be able to find some opportunities to score, but don’t expect a 20-point performance against a defense that’s first in the league in passing yards allowed, total yards allowed and points allowed.
Point Projection: 17 Points

6. Tony Romo (Dallas Cowboys) @ Minnesota

Having won their first playoff game since 1996, everybody is now ready to crown Tony Romo and the Dallas Cowboys as the greatest thing ever. It’s as if everybody suddenly forgot about how much Romo had failed in the clutch before last weekend’s Wild Card win. Though he still has an opportunity to fail again this week against Minnesota, it’s the weak Vikings pass defense that has us optimistic for a good week from Romo. Though, given his history in pressure games, you may want to explore other options this week if you can because the opportunity does exist for a disaster of a game from Romo.
Point Projection: 16 Points

7. Joe Flacco (Baltimore Ravens) @ Indianapolis

Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco wasn’t asked to much last year when the Ravens made the playoffs. After all, a rookie shouldn’t be counted on to play well at this time of the season. However, the growth for Flacco in his second year has been great. Flacco only completed four passes for 34 yards with one interception and no touchdowns last week, but that was mostly because Patriots’ turnovers aided a Ravens 24-0 lead by the end of the first quarter. Though the Colts do have a good defense, Flacco managed to throw for 256 yards against them when the two teams met in week 11. With all that said, we believe Flacco is in line for a decent, but not good, game this week.
Point Projection: 14 Points

8. Mark Sanchez (New York Jets) @ San Diego

Not exactly known as anything of value to fantasy football teams for the better part of the regular season, Sanchez certainly looked like he’s on his way to greatness last week with a great performance against a good Cincinnati defense. This week Sanchez will face a tough test against a hot Chargers team that’s been playing some very good football recently. Though the San Diego defense isn’t an elite one — the Chargers rank 11th in passing yards allowed and 11th in points allowed — the Jets will rely on their defense and strong running game to get them through this game. If they play from behind, thus necessitating Sanchez to throw often, then he and the rest of the offense will be in some trouble.
Point Projection: 11 Points

Divisional Round Rankings:  QB  |  RB  |  WR  |  TE  |  K  | DEF   (click to read)

Divisional Round Start & Sit:  START ‘EM  |  SIT ‘EM  (click to read)

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