Pierre Thomas > Mike Bell?

I think Payton is the new Shanahan, plug in whomever is healthy this week and let him rip.

For that reason even though as a homer I really wanted the PT Cruiser and I’ve thought many a time about picking up Bell I haven’t done it. I think Moreno is far more likely to be a consistent performer. Unless you have room on your bench for all three to plug in whomever looks to either get more of the snaps and/or have the easier matchup… I just can’t recommend picking up any Saint RB right now.

Unless, of course, you’re in a PPR league, in which case you almost have to draft Reggie. But even then I wouldn’t go for either of the others unless you have spare bench space or your RBs aren’t your primary source of points and you can just plug in whomever you want

For what it’s worth, Jay Glazer reported this last week:

By the way, great story … coach Sean Payton has secretly been pumping up third-string RB Mike Bell to me for the last month. But get this, he even convinced his son Connor to draft Bell in his son’s fantasy league. Peyton thinks he can be the every-down pounding back they need. So Pops told Connor to take him as a late-round sleeper and promised that he’d be a great pick for him. So Connor responded, “Mike Bell? Who’s Mike Bell???” Sean said, “Trust me Connor, I might have some insight into this.”

PT Bruiser will be motivated to really prove himself now that he’s healthy or close to healthy. If he plays against the Bills and Bell doesn’t, look out! PT is hungry and I’ll bet he sees his big chance slipping away due to an untimely knee injury. He’ll be a monster this week if fully healed. I’d recommend holding onto them both for another week at least just to see how Pierre does this season. I currently have them both in one of my leagues and that’s what I plan to do. As of now though, I’d say Bell is Payton’s no. 1 and PT is 1a. Bush is currently the multidimensional threat, which is what he should have been all along.

hitherto, he’s been a godsend. pounding the rock every week has been huge for our offense and it’s been keeping defenses honest, allowing brees to put up some insane numbers. i think bell is a top 5 rusher so far and that’s a huge improvement on offense from last year.

as a sleeper pick, but Pierre is the slightly better player, imo. They may have similarly lackluster fantasy stats by years end, especially in rushing yards, but I think PT will gain the edge in receiving yards and TDs down the stretch. Who knows, though. Neither are going to be superb feature backs, like Peterson or Gore, but either could be consistent producers. I think PT will be the better of the two, though.

i’m thinking that PT might be a better receiver, but not sure. but on any given sunday, whoever starts will not be a dropoff either way. not sure where that puts you fantasywise…… for this week lesean mccoy of the eagles could be a sleeper as Westbrook is banged up and I don’t know if they would give many carries to anyone else. plus, Eagles will need to establish run w/ Kolb as QB, although Andy Reid hates the run.

Thanks for putting in the time and effort.

So if one back is starting, (it doesn’t matter who) do you think that’s the guy who will get the bulk of the work, or do you think the guys split touches? This of course assumes both are healthy.

I still have questions, but at least now I know they are unanswerable for the time being. I’ll keep checking back.

I assume Pierre is starting this week? Do we have any idea how many touches he gets?

And I’m not just saying that because of the man crush. Dude is gonna score no matter what. He’s produced a little so far. I got a feeling he’s gonna kill it next few weeks. Right now though, Thomas and Bell are both banged up and if Payton is smart he’ll limit them for the next few weeks.

whoever is healthy and looks like they are picking up good yardage after a qtr or 1.5 qtrs will get the most touches. that could be Reggie, P/T oe even Lynell Hamilton. Bell would be in the hunt but my guess is he will be in uniform but not used or not used much

The guy was a maniac last night.

I ended up dropping Bell to pick up Moreno. It looks like it may have been the right move since he’s getting the bulk of the touches over Buckhalter, for now anyway. I may have to drop McFadden and go get Bell again since he’s turning out to be a complete waste of bench space.