Matthew J. Darnell writes a blog for Yahoo! called The Shutdown Corner, which has made it to my RSS list due to his take on covering the NFL, and the fact that Redskins TE Chris Cooley regularly posts there, and actually seems to often have some interesting insights into the life of an NFL player (Cooley famously reported that he knocked himself out of his fantasy football league playoffs a couple years back with a 3 TD performance late in the season).

One of his regular features of late has been a love/hate review of each team as training camp opens.  Yesterday, he reviewed the San Francisco 49ers…and I almost cancelled my subscription.

His #1 reason to love the 49ers?  The Mike Martz Fantasy Factor. 

Mike Martz is almost a mythical figure for fantasy enthusiasts, galloping through the football universe, sprinkling magic offensive pixie dust wherever he goes. In the era of fantasy football, no team that employs Martz will ever be considered dull. Frank Gore, Vernon Davis, Bryant Johnson, even Alex Smith … they’re all key figures in fantasy drafts this year, and five or six people are going to groan in disappointment when someone else takes them.

Seriously?  My only logical conclusion is that Darnell is trying to throw off his own league-mates with that load of crap.

Andy and I have a He Said/He Said ready to go on the value of Frank Gore, who I’m willing to admit is a top 10-12 back, only because he has less competition for carries than many other RB situations in the league this year.

But Mike Martz is the exact reason that I personally hope to avoid Gore again this year. 

Yes, he was a great offensive mind–in 1999.  When his team was loaded with talent at RB ANDWR.  When he played on synthetic turf.  In a controlled environment. Before teams had several years to adjust to his ‘brilliance.’  When he had a coach to remind him to run the ball occasionally. And before his ego inflated to the size of whatever the hell the name of the stadium the Rams play in is, specifically for being called a such great offensive mind.

Apparently Darnell has forgotten the last two years in Detroit, where Martz’s magic offensive pixie dust led Jon Kitna to a 18 TD/20 INT season last year, a complete abandonment of the running game with Kevin Jones/Tatum Bell/TJ Duckett, the under utilization of rookie WR Calvin Johnson, the disappearance of 2006 breakout Mike Furrey, and decline of effectiveness of Roy Williams.

Not that I’m bitter for having a few of those guys last year or anything.

Seriously, though–if five or six guys groan when Vernon Davis, Bryant Johnson or Alex Smith go off the board this year, it better be from the ecstasy of realizing that they won’t have to put up with trying to decide if it’s the one week out of six that you should start someone coached by Martz.