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Around this time of year if you go to football chat boards or fantasy football sites on facebook you’ll frequently see folks asking for opinions on their teams.

One facebook friend of mine in the industry has a couple dozen such questions just under one post – despite a note on his page saying he doesn’t have time to comment on fantasy football questions on facebook.

One of his friends today posted a comment to his site advising people to check out the website of www.fantasyfootballguys.com for assistance in grading teams. I thought it would probably be one of these two sentence deals where they said “nice team” or “better luck next year.”

I was wrong.

I entered two of the teams I was involved in drafting this weekend and was pleasantly surprised to see a five page report generated that I was able to see on the site and have emailed to me. It included analysis by position, advice on free agents that might be available to replace some of the rosters’ sub-par players, recent news hits and other useful information.

Plus, there are four people doing rankings, so you can click on another link to get three more reports.

I’m not going to say I agreed with everything they said. But it was nice to get some educated feedback from folks that added to the opinions I already have. They don’t know who is on the league’s other rosters. But they do let you enter your scoring systems (or close to them, anyway).

It’s not perfect. But it’s a pretty good instant analysis and a site I’ll probably revisit a few times during the upcoming season.

I was one of many people who, a couple years ago, predicted that Tim Tebow would have to find another position if he was going to have a successful NFL career.

The jury is still out on his long-term prospects but it’s clear watching the Denver-Pittsburgh game on Fox tonight that he’s done a lot of work.

I preface this saying I am no expert on quarterback mechanics. But when he left Florida his throwing motion was put under a microscope. And it was clear even to a mere observer like me that his long, winding motion was going to hinder his chances for success.

His delivery still looks a little clunky, at least to me. But the long windup seems to have improved, at least some. His release appears quicker, again, at least to me.

He botched a short third-down pass to Eddie Royal in the middle of the third quarter that likely would have resulted in a first down. And in the fourth quarter he threw an ugly interception that set the Steelers up with a short field.

But in between, Tebow threw a couple bullets downfield in traffic that resulted in nice gains.

My guess is that he still has quite a ways to go before he’s ready to start in the NFL. I think Denver probably recognized that when they drafted him. Fox analyst Troy Aikman says it’s dangerous taking a guy who has played the position as long as Tebow has and completely reworking his mechanics as the Broncos appear to be doing with Tebow, and that process certainly is going to take time.

But even though this game is against a group of backups it seems as though he may have a better shot at making the transition to NFL quarterback than many originally believed. If he keeps leading drives like a couple of the ones he did in the third quarter, what it looks like won’t matter.

With the regular season a mere two weeks away fantasy football drafts are in full swing. We here at Zoneblitz are kicking off a marathon weekend ourselves with four between the two of us.

So, in our unending effort to gain an edge, to find that last minute sleeper that will bring us fantasy glory and obnoxious winnings, we sought out some advice from some of the experts of the industry.

We separately asked several folks questions on a multitude of fantasy topics. A couple responded right away. We’ll add to this document if and when anyone else responds, as well.

Here’s who they are:

Anthony Maggio is a veteran fantasy sports writer who has worked for Fanball and FFchamps.com. He currently covers the Minnesota Twins for www.foxsportsnorth.com. Follow him on Twitter @fsnorthmaggio

Michael Lambourne graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Finance and Psychology with a focus on behavioral economics, game theory, and entrepreneurship. Fantasy football was the perfect opportunity to combine his love for sports, especially football, with game theory and investment analysis. He has developed a passion for creating a detailed strategy to consistantly beat fantasy football. He has a website, fantasyfootballriches.com, and he’s written an e-book: The Expert Guide to Profitable Fantasy Football.

Zach Sundelius is a writer and editor at RotoWire.com.

And here’s what they had to say: Read the rest of this entry »

The Dallas Cowboys should be very good this year and I am on record as saying as long as they can keep Tony Romo upright, they have a chance to be tremendously exciting on offense.

That said, underachieving wideout Roy Williams may be jumping the gun a bit. He compared this year’s Cowboys’ offense to that of the 1998 Minnesota Vikings.

Easy Champ. The Vikings scored 556 points that season, second most in league history since the Patriots broke that mark in 2007.

While Dallas should be good, they were just 14th in points scored last season (361, for the record). Williams’ response to that, according to the Dallas Morning News? “We were a good offensive unit last year, very good, we just couldn’t score.”

Umm. Isn’t that the point?

You can put up hundreds and hundreds of yards. If you can’t put the pig in the end zone you aren’t going to win games. And if you don’t win games, nobody is going to mistake you for the 98 Vikings, the 07 Patriots or any other memorable team, Super Bowl champ or not.

Thanks for the laugh, Mr. Williams.

The Pope? President Obama? The Dalai Lama?

Nope.

Brett Favre’s arrival in Minneapolis inspired the media firestorm Tuesday afternoon that included news helicopters, wall-to-wall radio and television broadcasts and endless chatter on the Internet.

Really?

Didn’t most of us know this was likely to happen sooner or later? After he supposedly tweeted his retirement to teammates a couple weeks ago he then untweeted the retirement a couple days later, more or less saying he would play if his ankle was okay.

So, yeah Favre is back. One facebook friend posted the following status: “What — no posts about Favre? Are you people working or something?”

More likely the vast majority of the population (not including local news networks, ESPN or local sports talk radio outlets) has seen the Favre circus enough times where they knew it was just a matter of time before he flew to town on the Wilf family’s private yet. This time he came accompanied by three teammates, sent to encourage him to join the team in suburban Minneapolis …

Or were they? He hasn’t yet said he’s playing. Perhaps those potential teammates forced him onto the plane against his will. Perhaps he’s flying into town to, yet again, announce his retirement.

More likely, Favre is back for the season. Hereth likely ends this part of the soap opera for another preseason. One Green Bay Packers blogger has summed it up best, so far: “The Fake Suspense is Over: Brett Favre Returns.”

Let the season begin.