Fantasy Football Wrap: Jacobs Goes From Beast to Bust

Sunday Evening Wrap checks out players who increased or decreased their value during the Sunday afternoon games.

Faller of the Week: Brandon Jacobs had 1,089 yards and 15 touchdowns on the ground last season. He averaged 5.0 yards per carry. With the departure of Derrick Ward, there wasn't much reason to expect him to regress. Sure, Ahmad Bradshaw was around, but he was just going to slide into Ward's previous role. Instead, Jacobs has been a bust. He's averaging just 3.8 yards per carry. He's only scored five times on the ground. He only has five runs of more than 20 yards (he had 15 of the variety last year). He's only scored more than 15 fantasy points in a game three times (he did it six times last year). He's scored less than eight fantasy points eight times, something that only happened twice last year when he was on the field.

Sunday, everything came to a head. Jacobs gained one measly yard on six trips against the Panthers, as his Giants were summarily embarrassed. Jacobs left the game injured, but he wasn't going to do anything anyway. The Giants are clearly more reliant on the pass this season as the line ages and their run blocking ability erodes. Plus, Bradshaw has shown time and time again he's the better back. I'd pass on Jacobs next week against the Vikes' stout run defense and will be doing so again next summer in fantasy football drafts.

Riser of the Week: For the second straight week, Jonathan Stewart was a stud. Last week, he had a rare 100-yard rushing game against the incredibly tough Vikes' run defense. Sunday, he abused what was left of the once-mighty Giants defense for 206 yards and a touchdown on 28 carries. It's pretty evident the Panthers can run the ball on anyone, so next week against the Saints (who coughed up some pretty good stats to Cadillac Williams Sunday) won't be any different. The only thing you have to watch is the availability of DeAngelo Williams. When Williams plays, Stewart is an unpredictable entity. He could go for two fantasy points just as easily as 20. If Williams is out again, however, expect another big day from Stewart. The new offensive balance (which we'll cover in Reality Check) bodes well for next season, too.

Other Shifts in Value

Todd Heap - Two touchdowns is all you need from a tight end. Who cares if he didn't catch any other passes and didn't have great yardage?

Santonio Holmes - Question: When was the last time Holmes had less than 74 yards receiving? Answer: Week 7. You won't find many more consistent wideouts.

Drew Brees - The efficiency was nice (connecting on 32 of 37 passes), but we need to see more than 258 yards and one touchdown pass from the elite quarterback.

Cadillac Williams - Big effort Sunday shows there's no doubt that he's entrenched as the top back in Tampa Bay. At this point, you have to expect that to continue into next season.

Maurice Jones-Drew - 98 total yards, but no touchdowns. He's losing value because he's long been considered a top-three pick for next season (going third behind Chris Johnson and Adrian Peterson). I believe I'd take Ray Rice over him and consider a handful of others. MJD has only been elite-level one time in the past six games.

Tom Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker - I sensed that they were in for some destruction against the poor Jags' pass defense at home. Brady was near-perfect, Moss grabbed three touchdowns and Welker now has 122 catches. If you do play games that matter next week, though, beware: the Pats are 2-5 on the road. Brady's rating is well over 100 at home and just 83.0 on the road.

Arian Foster - Where was this last week? Gary Kubiak is definitely from the Mike Shanahan school of hating fantasy football.

Ted Ginn - Not only did he catch five passes for 82 yards, but he also had a 62-yard touchdown nullified due to a tripping penalty. So, if Lousaka Polite could keep his legs to himself, Ginn would have had a line of 6-144-1. Pretty decent, huh?

Packers' Running Attack - I can't remember where I said it last week, but I did advise Ryan Grant based upon the fact that the Seahawks have mailed it in. Boy, have they. Grant goes for 97 yards and two touchdowns, Brandon Jackson runs for two touchdowns and receives another and then Ahman Green gets into the mix with a touchdown. You know what's the best part about this? The Seahawks' opponent is the Tennessee Titans next week. What do you think Chris Johnson is going to do?

Justin Forsett - He simply has to have a bigger role than Julius Jones next year. They had the same amount of carries (14) and Forsett nearly doubled Jones' output (70-39). Plus, he's only 24 and Jones is 28. Oddly enough, Jones had six catches for 51 yards Sunday while Forsett only had one catch for four yards. I'll write that off as a coincidence, because we know Forsett is plenty capable in the receiving game.

Sebastian Janikowski - Gotta give the kicker some love for hitting all three field goals when one of them was a 61-yarder. He would have been a savvy add this week.

Mohamed Massaquoi - If they can do anything about the quarterback situation for next season, Massaquoi could be a rising star. When given the chance, he shines.

Carson Palmer - Just 139 yards passing against a terrible defense. This is 100 percent a running team. Remember that next season when you see Palmer's name and think about taking him.

Dwayne Bowe - Nine catches for 61 yards on 12 targets. Told you he was just rusty last week. As the Chiefs improve on offense, the balance Jamaal Charles provides them will open more holes for Bowe.

Roddy White - Two sub-par games, including one against Super-Corner Darrelle Revis, were forgotten with an explosion Sunday.

Terrell Owens - Just a hunch that we won't see a press conference with T.O. in tears proclaiming "that's my quarterback" about Brian Brohm. Or Ryan Fitzpatrick. Or Trent Edwards. Or Gibran Hamdan.

Maurice Morris - It's tough to run on the Niners, so it wasn't altogether shocking to see a big step back this week for Morris. He will find plenty of running room against the Bears in Week 17.

Frank Gore - I have a feeling there will be less argument next time I list him as a first-rounder for 2010. He'll do it through the air, on the ground and get in the end zone.

Steven Jackson - A lot of us were counting on him.

Beanie Wells - Still getting about two-thirds of the rushing attempts and making good on them. He lost a goal-line carry to Tim Hightower again, but also got one of his own. You can expect him to carry the ball 15-20 times per game all season in 2010.

Brandon Marshall - Looks like the Eagles were determined to make Kyle Orton beat them with someone else. Just 39 yards and no scores for Marshall will not sit well with the fantasy owners he spoiled the past three weeks.

Brian Westbrook - Sentimental choice here because he played and didn't have to leave the game. Let's hope he can keep his head healthy for however much longer he decides to play football.

Shonn Greene - It will be interesting to see what the Jets do with the running game next year. Thomas Jones is still running as strong as ever, but he's past the age where most backs are already in rapid descent (just ask Edgerrin James about that). A small workload early in his career helped, but he's still not getting any younger. Greene showed great ability Sunday with 95 yards on 16 carries. You'd have to think there's at least a time-share situation in '10.

The Colts - Must be Week 16 or 17 when the Colts have every fantasy-relevant player out by the middle of the third quarter. Expect even less playing time next week.