Picking the Next Fantasy Rookie Stud RB?

by | Jun 19, 2008 | Fantasy Football

Six weeks until training camp, but Yahoo! is already full force into their barrage of Fantasy Football ’08.  They had a 10-round mock draft a few weeks back, and today writers Brandon Funston, Andy Behrens, and Brad Evans provided some top 5 Fantasy lists.

The first thing that jumped out at us?  It appears that everyone wants to pick the next Adrian Peterson.  Each guy had at least one rookie RB in their ‘Top 5 Players [tehy’ll] most heavily target’ list–and Behrens had two.  Which strikes me as downright foolish, given that few rookie RB’s contribute to the level of an Adrian Peterson.

Jonathan Stewart (Funston, #2; Behrens, #1) – I understand that in the long run, he may be the better overall back than DeAngelo Williams.  But Behrens even points out the big flaw in targetting Stewart heavily (especially early):

“If he just gets Foster’s ’07 carries (247), he’s going to be a force.”

Seems like an awfully big ‘if’ to me, given the presence of Williams.  Stewart will have to come into practice and absolutely dazzle some people to get Foster’s carries–think of how long it took WIlliams to get the carries he did, when many considered him significantly better than Foster all along?

Matt Forte (Behrens, #4) – I understand that the Bears don’t really have any one else to throw back there as the primary guy.  But that doesn’t mean that Forte will put up 1,400 yards and 10+ TDs.  Two reasons that Peterson succeeded early in ’07–first, he had a solid offensive line in front of him.  Second, early in the season, teams thought they would have to cover the Vikings receivers.  As soon as they figured out that wasn’t the case, they threw 8-9 guys in the box, and frustrated Peterson.

So how good will Forte be, given that most teams will probably (rightly so) assume that they don’t have to worry about the Bears passing attack from week 1 on, and with an average (at best) offensive line?

Rashard Mendenhall (Evans, #1) – Seriously?  Who gave this guy the title of fantasy expert?

1,000 total yards and 7-9 TDs?  “High” Five was an accurate name for this article.

Yeah, the Steelers are likely to try to reduce Willie Parker–of course, I’ve also heard reports that Gary Russell has impressed them this offseason, while Parker heals his broken leg. Granted, it’s only OTAs, and coming from local Minnesota media (Russell was a Minnesota Golden Gopher before being booted from the team), but it adds to Mendenhall’s competition to even see the field in 2008.  Not to mention Mewelde Moore, who also was decent when he got some playing time, and signed as a FA.

So if you’re looking for fantasy standouts that will help you all season long, at least in the early rounds, stay away from the rookies.  And until they come to their senses, I’d stay away from Funston, Behrens and Evans, too.

Browns Already in Perilous Position?

by | Jun 11, 2008 | NFL News

**UPDATE** The Browns actually went ahead and cut LeCharles Bentley today.  Apparently Hank Fraley & Rex Hadnot are just too good.

Andy has already gone on the record as saying he thinks the Browns will be a team to watch in 2008.  I have pulled out my political talking head hat, and said I think they will regress from 2007–while also admitting that they may still win their division (I am not impressed with the AFC North).

Now comes news that WR Joe Jurevicius may not be ready to start the season, as he’s become the SIXTH player on the team in four years to contract staph.  Seriously, I know they’re taking steps to prevent it, but they might want to step up those efforts.

On the surface, this news seems to have little impact, fantasy wise or otherwise–Jurevicius started 12 games and caught 50 passes with three TDs last season, but is expected to be the #3 WR this season since Donte Stallworth was signed.

Still, this one scares me a little bit–Jurevicius likely was a calming veteran presence in the huddle for the Browns, and a positive role model for some of the receiver corps to look up to, given their tendency to flap their gums. 

And, I’m guessing that the 3rd WR would see the field a lot in Cleveland, in an effort to keep guys out of the box and free up some room for Jamal Lewis.  Now, it appears that the Browns will likely enter the seasno with Joshua Cribbs (who recently admitted that his having the dropsies during practice was due to his not being focused enough), Travis Wilson, or something called Syndric Steptoe filling the role.

On the positive side for the team, LeCharles Bentley was cleared to practice this week, after missing two seasons due to a torn patellar tendon suffered on the first play of training camp after signing a six-year, $36 million contract on the first day of free agency in 2006.  He then had three subsequent surgeries, to deal with the staph infection that followed.

Of course, there’s now bad blood between him and the team–so no one is sure where he’ll play–guard or center with the Browns, or maybe for someone else.

For his sake, let’s just hope his slip of the tounge when asked about it wasn’t prophetic:

”Zero doubt, absolutely I will be playing somewhere, starting in ’09. ’08, sorry. You know what I meant.”

 

Kevin Jones Waiting For Bears Call?

by | Jun 11, 2008 | NFL Rumors

Turns out, according to the guys at ChicagoSports.com, my brother may have finally gotten one right–Kevin Jones is apparently waiting for a call from the Bears.

But I have a feeling he might be waiting a while.

This is a team that by all accounts is content to go into the season with Devin Hester as their #1 WR, a move that if history proves correct, could turn their biggest only offensive threat (Hester’s return abilities) into a liability (think about what happened to Dante Hall when the Chiefs started trying to involve him in offense).  Why would they go out and sign a veteran, when they can throw Matt Forte and the other Adrian Peterson to the wolves 25-35 times a game?

The ChicagoSports team laid out the best four options for the Bears if they are going to go after a veteran–other than Jones (coming off a torn ACL) there’s Shaun Alexander (wrist surgery, sprained knee, sprained vagina since signing his big contract), Travis Henry (character issues), and LaMont Jordan (injured back, and as they point out–displays a lot of similar qualities to Cedric Benson, when it comes to practice habits).

Here’s hoping the Cubbies can keep going strong into November–otherwise it could be a loooooooong winter in Chi-town.

Jeff Garcia Should Talk to Matt Birk

by | Jun 7, 2008 | NFL News, NFL Rumors

Another piece from Yahoo! Sports (taken from ProFootballTalk, where we saw it earlier this week, but weren’t in a punchy enough mood to bother writing about), Jeff Garcia is STILL whining about his contract situation.

A few of his quotes:

“If it doesn’t work itself out, if a contract is not presented as far as a renewal to finish my career, then I will seriously think about what my alternate options may be. And it may come to not playing football anymore.”

“I feel like when you mistreat people there comes a time when it doesn’t matter how much you are paid, it’s going to lead to some drastic decisions.”

“It would be really difficult to go through this season and not have something done before the season.  I would like to see the appreciation put out there.”

Yeah, it must be tough to get paid $2 million a year to play in 13 games a year, put up some ok numbers, and head home early after getting tossed aside in the first round of the playoffs by a wildcard team.

Someone needs to take Jeff aside, and make him understand that he’s lucky to have that starting job in the first place–he had one ok half-season after Donovan McNabb went down in Philly, after two miserable seasons in Cleveland and Detroit, and many considered him washed up.  And even now, he hasn’t played a full season or thrown 20 touchdowns since 2002, nor has he averaged over 200 yards a game since 2003, his last in San Francisco.

Yeah, having better wide receivers would help his numbers, but that’s not going to change drastically at this point of the season.  If he’s there, he might have another decent year like last year.  If he’s not, Brian Griese or Chris Simms could probably do about the same–without the whining.

Until the next season, of course.

Cedric Benson Still Doesn’t Get It

by | Jun 7, 2008 | NFL News

Used to be, when you were talking about a former University of Texas running back who went to the pros, and just didn’t get it, there was only one guy you could be talking about.  Now, while Ricky Williams is supposedly on the straight and narrow, participating in OTAs for the first time in a long time, and actually trying to get better, Cedric Benson just can’t seem to get it into his head that his talent does not really make him invincible.

Benson, who was arrested about a month ago for supposedly operating a boat under the influence and then resisting arrest (which he claimed he did not do, and that they police used excessive force), did not help his situation by being arrested early this morning on the suspicion of driving under the influence.

Strangely enough, this might actually improve the situation in Chicago for fantasy football players–if Benson keeps this up, the Bears might just give up on him altogether, and just plan to go with second round pick Matt Forte into the season. 

Of course, that won’t make up for the lack of quarterback or wide receivers…