| | *Warning - For those among you who are NOT football fans, the following blog entry deals solely with NFL professional football and offers no apologies. I don't write about my favorite sport very often . . . but, this is Kickoff Week. Hope you understand and enjoy. My first of three fantasy football teams has been drafted. The league is through one of my previous employers and I had a nice lunch and a few beers with a couple of the guys recently. They had a live draft this year, but I couldn't make it. So I set my auto-pick roster and hoped for the best. And damned if I didn't come out of it with a very nice roster. Week #1 Starters Drew Brees (QB-NO)
Dwayne Bowe (WR-KC)
Terrell Owens (WR-Buf)
T.J. Houshmanzadeh (WR-Sea)
Brandon Jacobs (RB-NYG)
Thomas Jones (RB-NYJ)
Jason Witten (TE-Dal)
Neil Rackers (K-Ari)
New Orleans Defense* Week #1 Backups Matt Cassel (QB-KC)
Jospeh Addai (RB-Ind)
Chris Cooley (TE-Was)
Donnie Avery (WR-StL)*
Bernard Berrian (WR-Chi)
Rob Bironas (K-Ten)
Minnesota Defense
*(Donnie Avery has been waived to secure the New Orleans defense; roster positions not official.) Any of you who have relied upon auto-pick for fantasy team selection know it can be a dicy business. I've been burned by it more times than I like to remember. But if you can't make a live draft, then you better be very strategic in setting your auto-pick positions. I had ranked the first 100 players. I had Brees, Jacobs, Witten, Jones, Cassel, Addai, Bironas and Owens all in the top 25. Getting 8 of your top 25 is a pretty good ratio with the rest of the league actually being present to pick over the carcass of available players. I'll offer a one line summary of each Week #1 starter. Drew Brees (QB-New Orleans Saints) - Arguably the best QB in the NFL.
Dwayne Bowe (WR-KC) - I have issues with his attitude, but he has Matt Cassel throwing to him.
Terrell Owens (WR-Buf) - Seems Bowe isn't the only receiver I have who's attitude concerns me.
T.J. Houshmanzadeh (WR-Sea) - I see a theme developing among my receiving corps . . . although T.J. has learned a thing or two.
Brandon Jacobs (RB-NYG) - Juggernaut (when he's healthy).
Thomas Jones (RB-NYJ) - He's been in the league nine years and knows the ins-and-outs, but nine years is a long time and these ARE the Jets we're talking about.
Jason Witten (TE-Dal) - He is either the best or second-best tight end in football; same can be said of Tony Gonzalez.
Neil Rackers (K-Ari) - He's starting Week #1 only because Rob Bironas is playing the Steelers.
New Orleans Defense* - They'll start Week #1 over the Vikings if only because the Saints are playing the Detroit Lions. OK, there you have it. Discuss and comment.
*UPDATE - Well, I knew Matt Cassel got injured last Saturday. What I didn't know was how serious it was. Turns out that the Chiefs newly-acquired QB is out for two to four weeks with a medial cruciate ligament sprain. He likely will not start Week #1.
I can live with this, as I have Drew Brees and the Ragin' Cajun New Orleans Gun & Light Show on my roster. But it leaves me with a hole for the Saints' bye week. Not to mention that it creates a rather large question mark over my Kansas City wide receiver Dwayne Bowe . . . like there wasn't a big enough one of those over him already.
The other elephant in the NFL over the last day or two has been the "crackback" block that was thrown Monday night on Houston Texans cornerback Eugene Wilson by the increasingly pathetic Hall of Famer Brett Favre, currently with the Minnesota Vikings.
Now, I'm not excusing the block. It was called a penalty, as it should have been.
But, in watching the replays, it is clear that Favre did not throw himself into the block. He sort of just dropped. Wilson was not watching for blockers; he was almost myopically focused on the ballcarrier. As a defensive coach, I can assure Wilson that this is not a good habit to develop for reasons precisely like the outcome of the play.
Nevertheless, the rules clearly state that Favre's action was illegal. Not only that, but Favre's goal in the play - taking out Wilson as the effective tackler - could have been achieved with a simple "up-high" block where you just take the defender on mano-'a-mano.
And, we come to find out that one of the reasons Favre was reluctant to go up-high was because the old boy has some cracked ribs. Yet Favre practically begged to be put back on the field in the third quarter, the time when this incident occurred?!
The most dangerous guy on the field is the guy who thinks he has something to prove beyond his football talent.
Hear that, Brett?
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| | Posted 9/1/2009 4:29 AM - 118 Views - 16 eProps - 22 comments
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