The last week of the regular season is here (for fantasy at least), and all the turkey is gone. It could be pretty easy to be depressed, but hopefully you still have a couple of weeks left, it’s called the playoffs! And if not, there is always next year, so don’t be sad!

    I am going to be traveling to my in-laws camp-house for Thanksgiving, and there is no internet access there (but the food is great). That means I am writing this article for on Wednesday. If something huge, amazing, or catastrophic has happened in the NFL since Wednesday don’t hold it against me that it isn’t in here (and maybe let me know!)

    I told my wife I am glad that I get to decide what goes into this article each week. Because I am tired of spending lots of time studying stats, checking weather conditions, and making predictions about kickers only for there to be a piece of wet grass or a breeze that messes up everything. So I am removing my “kickers rankings” and replacing it with a few sleeper picks for now.              Here is my standing advice on kickers: if the team never scores, don’t play them, if they are inconsistent and miss a lot, don’t play them, and if they average very few points, don’t play them. Otherwise, choose one solid option and roll with them week in and week out!

    Players from Thursday’s games have been removed:

QB                   

1. Peyton Manning (IND)

2. Cam Newton (CAR)

3. Tom Brady (NE)

4. Drew Brees (NO)

5. Nick Foles (PHI)

RB                  

         

1. Adrian Peterson (MIN)

2. Matt Forte (CHI)

3. Jamaal Charles (KC)

4. Marshawn Lynch (SEA)

5. LeSean McCoy (PHI)

WR                  

 1. Brandon Marshall (CHI)

2. A.J. Green (CIN)

3. Demarius Thomas (DEN)

4. Josh Gordon (CLE)

5. Larry Fitzgerald (ARI)

TE

1. Jimmy Graham (NO)

2. Rob Gronkowski (NE)

3. Julius Thomas (DEN)

4. Jordan Cameron (CLE)

5. Vernon Davis (SF)

D/ST

1. Carolina Panthers

2. New England Patriots

3. San Francisco 49ers

4. Seattle Seahawks

5. Cincinnati Bengals

    Players that are not ranked but that I am really high on this week:

    

    Luke McCown (CHI/QB)- McCown could actually be listed in the sleepers section, but I am really high on him this week. He is close to my #6 QB. While filling in for Cutler he has averaged 260+ yards per game and has 7 td’s to 1 int. And he is playing the #30 Minnesota pass defense!

    Andre Brown (NYG/RB)-I introduced Brown in this section last week, and told you he might not score a td b/c of the goal-line work of Jacobs, but he had 127 yds on 21 carries and 4 catches! No fluke, he’s good! Expect Brown to deliver again this week vs. the 28th ranked WSH defense!

    Sleepers (much better than kickers): These aren’t  top 10 plays and are pretty risky, but if you are looking for some names not usually in the top 10 that I expect to do well, here they are:

    Martellius Bennett (CHI/TE) – He averages over 4 receptions per game and Minnesota’s defense is ranked 26th vs TE’s. On top of that they have given up the 2nd most td’s to TE’s!

    Harry Douglas (ATL/WR) – Not the safest play since Buffalo might set the NFL sack record Sunday. (heard it here first!) But he has the 7th most WR fantasy points since Jones went out, and (pointed out by ESPN’s fantasy guys) has the 2nd most yards only to Megatron! Those are impressive stats, and Buffalo’s secondary is tied for last in the league!

    Dolphins D/ST – Playing the Jets, need I say more? I will. If you take away the NO game when Ivory just ran for revenge, the Jets are giving up an average of 20 pts/game to their opponents in the last 5 games. Stretch that back farther and it is still 16.8 over their last 6! That is a large enough sample size for a Dolphins team that has at least one take away in every game this year! Oh, and they are available in lots of leagues (70+%).

    End Note: I actually like kickers, I used to be one. Very useful in real football and often win games, but rarely in fantasy football. Find a good one and stick with him! Here comes Christmas!

    Zach Kilpatrick has played fantasy football since he had to use a pen, paper, and newspaper to play. He has finished first in ESPN standard leagues twice, runner up once, first in a Yahoo league once and has been playing in a 16 team IDP and PPR dynasty league since 2009.

    The opinions in this column are just that, his opinions, and are not guaranteed in any way.

    Zach’s column will run in The Star’s Wednesday and Saturday paper each week.