Five Week 5 Gems to Help you Win A quarter of the fantasy football season is finished. We now have a fairly good idea what most players are worth. Now that we have a much better understanding of things, it's time to grow a pair and make some bold moves to help you make the playoffs and win a Championship. Here are 5 gems to help you take your team to the Promised Land. 1) Time to Trade for The Sanchize I've actually been a hater for most of Mark Sanchez's fantasy football career. Over the last two seasons, he's thrown for 29 touchdowns and 33 interceptions. He's played his best football in the playoffs but that doesn't help fantasy owners during the season. In a weird sense, he's like the opposite of Tony Romo, whose only great in the regular season, which is all fantasy owners care about. This year has been different though. For Sanchez's first 3 games, he averaged close to 300 passing yards, totaling 6 touchdowns and 4 interceptions plus a fumble for the Turnover Machine. Still, those are impressive numbers, regardless of all the turnovers, 300 passing yards and two touchdowns per week are solid numbers. He's easily having the best season of his career as Shonn Greene continues to underwhelm and the Jets fail to establish a consistent running game. Sanchez's value is low now because of historically poopy performance against the Ravens last week. He threw for 119 passing yards with 500 turnovers (346 interceptions and 164 fumbles). The game was nationally televised and most of the fantasy world looked at Sanchez and thought to themselves, "That's the Sanchez I know. He still stinks." But that's incorrect. The reality is that Sanchez has been a very good fantasy Quarterback this year and things are look good for the future. He plays the horrendously bad Patriots defense this weekend. After that he plays Miami (30th ranked against the pass) and he later has two games against Buffalo, one more against New England and Denver as well. Sanchez's value is going to skyrocket after his gaudy numbers against the Patriots this weekend. Now is the time for owners to make a move. 2) Tampa in Trouble After the Buccaneers' fantasy football triumph over the hapless Colts, owners were finally starting to get excited about the Bucs as a viable fantasy team again. Not so fast, my friends. The Bucs were so full of fantasy goodness against the horrid Colts that even Preston Parker is being started in some lineups this weekend. Raise your hand if you knew who Preston Parker was 2 weeks ago? Anybody? Perhaps, somebody sitting in the back? Unfortunately for the Bucs, they don't play the worst team in the NFL every week. Up next for the "overrated since last season" Bucs are the 49ers, one of the best defenses in the league, ranked 4th in rush defense, for those enthusiastic LeGarrette Blount owners out there, who think the gravy train has started. Besides Blount, there's Mike Williams, a receiver, who barely makes it into the Top 40 in standard leagues. Considering where he was drafted, Williams is one of the biggest busts of the season. And don't even get me started on Josh Freeman, another overhyped bust from the Bucs. Statistically speaking, he's not the far in production from Tavarius Jackson for the season. I'm not saying to run and pick up Jackson from the waiver wire. I'm just saying Freeman had 4 touchdowns, 6 interceptions and averaged around 230 passing yards a game. That's bad. Waiver Wire bad. Don't forget that the Bucs travel to London in two weeks to face the Bears, a game surely to be a fantasy wasteland. I'd sell highish on all my Bucs or at least put some feelers out there. The fantasy bonanza the Bucs scored on the Colts was not a sign of things to come. It was just an anomaly. 3) Play All Vikings This Weekend...And then Trade Them All I hate to be the one to bring this up but someone has to do it. Adrian Peterson hasn't played to his high draft status this year. It's not that he's lost a step but Donovan McNabb certainly has. Minnesota's miserable offense, ranked 24th in the league, has significantly hurt A.P.'s value going forward. Plus, the always present specter of the winless Vikings packing in for the season and starting rookie Chris Ponder makes the Vikings' future fantasy prospects even more precarious. Right now, A.P. is barely in the Top 10 fantasy running backs in standard scoring leagues. Besides Peterson, Percy Harvin has had a rather pedestrian season thus far. For the first four games of the season, Harvin still has yet to score a receiving touchdown and he has only 172 receiving yards. He had over 100 total yards against the lowly Chiefs last week but his lack of touchdowns have severely hurt his value. This weekend though, the Vikings play the Arizona Cardinals, whose defense has become a dream fantasy football matchup this year, giving up nearly 400 total yards of offense each week. All of the Vikings stars are surely going to have a great game and this will make it the perfect opportunity for Vikings owners to sell high next week. The 0-4 Vikings might not have many more chances to have an outstanding game the rest of the year so owners will have to strike fast to get real value for two Name players like A.P. and Percy Harvin. 4) Bye Week Bum Special: Montario Hardesty With the Bye Weeks beginning, it's always good to check out which teams are on bye and to see if you can get a good price on any of the bye week bums. This week's Bye Week Special is Montario Hardesty. Still not the starter for the Browns, Hardesty had over 70 total yards against a tough Titans' defense last weekend. There have been rumors this week that Peyton Hillis, whose unhappy with his contract, might be seeking a trade soon. Hillis has also been plagued by strep throat, limiting his playing time. With Hardesty not even playing this week, he's a great Bye Week Bum that owners should be able to get for a very reasonable price, maybe as low as a Number 4/5 receiver or sneaked into a large multi-player deal. This has been a bad year for running backs and Hardesty has the potential, if a couple pieces fall into the right place, to be the lead running back in a run-oriented team, enormously valuable in a time were solid fantasy running backs are becoming more and more scarce. Most teams are desperate and unprepared during the Bye Weeks and are scrambling to fill their rosters. Hardesty is a player that owners should target for a bargain Bye Week basement price. 5) If You're Loaded at Running Back...Time to Make a Play for Andre Johnson As I said above, since the NFL has become such a pass happy league, startable running backs are fewer and far between. Still, there are those teams that are somehow loaded at running back, boasting 3 to 4 solid players. If have one of these teams, time to have a chat with injured Andre's owner. Odds are that Andre's owner needs a running back. Let's face it, the vast majority of teams need a running back so it's not too much of a stretch to think that an owner, who spent his first round pick on a receiver, is weak at the RB position. As long as you don't have Calvin Johnson, Wes Welker, Mike Wallace, Steve Smith or Larry Fitzgerald; trade your best receiver plus a running back and see what AJ's owner says. Most reports have AJ returning around Week 7 so he won't be out for too much longer. If you have the depth, no matter what your record is, desperate AJ owners, who spent a critical 1st round pick on him might be willing to deal. Getting arguably the best receiving in fantasy football for the home stretch is a worthy gamble to take. Good Hunting! Ed Bonfanti Friend me on Facebook here.